Koh Phi Pi - Indonesia

And then suddenly...poof...another travel story! Let's see if I can end at the exact place where we are sitting now, Kuala Lumpur airport, waiting for our connecting flight to Melbourne. 'Ik ben benieuwd!'

Watching our family go was a little bit harder then I anticipated. You have them around for 2 weeks, can talk to them whenever you want and hug them whenever you want, and suddenly (in the blink of an eye, or so it seemed) they are gone again. But then I thought about the things we were still going to see and experience, and I was ready again to continue exploring. For one year the world truly is our playground :-)

We went to Phuket, but since it didn't look that interesting to us we quickly went on to Koh Phi Phi, the (in)famous party island in Thailand, and did what every backpacker does there: you plan to stay 2 nights, go to a very nice beach party, catch the Phi Phi virus that puts you in bed for a day, extend your stay with 2 more nights, get your PADI Open Water license without a single fine (sorry Johanna) while enjoying the company of leopard sharks and sea turtles, meet amazing people, go to a beach party again and before you know it you have been there 10 days...whoops...definitely time to go on. Oke, one more day to do an amazing hike around the island starting up up up the stairs, into the jungle and then back during low tide so we could walk over parts of the island that are normally not accessible. Very cool! But then it was really time to go.

Since Bangkok seems to be the nr.1 gathering point in Thailand we had to take a long bus ride back before a plain took us to Medan, Sumatra where a taxi brought us to the hostel. The noise in the room was comparable to a truck driving over you while a train derails next to it and don't get me started about the bathroom, but the beds were good and we made it to the 7th country on our list: Indonesia. In Medan we got a good taste of the Indonesian food (very nice), visited a mosque where a guide told us a lot of interesting things about the Islamic culture and went to one of the palaces owned by the family of the Sultan. Funny fact: the guide spoke Dutch and told us that all people from the Netherlands speak Indonesian,  since 352 words are still the same. From Medan we went to Bukit Lawang, a small village in the mountains and famous for its orangutans living in the surrounding jungle. So we did a 2 day trekking to find them and were extremely lucky to find a whole bunch of them and see them up close and personal. A little to close, because while we were having our break one of the' naughty' ones called Mina sneaked up on us and we had to run...Adrenaline rush! She had bitten someone the week before, hence why the guides were on edge regarding her. There's even a song they sing (think of the tune of jinglebells) ''jungletrek,  jungletrek,  in bukit lawang. See the monkeys, see the birds, see orangutan, hey. Jungletrek, jungletrek, in bukit lawang. See the monkeys, see the Mina, everybody runs...very funny to sing during hiking. Our camp was in the middle of the jungle next to the river, very basic but that made the experience even more special. In the evening we had a campfire and played magic tricks with cards and a game called Mafia, and in the morning we were awoken by an extremely large troop of monkeys. Never had that before in my life. The way back to the village was easier because we went tubing, a lot of fun! One of our guides fell off though and he hurt his hip, but of course he was to tough to admit that it hurt. Later he told us it was dislocated...auch! We had a nice evening with the locals singing songs and playing the guitar, they were so nice. Just like most local people in Indonesia actually, despite the fact that they keep asking us for pictures. (It is getting a little bit annoying now). Back in Medan we booked a nice hotel, celebrated Fleur's birthday the old-fashioned way with cake and candles and even went out for dinner at a restaurant with Dutch items on the menu! So we ate 'bitterballen' and 'huzarensalade', sort of, and it tasted good :-)

From other people we had heard that Lombok was supposed to be really nice so we decided to fly there with the cheapest flight available. Of course that means spending the night at Jakarta airport, but that's not so bad if you have a sleeping bag and a screen playing good movies. Unfortunately the weather was pretty crap on Lombok and there wasn't much to do because of that, so after 1 night we went straight to Bali with the slow (slower, slowest) ferry. It can be very relaxing to just sit there and watch the showers (rainy season) pass by, do a bit of reading or catching up with the diaries and watching the dolphins, yes dolphins!, jump next to the boat. First stop in Bali was Padang bai, where we rented a scooter to go to the liberty shipwreck which sank during the second world war. Extremely impressive to dive through it, I can recommend it to everyone! We also picked up a new travel buddy, Nicola from Germany. She is very nice and funny and decided to travel with us through Bali and Java, 'gezellig'! And it was a perfect way for Fleur to practice her German. From Padang Bai we went to Krabi, the main stop for the "younger" tourist. In other words, it is a party city, so partying we did! There were very nice people in the hostel and our dorm with whom we went out for dinner and drinks, meanwhile able to prepare ourselves for Australia because the place was literally packed with Aussie's.

(As you probably noticed by now I didn't succeeded in finishing this story before boarding the plain, obviously, but I will still tell about the adventures in Indonesia. So moving on...)

In krabi we also rented another scooter to drive to a temple that stands on top of a cliff and found a beach with caves that are under water during high tide...nice! During the ride we were pulled over by the police and I could see them thinking: 'another tourist we can give a fine, gna gna'. (In Indonesia you're not allowed to drive unless you have a international driving license) but of course we have those, so he looked disappointed and just said 'go on then', haha. Unfortunately both Fleur and Nicola weren't feeling well the last days, so we had to take it a bit slow, but after that we could go on to mount Bromo on Java. The original transport was as following: taxi--> bus--> boat--> taxi--> train--> bus or taxi. But when we were in the first taxi the driver asked us how we planned to go to Probolinggo (a town near mount Bromo) and when we tolled him the whole plan he turned his head and said 'but there is a bus going there in 10 minutes, don't you prefer to take that one?'. Uhm.....yes please!! So we sat in the bus the whole day, watching the weather grow worse and worse while bits of the road and almost everything beside it was washed away by the heavy rains of late. Why did we wanted to go to Java again?? At the end of the bus ride we met Pieter, a very nice guy from the Netherlands and we decided to all go to Mount Bromo together, which was very ´gezellig´! Bromo is an semi-active volcano and its surroundings have been created by volcanic ashes and lava, very special to see that with your own eyes. Also to stand next to the crater where a big cloud of steam is coming out and you can hear the lava streaming...wauw! In the evening we stayed in the hostel drinking chocolate milk and playing games, kind of like being in a ski-resort, including the cold. Thermal underwear required, but we had a great time. 

After Mount Bromo the four of us spend another day in the bus (tip of the day people: If you decide to backpack here, and it is definitely worth it, spend a little extra money and fly!) and visited Borobudur, an impressive Buddhist temple near Jogjakarta.In the evening we had a surprisingly good farewell dinner because Pieter had to leave and Nicola, Fleur and me were moving on to a hostel in Jogjakarta. There we visited the Dieng Plateau, a very mysterious place because of the suddenly upcoming fog, the surrounding semi-active volcanoes and lakes that change color...I loved it! Furthermore we did a lot of shopping (hey, it was still cheap there and girls need new clothes every now and then) and brought broken or oversized clothes to the best tailor ever. He was 87, took your measurements from the eye, put pencil stripes in your clothes and the shop was also his home, but he did the fastest and best job ever! 

Because of the flooding areas near Jakarta we decided to fly there to make sure we could catch our plane to Australia, and then it was time to say goodbye to Asia. For 5 months I have seen the most diverse part of the planet imaginable and it has been an amazing time filled with crazy, funny, beautiful, insane and memorable experiences. But even though I am definitely coming back here one day, for now it has been enough with the staring, not understanding, spitting and poor bathroom conditions...Time to visit a new continent with new (and old) people...Australia!

Liefs, Janneke