Indonesia

We first went to Indonesia about half a year after I moved to Singapore. And in fact, it was our first trip together.

I figured, this is a good wayfor us to get to know each other better. And so we did. At this point, I need to explain, that Simona and I have very different approaches when it comes to travel planning. Her approach is minute preparation, knowing and documenting each single schedule, booking all hotels in advance, and packing as many activities into the itinerary as possible. My style on the other hand, is about maximizing the adventure and that usually means not to prepare too much because, where is the adventure in that, right? So before we went on this trip, Simona asked me, if I had prepared everything, and I said I did. Well, I had booked all the flights and the …, well that's about where it stopped. But I had a rough idea of where we needed togo and a soft copy of the lonely planet Indonesia on my kindle.

So how did that go you might ask? Pretty well actually, but let's just say I was very lucky :).

Climbing volcanoes

Our first leg took us from Singapore to Surabaya via plane (hint: this was the easy part). After we arrived at around 1pm, we had a very tasty noodle soup, and that bought me some time, because I had no clue how to get from the Airport to the little village of Cemoro Lawang, where Lonely Plant recommended us to spend the night before we would climb Mount Bromo the next morning. Of course I also had no idea where we would actually spend the night or how we would get to Mount Bromo to watch the sunrise the following day.

After lunch, we found out that we can just booked a taxi for around 80USD to bring us there. The distance is only 130km but given the state of the Indonesian roads, this trip took us about 4 hours.

By the time we arrived in Cemoro Lawang, it was around 7pm but it was pitch black outside and I even I got a bit nervous because we didn't have a hotel booking. Luckily our trusted driver brought us to several guest houses until we found one that had a spare room for us. It was a lovely place on top of a mountain. The room was pretty basic (especially the bathroom), but we were happy to have a place to stay at all. Even better so that they could arrange for the trip to Mount Bromo the next morning.

We left the hotel at 4 am in a 4x4 to drive up a neighboring mountain, to see the sunrise with Bromo in the background. All along the way it was very foggy and I have no idea how the drivers new were to go, as there is no road.

Once on top of the mountain, the views are amazing but it gets a bit crowded, as there are many other tourists. However, it definitely is a very special experience and well worth getting up at 4am.

After the sunrise, the driver took us to Bromo. Actually they drop you off about 2km away from the mountain and you can decide if you want to walk or ride on a horse.

We opted for walking as I felt rather sorry for the poor horses (okay let's face itSimona's horse would have been fine but mine would have been a case for animals' rights activists). Once you arrive at the foot of Mount Bromo you will find stairs that will take you up directly to the brim of the crater. Up there, you feel like you have entered a different planet. The views are so stunning and so out of this world.

Once we had enjoyed the views for a while, the driver took us back to the hotel, where we picked up our luggage and got on a bus to go to the next volcano,  Kawa Ijen, that we planned to climb the following day. On the bus we met some people who told us they had tried to reach Bromo by foot instead of taking a 4x4. This is recommended by many on tripadvisor and even in the lonely planet. However, do you remember when I told you about the fog? Well, these guys just walked around in the fog all morning, without even having the slightest glimpse of Mount Bromo. Sucks, I guess.

We spent the night in a guest house close to Kawa Ijen and if the Bromo guest house was basic, then this was VERY basic. Luckily we had to get up at 3AM anyways, to start the ascend to Kawa Ijen. Of course it is very dark so make sure to bring your flash light. It takes about 2 hours to reach the peak, by which time, I was rather disappointed. Again,  it was so foggy, that I couldn't see anything. Only then did I realize that the point was not to have a nice view from up there, but to actually climb down into the crater and see how the workers there 'harvest' the Sulphur. The climb down is quite exhausting but the workers carry out up to 80kg of Sulphur in one go, so I should not complain. The whole experience is extremely exciting and exactly the adventure that I had hoped for.

Hitting the beaches

After we came back from Ijen, the driver dropped us off at the ferry terminal in Banyuwangi from where we took a 30 minutes ferry ride to Bali. Once in Bali we continued our journey by bus and Taxi until we reached Kuta.

Honestly, if you are above 25 and don't want to go out to party every night, then Kuta is not the best place to hang out in Bali. However, we manager to find an amazing hotel which was like a little Oasis is the chaos of Kuta. The hotel is called Poppies Cottages and is located very centrally within walking distance from the beach and all the restaurants.

Chasing dragons

After two nights in Bali, it was time for us to move on. We took a flight on a small turbo-prop plane from Denpasar to Labuanbajo. Labuanbajo is a little town that serves as a home base for excursions to Komodo and the neighboring islands. The reason for us to come here was of course to see the Komodo dragons. We decided to go to Rinca rather than to Komodo to see the dragons because Rinca is A closer and B said to be better for spotting dragons. So we took a small boat which takes about 2 hrs. Once you arrive on the island, a local guide will bring you around to spot the dragons. He told us some horror stories about how he was chased by a dragon and had to hide on a tree for several hours. We saw around 10 dragons in total and it's quite surreal how big and muscular they are. They seem to be very lazy but the guide reminded us that they are opportunistic hunters and, i.e. they will just wait for someone to come close enough before they attack. We stayed well clear of them and were fine.

After we visited the dragons we went snorkeling off the cost of Rinca. The water is crystal clear and full of colorful fish. It was my first snorkeling experience in southeast Asia and I was totally blown away so we went to a few more places afterwards. At one point I lost my GoPro in the corals. After searching for a while I was ready to write it off but Simona insisted we keep looking for it and she actually found it - unbelievable.

Ancient temples

After Labuanbajo it was time for Simona to return home to Singapore but I continued to Jogjakarta to visit the temple in Borobudur. While it is not quite as impressive as it is in Angkor Wat, it still is a great experience, especially during sunrise hours.