Hello,

Apologies for the lack of blog but we've been racing along and the internet on this side of the world is not so great. We left off getting the plane to Sydney and then Jakarta, after running away from the cyclone in Fiji.

Due to various sources we decided ages ago to buy a cheap flight from Jakarta (the Indonesian capital) straight to Yogyakarta, which is further West towards Bali. There wasn't really anything we wanted to see on the way and we've heard that Jakarta is a tad hectic at the best of times. We also booked up a five star hotel in Jakarta as a little treat seeing as it was super cheap and we're almost halfway through. The room at the Sheraton was awesome, as was the gigantic breakfast, we only wished we had checked in earlier or out later to use more of the facilities.

21st January saw us check into 'Bladocks' in Yogya, which had a well needed pool to escape from the suffocating humidity and heat (highly recommend this hotel). Maybe the heat of Rio has faded but I think this is the hottest place we've been to yet. The first thing to say about Inodnesia is that it has suffered hard from a fall in tourism over recent years and there is evidence of this everywhere. Unfortunately this has led the local population to really push the remaining tourists to buy their products, it has also led to a number of scams being set up. To go from Fiji to the streets of Yogya was something of a culture shock as a constant barrage of words from street sellers follows you down the street. Not to mention the stares we got seeing as we were the largest people around. This was just a little difficult if anything but what really shocked us was a scam that we unfortunately fell for. I think we're pretty safe travellers, but we got fooled by feigned kindness. We basically ended up paying well over the odds for some "authentic" batik paintings. The scam was unbelievably elaborate and caught us straight off the plane. We only lost about 20 quid each and we both really like the paintings we bought but when you can buy a slap up meal for a pound this money is put in perspective. We realised it was a scam when we went to the tourist office and read about the exact same set of lies the "artists" played to us. Naturally it put quite a downer on our previously high spirits. They city was also hit by an earthquake in May 2006, after our guidebook was printed, and we think the tourism that was before died with the earthquake unfortunately.

We both knew that this would be a risk with going a bit further away from the beaten track o Java but unfortunately things like that merely hardened us against the rest of the population so we went to the magnificent temples of Prambanam and the gigantic buddhist monument of Borobudur with extreme suspicion. These are spectacular tourist attractions as was the traditional ballet at Prambanam, but the fall in tourism and a recent earthquake last year has damaged them significantly, although they are slowly rebuilding them. We also went to see the Palace in the centre of Yogya where the King resides called the Kraten but the free guide tried to scam us again, incredibly on the same batik painting scam.

At Prabanam we had our first experience of "celebrity status" when we passed a school group and they all got their phones out and very un-subtly started taking photos of Alex. At first, this is quite off putting but a guide told us it is because we look like the celebrities they see in magazines and Alex as now decide she doesn't want to be famous anymore. At Borobudur we were asked and ended up posing for a good 5 minutes with a group of school kids and at the ballet everyone ran up to take a photo of the characters and then us - probably with more excitement. A very odd experience! We highly recommend the ballet at Prambanam, and the restuarant next door does a great buffet and seats with fantastic views.

One thing that we embraced whole heartedly was the food (as always), which was excellent almost everywhere we went and extremely cheap, noodles and rice for breakfast is the norm for us now, although banana pancakes win hands down!

We decided to book a tour that would take us all the way from Yogya to Lovina (a little coastal resort in northern Bali) whilst taking in the sunrise at Mount Bromo on the way. The price was extremely reasonable and as we later found out was too good to be true. On the 24th we started out to Bromo and the next day woke up at 3am to start a 4x4 ascent up to Penanjaben II viewpoint to watch the sunrise, which is a truly awe inspiring moment, despite the hour. The sun comes up over the horizon and gradually lights up the Tengarra crater, which is home to the active Mount Bromo and which you can look down upon. Afterwards we went to the base of the continuously smoking Bromo and climbed the steps to the summit. Even here, there is a distinct lack of tourists and an overflow of touts as a good hundred locals bring horses to take you to the base of Bromo from where the jeeps park, which is only a 5 minute walk.

That day we went back down to Probolinggo to change to a bus to take us to the ferry and Bali. We ended up waiting at the tour office for a good three hours and were told that the bus was late, however a myriad of different buses kept going past and later events on Bali made us think that they delayed the change to "help out" some friends. To anyone who comes across this blog and is looking at going to Indonesia, please still go to Java (it's an incredible experience) but take into account the risks and do not get a tour with either ARI tours or Shava tour as we're almost positive that they do not have your best intentions at heart. (Travelling in groups maybe better as you can charter bemos for a price you can afford if you split it.)

So after a long day of travelling in a semi air conditioned bus we got to the ferry port just as it was getting dark and headed on over to Bali, where only more unsuspecting travelling adventures would await us!

Selamat jalan,

Tom and Alex xx