Hard to believe our trip is coming to a close -- we've had a such a terrific time that we're sorry to see it end! Our final destination in Indonesia is the city of Yogyakarta. Yogya, as it is affectionately known, is a mid-sized city in Java (around 1,000,000 people) that is known as the spiritual heart of the island. While Jakarta is the political and financial center, Yogya is the cultural center. There are lots of historic sites in the area, and the city has ...

Pretty uneventful day here. Don't think we even took a picture! We were on a buses and ferries all day today. We booked a so called "tour" to Mt Bromo with Perama Tours expecting a proper tour bus would take us all the way to Bromo (about 9 hours). However, we soon learned the day would involve numerous transfers, drop offs, and changes of drivers. We took a shuttle from Ubud to Kuta (about 1 hour), and that wasn't too bad. In Kuta we got on another Perama bus,...

After breakfast at Pondok Baruna we said our farewells to the staff and got ready for our pick-up by Scoot Cruise to take us back to Bali. We got a little nervous when the pick up was late, but were told not to worry as the island tends to operate on "Indonesian time". The ride eventually came and soon we were on the fast boat back to Sanur. This time the water was much calmer and no seasickness threatened. We got off in Sanur and were soon on our shuttle to our...

Got up early and had our typical egg and pancake breakfast at the Sarinande. We checked out and at 8am were met by our ride from the Scoot Cruise people. The Scoot Cruise operates a fast boat from Sanur to Nusa Lembongan. We first had to get a ride to Sanur, about 45 minutes away on the east side of Bali. After paying for the return trip on the boat we were off to the beach to climb aboard the surprisingly small boat. There are no piers here – you literally...

August 22 Pretty uneventful day here. We checked out of the hotel in Berastagi and made our way to Medan. Took about 2 hours to get back to Polonia Airport. Check in for our Air Asia flight to Jakarta was easy, and we decided to "splurge" and pay for access to the Executive Lounge at the airport. For only 60,000 rupiah a person (about $7) we got free Wifi and food and a very pleasant place to relax – highly recommended if you find yourself at the Medan air...