Spend time with the locals before going home: Bye bye Indonesia !

Last time posting!  After I'd seen all stuff I wanted to see and I'd bought all the stuff I wanted to buy ... I spent my last 2 days meeting up with the locals close to the Losmen I'm staying.  Conclusion:  Indonesian are the most open, friendly, entertaining folks I've ever met !  From drinking beers with the owner of the Losmen to chatting around with locals hanging around in the neighborhood,  giving interviews in English for Indonesian Teacher Students, fine music in Hell's Kitchen, best breakfast in town (and cheap), best Lotek (Gado Gado style) in town to cheap dinner.  I really enjoyed my stay here in Yogjakarta!  My Indonesian language is sharp ... guess I'll forget it very soon but anyway.

I cooked my own Lotek at Warung Wi Wi (see below picture) ... we called it Gratis Cooking Class !

Only thing I still need to do is meeting Orlando (P&G) ..... then I can head home !

At 2 PM I take the taxi to Yogjakarta ... flight to Jakarta ... waiting for my International flight to Doha (Qatar) and then finnally to Brussels .... train to Leuven ... FINISH !  We closed the loop !  It was AMAZING !

Thanks for reading !

BART

Best Breakfast in town !

Sosrowijayan Gang II

"Mr, you want Becak?"

"Mr. do you have time for interview?"

My selfmade Lotek (Gado Gado kind a dish)

More interviews

Evening kitchen Warung Ika

Rockabilly @ Hell's Kitchen

Mutiara @ Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen

My two Warung owners ... Ika (evening Warung) and Wi Wi (lunch Warung)

We'll close the loop ... back to Jakarta ... Doha (Qatar) ... Brussels

Yogya Yogya Yogyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Sosrowijayan Street Yogya

Hello again !

I'm writing from Hell's kitchen ... a nice bar on the mainstreet 100 meters from my hostel (on Gang II), named Sosrowijayan.  It's super easy having relax and simple but very intresting with the locals here in Yogya ... will never forget that !  I'm having a great time here in Yogyakarta ... last place to stay before heading back to Jakarta to take my flight to Brussels.  On Monday I booked a flight for this Saturday to Jakarta, when a local came to me for a nice conversation to help me feel welcome.  I came to for a lot of things, one of them is the Batik Art they do here  ... with some kind of wax they make the most amazing pieces of art, comparable to the ones I bought in South Africa 5 years ago.  Lucky as I am (you can think of it as some kind of tourist trap ... but an honest one) this guy Prio I met brought me to a local Batik Art Factory.  I bought the most intresting stuff there: Mission Accomplished !  Later that day I explored Malioboro street ... the main street full of shopping possibilities!  Tried my first G.CO ... a doughnut restaurant ... Belgian Chocolate and Almonds WAAAAAUW !  

Batik Art

Niiiiice

Malioboro (not Marlboro)

 Later on Monday I got 'invited' to another Batik Centre ... with prices more than 10 times the ones I paid earlier that day ... so I kindly refused hahaha.  Problem in this city on this whole Batik thing ... people are NOT honest at all ...  Luckily I met Prio ... who seemed to me a very honest man ... in any case didn't pay too much for my humble feeling.

Crazy hot !

It's crazy hot here ... 38C at 10 AM as you can see here ... so walking you do the 'local' way ... 'Jalan Jalan' !  I had some beers at the Bintang Cafe and set up the meeting with Orlando & Co this Friday.  Early sleeping ...

 

Yesterday I went to the Kraton .... some kind of sultan palace with a little village built around it ... tricky place to go to ... but I managed to enter for the Gamelan performance (traditional Javanese music) without being scammed.  Intresting instruments they use .. and for a musician ... this is certainly worth the visit !

In the afternoon I had KFC, Mc Donalds and G.CO ... all the 'American style' food in a row hahaha ... just craving for the Mayonaise ... you know ... ?!  Rest of the day I spent at Hell's kitchen ... this amazing pub I discovered like 100 meters from my guesthouse ... Good beers, nice atmospheres ... and by accident I stayed here from 3 PM till 11 PM haha.  In the evening they had a very good local country band playing ... lot's of singing and dancing and Bintang involved there ...

 

Unfortunately at 4 AM this morning I had to wake up again.  Visiting Borobodur (a Buddhism temple ... famous like Angkor Wat in Cambodja was on the menu !  At 4:30 AM they picked me up from the guesthouse ... 1 hour later we arrived at this amazing temple !

Just amazing ... but I was sooooo  tired haha ... anyway worth to visit this Unesco protected piece of mastership !  At 10 AM I arrived back at the guesthouse ... where I had the BEST Gado Gado ever in my life ...  I crowned Wiwi (name of this fabulous woman) as 'Best Gado Gado in the Universe' cook !

Wiwi (right) and someone else (left)

Tomorrow I'm cooking for 1 hour Gado Gado for the locals ... this plan came up while talking to the locals ... what had supposed to be a 15 minute breakfast Gado Gado LIVE prepared ... became more than 2 hours.  COOL !  These people are the most friendly, relaxed, easy going ever !  Local restaurants here are cheap, cheaper cheapest ... you can have this Gado Gado, which fills for more than half a day for only 0,5 EUR ... full of proteine and vegetable YES !  MT51 will love this dish ... next week Gado Gado !

Rest of the afternoon I spent shaving (once a week is fine) outside with a borrowed mirror and some freshly boiled water ... don't have that in my guesthouse haha as I have just a simple room with Mandi (shower wetting the entire toilet ...).  Sure I had a lot of fun ... and they with me ... with the locals outside.  Just taking this relaxing moments during a holiday is FUN !  I went shopping for really good bargains in the Mirota Market ... fixed prices... but very very very very cheap !  After this exhausting 3rd day in Yogya I'm drinking beers again in Hell's kitchen ... and writing to you ...

