From Java to Bali

The journey towards Bali began with a train ride from Yogyakarta towards Mount Bromo, which was quite long and cramped (in Indonesia, people usually travel with very little luggage), but definitely better than the same trip in a minibus with many daring overtaking maneuvers (which we later got to 'enjoy' frequently).

To not miss the sunrise, we had to wake up at 03:00 and take a jeep to the viewpoint, where it was very cold (at least it was worth bringing a rain jacket... we hadn't used it yet!). But the view compensated for everything!

Afterwards, we visited the volcano crater itself. It was bubbling and smoking heavily when we were at the top... but luckily, no lava was coming up, otherwise we would probably have had to run. :-)

Fate was not at all kind to us for the next volcano (Mount Ijen): waking up at 01:00! Furthermore, our junk minibus broke down after a 20-minute drive (classic engine failure with a lot of smoke!), but luckily we were saved by another group.

In the Ijen crater, sulfur is still mined by hand and carried up in 60-100kg baskets (we will never complain about our jobs and working conditions again). Until dawn, you can also observe blue flames that are caused by the burning sulfur, which is why we had to wake up at this unearthly hour.

After visiting Ijen, we went straight to the ferry to Bali, where we were entertained very well by the locals, even though we didn't always fully understand Indonesian humor! (We now know: Mata Hari means Sun, and because there are so many shops called Mata Hari in Indonesia, it is so hot :-)).

And just like that, we were on the bus to Denpasar and after some discussions with a very unpleasant taxi driver, we finally arrived at our hotel in Ubud, which had a great view of a rice field and invited us to relax after the hardships on Java. That's why we stayed there for almost a week without doing much, except for the 'mandatory' tourist program:

- Monkey Forest (including adopting a little monkey)

- Balinese dance (interesting how they wiggle their fingers)

- Excursions to the temples and rice terraces in the interior of the country

Originally, we wanted to continue to the Gili Islands (islands near Lombok... Gili actually means island in Indonesian, so we wanted to go to the islands :-)), but since the (in our opinion) most reliable fast boat provider always goes via Nusa Lembongan (an island off Bali), we stayed here for 3 nights, which was definitely worth it.

The owners of our 'villas' are incredibly warm and helpful, and there are many beautiful places to discover on the island itself (so far, we haven't had any accidents with the scooter).

The snorkeling tour was also quite something. We saw various mantas and could watch them open their mouths to eat the poor fish (we don't know how harmless that was). Additionally, the waves were so intense that Martin decided to come back a bit earlier and skip some fish.

But tomorrow we will definitely head to the Gilis. We hope for calm seas, otherwise those two hours on the boat will be very long!

Until next time!

Zora and Martin