Beautiful Indonesia - Part 1 🌸 JAVA

First of all I really have to apologize that it took me so long to publish my next blog! But I never thought that traveling could be so exhausting. You somehow completely lose track of time for yourself and for the important little things that keep you balanced. But maybe that would be an interesting topic for another entry.. ;)

Here follows the report about my time in Indonesia. I want to divide this into two parts, because it would be too difficult to write about these exciting four weeks in one post. The first part will be about my time on the big island Java and the second about my experiences in Bali. I wrote these posts mostly shortly after my experiences, so they have always been recorded in a timely manner. I just unfortunately only now managed to give them the finishing touches and add the pictures.

Let's start with Java:

First of all, the transition from Malaysia to Indonesia was already very big. In Malaysia, it was very easy to travel because everyone could speak English. So you could always find help easily and quickly. Here in Indonesia, I immediately noticed that this would not be so easy. When I arrived at the airport in Jakarta, I wanted to exchange money, but since the rate at the booth at the exit was so bad, I wanted to find out where there are other exchange offices. The security staff tried for 10 minutes to communicate with me using Google Translate, but that didn't work either. Fortunately, I met a nice girl from Sydney who helped me out!

Bandung

I didn't stay long in Jakarta because I didn't feel like being in a big city anymore. Most of them are quite similar and too crowded. So I took a bus directly to Bandung (east of Jakarta) in the evening, where my friend Eza, whom I met in Kuala Lumpur and who invited me warmly to her place, was already waiting for me with her scooter. During the bus ride, there was an earthquake, whose epicenter was in the south of Indonesia. But I was so exhausted that evening, as I had rushed from A to B all day long and the bus was so rickety that I hardly noticed anything.

Jakarta was incredibly hot and stuffy. Bandung, on the other hand, is higher up and therefore pleasantly cool there.

I was so happy to see Eza again! I even had my own room at her house and just slept.

Her house was set up in such a way that you enter a large living room with a dining area through the anteroom, and from there there are 7 doors all around in which her room, the guest room, the parents' bedroom, the toilet, the laundry room and the kitchen are located. At first glance, the house seemed totally chaotic to me, but then I quickly ignored it. I liked the large golden frames with family portraits.

The next day, we had porridge with chicken, roasted onions, bread and herbs for breakfast. A typical Indonesian breakfast. That took some getting used to and showed me how much I miss the richly set breakfast table at home. Afterwards, we took a trip outside the city. She showed me a sulfur lake and a great lake where we relaxed and chatted in a small hut on the shore.

Side note: In Bandung, public transport still consists of horse-drawn carriages.. I was shocked!

Pauli wearing a breathing mask for the first time, I wore it more often in the following weeks

She told me about her problems with her boyfriend and suddenly it felt like we weren't so different anymore. Even at the other end of the world, girls my age have the same problems as me in Germany.

When we came back, it was family time. I really enjoyed that, since I miss my family very much and it's so rare for us all to be together. In the middle of the living room was a large mat on which we lay down and played with her little nephew. The family was very kind to me and showed me the local fruits that I didn't know. But even the well-known ones like mango or pomegranate are simply incomparable to what we know from the supermarket!

A huge pomegranate

From left: oranges; different varieties of sliced mango; Sallah (looks like snake skin from the outside, peeled like snake eggs and tastes very strange, but delicious and sweet) rambutans (look and taste like undried lychees, but they are not) and strawberries

Me and her little nephew. Isn't he cute? I would have loved to take him with me in my backpack.

For dinner, I had my first Nasi Goreng, which didn't come from the frozen food section at Netto! I was so excited. The mom showed me how to prepare it and of course I took diligent notes.

Nasi (=rice) Goreng (=fried) ... Yes, the hygiene of the kitchen left something to be desired..

The next day we went to a theater that combined music, dance and singing with the typical musical instrument called 'Angklung' from Bandung. It was nice to watch and at the end of the show, the audience could also play it themselves. Each person was given an instrument in a certain pitch, and on a certain hand signal, we had to shake it to produce the sound. A whole song was created.

This is what the instrument 'Angklung' looked like and my hand signal was a fist

Finally, we danced traditional dances together on stage. I was like the biggest of all the audience and artists. I stood out from the crowd :D

Afterwards, I had my first Satay - lamb skewers with peanut sauce and rice. I could have eaten that all the time in the following weeks.

Then she showed me the city center and we went back home.

And then this monster was waiting for me on the sidewalk in front of her house! Eza smiled as she saw how amazed I was by the size of this snail!

I really enjoyed my time with her, as she explained and showed me so much. I learned a lot again. For example, how she, as a Muslim, deals with death. It may have sounded more like a fairy tale to me, but as long as she believes in it, it's good.

The farewell was very difficult for me and I still miss her today, as she is such a sweet and nice girl and we are very similar. I really hope that I can see her again in my life.

Yogyakarta

The next morning, I had to get up at 4:30 am to catch the train to Yogyakarta. Even though I was half asleep, I was amazed! The nature was so breathtaking that I can hardly describe everything I saw during the train ride! Green fields, people working on huge rice fields wearing the typical straw hats, colorful houses, thousands of palm trees, and hundreds of butterflies in some bushes.

