Day 149 - As we arrived at 4:20am, no hotel was open, so Joe let me wait in the minibus until dawn, when I set about trying to find a room. This wasn't easy as, being the high season, most were full, and those that weren't full could only spare a room after midday. I needed sleep now. Luckily, one restaurant was open at 6am and so I had a massiv...

Having checked into our hotel late at night, we spent the first day doing very little other than sleeping in and checking out the local bars and restaurants. For our second day we organised a tour to two of the main tourist attractions in the region: the temples at Borobudur and Prambanan. Our tour gave us another opportunity to realise our trav...

Today I have ringworm. Seriously. I've had it for a couple of weeks now. We won't go into where it is, let's just say you won't see any photos of it on here - and it's starting to get annoying. The cream recommended by a local apotek isn't working, and ringworm is not something I hope to make a feature of, so off I go into town with my friend Uk...

we arrived back to yogykarta after seeing the temple in borobudur. with help from the locals, we braved the public bus system and the very helpful driver put us out right where we needed. we have been here a few days now and have had some packed days. the first night we went to a puppet show. these are very popular in this region. according to t...

The Indonesian postal service is nothing if erratic, with letters and parcels posted in the UK taking anything from 8 days to 4 months to get here. Having been on the island of Flores on 25 December, and with Christmas post continuing to arrive throughout January, I somehow found the will-power to save cards and parcels until it seemed that the ...

After two days of solid travelling, I'm now taking a bit of a break in Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta, or just Jogja). My first impressions of town were pretty good. It's not even close to as dirty and unpleasant as many of the other cities, although it's fairly large. The location is pretty neat - nestled in among a bunch of quite active vol...

We've booked a minibus tour to take us to the remote Dieng Plateau and we're the only passengers. We head northwest and upwards. Rambutan and snakefruit trees are in season. Rice farmers wade thigh-deep into waterlogged paddy fields to replant rice grass. Dieng Plateau is the Cameron Highlands of Java, a cool retreat at higher altitude, with tea...

First day of our art history class and we crammed in visits to several temples. In Indonesia, the word for temple is 'candi' (pronounced CHAndi), both Hindu and Buddhist. Since our focus is on the temples of central Java, most were built between the 7th and 9th centuries. And not only is it interesting and relevant to note the cross-over in the ...

a trip along with my best friends in previous corporate..