Interesting Indonesia

Indonesia is very much the Australian holiday place. A bit like how us English flock to Benidorm for a bit of sun, sand, English nosh and tacky night life. Indonesia, or Bali even, is every Ozzy's dream place. Surfing the turbulent waves, scuba diving at various spots, white water rafting, hiking up volcanoes and cheesy nights out. There is an abundance of activities (mostly surfing).

Bali

We stayed on Kuta Beach. I was expecting something to rival Australia's Gold Coast in beauty. Unfortunately not. It just had good waves. We got stuck in though and had a surf lesson; this cost 33 dollars at the Big Kuhuna Surf School. They guarantee in the first lesson you will stand on the board, if not you get a free lesson the next day. Amazingly I managed to stand on the board a good few times. I did also get a black eye ... the board went into my eye. I wasn't paying attention and the wave crashed the board into me as I fell off it.

We also went white water rafting where, unlike the one we did in Chiang Mai (Thailand), the water was actually pretty fast and we went over a dam.

The nightlife wasn't really that great here, so we didn't bother going out much. We did watch the World Cup at every opportunity so we did get to drink some beer!

Mount Bromo

The best thing about Indonesia in my eyes. We decided to get an over night bus to east Java to climb Mount Bromo - an active volcano. The mountain is freezing so we had to purchase scarves, gloves and hats. At 4am they pick you up from your log cabin to take you up the volcano to see the sun rise. This was unreal - hence why I got a little too snap happy. The place was crowded so we were lucky to get a good spot.

After this you go visit the crater. It's a steaming crater too and the views are out of this world. My breath was completely taken away. It was phenomenal and to say it was stunning does it no justice, words cannot even express it. To finish off we had a nice horse ride down the volcano.

Yogjakarta

We stayed here for a couple of nights to visit the legendary Borobodur, a 9th century Buddhist temple. It is described as the Angkor Wat of Indonesia. It's not as spectacular but definitely holds it's own in architecture and grandeur. We also tried Python and Cobra here (which tastes surprisingly like chicken ... maybe we really are living in the Matrix). I also had my hair re-bonded for about 20 pounds (this process basically is where a chemical is put onto the hair to permanently straighten/ relax it until it grows out, it's a couple of hundred pounds in England, so this was a bargain!)

Tulamben
This is an area in northern Bali. Here I did a wreck dive. There was a warship called the Liberty that sank just off the coast here. It now has beautiful coral covering it and hides a massive selection of fish within it's ghostly remains. We managed to see a stingray and even a baracuda. It was nice to try a different type of scuba dive.







We didn't get to go to Jakarta or even the Gili Islands. We will definitely have to go back to Indonesia on a visit. I'm guessing that when we get to Australia there will be lots of cheap holiday packages to Indonesia, seeing as the place was swamped with those from down under. If we're living over there for a bit then maybe Bali can become our new Benidorm.