Bandung

We spent just three days in Batu Karas, cause we ran out of money and were too lazy to go to Pangandaran for an ATM (we had only Visa card). On the third day, after spending the whole day on the beach, we just left for Pangandaran. The next morning, we woke up at 6 a.m. surfed for the last time and then packed our stuff and left for the bus station. The direct bus to the city Bandung was supposed ("was supposed") to leave every hour. Of course there was no bus coming on time and we had to wait for two hours. Luckily, next to the station there was a market with some local food, which was a good  time killer. Finally, the bus came and we spent the whole day in a bus full of smoking people. 

In the evening we arrived to Bandung, where we spent two days with massages, shopping, eating, going to a ZOO (was so sad) and just doing nothing too exhausting. We heard that in Bandung there were supposed to be lot of designer outlets so we went to few of them and I really can tell  that it s just a bullshit. All the stuff was fake. 

In the cities you can feel all the "poor-rich people" contrasts even stronger and Bandung was no exception. On the main tourist streets mothers with their children were sleeping, eventually begging for money. In the pubs you can see many prostitutes chasing after especially white men (cause here, being white automatically means money).  Actually, I can tell that I did not feel very comfortable and safe in Indonesian cities. I prefer country side, villages, but definitely not the cities.

Waitin for the bus to Banjar

Lula in Banjar

Market in Banjar

Batukaras

After the Green Canyon trip, the drivers took us to the little village called Batukaras. Batukaras is just a perfect place for the surfers - especially for the beginners. There are two spots for surfing, at one spot the waves were really lazy, small but still powerful enough. It was a great place for learning to surf with a longboard. Due to our lame surfing, this was our main "anchor".  The high tide in the afternoon was the "surfing time", when everyone got into the water. The locals were doing really crazy stuff like head-stands or dancing at their longboards.

At the second place there were bigger waves and it was better for experienced surfers. So if you felt confident enough you could try it there. I did not feel that confident, but still one day we decided to go there. For me it was a big challenge and after catching a wave I did not manage anything else but to hold my board with hands and not to die :D. The waves were just too quick for (lazy) me. And after the board hit my head really hard and I got washed by a wave properly, I decided to go out of the water. However, Lula spent 3 hours in those crazy waves. BIG Applause Lula !!! .)))

Batukaras is a small village and there were not that many tourists, which wass just perfect. The whole atmosphere felt extremely "homy". For example if you did not have money with you, you could just pay the next day or whenever. There was also a little internet cafe with really slow internet, but for checking emails it is still ok. The restaurants offered good food, especially seafood, for reasonable prices. All in all, my whole feeling towards Batukaras was just extremely positive and the village became one of our favorite Indonesian spots. We met there a guy who was around 50, was a local, could speak really really good English and worked as a surf judge in Asia. He was even teaching us surfing in the water - so nice.  Another good friend we met there was Anh-Tuasn from New York, who was traveling and surfing for 5 months and was always returning for a longer period of time to Batukaras. I was really missing the place after we left.

And btw. an important information is that in the nearby village there is only a MasterCard ATM, Visa ATM is only in Pandangaran (40 minutes driving away).

Batu Karas Beach during low tide

Me paddling - the waves are really slow and flat .))

Us with Anh-Tuan (I know i look so bad .)

Good seafood .))

Green Canyon Trip .))

So as I said in the previous text, we booked the trip to the famous Green Canyon. Two guys on motorbikes were our drivers that day. On the way to the Green Canyon they took us to some little villages, to see some traditional stuff. In the first village there was an old couple producing coconut sugar. The old men was climbing on the coconut palms every morning to collect the nectar from the coconut flowers. His wife was then cooking sugar from the nectar.  The sugar is really good, really yummy. It has some strange, a bit salty aftertaste, but I was eating it instead of candies (unfortunately I already ran out of it).

The second stop we made was in a village, where a guy was living, who was creating the traditional Indonesian puppets. Actually he was not only creating the puppets, he was also an "puppet actor. He did some performance for us, however it was in Indonesian so it sound a bit funny :).

Finally, after those stops we came to the Green Canyon. With one of the guides we took a boat. That day the water was not green but it was brown, because the day before it was raining - everybody was making jokes that it is a Brown Canyon :)). We came to the narrow point of the canyon where the boat stopped and we could take  a swim. Of course we did it - was so much fun. Though, I was a bit scared cause there were supposed to be some snakes in the water, but finally it was all right. None of them ate us, or attacked us or what ever. We did not know that there was a possibility of so called "body rafting" - we saw some guys with life jackets swimming in the river. It looked so much fun. You just wear a life jacket and let the current to take you down the river. The next time I would definitely go for it.

