jodiemellor

You know when you make plans with friends that sound so great. A night out without the kids, family BBQ’s, grand holidays… but they rarely come to fruition… well somehow we have a way of making the grand holidays happen…

Pete had a work trip to a site in Jepara. Now that it is decided that we are leaving to go back to Australia, I feel like we haven’t done as much travel as we would have liked to, so Lachie and I headed along.

To get to Jepara, you must fly to Semarang. Only a 45 minute flight from Jakarta. We took the early flight again. I still shudder when I have to wake my sleeping baby!!  We flew Garuda so left from the new airport terminal. There weren’t a great deal of people around so it made checking in easy.

We landed in Semarang and headed to the Crown hotel to meet some of Pete’s colleagues. The hotel is beautiful. We had a buffet breakfast while we waited for our car and driver to arrive and take us to Jepara.

A 2.5hr car trip sounds horrible but just like everywhere else we have travelled in Indonesia, there is always so much to see.

Lucky for me Lachie slept nearly all the way meaning I could take in the sights and even catch some shut eye myself.

Beautiful mosques, funky art and incredible wood furniture lined the main road the whole way from Semarang to Japara. Big rivers lined with banana trees, rices padis and cane sugar reminded us we weren’t in the big smoke.

When we arrived in Jepara, I was pleasantly surprised at the accommodation. We stayed at the Gecho Inn Country. Owned by a Dutch family, the rooms were spacious with king size beds. There was a big pool and the wooden furniture around was a great finish.

There wasn’t much to do at all in Jepara. Lachie and I went for a short walk around to see if we could find some of the wooden furniture Jepara was famous for. We didn’t come across any, just a few local kids that loved using their limited English to communicate with me.

We headed to a beach club for dinner one night. I wish I had known about it earlier in our trip as it would have been a great place to hang out for the day. Spa facilities, a pool and great food. A jetty leads out to an over water bar with restaurant seating along the way. There is a huge love heart at the end of the jetty which is perfect for photos – it even illuminates at night!

I start every blog the same. You’d think i’d learn by now. DO SOME RESEARCH BEFORE TRAVELLING!!

I got a whole heap of information from other friends that had travelled to Borobodur so I thought I was well equipped.

Pete’s parents had made the trip to Jakarta and we decided that Borobudur would be a great place to go with them.

We opted to stay a few minutes out of town at the D’Omah Hotel. It had been recommended by a friend who had stayed there and we were extremely happy with it. The boutique hotel was set in a gorgeous little village. The rooms were comfy and we had a room right next to the pool. The restaurant overlooked rice fields and we were lucky enough to see harvesting and planting while we were there.

We didn’t have a great deal of spare time as we were only there for a long weekend. We arrived late on the Friday so we went for a walk around the local village. The people (as always) were so lovely and accommodating. We had a swim and a Bintang then to the restaurant for dinner.

I had done a little bit of research about photographing the temple and I got a couple of good photos but…. there are thousands of people at the sunrise viewing! I mean thousands! It’s almost impossible to get a photograph without anyone else in it! And nobody is courteous of others! I was so stressed out by the time the sun had risen because I was so worried about getting a good shot and nothing was turning out how I’d planned. Upon reflection, the photos I got were great for my level of experience. I guess I was just expecting to get that amaxing shot that you see in magazines.

We were talked into getting a tour guide to show us around once the sun was up. This isn’t something we would normally do but seeing as though we had guests, we obliged this time. We were pleasantly surprised on this occasion. Sonny was a big indonesian man and boy was he good at his job. Not only did he keep us entertained with amazing stories of the inscriptions in the wall, he was also hilarious, honest and a great photgrapher. On more than one occasion, he encouraged me to take photos of angles I never would have thought of, and even got me in front of the camera for some fun shots!

Once I took a step back and stopped trying to get that amazing photo and started living in the moment and creating memories that will hopefully last me a long time, did I realised how breathtaking Borobudur really is. Built by hand, there are so many stories carved into the walls. So much history. Stories of men and women, children and animals. Before Facebook and Instagram when the world lived on tales of gods and mystical creatures. It is wonderful to imagine a world where all of this existed. It’s a place where tales of great triumph or unimaginable heartache will be written in the walls for hundreds of thousands of years to come. A place that will hopefully be protected and remain unchanged for generations to come.

Once we had a good look around with Sonny, we headed toward the exit. Before we left Sonny asked if we wanted any souveiers at all. We all said no so he told us, no matter how much the people in the next section offer you, just ignore them and keep walking. We didn’t really take him to seriously until we got to the bottom. There were only about 10 vendors but they heckled us hard! It was about a 30m walk through the area and boy was it full on!

Once at the bottom there was coffee, tea and morning tea provided. The others had a coffee and we hit the road for the trek home. On the way home we asked our driver to take us to any other spots he thought we might enjoy. It is common practice for drivers to take you to places that pay them a commission. Tea houses, temples etc. We made a stop at one more temple and directly across the road was a coffee house. Luwak coffee is very popluar in Indonesia. Luwak coffee is somewhat of a ‘treat’ here in Australia, with some cups worth $50. A Luwak is a possum/cat type of animal. Luwak coffee beans are made from the faeces of this animal. Yep. Possum poo coffee. I don’t drink coffee so I can’t attest to its taste, but by all accounts it was nice.

In Australia there are approximately 10 Public Holidays each year. In Indonesia in 2017, there are 23 recognised holidays. In addition, there have been 2 extra holidays declared due to the election. We decided to take advantage of the quiet roads on the last holiday and headed out to the Jatiluhur Dam. It’s 150kms East of Jakarta. Not far when there is no traffic.

After our last mis-adventure with Uber when we headed to Krakatoa, I convinced Pete to pre-book an Uber the night before. Our job was accepted and we naively thought the driver would have checked where the job was!  It wasn’t until he turned up that he discovered where we were going. He agreed to hang around with the meter running all day and bring us home so we were all happy.

We got going at 8.30am and the journey only took us 1.5 hours – how nice for there to be zero traffic! There isn’t much to see on the trip there as it’s a toll road – a terrible one too. There are rice fields right beside the road though which is interesting.

As we were just following google maps to get to our destination, we ended up driving to the bottom of the dam wall which isn’t accessible to the public. We headed back up the road and asked a security guard where we could access the dam. He directed us back the another entrance and as we turned the corner we saw millions of cars. Another security guard directed us past saying it was full. Oh no. Had we driven all this way only to be turned away? As we kept driving though we came across more parking areas with dam access. We picked a car park that looked good and told the driver we would be a few hours. He pulled up a seat with some local and happily sat chatting for the time we were there. It still amazes me how well strangers in Indonesia get along. They are a very social bunch. Pete’s work driver is always chatting to other drivers while he waits.

As we got out of the car we noticed a few mats laid out in the shade by the dam edge. As we got closer, a gentleman asked if we would like to sit. The rental cost for the mat for the entire day was Rp15,000, approximately $1.50. Lachie needed to be fed so we agreed and sat in the shade overlooking the dam. Most of the locals brought their own food with them but we ordered some chicken and rice from the same man that hired us the mat. Pete had a fresh coconut and we sat for a while in the shade people watching. While we were sitting there another man approached us with a large bag on his back. He was selling knives. Not steak knives. More like ninja knives! I usually tell people like this that I’m not interested and they ;eave me alone…Pete couldn’t help himself. He genuinely just wanted to have a look and had no intention of purchasing anything. There were all kinds of knives in his bag. Pete carefully inspected each one and passed comment on what he thought they would be useful for, looking to me for agreement. “This one would be handy on the boat”. “This one would be a great diving knife”. I just smiled and nodded my head (ok I probably rolled my eyes a few times also). Then the question came that changed everything. This is exactly when I knew we would be going home with a new knife… “How much is this one?”. When the response came, Pete looked to me for approval (I’ve trained him well) and to check we actually had enough cash to buy one. We are now the proud owners of a knife that’ll “be handy for so many things!” 🙂

After we ate we asked around to find a boat to take us for a trip on the dam. We were shown to an old motor boat and were then taken on a private tour. On the dam is a whole aquaculture community and we got lots of hello Mr’s and waves from the shadows of the small bungalows as we passed. At the other end of the dam is the turbine and a floating restaurant. This is the section we were getting waved on from earlier in the day. There were plenty of people spilling out from the restaurant and onto the sloping grassy areas surrounding the dam. It looked pretty but we were so glad we ended up where we did as it felt more local – the experience we were looking for.

