Ken Wilkening - If you're going to read one, this is the one

Well we have been having quite the adventures, we will have you know! It has been a crazy week with motorbikes, and rickshaws (bacek), bicycles, buses, minibuses, taxies, and a ferry.

Since our last post we have traveled from Central Java to Bali where we currently sit, sunburned and rather sick of each other, on the eve of becoming the world's best surfers.

From Jogja we went to Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist temple. At the top of the temple we passed through a gate called "the mouth of time" where we left all the negative karma that we (mostly Alice) were carrying, and therefore are now significantly more enlightened. We stayed at this ritzy bougie bouge place called the Manohara (they gave us free slippers! - thanks Asia). We rode bikes around to some little temples in search of further enlightenment, and Alice nearly got run over by a motor bike (no kidding, it was f'in close).

From there we took a bus to Solo, and then caught a series of city buses to Tawangmangu - a very small village way up in the hills. One of the minibuses we took on the way to Tawangmangu had 17 people in it at one time (17 butts divided by 5 seats - you do the math). Tawangmangu has Java's highest waterfall (100m) which was quite beautiful. The base of the waterfall was surrounded by monkeys, snakes, frogs, and women trying to sell you deep fried rabbit (a local delicacy).

From Tawangmangu we took a little bus to Cemoro Sewu where we were let off at the base of Mount Lawu. The mountain is a destination for pilgrims in search of enlightenment, but all we found was muscle ache and hypothermia. The travel book said the hike could be accomplished in 6 hours and was best done at night to see the sunrise, the locals said 7-10. We started off at about 230 in the afternoon, and 20 minutes in we had almost had enough! It was as steep as a staircase at its most kind point of incline, and we stupidly were each sporting our packs which weigh in at between 30-40lbs a piece. We some how endured until nightfall, and decided to go no further.

We didn't have a tent, sleeping bags, or pillows (oh wait, Alice has a pillow - that minx), so we slept in the dirt, surrounded by garbage, with our lower bodies crammed into my duffel bag for warmth (it did nothing). We each put on all the clothes we were carrying, and still nearly died of exposure. I had 4 t-shirts, 1 sweatshirt, 1 coat, 2 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of socks. Alice had 5 shirts on, 2 pairs of pants, and 2 pairs of socks - with Kris' mosquito net wrapped around her torso. We barely slept because we were shaking so violently from the cold. Alice also wants me to add that she beat me at cards, while we were sitting in the dirt. We got up at dawn, surprised we made it to see the light of another day, to hike another 2 hours to the top. We ditched our bags on the trail, locking them together with Alice's lock - fortunately Alice has everything all the time that I *decided* not to pack. The view was the stuff of legends, and at the top there was a sort of temple where we sat in contemplation of some pretty serious stuff. This just in, Alice was just content with the sun. We went down the mountain which tried our seriously damaged legs, and caught a series of buses to Surabaya.

Surabaya is the second largest city in Indonesia. It is dirty, busy, crazy, and kind of gross. We found the nasty, cheapest place to stay (60,000 rupiah - about 6-7 dollars). Alice's bed was crawling with bugs and she had a tonne of bites in the morning, I had maybe one. We left Surabaya the next morning and caught a bus to Bali. Alice, the seasoned traveler in our troupe, saved the day when a dude at the bus station tried to pull a fast one over our eyes - and he had me hooked. So you see, every bus station we have been to in Indonesia has had a bus every few minutes leaving to anywhere we have wanted to go (some pretty obscure places included). We get to Surabaya, a big city bus terminal, and this guy had me convinced that there was only one bus to Bali - a very popular destination - and that it didn't leave for 7 hours. I was like "sure, okay, let's just have a seat Alice". And Alice was all like " Dave, you idiot" and I was like "What? The guy said there is only one bus, so there is only one bus." Alice prevailed in convincing me to look around, and to my surprise there was another bus around the corner leaving in an hour. If I had been on my own I wouldn't have ever got to Bali.

So...the bus to Bali was supposed to take 9 hours, but it in fact ended up taking 13. So again we found ourselves wandering around the streets, trying to find a hotel that wasn't "sorry sir, full". A nice transexual on a motorcycle told us not to trust anyone, and would disappear on her motobike, only to return minutes later with the same advice. She was most kind, and led us to somewhere to stay as everywhere we turned was booked. We found a room that was more expensive than we wanted to pay, but it was sufficient, and come dawn we sought out (and found!) reasonable accommodation not too far from the beach where we will stay for the next few days. We spent the day on the beach and now look like lobsters. Fortunately Muirhead had the aloe which I *decided* not to pack.

Tomorrow we are going to learn to surf, sit on the beach, and read some books. I finished the book Krakatoa today which I strongly recommend to anyone who can read. It provides a detailed description of Indonesia's geological, biological, cultural, and colonial histories, with the 1883 eruption of the volcano Krakatoa as the books thematic backdrop. Ken Wilkening, if you read this blog, this book is for you (perfect for your origins and evolutions class).

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. We appreciate your comments!