Jakarta.....mmmmmm.....well.....not much to say really. We ended up staying for 3 nights, once in the old polpular backpackers area (which is now really run down) and twice in the amazing 6 Degrees Hostel. However, the town was pretty uninspiring. The best thing, sadly, was the fact we had a gym we could use near our hostel. There were a few good shopping malls and the street food was ok, but not much to write home about. Even the airport was an annoying 1 hour d...

The bus into Java, crossed on a ferry from Bali and then continued on through the night, dropping us at a small town called Bromolingo at 2:30am. We then arranged for a private bus to take us to Gunung Bromo where we caught motorcycle taxis to a hill, trekking the last 30 minutes to a lookout. The views across the volcanic basin, which appeared to trap a layer of cloud from escaping down into the villqges nearby, were incredible. The 2 volcanoes in the foreground...

We caught a bus to beautiful Ubud once had landed back in Bali. The town had a wonderfully laid back feel to it, contained endless temples and art galleries and was surrounded by paddy fields. On one of our walks, we ended up on the fringes of a small village and bumped into a lovely Canadian lady who recommended the organic cafe in which she was eating, so we joined her. She ended up touring us around the area for an hour or so. On our last day in Ubud, we spla...

Wow! After a full day's travel (of bus, slow ferry, bus and small boat), we arrived in Gili Trangawan. The first of 3 islands off the north west coast of Lombok, Gili T was the largest and had the repetation as being the party island. It was a lovely start to our Gili experience with lots of chilled backpackers, a ban on dogs and vehicles, with only horse and carts or bicycles for transport. We watched the last day of the Premiership here with Devon and Conor (w...

Crikey! Kuta in Bali had rebranded itself during the 14 years since my first visit. There are now shopping malls, large numbers of top-end designer clothing shops and bars to match. It was a a good place to unwind, but also to start getting fit everyday by running on the beautiful beach. We found some nice restaurants to eat and saw one of the most stunning sunsets we'd ever seen. After a few days chilling, we went for the budget option and caught the 'slow' fe...