Kristina Hotel Yogyakarta

... alcohol was an one hour adventure. This is a very strict Muslim part of Indonesia so selling alcohol is very difficult. We had to buy it on the black market after we couldn’t find it in any store. We had our driver the one who took us from Mt Bromo help us. We pulled up to a random young guy and asked him were we could get some ...

... from another stall approached us and said "You very tall!" both of us being 6ft2 while he was rather tiny. He asked us where we were from (the standard question) and then gave us some useful advice about the town, which was rather kind of him. Our next stop was a little cafe nearby where Devon got a coffee. There were two schoolgirls about fourteen years old at an adjacent table, and they couldn't stop staring at us. This interest then got ...

... ash and only rediscovered in 1815 when Stamford Raffles was governor of Java. Later the Dutch came along and had a go at restoring it and it’s survived a terrorist attack in 1985. Now it’s a world heritage site. So, we wanted to get the best out of our visit and after chatting to a few folk decided that we’d stay out at the village of Borobudur for a night so that we could see both the sunrise and the ...

... cavorting and chasing each other around the yard of a hostel where we were staying on the Perhentians. They scurried underneath the scaffolding that held up the “chalet” rooms (separate story about that place to follow) and Hanan was lucky enough to take a picture of them. Although they look really scary, they are pretty harmless since they’d rather eat out of trash heaps than wrestle with humans. They definitely look like something from The Land Before Time, though ...

... Jog-ja), we found a relatively expensive hotel<br>(INR125,000) as it was a busy place and getting dark and had dinner<br>and went to bed. <br><br>The<br>next day, han went off and found a much cheaper and much better<br>homestay so we moved quick smart as we knew it'd be filling up again<br>throughout the day. The town is pretty nice looking with horse drawn<br>carriage and cycle rickshaw (front loaded) being the preferred ...

... It all looked pretty good when we arrived with heaps of floats and thousands of people (National holiday as well) so we join the end of the procession with a couple of Brits, our guide promptly does a bunk and we trundle along. Then the storm came... Almighty crashing of lightning and thunder, the transformer on the pole in front of us blows up and the heavens opened. This reduced the 'procession' to more of a dribble. It's only rain we ...

... you could see the little ant sized people down below harvesting their yellow gold. Should I go down into the bowls of the crater and climb around the steaming vents? What the ****, why not? Going down was an operation in trying to find steady footing. There was a path to be sure but it was amongst the loose scree of rocks created by various eruptions over the years. I scrambled and slipped my way down into the crater, passing the poor *******s struggling ...

... struggle against the Dutch in the 1950s. Citizens of Yogya (or Jogya) are a proud people, with long traditions of craftwork and musicianship, particularly the Gamelan. After exploring the town on my first day, I enjoyed some good Indonesian food at the Bedhot Resto, finished my book on Cambodia (Cambodia: Report From a Stricken Land by Howard Kamm. It is an excellent book by a NYT journalist on the tragedy of Cambodia ...

... was bekannt vorkommt und ich dann aussteigen kann. Hat natürlich nicht funktioni**t und nach 20min dachte ich mir, ich hüpfe lieb** bei d** nächsten Gelegenheit raus, wenn ich ein Taxi wo stehen sehe. Hab ich dann auch so gemacht und bin dann damit nach Hause gefahren - war glaube ich auch bess** so. Auß**dem war ich schon hundemüde und hatte Kopfschm**zen. Nach n** Weile kamen dann wied** die Jungs von Yakkum (d** Organisation in Yogya) und haben mir üb** die Schult ...

... in spicy peanut sauce), tempe (some sort of soy pressed "biscuit" type of thing), gado gado (sp? - more veggies + egg in peanut sauce), and fresh pineapple juice are quite delicious. We'll see... at least everything should be labelled to save me the "disgust" of getting an unexpected mouthful of fish or something. :-) Tomorrow is yet another tour (early start at 8am!!) followed by a nightime flight to Bali to reunite with Kate - yay!!! Till next time, S