Articles from this Category
6 July 2011
Above: Malang is famous for meatball soup “Bakso Malang”. We woke up to the poshest street in town, it seemed. It was dark when we arrived last night and when we left the homestay we realised we were surrounded by mansions. The street was also dotted with private security. As it turns out in my […]
5 July 2011
Above: Restaurant serving dog meat in many ways. Long journey to Malang My three Swiss companions from yesterday were headed in the same direction, Malang, as a stopover for getting to Mt Bromo. We had organised to share the same transport from our Solo homestay. But the “travel” (pronounced trrrruffle, a shared longhaul minivan) took […]
4 July 2011
Solo by bicycle I didn’t have much planned and was going to go visit the palaces here in Solo. The sultan here still exists but unlike in Jogja, he is only a figurehead. The guidebooks suggest that the palaces here aren’t as good; one had been rebuilt due to a fire. Over breakfast, I chatted […]
3 July 2011
Wandering minstrels I had my first taste of Javanese intercity travel today. On the bus at the intercity terminal, wandering minstrels came on in turn to entertain passengers. Each had a guitar and was singing (very well I might add) and had an accomplice to collect the proceeds for their busking. I stopped contributing when […]
2 July 2011
I had a day free to do “unplanned” sights today, so I used it to go see Gunung Merapi (2968m, Fire Mountain). It is the most active volcano in Indonesia, erupting regularly since 1548. Merapi has claimed lives recently as recently as 1994 and 2006. The alert was last raised to its highest level only […]
1 July 2011
I woke at 0430 for a 0500 departure to Borobudur in a shared minivan. After an hour, we arrived and the sun had risen for long. I had opted not to do an alternative trip leaving Yogya an hour earlier … which allows you to see the sun rise over Borobudur. Borobudur is an 8th […]
30 June 2011
Temples of Prambanan I spent the morning considering excursions for the coming days, and whether to use public transport or a shared vehicle (organised through an agent). I opted for the latter as it saves time and it isn’t very much money in the scheme of things. I was picked up along with three other […]
18 June 2011
Above: Tumuli Park (burial mounds) by night at Gyeongju. I flew to Daegu today at 1530, flying with Asiana Airlines again. Upon arrival an hour later, I took a taxi to its city centre for an hour-long bus ride to neighbouring Gyeongju. Gyeongju is referred to as a museum without walls because it is home […]
7 June 2011
Impressive Marina Sands We had a reasonably early start in Ho Chi Minh to make the 0910 Tiger Airways flight to Singapore. With an hour time difference, we landed just after midday and taxied to the Geylang red light district to check into our budget hotel, Hotel 81. Without much ado, we made our way […]
5 June 2011
Sightseeing with friends Today we caught up with Rodger and Liisa, our good friends from Auckland. We went to the Reunification Palace (which was the seat of the former South Vietnamese government) and the War Remnants Museum (which documents the atrocities of the American War). The latter proved rather grimmer than we remember from our […]