It was nice to slow down for a while after a week of moving to a new town every day. We did spend an entire day getting there though - after leaving our hotel in Jakarta at 7:45am, we travelled by taxi, train, jeep, bus and becak (almost like a wheelchair propelled by a man on a push bike) and eventually arrived at our accommodation in Pangandaran late at night. We stayed in a beautiful hotel there with a swimming pool.

One thing I noticed along the journey was the proliferation of tobacco advertising - almost every shop front and billboard was covered in tobacco adverts and in some places they have large banners at the sides of the road or hanging across above the road.

Ramadan had just begun so prayers were ringing out from mosques' loudspeakers everywhere we went at all hours of the day and night. We had to be careful not to be seen eating and drinking in public during daylight hours - even water had to be sneaked surreptitiously. After dark, when the fast was broken, there was no problem.

One evening we had dinner at the hotel and I ordered what was translated on the menu as lamb but I later found out the Bahasa Indonesian word used actually meant goat - oh well, it was cooked in a sauce and I didn't notice the difference.

We were joined in Pangandaran by a local guide, Aep, who is a real-life Ace Ventura - he loves animals and can call them and communicate with them! Aep had an awesome scooter - an old Vespa that he bought quite cheaply and modified by attaching deer antlers and animal skulls all over and painting eagles on the front. He had also decorated his motorcycle helmet with the skin of an ant-eater and some kind of animal hair. He was such an incredibly nice guy and made us all laugh with his stories of secretly snacking during Ramadan and trying to hide it from his children!

Aep led us on a nature walk in the Taman Nasional Pangandaran national park where we saw lots of mischievous monkeys and families of pretty deer. There were a few caves hidden in the forest, inside of which we saw several porcupines (I hadn't seen one in real life before!), loads of little bats hanging from the ceiling and a snake hiding in the wall. Aep lured a scorpion from its hole and Marg had it on her hand and her chest for photographs - scary! We saw some amazing flying squirrels jumping between the trees as well as a hornbill resting on a branch and some wild cows, which are apparently very rare. We walked down to the beach and talked to some fishermen who had just caught an octopus. There were some tunnels in the forest which had been used by Japanese soldiers during World War 2. Also there was a species of tree named Kiara!

The following day we visited a food market where I ate some deep-fried crickets - crunchy! There was lots of dried fish and fresh fish - one stall had an odd-looking spotted ray about a metre wide with its tail cut off. There must be a lot of Dutch tourists here because everyone we spoke to asked if we were from the Netherlands (it's a strange thing I've noticed in several countries - they tend to have a lot of tourists from the former colonial 'masters').

Later we visited the home of a family that make traditional Javan wooden puppets (wayang) that are used to act out classical stories. We saw how they draw the character's face and body on pieces of wood, then carve all the details, then paint them in several stages and finally attach the pieces and add costumes and details like beads and sequins - the final puppets are very elaborate and beautiful. They acted out some stories for us - about the lovers Rama and Sita and the white monkey hero Hanuman - they were very talented at manoeuvring the puppets and put on lots of funny voices - I enjoyed watching it. The makers' enthusiasm for the tradition and the stories was inspiring - I was impressed by the care and detail that went into every puppet; I bought one of them and I love it

In the afternoon we went to Green Canyon where we took a boat along the river through the jungle - it was very picturesque. When the boats couldn't go any further we got out and went swimming and climbing over the rocks - it was cold and slippery in parts but we had fun.

In the evening we went for a seafood dinner - I got to choose my crab which was still alive and kicking! Thankfully I have so far managed to dodge the various illnesses afflicting the group - two of the guys ended up in hospital in Pangandaran! One got salmonella from dinner in a local restaurant, another was sick from dehydration; a couple of others had dodgy tummies too.

A couple of other things I noticed while in Pangandaran: the cats look odd - they have short tails that are curled at the end; and there are loads of cockroaches.