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| Sitting here in our luxurious apartment in Perth, Australia, quoffing an exceedingly good bottle of red, Sue reminds me that we haven't written a yearaway.com entry in ages. So, I guess we'd better let you know what we've been up to.
Well, after a few more days at Bill and Theresia's place being fattened up on home-cooked food we headed to Bali. The drive took a whole two days as we made a little detour to Mount Bromo, where we stayed on the first night in a hotel overlooking the volcano. We got a wake-up call at 3:30 the next morning - yup, 3:30am! Cold (very cold) and bleary eyed, wearing just about every piece of clothing in our possession we took a 4-wheel drive down into the mist filled caldera and across the ash desert to a viewpoint on the outer crater. At the viewpoint, just as we thought we were about to freeze to death, a guy appeared with coats for hire - just the ticket and an absolute bargain at 75 pence a piece. So, wrapped up in our newly acquired trendy puffer jackets and gripping hot ginger teas we waited for the sun to make an appearance. She did, and a most spectacular appearance it was too, revealing the most magnificent landscape either of us have ever seen. There we stood on the edge of the caldera, looking down on a landscape of volcanoes and an amazing ash desert, probably about five miles in diameter (maybe even more). As the sun rose higher the colours were just spectacular - the pinks hues, the reds of the mountain flowers, the green of the trees, the white mist slowly lifting, the grey of the ash - wow, just something that is untranslatable. And, believe it or not, something well worth getting out of our pit in the middle of the night for! But, let me allude for a moment. Much as we have thoroughly enjoyed all the sunrise trips we have done so far we are considering setting up tours for the more morning-phobic travellers. How about 'Mid-morning at Bromo'? 'Elevenses at the crater'? or even 'Bake in the midday sun with the Copes and the crowds at Borobudur'?
In Bali we stayed in a place in the centre of the island called Ubud - a really relaxed little town not too heaving with tourists. We stayed at a lovely little hotel called Artini I where we had a small cottage with golden doors and windows and a pair of red and gold chairs out front which felt suitably majestic! We didn't do that much in Bali except eat and relax (partly to do with the fact that Sue got her first cold of the trip) although we did do a couple of day trips. One trip was to a traditional Balinese village (which we think was called Tembanan) where a number of crafts were being made using the traditional methods. Aswell as a textile called double-ekat being woven here, the village is famous for palmleaf books. We made an extremely min-boggling (well, mind-boggling for me anyway) visit to an elderly man whose family have made the books for hundreds of years. The old man was also being visited by a small group from France whose group leader was asking questions in Indonesian and then translating in French for his group. Sue was then translating to English for me. So, when our driver asked a question in Indonesian, the palmleaf maker replied in Balinese, the tour group leader translated into French and Sue translated into English, it was a good few minutes before I had any idea what was going on!(and then I was certain that I'd missed a whole lot, as the sentences were extremely brief by the time they got to me!).
One big tourist attraction in Bali that neither of us could get our heads around are cremations. Yes, burning peoples bodies after they die - you were right the first time. People approach you on the streets and in hushed-tones offer to take you to a cremation. We have been used to people approaching us and offering all sorts of things in whispers - 'You want cushion covers? Opium?''Hashish?' 'Nice girls?', but never before has anyone offered to take us to a cremation! What next? And, it really is true. We saw a cremation procession going past our hotel and tagging along behind it were hundreds of tourists all enjoying a good old funeral. We even watched one tourist asking the equivalent of pall-bearers (although this is a huge heavy bamboo contraption they're carrying) to slow down so he could get a photo! ''Scuse me, could you just hold on while a catch a shot of you carrying your dear great auntie ethel, please' Well, not quite, but I'm sure you get the idea!
Just a few days ago we left Bill and Theresia's place for good. Saying goodbye, as always on this trip, was sad. We have made many new friends along the way and it still hasn't become any easier saying goodbye. But, we were on our way again and the sad bit was tindged with some excitement at the prospect of a new country and a new set of adventures. When we got to our hotel at Yogyakarta and also had to say goodbye to Suratman, the guy who'd been our driver a lot of the way, the excitement seemed to have dwindled a bit. We sat in our room and felt a bit forlorn - we wouldn't be going back to Bill's place after this little tour to be fed home-cooked food and home-grown coffee and we wouldn't be taking another fun-trip out with Suratman. As always, though, we awoke the next morning feeling positive and raring to go. After all, what we consider to be part two of our trip was drawing to a close, but part three and a whole new continent were just about to begin. | | | | Previous Entry: | Next Entry: | | 3 Sep 2001 : Ungaran, Central Java - Indonesia | 5 Oct 2001 : Perth - Australia | | Into the Southern Hemisphere | Down Under |
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