Robinson World Tour Part 2: Incredible Indonesia

Incredible Indonesia

After a short flight from Singapore we arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia and picked up our new guide plus some additional tour companions. This group was not nearly as good as the previous groups and made things not as enjoyable at it should have been. Lisa and I struggled at times but in the end found a way to enjoy the trip.

Jakarta is dirtier than we had thought – see picture of the river below- and sidewalks are almost non-existent. The city and most of the island of Java doesn’t see a lot of foreign (white) tourists and we stood out. The young kids would commonly ask us for a photo. We thought they wanted us to take a picture of them but NO – they wanted a photo with us. This was a very strange feeling. Traffic in Jakarta was also very intense and the street people were selling stuff right on the road. It was incredible.

After Jakarta we went to the Cianjar area for our home stay and a visit to the floating village. In the floating village we had a chance to have all the dead skin eaten off our feet by the fish. It really tickled. The whole village is a on a man-made lake and everyone has a fish farm. See photos.

Our next stop had us in Yogyakarta in the shadow of Mount Merapi for three days. There was some concern about this area since the volcano had been showing increased signs of activity. They figure it will erupt later this year. Lucky for us all was relatively quiet. The town had palaces, temples and Lisa went to an Indonesian dance show. There are a lot of temples in Indonesia. The Borobudur Temple was very spectacular –the one with the bells.

The next two stops were basically to get us across the island. In Malang we had the opportunity to go to a bird market where they sold a variety of animals. It was extremely sad. We have more stories to tell than can be put into this blog at this time. The lowlights were the baby owl that could barely stand that must have been taken from the nest. The hundreds of birds all crammed into a cage. Puppies in the sun with no water and the list goes on.

Mount Bromo was our next major stop and one of the places I was looking forward to seeing. It is also an active volcano and we were able to climb it to watch the sunrise from the crater rim. The volcano is still venting and smelled strongly of sulfur. The view was amazing. Hiking to and from Mt Bromo was interesting as we crossed the ash coated floor of the caldera of the super volcano that erupted 250 000 years ago. As we were getting ready to leave I wanted one last view and was treated to another volcano having a minor eruption in the distance.

The next leg of our journey had us crossing from the island of Java to the island of Bali. Bali is more famous and has quite a few more tourists. The area is known for its beaches or so we thought. Our first stop had us in Pemutaran, a local area were the beaches were much less than spectacular. The black sand was covered in garbage and some of our group members stumbled across a dead dog on the beach. No one went in the water. Sanur was better and much more tourist oriented.

Lisa and I ended the tour and said goodbye to our fellow travelers. I think we both were glad this leg was over. Our group – as stated earlier- made things more challenging then they needed to be, we were starting to get tired of noodles and rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner and we have been ”templed” out.

The Indonesian people are extremely friendly and willing to help. We found this out one day as we were walking around and it started to really rain hard. Lisa and I ducked under a tree to avoid some of the rain. A local family saw this and invited us onto their porch. It was very nice. The scenery in Indonesia was also spectacular.

Lisa and I are starting to miss home and our family and friends.

Indonesian Family Robinson