Inna Ambarrukmo Palace Yogyakarta

... discourse on how amazing this particular hotel was that he had stayed at several times. He spent a good five minutes talking at me about it, unperturbed by my vastly disinterested expression, then disappeared off to his room upstairs to fetch their card. When he couldn't find this, he returned instead with several printed A4 sheets detailing his most recent booking confirmation. There was also a map enclosed, and he began ...

... I beleive that there are tickets at different prices and I chose the most expensive to get the best seat!!!!! Unfortunately the photos don't do justice to this ballet as the lighting was not conducive to great photos. Most of them are too dark. However, the costumes, make-up and the dancers were fantastic.

If I was to return to Jogyakarta one day I would definitely pick an hotel room in the Sosrowijayan Area. which is way more central.

... the gecko dragged it further up the wall while the roach flailed its wings and legs. The gecko tore off one wing and disabled the roach, but the roach was BIG and struggled against the gecko. Geckos eat bugs by taking them into their mouths and swallowing them pretty much whole, but as soon as this gecko tried to open its mouth to swallow the roach, the roach escaped and fell down on the floor. (We were watching this at a bar, by the way, and a Chinese girl took out her camera to ...

... us we should use their services rather than walk 3km. We declined and walked to Borobudur, which was more like 300m away, not 3km.

Borobudur is a 9th century Mahayana Buddhist Monument; a dedicated shrine to Lord Buddha, and a place of Buddist pilgrimage. Borobudur is made up of 6 square platforms, headed by 3 circular platforms. This nine-terraced temple is a representation of the transition towards nirvana and is famed for its 2,670 intricately carved reliefs ...

... currently pouring into this place to repair it, but it's going to take years. A tour with the campest little guide in the world (not Bellongg) shows us round and we spend the whole day there taking in the serenity of it all. As we looked at the holy bull inside a temple, our guide suggests we climb it for a picture. Not the best idea we suggest back. A very peaceful place all in all. We did have a side stop in the morning to Kota Gede where the ...

... back of my mind that this was going to happen one day.....that someone would pass away while i was out here but I never really stopped and considered it and i never even remotely thought it would be my mom. when i talk to people about my crazy little lifestyle they always say how amazing it is and how lucky i am and sometimes how they wish they could also live such a life but i always tell them that there is a trade off....that its not always rosy. I have no roots ...

... through the continent from India to China to SE Asia. The culture and history of this continent is fascinating. The highest mountains and most beautiful beaches in the world are in this place and I saw them. I had ridden on an elephant and played with tigers. I had wandered through lush jungles and pollution-choking cities. I rode a motorbike for the first time and subsequently spent probably more than 30 days on ...

... e per questo suscita un po' piu' di interesse; peccato che non si possa entrare nel tempio principale, perche' l'intero complesso e' stato gravemente danneggiato da un terremoto (cosa tutt'altro che rara in questo Paese) un paio di anni fa, ed e' tutt'ora in fase di restauro. Ho deciso di ripartire domani; vorrei fermarmi di piu', ma il tempo corre, ho solo un mese di visto e i venti giorni che mi rimangono mi serviranno tutti se voglio arrivare a Timor. La ...

... off to find a more reasonable beer round a couple of corners on Jalan Prawirotaman I. And we did find an excellent spot (the name of which strangely escapes me) where large Bintangs were ours for 15,000 rupiah a pop. Mind you we did have to suffer a troupe of Elvis impersonators ( how unlikely is that in Central Java ? ) and a rambling conversation with a bloke who makes trumpets and had once visited Somerset in the UK as a guest musician. Next morning it was up far ...