Java

So, for the last leg of our journey we flew from Singapore to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia on Java. Jakarta itself is utterly forgettable, one big sprawling heaps of eight-lane highways and modern buildings. Its old Dutch town was smelly and not very interesting and the Monumen Nasional, also known as 'Sukarno's Last Erection' was worth little more than a picture. We did enjoy ourselves though, because we were staying with Joppe and Adama, two friends of ours from Berlin who are now living in Jakarta. They had a lovely house with a pool and made us feel like kings. We also met up with Marc, another friend from Berlin, had some lovely dinners and evenings rich in alcohol.

The four of us took a trip to Carita on Java's West Coast, where we stayed at a decrepit old beach resort, from where we made a day trip to the famous volcano Krakatau. The Krakatau's last major eruption in 1883 is scientifically important because it was the first volcanic eruption ever reported on by mass media around the world. It created ash clouds that were seen in Los Angeles and tsunamis that did damage as far as India. Java's East coast and Sumatra's South coast were ravaged and the event became the subject of many a romantic novel and film. Part of the old volcano is left and a new volcano has been growing threateningly fast since it appeared above water in 1927. Anak Krakatau (Child of Krakatau) is a dark ashen cone with a tiny little tropical rainforest on its southern edge. When climbing it and standing on top of a ridge looking at the top (which is off limits), we felt like being on the moon, wondering about the vents of steams appearing from random places on the ground and the enormous rocks lying around which had obviously come from the crater. Apparently, you can stay overnight on what remains of daddy Krakatau during the rainy season and observe small eruption during the night, although the volcano was sadly silent when we were there.

Back in Jakarta, we went clubbing at one of its upper-class venues and the day after we made a (late) day trip to the botanical gardens in Bogor. The next day, it was time to leave the haven of Adama and Joppe's idyllic oasis and head out to do some more sightseeing around the island. Our first stop was Cirebon, the capital of one of the first Islamic states on the island, of which the Kraton (Sultan's palace) and his Water Palace, a wild water paradise mixed with caves for solemn meditation, can still be visited.

After that, we took a day train across to island to Solo past beautiful green mountains, rice paddies and menacing volcanic peaks. Solo itself wasn't much but we stayed at a gorgeous hotel around a courtyard with banana trees and other exotic plants which had a beautiful pool and free gamelan (traditional music) practice. From Solo, we went on day trips to Candi Cetho, a temple high up in the clouds, and Candi Sukuh, an 'erotic temple' which probably used to be home to a fertility cult, as well as to Sangiran, an important archaeological site where Java Man was excavated but where you could not really see anything.

We spent a night in Surabaya and then went on to Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park. If the rainy drive up to the Tengger caldera, a massive volcanic crater created hundreds of thousands of years ago, past terraced rice paddies, rainy tea plantations and beautiful scenery wasn't beautiful enough, the crater itself was amazing. It fills up with fog or clouds most of the time which obscure the three volcanoes in the centre of it. Cemoro Lawang, the village where we were staying was right on the rim and great for foggy excursions. Getting up at 3.30am to pass through night fog on the Laotian Pasir (Sea of Sands) inside the crater and up a neighbouring mountain to watch the sunrise over Mt Bromo et al was definitely worth it.

As we only had one day left before we were to meet my mother and her boyfriend in Yogyakarta, we tried to squeeze in the city of Malang, which did not really work out because of bad connections and we did not see any of it in the end. I did manage to get a massage from a massage centre that trains blind people from all over Java to become masseurs to help them earn a living. We stayed at a beautiful Dutch colonial hotel, which was a positive experience partially making up for the loss of the sights of Malang in the end.

We spent the next few days with my mum and her boyfriend Rob, walking around Yogyakarta with its Kraton and Taman Sari (Water Palace), which unlike the one in Cirebon seemed to be constructed in order to indulge the sultan's sexual fantasies rather than his religious devotion, the beautiful Hindu temples of Prambanan, the somewhat disappointing Buddhist temple of Borobudur and the Dieng Plateau. Yogyakarta was most definitely the nicest Javan city we stayed in and visiting it and the nearby temples with my mum was certainly another highlight of this trip. Let's just not speak of our attempt to climb Mt Merapi, which was cut short due to a recent landslide and torrential rain...