We headed back to the mainland, the whole boat ride taking about 20 minutes, where we found our Uber driver and started our trek home. The return trip took a little longer due to roadworks but still shorter than some trips home from work for Pete. 🙂

There isn’t a great deal to to at the dam but it’s a nice day out and close enough for a day trip. Another day that we didn’t waste 🙂

Makassar is the capital of South Sulawesi. It was established in the 14th century and by the 16th century was a the main trading centre in Eastern Indonesia, trading largely in spices.

The island of Sulawesi is renowned as being one of the most scenic islands of Indonesia and is the gateway to many other remote islands in Eastern Indonesia such as Raja Ampat.

Pete had some work meetings to attend so we took the opportunity to tag along.

We had a 5.20am flight and even though we were only travelling domestically, you can never predict traffic or the crowd at the airport. We were up at 2.30am and in an Uber at 3am. I tried to pick up the sleeping baby as carefully as possible so he would stay asleep, however as soon as my hands touched him, those big brown eyes sprung open. Luckily he sat quietly in the car and fell back asleep along the way.

We flew out from the brand new terminal which is dedicated to Garuda Airlines. It was a lovely change from the other terminals. There were no crowds, plenty of food and drink options (even at 4am) and everything was fresh and new.

Were headed through security and onto our departure gate. Once we were called to board I prepared myself for the ensuing bus trip to our plane which was no doubt parked back at Terminal 1. I was very pleasantly surprised when we walked straight down the airbridge and onto the plane. A nice change for Jakarta.

Lachie went back to sleep just as we were preparing to take off. He is awake for longer periods of time now so I was hoping he would stay alseep for as long as possible to minimise the time I would need to keep him quiet. He ended up sleeping for about an hour which left another hour or so before we landed. He takes a great interest in the tv at the moment so that kept him entertained for a while.

Turns out Makassar is quite a busy airport. We did 3 laps of a holding pattern before we finally landed. The city and its surrounds are beautiful. Clear blue skies and lots of small islands with coral reefs that were easy to see from the plane. The airport itself was bustling, like most other domestic airports in Indonesia. It was well set out though which was a nice surprise.

We had a hotel transfer so we didn’t have to haggle for a taxi. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the hotel, the Aston. It is a lovely 4 star hotel that overlooks both the city and the ocean. We checked into our room then head out for some sightseeing.

We headed off on to Fort Rotterdam which was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

Originally settled by the Portugese, it was early in the 17th century that the Dutch arrived with the intention of gaining control over the spice trade. Their first move was to conquer Fort Makassar which they did in 1667 and rebuilt and renamed Fort Rotterdam.

We signed in and paid a donation fee to enter. As we walked through the front gate we had a local man approach us and in fairly good english offered to ‘show us around’. We declined as it was very hot and we just wanted to have a look around at our own pace. As it turns out we only spent about 30 minutes looking around the entire site. Most of the information was in Bahasa Indonesia and to be honest, there was very little that took our interest. We may have been better off paying for the guide to get a more detailed tour.

As we left, a man approached us and made general conversation with us. He told us as that we should visit the fish markets and the harbour where the traditional Bugis boats come in. He explained that it was the right time to go to the fish markets as the morning catch would be arriving back and offered to take us in his Becak. Both Pete and I thought he was having us on but decided it was something we wanted to do anyway and the price he offered to take us was reasonable. So Pete took Lachie and jumped in with our new friend, while I went with his son. It was quite an experience travelling in the Becak. I give it to the riders, it was hot and we aren’t light people!

15 minutes later we arrived at the fish markets. Wow! I’m so glad we decided to come along. There was a boat that had just arrived back so we went to see what they caught. It’s amazing how many beautiful fish are in the surrounding waters. They had a successful morning and were proud to show off their catch. We walked through the markets and saw all kinds of fish, stingray and squid. Most of the locals were more interested in the ‘bule baby’ and kept touching him!

We jumped back into our rides and headed a few more minutes up the road to the harbour. There were plenty of Bugis boats, most of which were already loaded with flour ready to go. After a quick look around here we headed back to the hotel. The streets of Makassar are so lively. We turned heads the whole way back and had hundreds of greetings by the time we arrived.

The hotel has a sky lounge which we headed up to for drinks and dinner. The view was incredible. It overlooked the port and we had clear skies to witness the sunset. The steak dinner was quite good and the dessert was amazing! We retired early (like we have much of a choice these days ;)) ready for the following day.

The next day started earlier than I would have liked (thanks Lachie). We headed to the restaurant for our included breakfast which was average at best. Plenty of options but most things were cold or tasted ‘old’. After breakfast Pete headed off to a few meetings and Lachie and I headed up to the pool which is on level 19. An indoor pool, spa and sauna with great views. The pool was a little cold  for Lachie but we had a quick dip then headed back down to get ready for our day trip. Pete had to do a reconnaissance about 100kms south of Makassar and so we all jumped in a car at lunchtime. Like most other places in Indonesia, the roads were busy and the average speed is 60km/hr. 100kms took us almost 3 hours.

Along the way, on the side of the road there are mats laid out covered with rice which is left to dry in the sun. I have seen this in many places throughout Indonesia but its always a site to see. The other thing that caught my eye on this trip was the colours. From yellows and greens to purples and reds – houses, fences and mosques were all kinds of colours.

With Lachie in arms or strapped to my chest (yes it’s legal, no we don’t have a car seat here (no regular driver) and yes it is dangerous, no we don’t have any other options) and the rocking motion of the car, he slept for most of the trip down which was great. We managed to locate the 3 sites easily and after a few photos at each, we were back on the road to Makassar. It was late afternoon and seeing as though we had been told about a nice seafood restaurant on the way home, we decided to stop and have an early dinner. The restaurant is set on the beachfront so we sat outside to enjoy the view. We fumbled our way through ordering using the little bit of Indonesian I know and after a short wait dinner arrived. I had the chicken nasi goreng and Pete had sweet and sour chicken and calamari. We both had a fresh lime juice. The food was absolutely delicious. So fresh and the flavours were incredible. One of these days I’ll rebel and try something a little ‘exotic’.

We arrived home about 9pm and headed straight to bed. The following morning Pete had some more meetings so Lachie and I had a quiet morning in the hotel. Breakfast was no better…

I really enjoyed Makassar and would really like to go back and spend more time there and on the surrounding islands.

We started of at the Sunda Kelapa Harbour in Ancol, North Jakarta. Docked up along the 1.5km stretch of harbourside, were hundreds of boats awaiting departure or in line to be loaded with concrete destined for Sumatra.

We were invited onto one of the boats that was almost ready for its 3 day trip to Sumatra – a vast improvement from the month long trip of old. We crossed the thin walking plank – we balanced across it but were amazed to see the locals loading concrete onto the boats – sometimes loaded up with 3 or 4 bags – via the plank also. We were shown the sleeping quarters, kitchen and toilet areas shared by the many employees and I’m sure they are happy the trip doesn’t take too long!

