Hotel Shafira Yogyakarta

... self-awareness whatsoever. Ten minutes later he shuffled in, watched us chatting for a short while then interrupted our conversation; waving his beloved hotel information in my face he asked me: "Do you still need this?" "No!" I said, "You already saw me type the name into my phone, I'll look it up another time!" He looked unhappy, and went off to bed sulking. After this me and Crystal chatted for a while and messed about on ...

Today I met with Rolly and Carlos at their hostel and went to head to Borobudur, one of the ancient wonders of the world!!! We took the transjakarta bus to Jombor station. From here it was a bumpy and turbulent 1hr bus ride to Borobudur. We got hassled by singers on the bus, it was pretty funny but we didn't give them any money and they jumped off at the next bus stop. Once we arrived at our stop we were slightly perplexed as to which direction it was to ...

... spa area just outside of town in Nha Trang. It was an interesting experience, one that brought me closer to Asians (and perhaps Vietnamese in particular) by observing their ways of enjoying the spa. The hot springs outside of Nha Trang are mainly comprised of a large area for mud baths, then some hot mineral pools (over 100 degrees! Ouch), then a series of large hot and cold mineral pools for general use. The Asians were looooving it.

First there were the adults. Many of ...

... was in a really beautiful setting - visible in the background behind the stage was Prambanan lit up against the night sky. It was a warm night and throughout the performance bats were flying about overhead! I wasn't sure what to expect with the show, I prepared myself for not understanding what was going on for most of it and made sure I got an English translation of the story before taking my seat. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about as there was barely ...

05/25/09 After getting into Yogyakarta we stayed at Homestay 24. Very basic, room with aircon and no shower at all. This property has the potential to be amazing if a bit of work is put into it. Its an old house and the teak wood work is amazing. The owner Singhha is very nice and arranged for a driver for us to tour the temples the next day. We slept most of the day considering no sleep on the night train, which got in at 4 in the morning. After waking up we walked down ...

... on the top of volcanoes watching sunrise, to living on tiny islands with no motorised transport or police, to staying with families in beautiful countryside or just hanging out with locals Indonesia really does offer it all - and a whole lot more. On top of the real rewards is it very cheap. You can stay in homestay for £2-3 a night, eat three meals a day for under £2, hire a motorbike for £2 a day and fill it with fuel for 80p. That's a bed, three meals and ...

... display? All there was were different copies of the Koran with very beautiful calligraphy. In 700 years this is all there is? Please don't take this as a statement against Muslims because that's not what I'm trying to say, I just find it strange that every other religion uses the gifts that god has given them to pay homage to him/her/it and yet the Muslims suppress these gifts to the extreme. Things I think about while traveling amongst the son's of Ishmael.

... moving to Metro Guest House. Lonely Planet says no problem getting any room in town in March-- no holidays. Apparently the did not know that this weeknd is apparently Mohammed's birthday, and that guy's birthday is as popular here as a certain religious icon from Bethlehem is back home. The town is packed. Will visit Borobudur tomorrow. More after that.

... of fried tofu, some noodles, and some "not-chocolate-mousse" and called it a night. This morning, our driver picked us up bright and early to head out to Borobudur - a most fantastic Buddhist temple built around 778AD. Our 90 minute drive out of the city was awesome - passed by many rice paddies and even stopped a couple of times to take photos of farmers working hard in their fields. Truly a different world. It must be funny for the locals ...

... his many concubines. The whole thing was wrecked by a large earthquake a while back and has just been refinished. It was also just named a UNESCO World Heritage sight and is going through more refurbishement. Eventually, the whole thing will be connected to the Royal Palace so you can see them both at one time. I'm glad we saw it when we did, though, because it was more interesting. We had free guides at both places because the whole area is it's own little community inside ...