The wheels on the bus go round and round...

…and round and round and round and round! This week has seen us travel from mid-Sumatra all the way to Jakarta- one 34 hour bus journey and another of 10 hours. Man! It was worth it though as Sumatra was beautiful.

We spent a total of five days in Bukittinggi exploring the town and surrounding area. The region, known as the Minangkabau, is dominated by rice fields, plantations and water buffalo. Indeed, Minangkabau literally translates as ‘winning buffalo’. Here, the women own the land and houses and pass them down to their daughters along with their mitochondrial DNA. However, families have to buy husbands for their daughters with buffalo, the required number depending on the man’s status. After Bukittinggi, we spent a few nights on the shores of Danau Maninjau, a volcanic crater lake. It was peaceful and beautiful, a stark contrast to Indonesia’s cities.

Following the previously mentioned 34 hour bus ride, we arrived in Bandarlampung, southern Sumatra, just as it was getting dark. With no map and very little information about the town, we wandered around unsuccessfully looking for a hotel. After a while, a nice guy in a shiny car came to our aid and drove us to a hotel. He shrugged off my thanks and said ‘’hey, Indonesian people’’. Yeah, right. Unfortunately, we have encountered far more people all too eager to lie and trick their way to our money so this genuine act of kindness was welcome, but a surprise nonetheless. Due to a complete lack of tourists, and therefore budget accommodation, we were forced to stay in a slightly more expensive hotel with hot showers and air con. Gutted! To my delight, just next door to the hotel was a Pizza hut. Now, I don’t really like the fact that Pizza Hut, along with the likes of KFC and McDonald’s, has taken over the world. However, I had no desire to inflict rancid-looking street food on my poor digestive system that had already been suffering for 10 days from the ill effects of food poisoning. We ate and slept like kings.

The whole point of going to Bandarlampung was to visit the nearby national park. The Taman Nasional Way Kambas is an area of lowland rainforest on the southeast coast of Sumatra. It is home to elephants, rhinos and prowling Sumatran tigers. Sounds lovely hey?. We didn’t go there. It seems that the tour agencies that used to organize trips to the park were either hiding or have packed up shop due to the decline in tourism that is so evident in Sumatra. We found no information about the park and no buses that went there. Shame. Instead, we boarded a bus to Jakarta, our final stop in Indonesia. We have a few more days to explore the city before flying to Singapore on Tuesday.

Stomping up through Indonesia

Kuta improved slightly after Matt joined me on August 2nd. We stayed there another few days venturing into the sea for surfing, body boarding and generally getting thrown around by the waves. A random afternoon posing as a married couple also provided some amusement. We were dragged off the street by a funny little guy whose job it is to take people to a posh hotel where they sell time-share. Rather than actually targetting couples who fit the requirements he has set up a whole set of people to cover for him. Matt and I were no longer 24- and 25-year old brother and sister on an eight month trip but a married couple of 29 and 25 who were in Bali for just two weeks. And so the lies began. We didn't feel comfortable about it but what can you do? Most ridiculous was my explanation that we had achieved a tan in the garden back in England. Also, when different questions were matched together, it transpired that we had spent our honeymoon staying in youth hostels in Scotland. The whole thing was a joke but the guy gave us free use of a motorbike for three days in return for our troubles. Having seen how people drive in this country, I was a little anxious about jumping on a bike. Thankfully, Matt mastered the driving pretty quickly and I just sat on the back and watched the world go by. We explored the Bukit peninsula, south of Kuta, and also headed west along the coast to Pura Tanah Lot, a pretty Balinese temple perched on a section of rock in the sea.

We then waved goodbye to Bali and got a bus to Probolingo on Java, jumping-off point for Gunung Bromo. Bromo is one of three volcanoes that rise up out of the ancient 10km-wide Tengger crater. We set off on foot at 3am in order to reach a viewpoint on the crater for sunrise. We struggled in places to find the path so arrived with only a little time to spare to discover that half the tourists in Java had gone up in Jeeps-lazy buggers! We got some decent views all the same and continued our walk for another few hours down into the crater and up Bromo itself.

That evening saw us back on a bus, destination Yogyakarta. We spent a few days taking in the sights of the city including the Sutan's palace, a lovely batik gallery, and the streets that bustled with people and rickshaws. A trip to a silver workshop and the Buddhist temple of Borobudur was a highlight for me.

The prospect of over 40 hours on buses to reach our current location was not appealing so we braved the Indonesian skies and flew to Padang on the west coast of Sumatra. Padang was not a place to hang around so we quickly moved on . We are now in Bukittinggi, a hill town surrounded by volcanoes, jungle and rice fields. So far so good. I think we'll stay here a while.

They import The Daily Mail to Kuta

The title says it all about Kuta. It is nothing like the rest of Bali and, I've got to say, I think it is a hole. The waves are good for surfing and the internet is better than anywhere else we've been. There, I've said something positive about it. Now I can berate it all I like. Kuta is the most touristy, commercial, smelly, crowded and generally un-indonesian part of Bali that I've visited. I don't know why I'm bothering to write a blog as I have nothing interesting to say. I have spent the last week reading loads, feeling sad that my boy has left and trying to avoid people who want to sell me stuff. Oh what a grump I am!

It is not all bad. I had a lovely walk along the beach the other evening and stood in the shallows whilst the sun set. That was pretty special. I also had a realy cool surfing lesson. I was able to stand on the board for a good while, even managing to turn it a bit. I avoided injuring myself and the many people who kept getting in my way. Unfortunately, the surfing instructor guy made things awkward by following me around and trying to get me to go out with him so I've been avoiding the beach. Why don't people understand the word NO in this country?! Ah well, my bro is arriving on a jet plane this evening so we can surf together.