After a look around the boat, we boarded a taxi boat and took a short trip into the main harbour. When we disembarked, we were on the other side of the river, in a local kampu

ng – the oldest in Jakarta. The residents were more than happy for us to pass through and the children were absolutely delightful. They squealed with excitement when we asked if we could take photos, and were delighted when they saw themselves on the screen.

We passed through a local school where we disrupted the 2 classes as the children ran out to say hello and again pose for photos. The school gets some funding from the local Australian and New Zealand Association and we got to see their latest project which was to fix up the rooftop so the children can play ball sports.

We continued on through the small village and back across

the river through an area which has been recently cleared by local government who are trying to restore the harbour back to what it used to be. Unfortunately this has meant hundreds, if not thousands of people have lost their homes. Some have chosen to remain here however and have set up make shift housing.

We made a quick stop at the maritime museum which has some interesting artifacts and information about the harbour, and then jumped into bajajs back to the markets in Old Town. The markets were full of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, turtles and textiles. It was bustling with locals stocking up for their daily cook up. I will be heading back for another look at this market as we didn’t spend much time here.

One last trip in a mikrolet to the lunch destination and our day was done. There is lots to see that you wouldn’t normally be confident in accessing without a local guide. I would definitely recommend a tour around this area of Jakarta.

Another weekend, another getaway.

This time we have opted for the over water bungalows at Palau Ayer. This is the closest island to Jakarta so we only had a 25 minute boat ride to get there – great! Or so we thought….

We arrived in no time and first impressions were good. There are approximately 30 over water bungalows along with on land rooms and ‘hotel’. With our previous 2 trips to other islands we arrived before 10am and had to wait until 2pm to check in. When we arrived at Palau Ayer at 9am we headed straight to reception who were only too happy to check us into our room.

The room was a one bedroom studio type room which had a separate lounge room and bathroom (with toiletries). There was also a tv and mini bar. We were impressed with the standard and cleanliness of the room. The best feature had to be the balcony. It was completely shaded and cool enough to sit on at all times of the day. Unfortunately our view was straight back to Jakarta and true to form even though it was only ~25kms away, we could barely see it through the pollution.

It’s easy to see why this island is a popular one with locals and tourists alike as there is plenty to do. There is a good range of play equipment for children, a basketball court, volleyball court, table tennis, billiards tables, 1km walking track, karaoke and a swimming pool – complete with kids’ water slide.

Unfortunately as this island is located so close to Jakarta, the ocean is completely filthy and I wouldn’t recommend swimming in it at all – well at least for some (see photo). It’s quite a shock to see so much rubbish in the ocean in one place. It still blows my mind that children in schools here aren’t educated on the effects of littering and it is not uncommon to see people discarding any rubbish they have onto the street. I would imagine if a tenth of the emphasis was placed on not littering here, as we do in Australia, there would be a dramatic improvement….

We went over to the pool for a quick swim and something to eat. We had paid for the weekend package which includes accommodation, 3 meals (lunch and dinner Saturday and Breakfast Sunday) and transport. It wasn’t quite lunchtime so we ordered from the restaurant menu. Pete had nasi goreng and I just stuck with some fresh fruit. Both were great, and super cheap.

After a swim we headed back to our room and spent a few hours on our balcony. There isn’t any internet where we were but we both managed to get some offline work out of the way.

We headed back to the restaurant for lunch which was served as a buffet style. Unfortunately there wasn’t much I liked there so I just stuck to plain white rice.

We went back for the mandatory afternoon snooze for a few hours (getting as many of these in before the baby arrives!) and when I woke before Pete I took the advantage to get in some exercise. I walked the 1km circuit 3 times before Pete woke up and I headed back to the room.

We went for another scope of the island and managed to find an area that had good mobile reception. We grabbed an ice-cream each and sat in the shade getting our social media fix and watching the footy score – well I did, while Pete read a book – yes, you read that correctly, Pete was reading.

After some quiet time we headed back to the balcony for a few more hours until just before the sunset we made our way to the West side of the island. We saw the sun disappear behind the thick layer of pollution on the horizon then headed back to get dinner.

Unfortunately dinner was more of the same as lunch. Again, I just had rice. There was a local band playing for us who were quite entertaining.

After dinner we headed back to the balcony once again. We had taken a bottle of wine to the island with us so I poured us each a glass (or in my case, a mouthful!) and we sat chatting. I noticed there were mozzies inside so I reached over and closed the door.

A few hours later we decided it was bedtime. I collected the wine bottle and glasses and went to head inside. The door was locked. We had joked about this earlier in the day when the door unexpectedly slammed shut on us so Pete thought I was playing around. He tried the door. Definitely locked. Oh no. Ok. Don’t panic. This has to happen often right? There must be another way. We tried to force our way in through the door but it wasn’t opening! We came up with all sorts of crazy ideas. Swim to the jetty, climb over the roof to the jetty or shimmy around the outside of the room. None of these were actually possible (except the swimming and neither of us were very keen).

Like normal, Pete was rather lacking in the clothing department. If he was to go into the water, he would have been completely bare by the time he got out. He wouldn’t let me get into the sea urchin filled water to scale back up the barnacle covered jetty to go off in search of help either. We knew our neighbours weren’t home yet so we decided to wait a while until they arrived. I was confident I knew enough Bahasa to tell them we were locked out. Pete has his phone with him but only had 10% battery and the reception was terrible. The only number we managed to google was the main office in Jakarta! After about 1 hour, the lady from next door arrived home with her young son. As soon as we saw her we started yelling as loud as we could. I got out what I needed to in Bahasa but we frightened her so much she just hurried inside, locked the door and pulled the curtains shut. That was not supposed to happen! With no other options, Pete started yelling like a mad man. Help!! Unsurprisingly, nobody came to our aid. He continued this for a few minutes, until the next door neighbours door opened again. The poor lady was so terrified (probably thinking we are crazy/drunk bules) that she had packed her son up and was heading back to the mainland. I shouted to her that we were locked out and needed help but she put her head down and hurried away. Low and behold, 2 minutes later, security arrive on the jetty! I did manage to say in Bahasa that we are locked out and he giggled and went off to fetch the master key. 1.5 hours after we first discovered we were locked out, we were back inside! Quite an adventure. I was impressed by the ideas we each came up with to get us out of there and I wonder what it would have taken for us to try. The bottle of red wine kept Pete busy but quite possibly could have given him the extra encouragement he needed to do something crazy – lucky we were rescued!

We managed to sleep in and when we woke headed over for breakfast. Breakfast was much better than the previous two meals but still not great. After breakfast we headed to the pool again. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the pool and shady grassy areas until our boat home left at 2pm.

Another (relatively) relaxing and quiet weekend gone and ready for another hectic week in Jakarta.

Well, like most of our previous trips, I didn’t research this destination at all! There was a work conference for my husband and for $60AUD return; I thought it was a great opportunity to explore for the day.

We were up at the crack of dawn – actually, before that. We were so early we even beat the Morning Prayer call from the mosque next door. An upside of this is that an airport run at this time of day only takes 40 minutes. We were on the road 45 minutes before our flight closed. Should be good timing I thought. It was then that my husband tells me he has to drop by the office to pick up some materials he needs for his conference! I should have questioned why he was ready to so early as it was out of character ? A quick stop to pick up his things and we were back on the road with 25 minutes until our flight cutoff…

Usually when the driver is overtaking like a mad man, travelling at 100kms/hr and weaving in and out of traffic, I would ask him to slow down. Not this day. I put my seatbelt on and closed my eyes pretending not to hear the honking from other drivers at our erratic driving.

