LOL... only just got out of NZ .... had no onward ticket booked from Singapore so they didn't want to let me Fly .... Had to jump on net fast & spend 25 quid on a bus ticket... :-( ,, Now having visa problems with Thai... Seems no-one wants tourists for more than 30 days and everyone must show an onward ticket to leave......... WHY DON'T WE DO THAT FOR THE U.K. ???????? , . LOL....
anyway, after long flight via Sydney, (no smoking area :-( ,), landed in Singapore then by easy Metro system to nice pre-booked hotel, (URBAN hostel, $11/night). Spent 2 days wandering round city,, Stunning Metro system, 1 quid to anywhere in the city, clean, safe..... When someone told me that Singapore was the Switzerland of Asia, I was skeptical, but I was wrong, If anything it is cleaner more clean & efficient... Hot & Humid ... :-)
Wandered around 'Little India' & 'Chinatown' abd went for food. Finally spotted something recognizable and edible.. Seafood soup seemed ideal, until it arrived with chop-sticks...LOLOL..
INDONESIA
25/3/11 Off for 2 weeks in Indonesia..
up 6am :-( metro to airport, flight booking at 8am, hung about in fairly nice airport till 10am flight. Garuda, nice & clean, good meal, 2hr flight to Jakarta. After All the baggage checks and no liquids on the plane then the meal comes with sharp metal knives & forks,, I give up in confusion... 2hr wait at Jakarta with nice open-air smoking area.. :-) ,, then short 45min flight to Jogjakarta's fairly rural airport. Town Bus to Hotel wishy-washy ??? costing 140,000 inr.(12 QUID).. 4 star, clean. comfy, shower&bathtub, free breakfast, WAY Up-market for me ... LOLOL... Jogjakarta is a busy little city full of mopeds&scooters whizzing about, fairly noisy but not too bad and relatively clean.
27-03-11
Am now staying at the Venezia Homestay hostel in Jogjakarta and although it is expensive, ish, (6 quid), it is a really nice 3 star place with helpful & friendly staff and guests.. :-) ..
After a lazy morning reading and a nice lunch, the 3 German guests, (students), decided to go to check out the ATV quads on the beach. Well, game on,,, LOL,, so we jump on a crowded & battered little town bus for the 1 hour ride to the beach. Using my wits & my preference for fresh air, I boarded last and rode hanging out of the door in the breeze... :-) At the beach we paid 3 and a Half quid, (4 euro), for an hour and all jumped on one each.... WELL.... the poor guys didn't stand a chance as I wheelied off and started pulling doughnuts on the sand they sat gobsmacked... LOLOL. Off for sedate run down the beach with me circling around and then came the sand dunes.. :-) .. "Like a dog after a rabbit", springs to mind, full power run up the side of the dunes and full 4 wheel jumps from the top... Deep Joy.. LOL. Racing along the tide line at full power dodging the incoming waves, at least 3 of us did, one German got swamped by the Huge incoming rollers.... One the way back comes a sudden tropical downpour, visibility ZERO and hammering rain at 'warm shower' temperature. Since the tourists were scattering off the beach, there seemed no need to slow down. LOLOL. We arrived back totally drenched and still warm. :-) . I was up for another hour run but it was 6 pm and the last, (cheap), bus back to town was due to leave. :-(. So hot ginger tea then sitting up front chatting with the driver, who earns, ($10), 6 QUID for a 12 Hour shift, on the little bus back to Jogjakarta. Traffic is totally chaotic here and even I would be afraid of driving. A nice, (1 quid), Indonesian meal rounded of the evening, then a short walk to the shop to buy some baccy, (tobacco). After paying 25 Quid for 50 grams in New Zealand, I was stunned to buy 50 grams of local baccy for 75 pence. It's a bit rough, (like Drum), but that means I will smoke Less.... :-) Now 11pm and it's bed time as we leave at 5 am to watch the sunrise at Borobudur..
http://www.google.co.id/search?q=borobudur&hl=id&client=firefox-a&hs=44Q&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&prmd=ivnsm&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=J7iNTc26GInCcdCa8JIK&ved=0CD4QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=574
Borobudur was GREAT!!!! Decided to stay for a few days to be able to walk around at off peak times, before and after all the Tourists descend... Amazing place, construction, architechture,beautiful reliefs & Frescos, built 1500 years ago, stood through earthquakes & Volcanic eruptions and will stand for another 1500+ years. They don't build things like they used to....
Went off with the guide from the hotel on the back of his motorbike, to a 'local', (45 min away), junior/elementary school to treat the kids to a 'native English speaker', LOL, three different half hour classes of 30 children each and I had lots of fun playing 'question & answer'... :-) What is your name? Where are you from? Do you like Football? Do you like Manchester United???? (they then named ALL the United players). Had a really Great day... :-).
Wed night was sitting on the balcony watching Torrential downpour. Thurs morn was moving day, bus back to Jogjakarta. Things started ok, set off early to catch the little bus, jumped on and got front seat for good view or the traffic chaos and things were fine untill we hit the traffic jam and were told that the rain had washed away the main bridge, ooops. A hair-raising country lane shortcut got us to the actual bridge where, luckily enough, only half of it was gone and they were allowing anyone brave/daft enough to cross a narrow, damaged but unbroken strip down one side. Being daft enough and wanting to avoid the 3 hour trip alternative, I crossed easily and caught a mini bus on the other side for the final 30 mins to Yoga and the nice friendly Venezia hotel where I was reunited with my new German (ATV), friends who were still there.
7 am Friday morning found us all boarding a taxi/people carrier and off to view the Mount Merapi Volcano which erupted on the afternoon of 25 October 2010 spewing Lava and ash from its southern and southeastern slopes destroying many villages and claiming 400 lives. The devastation in the area was awe inspiring. The pyroclastic cloud of incandesant gas toasted thousands of acres of forest and the ash cloud that followed clogged wide rivers and roads and the streams and small rivers now run Hot, you can boil an egg in them.
Photos???
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