On leaving Yogya a rather spacious, if not speedy, train took us through Java to Bandung. What a strange place that is...Java's second largest city and it has more shopping malls than you can shake a stick at. Bandung served us well as we were both in desperate need of some 'normal' (read appropriate for climates cooler than 30 degrees) clothes. This strange city has some rather incredible outlet shopping, we're not talking Bicester here, this is quite simply fab...

On arrival in Indonesia many weeks ago Mt Merapi, a rather large volcano, began erupting in Java. The eruption was large scale, devastation widespread and many people in the surrounding villages lost their lives. It was a significant natural disaster, obviously devastating for those involved. Clearly a tragedy but also a potential disaster for our plans for Java, yes I know this sounds incredibly selfish but Yogyakarta was the one place we had really hoped to vis...

The 7am local boat took us from Nusa Lembongan to the mainland, from there a short taxi ride delivered us at the bus station to await a departure to Java. A few 'Pop Mee' (think Indonesian pot noodle), a couple of hundred kilometres and some 12 hours later we were dropped in the non-descript town of Probolinggo. Our plan was to head to Mt Bromo, yet another volcano, but this one is considered to be quite spectacular. Standing on the side of the road a group of gu...

Well we have survived the Komodo Dragon after an up close encounter on Rinca Island. These beasts are rather bizarre, prehistoric looking, creatures with a nasty bite full of bacteria that eventually sees off its prey. They can smell fresh blood up to 50km away so once they've bitten that poor buffalo they just follow it around for the next couple of days until it finally keels over. We took to the seas for a couple of days chugging our way across some of Indon...

I'm sat in a cute little restaurant/cafe/bar called 'the Lounge' (v v trendy for Indonesia) on the island of Flores and devouring a pot of peppermint tea. What a treat, it must have been about two months since my last cup of this delectable nectar and I've had some serious withdrawal symptoms. Drinking black tea is simply not quite up to par, particularly when it's doused with a huge helping of sugar, Indonesian style. Well where to start, Flores has been rathe...