We made the airport with a few minutes to spare so we casually headed through security expecting at 4.45am there would be hardly anyone else around. How wrong we were! As we entered the terminal, there were hundreds of people. Each counter, of which there were about 12, had at least 20 people lined up. I had a quick scout around looking for an airline representative that may be waiting to usher latecomers to a check-in counter. Nobody. My eyes darted around looking for the information counter. Bingo! But it had a huge line up too! Pete and I looked at each other and shruged, conceding defeat. We pick a line and decide to wait it out, we would get the next flight out if required. After standing in line for a few minutes, Pete swears he heard the word Palembang come over the ‘loud’ speaker. There are constant announcements which are mostly in Indonesian and are barely audible, but, he heard it. We turn and see a few people exit their line and hurry to a counter. We follow suit and 2 minutes later we have our boarding passes and are on our way to our gate.

By the time we pass security, our plane has already been boarding for 5 minutes so we hurry to the gate on our boarding pass (B3). As we reach that gate, I see our flight isn’t on the notice board. An announcement informs us that our gate has now changed to B1. We turn back and head for B1 and see our flight is listed on this gate. We line up ready to board and I notice that nobody else in our line has the same destination on their ticket. I casually ask the attendant at the information desk if this flight is for Palembang. He looked quite concerned and said no while holding his hand out for my ticket. He pointed to the big black writing under ‘gate’ that said B3. I’m sure he was thinking I was a dumb westerner as it clearly states the correct gate on my ticket! So we turned back and headed back to gate B3. We were ushered along with a few other stragglers onto the bus that was waiting to take us to the plane. It’s quite common in Jakarta to catch a bus to your plane. We checked in at terminal 1, got on a bus and travelled about 2 kilometres back to terminal 3 where our plane was parked!?

We take our seats – it is at this point we realise we aren’t seated together – take a deep breath and relax in ready for the hour long flight. A lot of excitement for one morning. I glance at my watch – it’s only 5.20am.

Wedged between 2 burly blokes for the 45 minute flight, I surprisingly manage to get a few minutes of shut eye. We touch down and again I am impressed by the airport. All airports in Indonesia seem to be much better than all 3 of Jakartas terminals!

We only had carry on luggage so without the usual painfully long wait for our bags, we headed for the taxi queue. This experience always makes me anxious as we generally have to barter the price and still get ripped off. This time however we were pleasantly surprised that the taxi had a working meter. We soon found out though that the prices are exorbitant when compared to Jakarta prices – nothing compared to Australia!

The roads in South Sumatra aren’t any better than those ones in the North. Travelling at an average of 40kms/hour on relatively traffic free roads, we arrived at the conference about 30 minutes later.

There was a few minutes to spare before my husband headed off, so I decided I might do some research into what I would do for the day.  After a quick look on TripAdvisor I decided on a few places to try. There are a surprising number of tourist attractions in Palembang which is ideal considering I had 10 hours to fill.

At the top of my list though was breakfast. There aren’t many breakfast options at 8am and I’m not big on street food, but I did notice right next door was a Jco store (local donut chain). I went all out and ordered the ‘big breakfast’ – iced chocolate, complete with cream, and a glazed donut. Breakfast of champions ?

After scoffing down my delicious breakfast, it was time to get on the road. As luck would have it, a taxi drove past just as I walked out. I would soon find out this was the most easily accessed transport of the day!

My first stop was Pasar Cinde. A local market with everything from fruits & vegetables, fresh meat and seafood to clothing and plumbing supplies. This market was fantastic and a truly local experience. It wasn’t overly busy which made it easier to get some photos, which mind you, everyone was only too happy to pose for! In fact, I had people yelling “photo, photo mister”, in one instance while shoving a live, squirming eel in front of me!

I expected a little bit of attention at this market being a foreigner, and the huge camera around my neck didn’t help, however the attention I received throughout the entire town during the day was completely unexpected. Unlike Jakarta, ‘Bules’ (a word Indonesians use for foreigners) in Palembang are quite uncommon. People stopped what they were doing to say hello, or ask for a photo and in one instance a gentleman saw me walking down the street, disappeared down an alley and reappeared with his young son. He pointed me out to his son who was extremely shy and hid away from me! It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. With that being said, I was never afraid or in any danger. Indonesians are renowned for being extremely lovely and friendly people. They were just amazed at this ‘other-worldly’ creature in their environment. Frankly, I’m surprised I don’t get the same attention back home ?

The next place on my list was Monpera. Only a 1.5km walk from where I was, I set off on foot. Of the 200 odd people I passed on my way, approximately 198 said hello to me as I walked past.

In December 1946 Palembang came under attack from the Netherlands. 5 days and 5 nights of fighting ended with a great part of the city being destroyed. Monpera is a monument erected to commemorate this occasion and was completed in 1988. The monument is 17 Metres in height, has 8 floors and 45 sectors. These figures represent the date of proclamation of Independence in Indonesia – 17 August 1945

Right behind Monpera is the Museum Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II. I’m not normally one for museums, but with a whole day to fill I decided why not. I’m glad I did as I learnt quite a lot about the history and customs of Palembang. There was a guided tour that cost just $2AUD and the tour guide spoke in quite good English which was fantastic.

The museum is right next to the Ampera Bridge. A mechanical bridge that was planned during the reign of Indonesias first president. Funded by the Japanese war reparations, the bridge opened in 1965. It was only operated a few times and by 1970 could no longer be opened. The reason stated is that the time taken to fully open was 30 minutes and was deemed to cause unacceptable delays.  By this time, silting in the river had made it impossible for large ships to pass anyway, therefore there was no reason to open the bridge. It is supposedly quite a pretty site to visit at night but left a lot to be desired during the day. I took a few snaps and was on my way.

I spotted a few cafes beside the bridge and decided to stop and have a drink. I was only sitting for a few mintues when I heard giggling behind me. I knew without even looking that it had something to do with me. I turned around and there were 3 young ladies looking at me. I said hello and one got the courage to ask me for a photo. When I said yes, all 3 came over and spent the next few mintues taking photos in as many different stances and poses as they could with me.

Another 2kms down the road and another 2000 “hello misters” and I arrived at Kambang Iwak. This is a very popular place that locals go to exercise. Indonesia isn’t known for its smooth walkways and pedestrian friendly roads, so this is a safe, shaded place they can come. In the centre of the ~500m track is a small lake. As well as the running/walking path there is various gym equipment scattered around. There is also a childrens play area. Being 11am on a weekday, I was the only person there, however I can imagine this being extremely busy in the early morning or evening and weekends.

I did 2 laps, mainly because I was keeping an eye out for a taxi to hail down. After I still hadn’t seen one at the end of my 2^nd lap, I decided to walk in the direction of my next destination, assuming one would pass shortly. 1km further down the road, still nothing! I came to a mini-market so I popped in for some water, oreos and a quick air-conditioning break. I then had the great idea to order a taxi using my smart phone app. I was at a recognisable location and if I needed to I could pass my phone to the friendly cashier to direct the driver to me. I opened my app, which for some reason had logged me out. Of course, I couldn’t remember my password and after trying every possible combination I thought it could be, I reset it. I waited for the verification code to be sms’d to my phone. Nothing. Resend code? Yes. Waiting, waiting. Still nothing!! 5 resend verification codes later and still nothing! Argh! I’m tired, I’m hot and I’m hungry! I had a quick look at my map and could see a big shopping centre not too far away. I decide to change my plans. I pull on my big girl panties and start walking again!

25 minutes later I walked in to the glorious air-conditioned shopping centre. Another thing that I had failed to come across all morning was a toilet and at 5 months pregnant, that was my first priority. Always an experience in Indonesia, I was pleasantly surprised with the cleanliness, toilet paper and a locking door!

Next stop. Food! A few levels up I found a place called Nanny K’s. Offering a mix of western and local food and buzzing with other lunchgoers, I decided this would be a safe option.

I ordered lunch and pulled out my notebook to make some notes. There was familiar music playing in English which always puts a smile on my face and I learnt during this lunch break that Elsa has indeed infiltrated every corner of this earth. The familiar ‘frozen’ tune came on and a little Indonesian girl, all of about 4 years old, started singing “Let it Go” at the top of her lungs, complete with the best dance moves she could muster while sitting. She knew all of the words and sang them as if nobody was watching. It reminded me of just how innocent and careless children can be.

