Indonesia, Indonesia Travel Blogs

Sanur - Beautiful Bali
May 6, 2009

Swapping Laos for Indonesia was a master-stroke; Bali is sensational. The beach at Sanur isn't a patch on the Perhentians but the streets and their architecture are a joy to be around. The Balinese people are highly spiritual, going beyond ...

Day 51, Pt.1: My First Motorcycle Ride
Jul 11, 2008 (7 photos)

3am Friday morning, my "Argo Elis, Eksekutif Klas" (or something like that) train pulled into the Yogyakarta train station. I woke up to find that my glasses had somehow lost a screw in the middle of the night, setting one of the lenses loose. Not to ...

Day 59: Into the Wild!
Jul 19, 2008 (7 photos)

... in the Garden Inn, what turned out to be one of the cheapest and best lodges in the village. Score another win for the Indonesia section of the guidebook (the Malaysian section has been much more hit&miss thus far.) It was a basic room of four walls, ...

*Day 53: Ary's Hospitality
Jul 13, 2008 (18 photos)

... first stop was Surabaya's Chinese mosque. Strangely, it was a Chinese explorer from the Ming dynasty who spread Islam across Indonesia and there are several monuments to him scattered throughout the city. The mosque itself wasn't more than a small recently ...

the orangutans of Bukit Lawang....
Jun 23, 2008 (99 photos)

... Udin, minutes after we get off of the plane in Medan, Sumatra.  I was never aware of the fact that Sumatra is part of Indonesia...thought of it as it's own country...and the culture is very unique, just as it was in Java and Bali.  My primary ...

the snake charmer...
Jun 19, 2008 (65 photos)

Maybe the snake charmer isn't exactly the right name for this guy...actually the 'snake slapper' would be more appropriate....well it all starts with a trip to Solo - or Surakarta being its real name...in Java.  It's about 2 hrs east of Yogyakarta ...

The Gift of Sickness
Feb 21, 2006

The gift of sickness. I think sickness hits us all. Everyone that has gone over seas ends up sick some way or another. I have in every way embraced this malady. The gifts sickness gave me....projectile vomiting and diarrhea simultaneously, mind you! Oh ...

Day 62: Falling in Love With Bukit Lawang
Jul 22, 2008

... in love with the village. It took two weeks to find, but I think I'd finally found my one secluded special corner of Indonesia that could take its place alongside Gimmelwald & Pepsikola in my heart. The locals were friendlier than any locals I'd yet ...

DRIVING 101
Feb 23, 2006

Hey guyz, guess what? I learned to drive today in a foreign land. Everything is on the opposite side. Everything is opposite from what I've learned. I now sit where my passenger once sat. The gear shifter is now on my left side, I now drive on the ...

Peter Pan Concert!
Feb 22, 2006

Winter, Rini, Nurel, Winter, Elijah, Rance, Richo, Judi, Derrick, Randy, myself and a few other Acehnese guys all went to the Peter Pan concert. Peter Pan is a very popular band here in Southeast Asia and I'm huge fan as well. Yes, I know, Wyndi a huge ...

Home Sweet Home
Jan 26, 2006

Hey All! I'm home.. joy is bursting from every fiber of my being. I pray it overflows. I'm EXACTLY where I'm supposed to be at the very moment I'm supposed to be here. What an incredible feeling... My job here will be running the guesthouse/ ...

Days 56-58: Moped Drives & Sunset Dinners
Jul 18, 2008 (34 photos)

... water rolled in. Pure magic. I've been taking it easy in preparation for the intense next two weeks. Tomorrow I fly to Sumatra, Indonesia's angry dark heart, long exploited by Java and given little in return, where I will take part in a jungle dark in ...

another of life's passages...
Jun 27, 2008 (112 photos)

A somewhat sleepless night due to being awakened by a raucous man at our door...I guess he thought our room was his room...it was 3 in the morning and he was either drunk or high on Jennie's omelette with magic mushrooms...right there on the menu at this ...

The Gili Islands
May 12, 2009 (24 photos)

The route to the Gili islands is long and dangerous. We've read stories on the net of people traveling through the port of Bangsal and being harassed, soaked in seawater, pinched, punched and spat on, probably because of the downturn in Lombok tourism due ...

beyond itchy...
Jun 10, 2008 (70 photos)

My body is beyond itchy today.  This morning I wake up...it's about 5:30 AM and I'm scratching all over the place.  I'm thinking that some savage mosquito must have snuck in under the mosquito netting and it getting its belly full.  But I'm ...

