Jakarta !! No she went on her own accord !!

We decided to make an unscheduled trip to Indonesia , as you do ! we never even entertained coming here, which is odd as it was the biggest section in our travel guide! so we left Kuching in Borneo ( I did not succeed in finding the man that bit dad, I am not sure he existed) ,and we flew to Singapore , drank a bottle of Champagne which we had both been craving for 3 months, whilst waiting for our flight , and then flew to Jakarta.. Neither of us knew what to expect, we decided to work our way South and fly back to Singapore from Bali.

After a lengthy visa process, we jumped into a cab to take us to our hotel.... This is the worst traffic we had experienced, total gridlock, no rules on the road, we were getting used to hundreds of mopeds, but throw in millions of cars, you could not squeeze anything between any vehicle, and believe me they try ... It was a very stressful journey, coupled with the fact that our driver had an unfortunate tick, or ticks, he shook and clucked and twitched and blinked and winked and snorted for two whole hours, it is a wonder he could see out of the windscreen at all, I could not look at Brian , spent most of the journey peering through my fingers and laughing..

A rare glimpse of this unusual creature !

We eventually arrived , even the driver looked surprised, we managed to avoid any scrapes, bent the wing mirror back into place a number of times... and avoided beggars tapping on window .... The city is so different to what we had imagined .... Smog, beggars, noise, heat, very shabby huge skyscrapers which are all banks.. its like Hanoi, but with a big bank balance... we were pleased to get into our lovely hotel ...

Named by government as 'inhumane ' ...

superheroes

The next day we were awake at 5am thanks to Allah. and the mosque opposite our hotel, I can't repeat what Brian said he was going to do with the speaker at the mosque but I don't think Allah would have liked it .... as we were up, we thought we would tear Jakarta a new A !!! and headed off to Fatahillah Square.... so 2 hours later we arrived.... it was only 6km away, the traffic is ridiculous, and it is really scary ... It was boiling hot and the smog is horrendous, it is like a brown cloud hanging over the city ... the square was awful, it had big old Dutch buildings in it housing museums which are so shabby and in such a state of disrepair it was quite depressing, there were beggars everywhere, rubbish shrewn on the cobbles and a river so polluted and poisonous it could have been used as a weapon of mass destruction . we found a lovely old bar called Cafe Batavia which is like Raffles and an oasis amongst litter and debris ,   and we cooled down.whilst in there I managed to see an extremely rare sight, something which has never been seen before with the naked eye and I was fortunate enough to capture it on camera.... it was like showing a caveman fire for the first time... it took a while, 3 months in fact but apprehensively he gradually took the plunge and picked up .... the Rough Guide ... it was like handing the disciples the bible ... it didn't last long, something must have spooked this rare creature, but I caught it ....... In there, we met a Canadian who lives in Jakarta and asked her where we should go as the guide books were a little shy on information.... She suggested going to the Mall for a pedicure !!!!

So ... we hopped in a cab and sat in mind freaking traffic for another one hour forty minutes to get to the 'Mall'...  It was mind blowing, marble everywhere, blacked out windows, floor after floor of designer shops, chic sophisticated shoppers , it is like being on another planet, these cool air conditioned sanctuaries  blanking out the heat and noise and chaos and refuse .... all in the brown smoggy shadow of the banks and oil companies, which fuel the cars and traffic creating the smog .... it really messes with your head.. There does not seem any attempt to stem the flow of traffic and gridlock, it will get busier and busier ... we decided we had enough of chaos and were going to leave the next day ... so after another hours taxi ride home we packed our rucks ready to leave the next morning..

porters trying to get on train .

Up and at it, traffic jam to the airport, then waited for our train to Bandung... we had booked first class tickets £4 and as the train came in there were people sitting on the roof and hanging off of windows and doors.... we were wondering what we would get for our money ! a gaggle of porters were waiting at the end of the platform and as the train pulled up to the platform, they sprint along the train trying to get in, really fast, in their flip flops, in the hope of getting on first and to carry a bag, and I thought repping was prostitution !
The train was fine, big seats, a/c a tv playing Indonesia got talent ..journey was lovely, through jungle and paddy fields, tea plantations, skirting around volcanoes and across viaducts, the views were amazing.. We arrived in Bandung a got a cab to our boutique hotel ( more horrendous traffic ) hotel is amazing, we dumped the bags and headed for 'Jean street' all shopkeepers vie for your business by having huge plaster characters outside their shops, Spiderman, Superman, Rambo, James Bond very surreal.. back to the hotel to book our driver for our volcano trip tomorrow, I can't wait .
We got up really early to get to the volcano, the drive up was beautiful . up through terraced plantations, teak and wild ginger forests, chincona tress ( bark used for quinine) rubber plantations, there is always so much to see.

both from outer space !!!

Add caption

taxis

We eventually made it up to the crater at 1830 m , the crater drops precipitously from the rim and bursts of steam and the smell of sulphur are released into the air. The energy of this place is overwhelming, everywhere is covered with warm volcanic ash, it all feels very alive, and is a reminder of the sinister activity lying beneath the surface ! very exciting,  we both felt really energised just being here, so decided to walk around the rim !!! no health and safety here, we were the only ones, most people had climbed out of their minibus taken a photo of themselves with their phone ! then gone to look at the tatty souvenir stalls .... As we scrambled our way around the rim ! eagles were soaring above us and the low hanging clouds were mixing with the steam from the volcano, all very eerie , all the trees were dripping with steam and It felt like it could blow any minute, the views over the surrounding countryside were wonderful, so many different greens, lime green of the paddy fields framed by the emerald green of the tea plantations.. we made our way down the volcano through the market town of Lembung 3 km out of our town, it was like stepping back in time, the traffic thinned out to just pony and trap.. this is the only form of transport, they are used as cabs with upto 8 people in them, they are all queued up outside the markets, waiting for their rides.. one horsepower versus 140 horsepower, ! no pollution, no noise, no head injuries, just clip clopping of hooves , amazing.Our driver ! took us into town, Bandung has the most art Deco buildings in the world, and they are beautiful, most of them are banks or hotels, we spent ages wandering around looking at all the geometrical lines and rounded edges.
We ended up at the Geological museum as I wanted to see the meteor it housed , it was awesome... huge. hard to believe it actually came from outer space, it was a fab museum with whole fossilised bones of an elephant a hippo and a rhinoceros, even the skull of 'java man' ... We have really enjoyed Bandung, but looking forward to moving onto Yogyakarta tomorrow.