After lunch I walked a little further down the road to another shopping centre which was targeted more at the locals. I was looking for a foot massage for my poor tired feet! I had only done one lap constantly looking at my shoulder for a growing head (which would explain the pointing and staring) when my husband called to say he had finished. As it would have it I had ended up right back near the convention centre so I headed up to join him.

There were a few other things which I would have liked to get to, particularly the Al-Qur’an Al-Akbar, if I had have been able to get the transport, but as soon as I sat down I was done.

We spent a few hours in the hotel lobby chatting before being invited to dinner by some of Petes new found work contacts. We headed to one of the citys most renowned restaurants, River Side, which is an old wooden boat moored near the Ampera Bridge. The bridge is much prettier at night! We were late getting to dinner so we didn’t have much time as we had a flight to catch. Dinner had already been ordered for the table and was ready almost as soon as we arrived. We scoffed it down and apologised for having to rush off when we were offered a lift by our hosts. Knowing the dramas trying to find a taxi earlier in the day we gratefully accepted but like most things in Indonesia, there was no hurry to go…

We managed to get on the road eventually and when our driver realised he only had 25 minutes to get us the 40 minute trip, he got moving! Again, we had albeit resigned to the fact we would miss the flight – the last one out of Palembang for the night. We arrived at the airport 10 minutes after our flight check-in closed. The driver waited while we went to check if we could still get on the flight, which indicates he thought we had missed it too! The front doors of the airport were locked…we knocked and someone came running over to let us in. We rushed through security, both of us beeping but nobody dared to stop us. We sprinted over to the only check-in counter, threw our ID at the airline staff at the desk and although out of breath, managed to say Jakarta – like there were any other flights waiting!! He promptly printed our boarding passes and told us to run to gate 3. We waved to our driver as we ran past the door, up the elevator, through more beeping security stops and to the gate. They ushered us onto the almost empty plane and into our seats. 4.5 minutes from drop off to seated ready for take-off. A new record for us!

I was exhausted and had just closed my eyes when my phone received a few messages. My taxi application verification codes arrived!

Tucked away in the back streets of Seminyak, is Villa Phinisi. I booked this villa for my 30th birthday as you have the option of 1-5 bedrooms. The villa comes as a complete unit, with a pool and completely private entertaining and grassed area, no matter how many rooms are utilised.

The pool is definitely the highlight of this villa. A beach style entry was perfect to float in to keep cool while still catching some sun, while the glass wall at the other end connects the pool to the living area. This kept us busy for hours as we took hundreds of underwater photos!

Inside the villa there are remnants of a Phinisi boat and various Balinese artifacts which compliment the villa beautifully. Each room is air conditioned and has its own bathroom and toilet, making it perfect for many groups to holiday comfortably together.

We spent 4 nights at the villa and couldn’t have been happier. The staff were extremely helpful. We organised a day trip to Ubud, airport transfers and lunch runs!

We arranged breakfast for two of the mornings and a dinner one night. These were all at an extra cost but were extremely well priced and the food was delicious.

Living in Jakarta, your options for the weekend usually consist of beers, shopping, brunch, dining out, sport, more beers, finding your favourite Australian sport on a satellite channel (at the local pub…so more beers!) and sleep. Sounds great right? It is, however my weekdays consist of all of the above as well so as often as possible we take the opportunity to get out of the city on a weekend.  For Easter in Jakarta, Good Friday is a recongised Public Holiday, so we thought, we will head to trusty Bali….Every other Jakartan and Australian had the same idea and prices for flights and accommodation were through the roof! Considering we have been to Bali more times than we care to mention, we thought it would be a great opportunity to go to one of the other amazing places in Indonesia.

Not wanting to spend a fortune and restricted with time, we wanted somewhere fairly close and inexpensive. I have recently joined the world of photography and my husband is always looking for locations that give me a chance to practice my new hobby. With this in mind, he suggested Mt Bromo in East Java. I had a quick google but considering it was already the Tuesday before Easter, we didn’t have much time to research.

I jumped on and booked us a flight each (half the price of the Bali tickets) and went about searching for some accommodation and in fact how to get to Mt Bromo as there is no airport. We decided to fly into Malang as there seemed to be a bit to do in the city itself.

We flew to Malang Thursday morning. The plane flew in over fields and fields of rice. The airport is tiny! There is 1 baggage claim conveyor belt. It is 10m long and at the end just has a metal bin. Once your bag gets to the end it simply stops. This would be fine if the plane was only carrying 20 people. In our case there were approximately 180 people waiting for their bags.  Needless to say it was an interesting experience.

Once we pushed our way through the crowd to retrieve our luggage we set off in search of a taxi. There seems to be a different procedure to getting a taxi at each Indonesian airport and this was certainly no different. Aware of scammers at airports that rip you off by claiming to get you a ’cheap taxi’ we were reluctant to line up at the window which said “Taxsi Stand’. After having a quick search around we found this was in fact the only way to get a taxi (not to mention, the locals were lined up too so that should have been a giveaway).  When we got to the counter they asked where we were going and after I mentioned our hotel name, the lady requested Rp 75.000. She then radioed through and 30 seconds later a taxi pulled up right in front of us.

While I was hastily trawling through Tripadvisor to plan the trip, Hotel Tugu came up both as a place to stay and also to visit. It was reasonably well priced (~$144 AUD via Hotels.com) so I book us in for the 1 night.

My first impression was WOW! This hotel clearly has a lot of history and that is so beautifully captured in the design and fit out. We were greeted at the front desk by a gentleman with exceptionally good English….although his accent changed from British to American and back again which gave my hubby and I a good giggle. Our bags were briskly taken to our room while we sipped on the best fresh orange juice I can recall ever having!

When we finished our drink, we were shown to our room. I have learnt, in Indonesia, no matter how many stars a hotel has or the amount of positive comments on multiple holiday websites it has, there is usually some disappointment. Not here. With a stainless steel bathtub, king size (comfy) bed and wooden floorboards, the room was well above expectation.

We hadn’t had any lunch so we headed down to find some food. The weather had taken a turn so we couldn’t go far and decided on one of the hotel restaurants – Melati Pavilion. I ordered a steak sandwich and my husband ordered a local Indonesian dish. No complaints but hard to compare as I am Australian and personally believe we do the best steak sangas in the world! My hubby has to duck off to do some work so I took advantage of the incredible thunderstorm passing over top and ordered a chocolate lava dessert and a glass of wine.  I was now in holiday mode!

After the storm passed, we headed down the road (ab
out a 400m walk) to the bird and flower markets. They were both within an hour of closing time and the rain was still sprinkling so they were fairly quiet. There were lots of colourful flowers and birds, but I was a little disappointed at the condition of some of the more exotic birds. The owls in particular looked quite distressed. At the same stall however, the gentleman was bottle feeding an injured bird so I don’t doubt that the majority are cared for. There were also rabbits, flying squirrels, turtles and millions of other birds. The local vendors are very friendly and their English isn’t too bad. They didn’t mind me practicing my average Bahasa on them either!

We strolled back through the hotel which really has a lot of history throughout. Definitely worth a wander through the back of the restaurant and into the Bam Lam Wine Shop and bar. The Wine Shop offers a generous range of wines and cigars and is worth a drink just to take in the ambiance.