Ubud - I used to be a backpacker.
May 8, 2009 (50 photos)

It's hard to describe how nice Ubud is without sounding smug, but it really is that nice. I guess it's because here you find a spectacular fusion of tradition and modernity in a friendly (and cheap) atmosphere. I can't believe how nice it is to sleep ...

Day 52: A New Friend
Jul 12, 2008 (16 photos)

A 4:30 am wakeup call got me up just in time to catch the first bus to Borobudur, the nearby ancient Buddhist temple ruin, largest Buddhist complex in the world & hyped as one of SE Asia's truly great monuments. It lived up to the hype, but was very ...

Jungle Highs, AC lows thats the way Indonesia goes
Jan 27, 2008 (33 photos)

... to do any kind of proper research in Singapore, added to the fact that it was very much a last-minute decision, we entered Indonesia with little clue about where we were going or what to expect. Sometimes this has worked for us - Chennai was a last-minute ...

A scorpion sting makes Bali bor-ing!
May 18, 2008 (18 photos)

WARNING: The following blog is medical and, in some parts, pretty disgusting and/or factual (i.e. boring!). Please do not read if you are sitting down for your morning cornflakes - kill a few minutes on Facebook and come back later. Believe me, when you ...

Sponsored by Roxy
Feb 27, 2006

... Law. Went to swimming class with Peter, Luke and Winter...was asked to help coordinate Aceh Water Sports by the National Surfing Champion of Indonesia. He wants to teach me to surf and windsurf. He thinks I could be the next big thing! I thought that was ...

Clear water cool breezes
Sep 4, 2003 (8 photos)

From Ubud Sarah and I decided to head up to Lovina on the north coast of Bali. It is a somewhat touristy area with nice black sand beaches. We stayed there for three nights at a nice place called the "Astina Cottages" which was near the beach. It had a ...

Woke up this morning and got myself a Bintang
May 3, 2005 (11 photos)

... a week in Kuta recuperating was a real setback. Still, we managed to have a fantastic time staying in the party capital of Indonesia although I didn't always feel up to the full-on party. We also hired a scooter which meant that I managed to get a ...

Happy Birthday Mummy!
Apr 23, 2009 (1 photos)

Happy Birthday to my Mum back in England. Lots of love from Tom, Charlie, Percy and my afternoon Kindergarten 2 class xxx

monkeying around...
Jun 8, 2008 (69 photos)

Up to Ubud.   I'm expecting a small town in the mountains...a little cooler, with lots of artists...also lots of ex-pats...plus a monkey sanctuary.  Well, small it is not.  Apparently Ubud has grown and grown and now has more shops ...

Day 51, Pt.2: Mister Chah'Ching
Jul 11, 2008 (16 photos)

... that's been fighting for independence for the better part of a decade. I asked them if they'd ever traveled outside Indonesia, and while Assif hadn't, Ryan mentioned having spent time studying for a bit in a Saudi Arabian religious institution. My racist ...

Days 49-50: Singapore to Yogya
Jul 10, 2008 (7 photos)

... A 5,000 rupiah (50 cents) bribe was required to rescue the rucksack from the ferry baggage claim Nazis. PS: I'm now entering Indonesia day 3, and it's quickly rising to the title of "favorite country I've traveled to." More thoughts on this next time, but ...

Finding Gili Meno
May 17, 2005 (15 photos)

... of Bali as the mass of Gunung Rinjani (3700m) on Lombok loomed ever closer. We were forever beseiged with Indonesia's favorite question, "Hello, where are you going?". Unfortunately most Indonesians don't speak much more English than this and our Bahasa ...

Forgotten Paradise
Mar 12, 2004 (6 photos)

C... Hello, I am back into the land of the living after joining the Dengue Fever club. They call it break bone fever too, which is not very surprising. The past few weeks have been a bit of a blur, the Bali pace can be quite tough at first especially ...

Lounging by the lake & smiling til our jaws ache!
May 7, 2008 (19 photos)

We had been told great things about Lake Toba the last time we were in Sumatra, so this time around we put it on the 'must-do' list. Our first impressions of the Lake was that this was a peaceful atmospheric place where relaxation was hard to avoid. ...

*Day 61: Homesick :-(
Jul 21, 2008 (14 photos)

In the Himalayas, trekking alone with a private guide had its drawbacks, mainly loneliness. This morning the drawbacks of having company on such an adventure surfaced, with five people including me to wake-up, we didn't get going until 11am ...