Coconut Sugar

The "puppet guy"

Us, swimming in the river

Our guide

Going to Pangandaran

The cities in Indonesia are really too exhausting for me. After two nights spent in Yogyakarta we decided it was the time to leave again. In the lonely planet travel guide we found out that there should be a little village called Batu Karas, where the waves for surf-beginners should be just perfect. From Yogya we took a train to Banjar. A German couple we met recommended us to take the highest class, as in the lower ones foreigners usually get robbed.  It was quite expensive, there was a strong air condition and again a TV with popular Indonesian videoclips - Indonesian "posh way of traveling" :). We got of in the city Banjar and from here we took a bus to the city called Pangandaran. On the map it seemed to be quite close but the journey from Banjar to Pangandaran was just neverending (of course crazy driving, bad roads, awful traffic).

We arrived to Pangandaran after dark and after the whole day spent in various crazy kinds of transport I really did not feel like taking another bus to Batu Karas. So, we decided to spent one night in Pangandaran. We came to a hostel called "Pondok Wulan", which was quite cheap (100 000 Rupiah per room) , clean and really nice and as we found out the next day - really good breakfast. The people running the hostel proposed us to book a trip to Green canyon and give us a ride to Batu Karas afterwards so we booked the trip for the next day. The evening we just spent in a Bamboo bar having a beer.

Borobudur and Prambanan

In the surrounding of Yogyakarta, there are many possibilities to do nice trips. We chose one of the most impressive ones - we decided to go to the one of the most beautiful Hindu and Buddhist temples.

In our hostel we had the possibility to book a day tour to both temples.

The next day we woke up at 4.30 a.m., at 5 a.m. the driver of a shuttle bus picked us up and with 4 other people.

First we went to the Buddhist temple called Borobudur, which is an ancient Buddhist stupa and temple complex constructed in the 9th century and belongs to the UNESCO World heritage. We came there very early, around 6 a.m., which was really good cause there were not too many tourists, the temperature was not very high yet and the morning fog strengthened the impressive and mysterious atmosphere of the temple even more.

After Borobudur  the driver drove us to the Hindu temple called Prambanan. Prambanan is considered to be the most beautiful Hindu temple in the world. "There is a legend that Javanese people always tell about this temple. As the story tells, there was a man named Bandung Bondowoso who loved Roro Jonggrang. To refuse his love, Jonggrang asked Bondowoso to make her a temple with 1,000 statues only in one-night time. The request was nearly fulfilled when Jonggrang asked the villagers to pound rice and to set a fire in order to look like morning had broken. Feeling to be cheated, Bondowoso who only completed 999 statues cursed Jonggrang to be the thousandth statue.".

Borobudur

Borobudur

Prambanan

Yogyakarta

Ok, so after the crazy drive we arrived to Yogyakarta. YES !!

We found some cheap accommodation in the Sosrowijayan area. It is an area, where lot of stuff for backpackers like hostels and restaurants can be found. The main street of the area has very pleasant atmosphere. We discovered really nice restaurant with vegetarian burgers and very cheap (16000 Rupiah) arak coctails. Just one can make you extremely happy :D. 

The day we arrived we just put our stuff into the hostel took shower and went shopping for some presents on the Maliboro street (which is a big shopping street in Yogyakarta, where you can find there lot of shops with Batik and traditional stuff), went to internet, were eating and drinking... such a bitchy day - but we were exhausted though. And in the evening we took a walk  to the river.

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Indonesian traffic

I have just two words for Indonesian traffic - complete chaos.
In Indonesia the roads are either fucked up and the people drive like crazy, or the roads are more or less ok, but the people still drive like retarded, or!! the roads are almost empty... but then ... the people still drive like crazy.Anyway people here do not use brakes, they just use claxons to make the other drivers aware they are coming!! This is how the whole traffic works (at least seems to me).

After Balangan me and Lula took a quite nice air condition bus from Bali to Yogyiakarta (was supposed to be a DIRECT bus). The air condition was awful and the bus TV was playing 5 songs all over again (what a wonderful journey :). We took the very front seats next to the driver. We heard a lot of stories, how "bule" (that is how Indonesians call white people) got robbed in local buses, so I put my purse and my camera under my t shirt and we covered ourselves with blankets (we were maybe a bit paranoid :D - or at least I was). In the middle of the night the bus stopped and we had to change it (hmm wasn t it supposed to be a direct bus ?). Almost all the passengers from our bus were placed in a quite nice bus to Yogyakarta, however it was "full" when we were supposed to get inside. Some guy took us to another bus to Yogyakarta - this shit was a local bus stopping almost at every single kilometer. This journey was a complete nightmare. I had the impression that the driving style of the bus driver in the second bus was even more "free" than of the first one. The left indicator light of the bus was probably broken because there was a guy hanging out of the left front window next to the driver and always when we were turning lileft, he started to wave his hand like crazy:D. Finally, instead of 5 or 6 a.m. we arrived at around 11. Omg... never again !!!And I forgot - a bonus is that the second bus was a smoking bus  (actually almost all the local ones are)!

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