After a bottle of delicious wine in our hotel room, we ventured out in search of a local restaurant or street food for dinner. We were directed by the hotel staff to a restaurant about 10 minutes’ walk away but on the way we stumbled upon a local place that looked like it had some character. We were shown to an outdoor table right by the bar and promptly ordered our Bintangs. Being the only westerners in the restaurant, we didn’t have much hope for them to be ice cold, but low and behold, not only was the beer cold, they served it in cold beer glasses! We like this place already. Shortly after we ordered our food (Indonesian food only) the local band started up. The first song they played was in Indonesian and while it was nice to listen to, it isn’t the same when you’re not singing along. After a bit more of a warm up though, I hear a familiar tune… Shania Twain, and the band did a great job (as far as I can tell because as my hubby can attribute to, I am completely tone deaf!) A few more English songs followed and we really enjoyed the night here. After settling the bill (and breaking the bank at $20 AUD) we headed off home.

When we arrived back at the hotel, our bed had been turned down and our room ready for us to drop into bed. There was even a cute little poem printed on brown paper and rolled up into a scroll wishing us sweet dreams. A lovely touch to this incredible hotel.

We woke the next day and headed down to the restaurant for breakfast. As well as the cereals and fresh fruits available on the table, a full breakfast menu was available and included in the price of the room. The hubby went for the cooked breaky and I had the ‘healthy’ option. Both were really nice. We took a walk across the road to the National Monument and took some photos. It was a nice spot to sit on the grass and soak up some sunshine.

Mid-morning we headed off with a driver we had organised through the hotel to take us up to Mt Bromo. This was the most expensive part of the entire trip, but as I mentioned we didn’t research very well, and the research I did, I honestly didn’t find overly helpful. The package was for an early morning (1am) departure from the hotel to make it to Bromo for sunrise (2hr drive), a day full of sightseeing and then return to the hotel by dinner time. We only required the one way but unfortunately had to pay for the entire package (Rp 1.7Mil – each!) If we did this again, we would contact the driver we had from here on in. Agus. He was great. Good English and good price.  After a fairly uninteresting 2 hour drive we stopped at a house halfway up the mountain where we swapped into a short wheel base Toyota FJ (my hubby was in heaven as I have banished his long wheel
base to his parents’ farm in the hopes it might not start again ;)). After swapping vehicles, we continued up the hill for some photos. The cloud had come in and it was quite low so there wasn’t much opportunity for photos. The last stop for the day was the Mt Bromo crater itself. To access this you have to drive across the sand desert. Cars have to park about 800m away from the base and there is the opportunity to walk or to go by horseback for a small cost (Rp 75.000 each). It was quite amusing to see a number of horses
with their handlers chasing our car to get our business. We did opt for the horse as we weren’t dressed for the trek. Next time we would walk.

Once we were at the base of the crater, we just had to walk a few stairs to the top….all 200 of them! And they went straight up. Now, I consider myself fairly fit but I was huffing and puffing by the time we reached the top.  The smell at the top caught me a little off-guard. The Sulphur smell was extremely strong and I really struggled to breathe. But the view was really cool. There were plumes of white smoke every 20 seconds or so that would filter up and allow me to get a semi-decent photo before the next plume.

Once we made our way back down the stairs and back to the vehicle, the thunder had started. So we jumped in and started heading back to our accommodation. We stayed at Istana Petani Homestay. Again, the lack of time didn’t allow for much research and to be honest, I found a lot of mixed reviews of all of the accommodation available, making it hard to make a decision. I h
ad enquired at another few hotels but they didn’t have any rooms available (it was a long weekend). The rooms at Istana Petani was ok. The price was cheap (Rp 35.000) and the bed seemed clean w
hich for me is massively important! The bathroom was clean..ish. There was quite an extensive menu in the room however when we arrived at the restaurant for dinner there was only two options. Fried Rice or Fried Noodles. We shared one of each and both were quite
tasty. We retired early as we had a 3am start. From about 2am, all I could hear were other Toyota FJ’s passing (there are about 800 in the area we were told) and other people who had an earlier start than us moving around and slamming doors. But alas, 3am rolled around and it was time to head off. We had a smooth, albeit windy road for about 40 minutes when all of a sudden, we hit traffic! Even our driver hadn’t expected it to be so busy. Lucky for us Agus knew the backstreets. When I say streets I really mean paths. W
e were weaving between cabbage and chives but after about 5 minutes popped out where we were supposed to! A 20 minute uphill walk was ahead of us and with the daylight looming we made our way
up as hastily as we could. Horses are also available here but we were better equipped this time. We made it to the top and as I was about to get the tripod and camera setup, Agus told us we were going to climb up a little higher, and climb we did. I needed both hands and all my strength to pull myself up to the hill ledge he perched us on. We were however only one of two couples in that section so we had a great, uninterrupted view.

We spent the next 2 hours snapping photos of the ever changing light – the view was beautiful!

Once we were satisfied that one of the 700 odd photos would be salvageable, we headed back to our accommodation for breakfast. We opted to skip breakfast and snuck in a quick nap before we got picked up for our trip back to Malang. We organised our trip back to Malang through our driver Agus. He charged Rp 60.000 for the both of us!

We hadn’t organised any accommodation for the night so I again jumped online and found a relatively cheap hotel (rp 600.000). The Kartika Graha Hotel. This was the type of hotel I mentioned earlier… high expectations…low reality. Again the bed was clean and the bathroom tolerable so all in all I can’t complain. The pool looked too dirty to swim in and the food was below average, especially for the price.

We were within walking distance to Jalan Ijen which is a road full of huge Dutch architecture houses. The thing we loved about Malang is the open parks and greenery. Living in Jakarta this is a real rarity! After reading some reviews online, we decided to have dinner at the Amsterdam Café. I’m not sure if it was the lower expectations (after my earlier disappointment at the hotel) but we were happy with the 2 pizzas we shared, or maybe it was the ice cold Bintang J. The staff were lovely and the restaurant was clean.

Early Sunday morning we took advantage of the car free day on the main roads near us, going for a stroll. We came across some markets back near Jalan Ijen which seemed to be mainly food and drink stalls. There were a lot of locals and a little bit of entertainment. Probably not worth a trip out to see especially but a nice find no less.

We headed home Sunday afternoon. While Mt Bromo was truly a sight to see, I was glad to be home in my own bed and clean bathroom!

List of accommodation and services

Tugu Hotel Malang – Thursday Night Accommodation

Melati Restaurant, Hotel Tugu – Thursday Lunch & Friday Breakfast

Rumah Makan Kertanegara – Thursday Night Dinner

Istana Petani Homestay – Friday Night Accommodation and Dinner

Kartika Graha Hotel – Saturday night accommodation and Sunday Breakfast

Amsterdam Café – Saturday Night Dinner

Mt Bromo Driver – Agus Tugio +62 85231216941 tugiotrail46@yahoo.com

We flew from Singapore to Medan. The flight was quite short and had us arriving in the morning where we were greeted at the arrivals terminal by the driver organized by our hotel. I quickly stocked up on some seaweed flavor chips (we’re not spoilt for options here!) and we were on our way. The distance from Medan to Bukit Lawang is about 90kms, however because of the state of the roads, the trip took nearly 5 hours!

We stopped up in a dead end street where 2 scooters pulled up and loaded our luggage on. We were informed we had a 20 minute walk ahead of us to reach our accommodation – we didn’t mind at this stage as it gave us a chance to stretch our legs. The walk ended up being an easy stroll and was a great introduction to our home for the next 5 days.

We arrived at the Sumatra EcoTravel Cottages and were very impressed. There were 6 gorgeous bamboo style rooms overlooking the Bahorok River. We had one of the upstairs front facing rooms. I could have just stayed in the lodge for the week and been satisfied.

We were invited downstairs for a welcome drink and a briefing about the following days’ orangutan hike. Afterwards we ventured off in search of some dinner. We did this trip in February (2016) which is the wet season and evidently, the low season. That being said, all of the local restaurants were open with some having live music every night. We chose a small ‘resto’ on the river and each had mie goreng with a Bintang. Simple, but fresh and delicious!

