James takes on the world!

After updating you all with my last blog post I have done quite a few different things and all of them have been great.

I spent 5 days at Pangandaran Beach where I made some great friends. Most of my time was taken up by surfing morning and afternoon everyday. One of the days a small group of us hired 2 motorbikes and went surfing at a great spot called Batu Karas which had some nice long waves that were perfect for practicing on.

We also took a trip to the nearby Green Canyon that sadly was more like a Brown Canyon due to the fact that it had rained the night before and washed a lot of sediment into the river. It was still a great day and we spent some time jumping off of trees and waterfalls and swimming in caves. On our way back we visited a turtle hatchery program where they collect newly laid eggs from the beach and then release the baby turtles into the wild once they have hatched. This program is designed to prevent locals from poaching the eggs and selling them.

I left Pangandaran with a Dutch friend called Matijn who I had met during my stay. We headed to a city called Yogyakarta where we stayed at a nice artistically decorated guest house. Although this was one of the nicest places that I had stayed since beginning my travels I managed to get bitten from head to toe by bed bugs during the night. The constant itching sadly took some fun out of the following day when we visited the two million stone blocks that make up the beautiful Buddhist temple of Borobudur. The temple was incredible and we hired a guide who explained many of the intricate carvings at the UNESCO listed site.

The next morning I got up after a bed bug bite free night and started an 11 hour journey to another city located in East Java called Malang. Although the journey on one train and two buses only cost me a total of £2.80 I was very glad to finally arrive. I was met by an Indonesian University student called Wildan who was studying to teach English in Malang. I had been put in contact with Wildan by Kumis who had been my guide in Cianjur two weeks earlier. Once I finally located Wildan he showed me to my guest house where here had paid for me to stay for 2 nights. In exchange for his kindness he simply wanted me to speak English to him and his friends so that they could practice, as you can imagine, this was not the hardest thing I have ever had to do.

Early the following morning Wildan took me to meet some of his fellow course mates before heading to a local high school. I visited two classes where I was asked to conduct the lesson for an hour or so. This was quite daunting at first but the kids were all very friendly and keen to ask me questions. This went on for a while and then I asked them to tell me about themselves in English and then describe their individual projects that they were currently working. The standard of the students English was very high and they were all very enthusiastic to practice which made the experience a lot easier for me.

The same day I had been in contact with my friend Martijn who was also due to visit Malang. I suggested that he could also stay at the guest house and join me and 10 of Wildan’s friends on a trip to Gunung Bromo (Mount Bromo), a 7,641 ft active volcano. Twelve of us left for Bromo at 7pm the following day. We reached a small town called Cemoro Lawang in the middle of the night and then took two 4 Wheel Drives up to the viewpoint on Mount Penanjakan (2,270 meters). We waited in the freezing cold for 2 hours before we got to see the beautiful sun rise at around 5am. Once the sun had risen we then took the 4 Wheel Drives into the Tengger Semeru National Park and climbed up to the crater of Mt. Bromo. We were rewarded by a stunning view across the beautifully flat and vast plain named locally as The Sand Sea. We descended the volcano and then had a very sleep drive back to Malang.

The same day Martijn and I took an 11 hour bus journey to Bali where we are now. We are staying in a very touristy area called Kuta and so I am keen to leave quickly once I have attempted to extend my Visa which will mean that I can stay in Indonesia for a few more weeks.

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI