Jogi and Bali .

showing them how to do it !!

We got to the station at Bandung and had to climb through stationary trains to get to our platform .. Not easy with no platforms, two rucksacks on each and a camera.. It is a really high climb up onto a train ..our train left on time to Jogyjakarta, a beautiful journey I thought, Brian of course was an utter pest for the first 2 hours ,,, I could almost hear the whole carriage breathe a sigh of relief when he got the computer out to watch a film... We arrived 8 hours later .... for some reason we thought it was only going to be 6 !!! so I was quite annoying for the last 2 hours .... poor Brian...

Underground mosque

The next day we hired 2 cyclos ( bikes with carriages on the front ) and were take to the Kraton, the royal palace, it was boiling boiling hot ... The palace was lovely, very neat with white washed walls and lots of square pagodas inside , all with teak columns all beautifully decorated .. we arrived in time to watch the leather puppet show .... lucky old us ...reminded me of the vicious Punch and Judy shows your mum and dad would plonk you in front at Broadstairs beach whilst they buggered off to the pub for an hour ... One should have known that by marrying a man called Punch and having a pet crocodile that marital bliss was on the cards and was going to end in tears , or mainly the kids whilst they were watching a mother figure get seven bells knocked out of her and eaten by a croc.. whilst desperately looking for your own dad , who comes back an hour later, smelling of beer asking if you enjoyed that 'darling'

Sultans water palace and tower !!

Anyway the show was short lived... we wandered around trying to escape the excited school children who had never seen 'white people' before and were asked a million questions... and have their photos taken.. a few asked if they could touch us .... !!!

our fans !!

It was back in our cyclo and off to the water palace, it was a collection of outdoor swimming pools the sultan had built to watch his concubines swim, how very sweet of him, whilst he watched from a covered tower !! honestly men and their seedy grubby need !!! Brian thought it was a nice idea as it was so friggin hot he would get in a swim around for a sultan .... the sultan would then choose which one he wanted and demand her into the tower... anyway apart from this .. it was lovely and the gardens were divine .. I had read about an underground mosque, which we went in search of.... through narrow lanes all white washed , it was like a city within a city.. we finally arrived at an unassuming set of stairs which led us downstairs to the most beautiful passageways and leading to an underground mosque... it was all built using sandstone, egg whites and water and was still standing, even with all the earthquakes .. unbelievable..

hello mister !!

bird market .

back in the cyclos and off to the bird market- we thought oh just another market - hell no !!! songbirds here are highly prized , it is sometimes said that wives take second place to their songbirds.... There were 1000 birds for sale along with huge bats hanging upside down with rodent like faces , baby owls, turtles, puppy dogs in cages ( used for eating if you have an allergy !!!) Loads of snakes !! I was showing too much attention to one cage with a 6 m Boa Constrictor in ... when the owner opened the cage for me to get a closer look .... as I very quickly started walking backwards I stumbled into various glass cages containing vipers, snakes and a whole tank of scorpions who were not happy about me bumping into them .. it was mayhem !! of course all these animals need to eat so there were loads of mice, flies, larvae, and lizards... A women grabbed a huge lizard to show a customer and I jokingly mentioned to Brian that she was going to bite his head off, and at that chopped his head off with a machete !!!! with her 4 year old daughter watching ... crazy

Volcano destruction

Back in the cyclo and home for a swim.That night we went to a restaurant next door and lo and behold only bumped into the lovely Canadian girl and her family.. all the way from Jakarta.. what are the chances of that .. we joined them for dinner and drank wine, and it was lovely to hear about life here and living in Indonesia.. It was a lovely night, thank you Phil and Randi !
The next day we hired a car and driver to take us to 'the temple of Borobodur' on the way there we stopped to see a village that had been destroyed by the volcano Merapi. There were huge boulders everywhere, and all the houses ruined, you can only imagine the force and energy of the eruption to carry huge rocks 30 km !!!

Nice Sarong Brian

Us at Borobodur

Shadow kissing Ahhhh .. xxxxx

Temple with volcano in background 

stroking Bambi

We arrived at Borobodur said to be the greatest Buddhist monument in the world.. The German traveller Johan Scheltema wrote in 1912 that he felt "fructifying touch of heaven when tranquil love descends in waves of contentment , unspeakable satisfaction" not words that immediately sprang to my mind !! but it was absolutely breathtaking, built in fertile valleys and surrounded by active volcanoes, the black andesite volcanic rock set against the clearest blue skies surrounded by steaming active volcanoes made for an overwhelming vista.. With such a dramatic background it would have been forgiven if it had a of been a scene from a Hollywood movie ..It was built in the 8th Century and is 9 levels high . it has 500 Buddha statues and 5 km of carved relief's depicting scenes.. it certainly gave Angkor Watt a run for its money .. all the rocks are locked together using the dovetail technique due to earthquakes.. unbelievable . we had hired a guide for £3 who was fab and we were fascinated that we were of far more interest to the Indonesians than the greatest Buddhist temple in the world !! we must have had our photo taken with families at least 60 times... they were literally staring open mouthed... at our beauty or our freak show !!! I was beginning to feel exploited , If my agent finds out .... also we were not looking our best .. with borrowed sarongs and sweaty hats and T shirts... a great ambassador for 'white people' !!!!!

Beautiful Bali

From here it was onto Prambatan temple, this time a Hindhu temple called the slender maiden , she or all 6 of her were beautiful and set in the most beautiful park , the sun was setting and it was lovely to just wander around sit and just ' be'  There was a deer colony around the temple which I fed grass and stroked, weird that deer are so normally skittish yet here at this peaceful sanctuary they are calm .... A really lovely couple of days , we are so pleased we came to Indonesia especially as it was not on our trip ...

A constant reminder

Masked dancer 

A rare photo of me !!

On your bike !!

The next day we flew to Bali and stayed in Sanur , I had decided I probably was not going to like it as it was so touristy and obvious.. I was thankfully wrong, we stayed in the most beautiful hotel, all open air and trendy with carved wood and huge pillows scattered around wooden platforms under frangipani trees. We hired bikes for 4 days and cycled up and down the prom stopping to swim in the bath like sea, or drink cocktails.. really lovely and a great way to finish off Asia..  One night there was a local dance show on , the 'masked dance ' hmmm , think about being in a foundry with a bad hangover and coming off of LSD ... Brian decided to try and shut some of the banging out , just like dad would have done !! Whilst here managed to wrap and send all kids pressies for xmas and cycle to post office to send... 4 th Nov was a very dark day for me , the lowest I have felt... really really homesick and thinking about xmas and dad and all the people I love back home... Also aware we are flying to Oz even further away !! sad to leave Asia.. But hey ... Oz , New Zealand and South America to come .. whoop whoop ..