Tuesday morning we had a 9am start for our 2 day jungle trek**. There were 2 other couples in our group. We set off back in the same direction we had walked in the day before, crossed a rickety suspension bridge that my husband had passed comment on the day before to the effect of ‘you won’t get me on that’ and headed into the jungle.

On the way into the Gunung Leuser National Park there were people collecting a white dripping substance from the trees. We found out that these are in fact rubber trees and the liquid gets used for many things; adhesives, cement and insulating to name a few. The bark of the tree is sliced and the sap trickles down into a homemade tray ready for collection later.

A few minutes later, only a few hundred metres into the National Park, we came across our first orangutan, aptly named Jodie, with her infant son. They were very playful, much to the delight of our group. We made sure to maintain a safe distance however I did manage to snap a few good photos.

After about 5 minutes of mad photo snapping, we continued on into the jungle. The walk was flat and fairly shaded at this point only pausing occasionally to investigate the crackling of in the trees above or in the rainforest in front. Some of the crackling turned out to be some silver face gibbons so high in the canopy that I couldn’t even get a decent photo with my long range lens.

Along the trail we walked – the further we went, the steeper it got but before we knew it, it was morning tea time. We stopped in a shady area and were offered some delicious fresh fruit. After some bananas, passionfruit and jeruk (small orange) we were refuelled. We would soon be glad we caught a rest when we did! From this point, the walk not only got steep and slippery, but also very hot. Even though we were protected by the rainforest, it was hot!

We spotted another orangutan way off in the distance and snapped a few photos before continuing on.

Our next orangutan encounter was the infamous Mena. All of the guides and rangers had been speaking about Mena – their second wife was how they referred to her. We found out they were calling her their second wife as she has left her mark on them….literally. Mena is a biter and many of the guides proudly showed us their scars.

We approached with caution and she seemed quite undisturbed by our presence. We found a safe spot once we all passed and decided to get a few photos. Mena decided that she wasn’t feeling photogenic on this particular day however and made a bee-line straight for our group. We high-tailed it as fast as we could while our support team lured her the other way with some of our fresh fruit. We had escaped!

The next hour or so of trekking was by far the most physically challenging for me. At some points I was using both arms to pull myself up a completely vertical wall all while trying not to break the camera which was dangling around my neck. We did rest often though so don’t think you have to be super fit to complete this trek. We ascended one of the harder sections and stopped at the top for a quick rest. We had been sitting no more than 30 seconds when out of nowhere our support guide starting yelling to get packed up and move. Mena had followed us! She obviously wanted to make sure none of the photos we’d taken would be posted to facebook! So up we got and continued on.

After we were sure Mena had given up, we stopped for lunch. The Eco Lodge had prepared nasi goreng for lunch. It was delicious and perfect to replenish our energy before the afternoon session. Pete even managed a quick nap – as he does everywhere we go!

We came across one more orangutan before we reached camp. This girl had a beautiful nature and sat quietly while we made our way past.

The afternoon trek was mostly downhill, but in some instances, just as steep as the way we had come up hours earlier – vertical drop! We didn’t have any casualties just a few muddy bums! We were exhausted but with the promise of camp ‘just ahead’, we kept going. The sound of the running river got louder and louder and at about 3pm, we arrived.

We were shown our shared ‘tents’ and jungle toilets, then quickly changed into our bathers and headed straight into the cool river. There were bottles of Bintang, however, with no power they weren’t chilled. No problem. A few minutes in the river and they were cold enough to drink.

Just as we finished our swim, the heavens opened up. For those of you who have ever experienced heavy rain in the tropics, its indescribable. It absolutely poured with rain for well over an hour. We took the opportunity to have a rest and were definitely grateful that we kept pushing to make it to camp before it hit. There were other groups that trudged in during the downpour who were completely drenched – bags and all!

Once the rain passed, dinner was served. There was a delicious spread of meat, veggies and rice. All of the supplies are walked from the village upstream by one of the cooks or a local villager that gets paid for their services. After dinner our host showed us some cards tricks. He was pretty good and kept us entertained for an hour or so which is when we decided it was bedtime. We were knackered.

We slept surprisingly well considering we shared our ‘room’ with 4 strangers and potentially a great array of wildlife. The bedding was only yoga mat, however we each had a mosquito net which was a life saver.

Once morning arrived we slept in a little before making our way outside for breakfast. As soon as the food came out, so did the macaques! Also known as the cheeky monkey, there would have been around 100 macaques in our camp. They didn’t approach us but if you left your food unattended for even one second, it was gone!

After breakfast, we took a short walk upstream to ave a swim in the waterfall. The waterfall was lovely and relaxing however just as we were getting packed up to head back to camp we spotted so

me local ‘crocodiles’. Well, the guides tried their hardest to convince us they were crocodiles, and some of the German tourists around were almost convinced…until my husband spoke in his most bogan, aussie accent stating ‘that’s not a crocodile mate, that’s a lizard’. Two monitor lizards basked in the sun near us then tried their luck for scraps near our camp.

Back at camp we had some more lovely fruit while our guides packed our belongings onto the river tubes ready for our departure. No, we didn’t have to trek back the same way we came, we rafted back!

We jumped into our tubes and headed down the river. So much fun! We had 3 large tubes tied together with my husband and I in the middle and a guide at both the front and the back to keep us stable. Our gear had been put in waterproof bags and was also strapped onto the tubes. It was a nice 30 minute t
rip down the river
with us yahooing our way across the rapids every few minutes, and we were disembarked at our lodge. A well-earned early night in a very comfortable bed ensued.

On Thursday morning we set off after breakfast on another long drive to see the elephants. Again only travelling about 100kms took us 3.5 hours . The top speed was about 20kms/hour and although we travelled on the road the entire way, the package was advertised as an off road adventure!

We arrived just in time for lunch, which was ready as soon as we sat down. We ate at a gorgeous little retreat on the river and again the home-made food was delicious.

After lunch we made our way down to the riverbank and across another riketey (and probably quite unsafe) bridge for our elephant ride**. I have to admit, we were worried about this part of our trip. We have done the elephant rides in Bali and absolutely hated the way the elephants were treated. This most certainly isn’t the case at this facility.

As the elephants rounded the corner towards us, my concern turned to excitement. We mounted the only male in the pack. His name was Theo. He was beautiful. So well-mannered, and smart! They are incredible animals. As we were going through the muddy rainforest I dropped my camera lens which landed straight in a mud puddle. I didn’t even have time to tell the handler what had happened, just managed to utter a sound when, Theo spotted it in the mud. Without stopping he swung his trunk down, picked up the cover and offered it back to me! I just looked at my husband – whose jaw was also in his lap – with sheer amazement!

We kept trekking through the rainforest for a few more minutes until we came to a clearing where Theo’s handler jumped off and grabbed my camera to take some shots of us ‘commandeering’ the elephant. Once he had some photos of us, he jumped back on Theo and we headed into the water. At this point we found out just how cheeky Theo was. He picked up some water in his trunk and proceeded to shower the elephant in front…and her occupants.

The ride then came to an end and after the elephants had a toilet break, it was swim and bath time. This was my favourite part. The elephants clearly loved having a swim and showed us some great tricks they had learnt. Once they had a bit of a play, we got to give them a scrub. It was so incredible to be able to interact so closely with such amazing animals.

Once they were finished bath time, it was dinner time. This was a great opportunity for some fun photos. We got up close and personal to feed them bananas and cane sugar.

I really could not get enough of these majestic animals. I ended up with close to 800 photos of the day!

