This morning was one of the best mornings I had ever had. We left at 3.45 am in a jeep to begin our climb to the sunset view point over Bromo-Tengger-Semuru National Park. I finally got to wear some of my hiking clothing! The old school jeep drove us up to a point on Mount Penanjakan where we then got out and hiked the final bit to the peak. Luckily we found the best spot facing east where the sun would rise! The spot was absolutely crazy packed with tourists, ma...

This entire day was spent in transit. Emily, Michael and I (who now seem to be travelling as a trio) got the train from Yogyakarta to Probolinggo. It was a 9 hour train journey through absolutely beautiful Javanese countryside and luckily we each had an entire row of seats to ourselves and were able to sleep! We took a picnic of peanut butter, jam, bread and bananas which saw us through the train ride and it was actually very pleasant. I can't say it was enjoyabl...

Five of us from the hostel left at 5 am to begin our tour of two of the most famous and astonishing temples in all of Asia. The first stop was Borobudur temple at which we arrived around 6 am to beat the crowds. The complex itself was absolutely massive with acres of beautifully kept gardens surrounding the temple, in pristine condition and so green and pretty. Walking up the steps to the temple all I could think was wow! I could tell this would be be most impr...

After blagging our way through "self service" free breakfast at the horror hostel, which consisted of us making our own eggs on toast (there was also the option of buffalo skins, tofu and jack fruit but we avoided those...) we quickly escaped Casa De Raffles and moved to a beautiful new hostel called Venezia Gardens - with a pool! We went out for a day of touristing and walked through the pretty little neighbourhoods until we reached the Kraton, "the palace". ...

Emily and I got up early to plan the next few days ahead - and decided that we should fly later that night to Yogyakarta (the most last minute flight we have ever booked). We went out to explore Jakarta for the day and got the train from Cikini to Kota to explore the old town with its Dutch influences. As we arrived in Kota the weather was terrible - absolutely pouring with rain meaning the main square really did look like Europe with Netherlands inspired build...