Sorry it's taken so long, but now that i've at last found a bit of free time, i'll try my best to explain what i got up to over 4 weeks ago when i was in Semarang, Indonesia!

In the first week we stayed at 'Katut's uncle's house', Katut was the name of the man who showed us around Semerang and introduced us to Indonesia in the first week. Katut's uncle obviously had a name but we could never remember it hence why it became Katut's uncle!

in the first week we learnt some basic indonesian which we tested out in the local market and whenever someone walked past and greeted us (which was all the time!) 'hello Mr' was heard from miles around whenever you walked down the street, like Thailand the indonesian people are extremely friendly and keen to practise their english with you wherever you go!

We went to Bandungan which is a large town built high up in the hills surrounded by paddy fields (what you see in the picture) and is home to the Gedongsongo which is the name for the 9 Hindu temples that were built there in the 9th century. Very beautiful, photos will be coming shortly!

We also visited the local children's disabled school where four, deaf 12 year old girls welcomed us with a traditional Balinese dance. What's even more incredible was that they were dancing in time with the music as well as each other! Their teacher who we later nicknamed 'the nana' explained to us that they use the sound vibrations through the floor to guide them and direct them when dancing.

As well as being deaf a lot of the children also had other serious disabilities, we soon realised how much of a local hero Nana was within the community. Not only did she teach the children how to sign, with the few resources she had she then taught them the usual academic studies on top of that, and all through sign language.

We saw Nana on several more occasions after that, one of which being when she came by Katut's uncles house and dressed us up in traditional Balinese and Javanese costume. I was obviously quite excited about this and payed full attention - (yes Bournemouth, taking a year out will assist my studies next year!!) and took great pleasure in watching the Will and Mark's faces as they got wrapped in pretty cloth and made to look surprisingly feminine!

The another time that we saw Nana was when she invited us to her house where she showed us how to make Klenyem Jawa and Kecipluk Singkong, which is a tasty indonesian snack!