**I do not condone taking animals from their natural habitat to be entertainment for humans. In both cases above (elephants and oranguta ns) all animals have been rescued from poachers or from the destruction of their natural habitat and given a loving home. In both cases all animals are treated with love and care and money raised from the visiting tourists goes back into giving these beautiful animals a home

We woke on our last morning to another beautiful day. We didn’t have to leave until after lunch so we had plenty of time to explore. On our way down the river earlier in the week, we saw a great big timber structure on the river bank. It was about 4kms back upstream, but Pete had an idea…

As I was packing the last of our belongings into our suitcase, Pete disappeared , not unusual when I am packing ? When he returned he was wearing a look I know all too well. A look of excitement. I walked out the front door to find 2 tyre tubes – the same as the ones we used to float down the river in on Tuesday. Pete wanted to walk back up the river to the timber structure we had seen, then raft back down.

Now I am definitely not a risk taker. In fact, I am happy to admit I am a complete wuss, however I agreed to go for a walk and assess the situation as we went.

So off we went. An idyllic walk up the river (with a tyre tube) was actually exactly what I felt like after spending much of the previous 2 days cramped up in a car.

We walked and walked and each time we passed some ‘rapids’, I looked at Pete with pleading eyes. He kept convincing me to go just a little further. At about the 2km mark I had silently decided to go all the way to the timber structure…however I would then walk back down while Pete went via the river.

We finally arrived to find the structure we saw was in fact a retreat. We ordered a Bintang each and sat enjoying the view. Once we finished our beers, I informed Pete of my plan. He pleaded and begged and promised me that it was completely safe to go by tube (even though we were warned by numerous locals on the way up that it wasn’t a good idea).

I begrudgingly made my way down to the river, throwing nasty looks back to Pete the whole way down. When we we got to the river, I saw that there was another couple (and their guides) making their final preparations to head back to civilization (just as we had done earlier in the week), I convinced Pete to wait until they left so we could follow their lead.

I cannot explain my emotions at this point. My heart was thumping in my chest and stomach, there were tears and I was shaking like crazy! I was genuinely terrified. I told Pete in no uncertain terms what I thought of him in that exact moment. He reassured me that I would be fine and to try and enjoy myself. In I hopped and we were on our way.

About 100m in came the first rapid. I held my breath and dug my fingers deeper into the ropes around the tyre. I looked back at Pete and throw daggers with my eyes. He smiled and waved….

I made it! I was so angry that he was making me do this! Hang on. That was kind of fun…

A nice scenic float before the next rapids. These ones are the biggest ones on our trip back. I figured if I survive these ones I should be ok. Just before I enter them, the swirling water turns my tyre around. My back is now facing downstream and I am looking backwards at Pete again. He must be able to see the sheer terror on my face at this stage because he calmly called out “you’ll be fine”.

What do you know? I did survive, and for the 2nd time. This is actually quite fun! Don’t think for a second I gave Pete even the slightest hint that I was enjoying myself though ? The rest of the way down, I got into a bit of a groove and may have even smiled once or twice. I did come off once but luckily it was in ankle deep water and I was able to catch my tyre and jump straight back in.

Once we reached the bottom and were safely back on dry land. I aplogised to Pete for all the nasty threats and name calling and thanked him for the encouragement. I even admitted that I enjoyed it ?

All that worrying had given me an appetite so we set off in search for one last meal. We came across a cute little local kitchen. We both ordered curry, which was made fresh to order. The chef told me him and his staff saw me stack it on the rapids which they could see from their balcony and then they proceeded to have a laugh at my expense!

It was time to make the long journey back to the Medan airport. Our week had flown by and was definitely a trip to remember, We would go back in a heartbeat.

We need a break from the city….and we are desperate for some FRESH air!

Pete has been googling which islands are the best to do a weekend trip to from Jakarta and with the Thousand Islands on our doorstep, you’d think there would be plenty of choice right…wrong! Unfortunately what is even less lacking than the abundance of inhabited islands suitable for visitors, is the information online on which islands are best to visit.

One island there is quite a bit of information on is Tiger Island – it even has its own website! (http://www.pulaumacan.com/) With only a handful of open air wooden huts on a seemingly quiet island, this was exactly what we needed for a quick and fresh weekend getaway. Unfortunately after booking the 2 person hut on their website – which was surprisingly easy – I had to follow them up 2 days later as I hadn’t had confirmation of my booking. They then told me their online booking system isn’t working yet…so after a few emails back and forth, our weekend was booked.

The weekend was unexpectedly expensive. It cost us ~$440 for 2 days and 1 night. This price did include the 2 hour speed boat ride to and from the island, the accommodation and all meals (1 dinner, 1 breakfast and 2 lunches). Sounds like a bargain right? Well considering the hut we stayed in – which while it was exactly what we were after – was made only of wood, the meals while nice, were cooked camp style in bulk for the 30 odd people on the island and the fact they couldn’t have possibly fitted one more person into the boat, I thought it was overpriced.

We had to wait a few weeks later than expected for this trip as there wasn’t any accommodation available for about 3 weeks in advance. So once the day came we were really looking forward to heading out. Being February, the weather had been a little temperamental in the week prior so when we woke to a glorious blue sky we were wrapped.

A quick* 30 minute trip (only early on a Saturday morning – known to take up to 3 hours!) and we arrive at the Ancol Marina. There were millions of locals and tourists alike trying to seek out some clear water and fresh air for the weekend, but we managed to find our pier without too much fuss. The boat departs right on schedule – which is a rarity for Indonesia – and we are on our way. 2 hours and 3 islands later, we arrive at Tiger Island. First impressions are great. For once, the website photos actually resemble the actual place!

We hop off the boat and are greeted by the weekend caretaker who address us to tell us about how the island works. The entire island is ecofriendly. All the water they use is from a rain water catchment. All showers are cold, the toilet is a ‘rainforest’ toilet (yet actually really quite cool), solar power is used and most meals are vegetarian and organic with a lot of the vegetables grown on the island.

They served lunch up and after a quick bite we are shown to our ‘room’. Pete was chuffed and before we put our bags down he was analysing how he could build one in our backyard once we get back to Australia…for those of you that know Pete, you will understand my concern about this. I mean where on earth would it fit? Beside the homemade spit rotisserie or on top of the custom made Perth-Kalgoorlie pipeline outdoor setting perhaps?? Once I managed to regain his attention we settled in for a relaxing afternoon.

We jumped in for a swim and a snorkel right off our front doorstep in the clear water! This didn’t last long though as it was low tide and I was petrified of meeting a local stingray or sea urchin that we had been warned about earlier in the day. As it was, we didn’t see either but turns out that shouldn’t be the only local I could encounter…!

So back onto our deck for a spot of sunbathing, teamed with an ice cold Bintang of course!

After an afternoon kip, we hopped up to watch the sunset from our deck, and it didn’t disappoint!

Once the sun is down, its dinner time! We head back to the common area and plate up. We grab another Bintang and find a place to sit. After most people have eaten they make their way back to their huts to settle in for the night. We met some lovely Americans who also live in Jakarta and after swapping stories and tips we decided to head back to bed too.

Not 20 minutes after we were settled in for the night, the rain started….then the lightning and wind. This continued for hours, but was quite nice as it cooled the hut down and was lovely to listen to while we were sleeping.

We slept in, which was a pleasant surprise, then headed off to have some breakfast.

After breakfast we decided to swim/snorkel to the sister island which is about 100m away. At low tide you can walk across the sandbar to the island or use one of the kayaks they have available (all included in the price). The water is surprisingly clear and there are a few nice looking corals around. There are thousands and thousands of sea urchins but luckily the tide is high enough that we can glide over them. The sister island isn’t inhabited but has lovely white sand and was a nice place to spend the morning.

Once we had some lunch it was time to pack up and head back. The boat ride back was pretty rough and there was not one spare spot left by the time we picked up the last passengers.

We would definitely head back to this island. The price was a little expensive but you can’t put a price on fresh air and a relaxing weekend getaway with your hubby (and no technology! J)