We're now in Maninjal- a small village nestled by the side of a lake in a volcanic crater. The landscape makes for a beautiful setting and it is incredibly peaceful here. Yesterday we hired a motorbike and rode around the lake (70km) taking in the scenery and fresh air as we went. We also rode to the top of the crater up a rather bendy road which gave good views back out over the lake. Yesterday there were celebrations for independance day. On the way up to the lip of the crater we saw the locals entertaining themselves with slippery pole climbing- a simple but quite entertaining game.
We stayed 5 nights in Bukittingi in the end. It was a nice small town and we went on a tour of the local area to see the views, historic buildings and arts and craft type stuff. The people in Sumatra are (on the whole) more easy-going than than those in Bali and Java as well as being friendlier and politer. We did have one little toerag send us the wrong way when we were trying to walk from Bukittingi to Koto Gadang. He then followed us until we were looking lost and then offered his services as a guide for Rp100000. Needless to say we didn't take him up on this and went back to Bukittingi. Apart from that and a spot of food poisoning which rendered us out of action for a day it has been a pretty good week.
Tomorrow we head back South in search of rainforest, tigers and the rare Indonesian Rhino in the National Way Kambas.
Still no photos I'm afraid- maybe in Jakarta in a week or so.
xx Matt xx
Saturday, 18 August 2007
Sunday, 12 August 2007
Its been 2 weeks and I still haven't thought of a title.
So, its been a while. Since my last blog I have been asked if i want a taxi no less than 18264 times and have been lied to/ripped off at least 4871 times. I'm not going to make this one long rant about Indonesia but so far it has been rather disappointing.
I flew in to Kuta in Bali and met up with Emma again. We spent a few days surfing/exploring southern Bali. On my first afternoon there we had a rather entertaining time. A local guy who gets commission if he brings people to a timeshare presentation convinced us to pose as a married couple and attend said presentations. In return for doing this we were given a motorbike for 3 days. The presentation was basically a meeting with a rep from the hotels in which we were asked a load of questions about previous holidays and the like. We just about managed to blag our way through it, although I thought the lady might have been slightly skeptical about us spending our honeymoon staying in hostels in Scotland. It was a bit of a laugh tho and we also earned the local guy US$60 which is a butt load of money to him. Over the next couple of days we rode around on the motorbike and did a bit of surfing. Then it was on to Java and a trip to mount Bromo. We had a nice walk up a volcano (I forget the name) for sunrise and back down to climb Mt Bromo.
After Bromo we went on to Yogyakarta which from the guidebook sounded more promising and more like a down to earth Indonesia I've been waiting for. In reality it was much the same as the other towns- the people have no respect for their country and throw rubbish all over the place resulting in the town centres becoming big smelly rubbish dumps. Also you get constantly harassed by people trying to sell you something. I know that the people are poor and are therefore desperate but the constant badgering makes you feel uptight so you can't enjoy yourself. I am not at all surprised by the downturn in Indonesian tourism over the last few years- I certainly won't be recommending it to other people.
From Jogja (as it is commonly called) we decided not to face the two and a half day bus trip up to mid Sumatra and so we took a flight up to Padang. The less said about Padang the better.
The next day we got a bus up to Bukittinggi. The guys whose van we got a lift in tried to steal things from our bags whilst distracting us but they did a rather bad job of it. They may as well have used the old 'HEY! look over there!!!' trick- they were that unsubtle. Anyways we are now in Bukittinggi and it is the nicest place I've been in Indonesia so far. Tomorrow we're planning to go on a Jungle trek and I'm looking forward to getting back into the countryside.
I realise I haven't said much of the things we have been doing so for more on that you can read Emma's blog (Link at the side of the page ------->)
Apologies for the lack of photos- the internet here is slower than a three legged tortoise!
xx Matt xx
I flew in to Kuta in Bali and met up with Emma again. We spent a few days surfing/exploring southern Bali. On my first afternoon there we had a rather entertaining time. A local guy who gets commission if he brings people to a timeshare presentation convinced us to pose as a married couple and attend said presentations. In return for doing this we were given a motorbike for 3 days. The presentation was basically a meeting with a rep from the hotels in which we were asked a load of questions about previous holidays and the like. We just about managed to blag our way through it, although I thought the lady might have been slightly skeptical about us spending our honeymoon staying in hostels in Scotland. It was a bit of a laugh tho and we also earned the local guy US$60 which is a butt load of money to him. Over the next couple of days we rode around on the motorbike and did a bit of surfing. Then it was on to Java and a trip to mount Bromo. We had a nice walk up a volcano (I forget the name) for sunrise and back down to climb Mt Bromo.
After Bromo we went on to Yogyakarta which from the guidebook sounded more promising and more like a down to earth Indonesia I've been waiting for. In reality it was much the same as the other towns- the people have no respect for their country and throw rubbish all over the place resulting in the town centres becoming big smelly rubbish dumps. Also you get constantly harassed by people trying to sell you something. I know that the people are poor and are therefore desperate but the constant badgering makes you feel uptight so you can't enjoy yourself. I am not at all surprised by the downturn in Indonesian tourism over the last few years- I certainly won't be recommending it to other people.
From Jogja (as it is commonly called) we decided not to face the two and a half day bus trip up to mid Sumatra and so we took a flight up to Padang. The less said about Padang the better.
The next day we got a bus up to Bukittinggi. The guys whose van we got a lift in tried to steal things from our bags whilst distracting us but they did a rather bad job of it. They may as well have used the old 'HEY! look over there!!!' trick- they were that unsubtle. Anyways we are now in Bukittinggi and it is the nicest place I've been in Indonesia so far. Tomorrow we're planning to go on a Jungle trek and I'm looking forward to getting back into the countryside.
I realise I haven't said much of the things we have been doing so for more on that you can read Emma's blog (Link at the side of the page ------->)
Apologies for the lack of photos- the internet here is slower than a three legged tortoise!
xx Matt xx
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