Hope you all enjoyed reading the blog !  I'll try to do a last post like just before I leave back home on Saturday ..

till then ... enjoy your week and see you next week !

Bart

April’s Fool: Leaving Bali, via Surrabaya to Malang, to Probolingo, Cermoro Lawang for the Bromo Vulcano !

Malang Dutch colonial building

Malang Dutch bakery

with Indonesian food ...

On Thursday I was leaving the beautiful and culinary Bali.  Someone from Sangingan Villa brought me to Bali airport where I looked for a flight to East Java.  2 hours later I arrived in Surrabaya airport where I arranged transport to Malang.  Malang still has some colonial buildings left from the Dutch period.  Further I doesn’t have much to offer though I had a nice time there skyping with my niece while finally having some ‘good’ coffee = this great Java coffee but ran through an espresso machine together with some Dutch Pastry.  Friday morning I started my long trip to reach the Bromo Vulcano National Park.  I decided to go for the classic approach, via Probolingo to Cemore Lawang as basecamp for the weekend.  A local bus brought me to Malang bus terminal where I got a direct bus trip to Probollingo bus terminal.  

Probolingo Bus Terminal

Bus trips in Indonesia are very entertaining.  Once you enter loads of locals want to sell you snacks and drinks to keep you from becoming thirsty or hungry.  A television with Indonesian karaoke songs is playing this ridiculous music all the bus trip long … but … nobody sings ??!!!  3 hours later I arrived in Probollingo where could easily arrange my transport by minibus to Cemoro Lawang at the base of Mt. Bromo.  2 hours later … we had to ‘wait until the bus was full’ we  left heading for this little village.  A very bumpy ride later I arrived in Cemoro Lawang, temperature had dropped with more than 20 degrees by now.  Friendly villagers wanted to offer me a place to stay and wanted to sell scarfs, hats, gloves, socks … whatever you need in this ‘cold’ mountain village. 

Friendly villagers

 I decided to take a room ‘homestay’ at one of the villagers but didn’t see the need buying any stuff for the cold … Belgians are used to these temperatures hehe.  I went to a local restaurant and met a Canadian girl.  Nice to talk to some tourist again … sure with a lot of Bintang to spice up the conversations.  I  left at 11 PM, I quickly arrange a motorbike tour to ‘View Point 1’ and  went to sleep.  At 3.30 AM the friendly motorbike driver arrived at the place I was staying to bring me in 1 hour to the view point from where the famous sunrise around Mt. Bromo can be admired.  The motorbike trip was amazing.  It was very very dark with loads of stars.  Only light there was came from the motorbike.  It’s like driving on the moon I guess.  Nothing, only a lot of volcano sand along the very bad path leading to the viewpoint.  The motorbike driver promised me a very nice view at the view point.  The path leading to this viewpoint was only accessible by motorbike … means all the other tourist staying in this village take a jeep drive to another view point with less intresting view on the mountain.  We arrived at 4:30 AM at the view point, got some hot coffee.  Then time was there to wait for the sun to rise and revealing the beautiful landscape of the Mt. Bromo valley.  Together with 200 other people (mainly locals, some Dutch :P) I experienced a stunning sunrise.  Slowly the view onto the valley was revealed.

Magical sunrise ... still misty in the valley

Sun almost there

For more then 45 minutes I stayed there together with my motorbike driver to enjoy the 'magic'.  Bromo vulcano was a little bit smokey this day.  If you take a closer look to below pictures you can see what I mean.

Black and White view at the view point

Complete panorama at the view point ... smokey volcano on the left ...

Valley covered in mist, this time in Sepia

On the way down back to Cemoro Lawang we stopped again at a few spots to absorb the view from different heights.

My funny motorbike driver

View on Bromo from lower view point

Back down at the base of Mt. Bromo in the valley, this one was completely covered in cold mist (as you can see from the pictures I took at the view points).  Back in Cafe Lava Hostel  I chatted with some people about our experiences this morning.  During lunch I met two Belgians (from la Wallonie !).  I decided to go for the hike onto Mt. Bromo itselves.  At 12 the mist in the valley completely disappeared (lucky us !!!).  Walking around in the valley around Mt. Bromo itselves was a very unique experience.  One hour later we reached the rim of the crater ... massive amount of smoke there !!!

Mt. Bromo from the view point in Cemor Lawang (downhill)

little mistake in the panorama ... though .. Mt. Bromo seen from the valley

On top of the crater rim !

After this intense walk ... temperatures climbed again ... we had many beers in the Cafe Lava Hostel.  Next morning a lot of people had more bad luck due to the weather ... bad view on Mt. Bromo and ... very misty in the valley ...  lucky me !  Yesterday I wrote some recipes and had a lunch while awaiting the minibus back to Probolingo.  After saying goodbye to these nice Belgians I met, a funny bumpy minibusdrive brought me in 2 hours back to Probolingo.  In the bus terminal I chatted with the locals for about 4 hours ...   I was waiting for my shuttle bus that would bring me to Yogjakarta.  At 7.30 PM the shuttle was there.  With only the driver, me and 1 other person it was a very quiet and sleepy bus drive !  Wonderful !  At 4 AM finally this morning I arrived in Yogjakarta where I had breakfast (spicy Indonesia) and funny talks with some tourist that were still drinking in the streets.  

3 hours ago arrived in my last hostel for this already super cool Indonesia trip !  Now I'm going into the city for some shopping, to buy an airplane ticket for Jakarta for next Saturday, etc....  

Write to you soon !

Bart