Week Two (and a bit)

Yes I know, I've been a bit rubbish at this whole updating the blog thing..must try harder.  So...when I left you, I was in an internet cafe in Pangandaran, which was a lovely little chilled out town. After there, we got the train to Yogyakarta in central Java - a lot more hectic than we'd been used to.  Got ourselves a bit lost on the way to the place we'd decided to stay so I had lots more practice of bag carrying in killer heat.  We stayed a couple of nights there, visited Prambanan and saw a Ramayana Ballet by night in the grounds, which was great if somewhat confusing - lots of subplots after a couple of Bintangs means a lot of concentration...

We left Yogya and headed towards Borobodur for some more temple action.  Stayed in a hotel in the grounds (killed that week's budget) and had another sunrise at the top of the temple, which was lovely.  After that it was on to Dieng Plateau, which involved 4 public buses and 5 hours - tiring, but remarkably easy to negotiate.  Made some friends on the way, even ran into a woman who took it upon herself to tell Cath to cover up by poking her boobs (it was cold...ahem)!  International sign language turned into international grope language there for a while....  Dieng was lovely - the room was not quite the palatial surrounds of the previous evening, but it worked although we had a rude awakening at 4am from the mosque on our doorstep.  Dieng is much cooler than the rest of Indonesia and apparently rains a lot, but we seemed to be lucky with the weather as I've added to my collection of random pink areas.  Lots of potatoes and cabbage, just like dear old Ireland so I felt well at home.

We're now back in Yogya as it seems to be the travel hub for getting to East Java and then to Bali.  We're relaxing for the next few days - the plan is to head to Mount Bromo for another exhausting volcano climb (after an 11 hour bus journey that I'm really looking forward to) but it's best to visit tourist attractions during the week as the whole of Indonesia seems to hit these places en masse at the weekend.  We're staying in a different part of town and having a different experience to the first time. Today we made rings (soldering irons and etching tools and all sorts), tomorrow we're learning about herbs and medicine, making face packs and having  a traditional massage and the day after we're learning how to make batik...bit of an arts and crafts episode.

Highlight of the week was the Ramayana Ballet in the grounds of Prambanan - really nice setting and interesting to see.

Challenge of the week was dealing with my spider phobia whilst in a cave in a national park/ jungle in Pangandaran. Note to self: caves and head torches and big (ish) spiders are not a good mix.  Roll on Borneo.....