Entries about jawa

We flew into Surabaya from Lombok and stayed there for 3 days. We could have done with a few more days there to explore the beaches but there wasn't loads to do in the evenings. We stayed at Hotel Metro which was a convenient, clean and friendly hotel.

From there we booked a sunrise tour to the Mount Marapi where we did offroad driving up the volcano and explored the museum.

On our last night the heat had got the better of me and I had gone for a siesta. Crystal wanted to go for a massage so she Googled the nearest Spa which had good reviews. When she asked the taxi man to take her to Mr Spa, he said 'miss it's man spa'. She said it's ok, well she's there now, may as well check it out. When she got through the doors the women who were working there were in heels and just their underwear. There was a woman dancing by a pole and a mattress on the floor in the other room - that was when it clicked. She called me in a panic explaining what had happened and I laughed and told her to leave, which she did. - Bless her

From Surabaya we travelled by bus to Yogyakarta or as the locals calls it 'Jogja'.
Unfortunately we didn't see Mount Bromo as we ran out of time but we heard it's very good and worth the trek, but you do need at least 3 days for it!

During our time at Jogja we visited the largest Buddhist Temple in the world, Borobudur Temple. The temple was magnificent and definitely worth seeing, We wish we'd arrived there early before it got too hot and crowded.
As a tourist with blonde hair and blue eyes I certainly stuck out like a sore thumb. I felt like a celebrity which was fun at first but quickly the novelty wore off and became exhausting and limited my enjoyment due to the locals literally queuing up to take photos with me. There was a school trip on at the time and it was a boiling hot day with no shade. Their project for the school was to talk to Tourists to improve their English by asking us questions. This went on for hours and I couldn't relax or take photos without being tapped, crowded round or hearing 'Excuse me Miss - Photo?'. At least the children were more polite, occasionally you'd get the nutty adults standing in front of you taking random selfies. lol

We also visited the Water Castle Tamansari which was wonderful but we didn't pay for an English speaking tour guide so we didn't know too much about it, Tamansari was beautiful to visit and I highly recommend it and getting a tour guide so you're not wondering round like idiots like us!

Our final day in Jogja we explored the Sultan's Palace Karaton. The palace had musicians playing bells, Javanese dancing and royal puppet shows. The staff wore the traditional clothing Batik and had Kris swords tucked into the back of their skirts. We felt a lot of eyes on us from people at the palace and were shown to the museum and the workshop where they make their puppets our of hyde.

On our last night Crystal and I had a massage and body scrub in our hotel after swimming in the pool which was so relaxing.

From Jogja we flew to Jakarta and stayed at Capsule Hotel Old Batavia. It was a fantastic, lively hostel hidden away in the heart of the city with it's own roof-top common area. It was surrounded by fast food places so getting food was easy, transport was easy (Tuk Tuks / Taxis), and getting to the health centre for my anti Rabies injections was easy.
We were told about a great London themed bar called Camden Cikini in Jakarta, only walking distance from our hostel. Here we partied all night with the locals - and boy do they know how to drink.

At the hostel we met Herman who was a local guide who showed us the sights around Jakarta. It's super useful to have someone who knows the language, food, trains and tourist hot spots such as Jakarta's History Museum.

Herman brought us to explore Indonesia's largest mosque Istiqlal Mosque. What he didn't tell us was that we were going there on our tour and the girls were wearing shorts / skirts. Most of the locals where accepting of us as guests as we wore these silk gowns supplied by Mosque Guards that covered us fully. It was a wonderful experience to see how people from a different religion pray - split into the two sexes and separated. The praying echoed across the building and gave me a real sense of calm and awe.

After as we had taken off our gowns we got yelled at by an angry local man because of our state of dress, which I understand his passion, and we were really sorry for. If only we had known.
At least the guards liked us.

On our last night we went to Jakarta's Skye Bar which was bit precocious but we enjoyed the view and atmosphere. We even found an Adam Sandler looky-likey haha.

The next day we flew to Bangkok, Thailand.