I was able to enjoy the view quite well, even though I was a bit annoyed by my seat neighbor. She was constantly taking selfies of us and herself and then apparently called all her contacts on FaceTime to show that there was a foreigner sitting next to her. The first two calls were okay for me, but after that it was really annoying, especially since she hadn't even asked if it was okay for me.

I found a host for the time through Couchsurfing, which is particularly easy here. A girl named Lala took me in within a day. I also had my own room with her and spent a lot of time with her family. In the end, her mom even gave me her headscarf.

Lala and her friends, we went out to eat, went to parties and went into town.

A mango tree.. It's strange that I can travel to countries where such exotic fruits grow today, and my parents were excited when there were bananas when they were my age...

On December 24, 2017, we first went to a beach and then to a great waterfall. It was really amazing to see the power of nature as the water splashed on me.

So that was my Christmas?! A good friend asked me beforehand if I wasn't afraid of having to spend Christmas so far away from home, but even then I answered her calmly that I probably wouldn't have any problems with it. And that's how it turned out. Since Java is a Muslim-dominated island, Christmas is not celebrated at all. You could only notice it in the big shopping centers - logical - capitalism at its finest. Buy, buy, buy, it's Christmas after all. But since I rarely stayed there and the temperature was around 30 degrees every day, I didn't even get into a Christmas mood. I really only noticed through the distance how much madness these holy days trigger in Germany. Especially since many people are not even Christians.. including me.. Of course, it was strange to see the pictures from home, how everyone is together and the beautifully decorated tree is in the background, but in the end, I was more happy to see everyone smiling when they opened my gifts that I had left there in October.

Since Theo is a tour guide and regularly takes tourists to the Ijen crater, he also did that with me. Of course, for free. Mount Ijen is one of 38 volcanoes in Java and is known for its sulfur mining and the natural wonder of blue fire. The fire is created when the sulfur occasionally ignites on the rock walls and flows back into the lake as a bright blue burning stream. That means you never have a guarantee of seeing this fire. But I was lucky and saw it a few times! This natural wonder can apparently only be seen at Ijen and rarely also at a volcano in Iceland. The lake is called the largest acid barrel on earth by many. It has a truly impressive color. It's nice to know that I have seen something so unique worldwide. I'm really happy about that!

We started at midnight to start the hike up the mountain at around 2 am. After 1-2 hours, we reached the top. The path was fine. Nevertheless, there were workers who offered tourists to pull them up the mountain in wagons for a lot of money. It was incredible to see how lazy some people are and how hard the workers had to work. I would consider my money too valuable and the pity too great! It was still pitch dark when we then walked down to the craters all the way to the bottom on the other side. The path was really rocky and not that easy, and in addition, the sulfur vapors irritated the eyes all the time, which was not the best thing in my weakened condition. But it was worth it: we saw the famous blue fire! You really have to see that, as no photo in the world can capture it as well as seeing it yourself. Then we went all the way up to the mountain to see the ocean on the other side.

A failed attempt to photograph the fire. Yes, the small blue spot is the incredibly spectacular fire!! :D

My favorite picture from a height of 2300m!

I was so exhausted afterwards! After the descent, we had another coffee, I took a power nap on a bench, and then we went back to Banyuwangi by scooter.

We were back home around 9 am. Of course, all of this affected my health again. Suddenly, my eyes were swollen and suppurating, and in general, I still had a cough, a runny nose, and a sore throat. I was really exhausted, but still had to drag myself to the eye doctor. It's done differently here too, the office hours are from 6-9 pm, but I didn't get called in until 10:30. He prescribed me a few drops and together that cost only 13€. A real bargain! The drops quickly made it better again.

The next day, I went to Red Island, where there was a great beach with a direct view of a small island. The name comes from the fact that the entire sky turns red when the sun sets! I felt better as soon as I arrived at the beach, it was like medicine.

Unfortunately, the sky wasn't particularly red that day due to the clouds.

Then I spontaneously decided to take a surf lesson, and I felt so much better again. It was so much fun! Even as a beginner, it's not always easy, but it was simply great to keep swimming out to sea on the board and watch the sunset. I was extremely happy on the way back!

Hesitant attempts

A typical picture had to be taken! :D

And so my last day in Banyuwangi was over.. I found the time there beautiful and saw and experienced so much, but I was also happy to be back among tourists on Bali. Standing out everywhere as a foreigner can be very exhausting, even though the people were always very friendly and open, often telling me that I'm so beautiful and offering me a lot. I always reacted very embarrassed and often couldn't believe it. I felt so bad just taking, but somehow you could also tell that people liked doing it. I had to explain to my loved ones at home often that as a traveler, you are completely safe here, as foreigners are almost worshiped in Indonesia! Of course, this whole Couchsurfing thing is a sensitive topic, but it works great here. People are happy about visitors and being together. It was really an amazing experience. But New Year's Eve was approaching and I wanted to party, and I can get that best on Bali... so: off to BALI!