Borobudur Jakarta Hotel

Bali - Kuta Kuta is the largest holiday resort on the small island of Bali and not a place for the feint hearted at 2am on Saturday morning. What a shame it was Tweeky's first taste of Bali. Drunken white people all over, folk yelling across the traffic jam of taxis, women begging with babies in arms, prostitutes looking to make a buck, vehicles belching smoke and honking horns, small winding dark grimy streets, loud pulsating bars and clubs. Oh what fun! Sensory overload that makes sense aft...

Java - Probolinggo We journeyed from Bali by coach and ferry to the heart of Indonesia: the island of Java. Not the longest journey in the world, maybe five hours as it turned out, which landed us by the side of the road at roughly 2am in a large city named Probolinggo . After drawing the attention of a local fella who could speak a little tourist English, we jumped in a rickshaw and found a comfy hotel for the night. It was a first with air-conditioning for many weeks, and even had local foo...

Java - Malang Fresh from the invigorating lofty altitude of the mountains, we headed for more of the same. BRING ON THE COOLNESS! We travellled by train to the rather delightful hill city of Malang. Arema Malang FC was by now my adopted Indonesian football team. I had watched them play on TV the evening before in the presence of a few devout hardcore fans. Unusually for footballs fans in my own experience, one of the 'fans' seemed very interested in my testicles and penis, and after persisten...

Java - Batu Keras We spent several days here enjoying the waves rolling along the point. What a place to surf for us novices. I spent over five hours in a single day enjoying the waves. The more experienced locals and a few white skins were just as content with the waves provided. What a location, and if only we could say thanks to the Australian for advising we come here all those months ago now. A Canadian fellow who was half Japanese - which was quite a good look with the ladies - provided...

Java - Bandung We took train to Bandung and the first guy we spoke to on the station new a local guy we had been friendly with in Batukaras. He walked us to a nearby hotel that was perfect for our needs. However, i have a tendency to become extremely tetchy when i am lugging my backpack and day pack over anything further than about 200 metres. This walk was not much more than a say 800 metres, but coming up to the half way mark i was about ready to shoot a kitten in the face. I was angrier th...

Java - Jakarta A bit of a cock-up on the travel front left us stranded in the county's capital. It was a good opportunity to do some reconnaissance for our stay here at Christmas, which we did with much satisfaction and left feeling quite reassured - without seeing our exciting hotel - Jakarta would more than satisfy our Christmas needs away from friends and family. We'll be back here soon!

Java - west coast: Carita As we made the last few miles by scooter taxi to Carita, the coast line followed us to our destination. Out across the sea, a small island peak could be seen spouting smoke high into the air. "Anuk Krakatau" shouted my driver over his shoulder as he pointed out to sea. I was very excited. Very. We found a room for the night and made a few enquiries into reaching the volcano for a visit. With the deal done we settle down on the beach with a drinking coconut each, and ...

Sumatra - Anuk Krakatau The small boat armed with two large outboard motors was lurching about as we tried to board from the beach. Myself and Tweeks were almost immediately soaked to the skin as a wave overpowered the prow and sprayed us good and proper. The crew of two helpers, one captain and our guide soon had her ready for take off, and an hour and a half later, we were at our destination. We made camp on the very small and uninhabited remains of Krakatua. Now named Rakata after the volc...

Java - Jakarta Happy Christmas! Several months ago, we booked a rather nice hotel in Jakarta, in preparation for our Christmas in the largest Muslim populated country in the world. Needless to say, Muslim folk don't celebrate Christmas, and we both expected the least Christmaseee Christmas we were ever likely to experience in our lives. Happily we were wrong. Shops had father Christmas pics and even Christmas tunes playing while we browsed the supermarket for Christmas fare, in the form of cr...

Picked up by Barry and Lorraine, after a quick tour of the Leach's extension we embarked on our trip to heathrow. Part way a very concerning news flash! Gas leak at heathrow, no further information just that flights are affected. Try phoning STA, get through but with no reply later as promised, we continue with the bravado of ignorance. Arrive at Heathrow approximately 4pm. Check in the bags and, settle down to wait in the three bells bar. John locates us in the pub to say good bye. Going our...