The Dieng Plateau, with its sulphur lakes, red-and-green hills, rice cultivation almost up to the tops of the surrounding mountains and 8th-century buddhist temples was a beautiful final destination for our trip. My mum had unfortunately slipped and hurt her leg, so she couldn't come, which was a shame because she would have loved the serenity of the location. After saying goodbye to my mum and Rob, we got on our last local bus to Semarang - or so we thought. Our first bus broke down shortly after leaving, as did the second one we caught. The third one only took us part of the way before the fourth one finally delivered us at our final destination. We did not really see a lot of Semarang but did do a lot of shopping there!

Please find pictures of Indonesia here: https://picasaweb.google.com/115645655489714063238/Java2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCMz09JCN-fqQwgE

This is the end of my description of our holiday. I sincerely hope you have enjoyed it and feel yourselves tingling with jealousy. That was my objective. ;-)

Myanmar

When we left Kuala Lumpur and flew to Myanmar, we experienced a culture shock once again, a pleasant one - but a shock nonetheless. Having got used to the smooth workings of the successful state of Malaysia, the poverty, low level of development and occasional chaos that is Myanmar were much more what we had expected of Asia in the first place. In spite of its bloody history of military dictatorship, ethnic inequality and oppression of its population, the people were incredibly open and kind and had a smile for everyone (including each other). Whilst writing this, I realise I am echoing something I wrote about two years ago about the people in Cambodia. How extraordinary how both these peoples who have survived oppression, civil war, physical and political abuse, poverty, hunger, living in constant fear of their neighbours and not being able to trust anyone, can have such a cheerful outlook at life, such kind demeanours and helpful characters. The ones of whom one would expect it the least, turn out to be the ones who are the most welcoming and seem to be working the hardest to make something out of their lives.

Of course, Myanmar is not without its problems. They may have had so-called free elections in 2011, Aung San Suu Kyi may have been released from house arrest and Hillary Clinton may have paid an official visit to the country promising an exchange of ambassadors and the relaxation of sanctions, the current 'democratically elected' government still consists of many of the former military generals who made up the dictatorship, the people are still incredibly poor and many parts of the country where minority people live are still off limits to foreign visitors and their populations discriminated against. However, there seems to be reason for hope and it certainly seems local people believe in the possibility.

The first thing one notices when getting out on the streets is the strange traffic situation. The Burmese drive on the right but, as they mostly drive cheap Japanese cars, these cars have the steering wheel on the right side as well. This creates a situation in which drivers have to basically veer all the over to the opposite lane when they wish to overtake, before they are able to see whether their are cars coming towards them on that lane. We did not see a lot of cars accidents, but one did wonder... Another funny fact is the money situation. Hotels and government-run organisations only accept US Dollars, which they have to deposit at a government-run bank. This bank, however, only accepts brand new, crisp, unsoiled, unfolded bills which still smell of the factory they were made in. Any other bills are resolutely yet politely refused. Can you imagine backpacking for a month travelling on bumpy buses and swaying trains, over muddy paths and up and down mountains, in a country where you cannot get money out of ATMs or at banks and trying to keep your Dollar bills in perfect state? Their own money, on the contrary, apparently wasn't of much aesthetic value. Besides needing wads of it, even bills torn into little pieces could still be used when neatly arranged into tiny, bill-shaped plastic bags.

We spent the first couple of days in Yangon and liked it. Even though the city shuts down after 9pm - as indeed does the whole country - it has its own kind of charm with its decaying British colonial architecture, impressive stupas and non-tourist-focused atmosphere. We visited the golden stupas, stood in awe of Shwe Dagon Paya (a 2,000-year-old massive golden stupa, one of the 100 modern wonders of the world according to hillmanwonders.com) and appeased the guardian spirits of the days we were born on. I was born on Wednesday morning, which means my guardian animal is an elephant! Olaf, on the other hand, has to content himself with a guinea pig. The second day we got onto the Circular Train, a slow-moving, bumpy commuter train which took us to a number of sights including a buddha in a glass cage (for it tended to bite strangers) and an enormous lying buddha in some kind of shed.

After Yangon, we went to Mt Kyaiktiyo, on top of which The Golden Rock, a massive gold-plated boulder, balances precariously on a mountain top. This, as is basically every single mountain and hilltop in Myanmar, was obviously a religious site and pilgrims came from all over the country to pay their respects and stand underneath it - not being crushed by the boulders apparently means one is sin-free enough to be allowed to continue one's life. We obviously passed the test, not that there was any doubt of that I am sure. We did get lost on the way back to the trucks and wound up walking all the way back to the village we were staying at.

After Mt Kyaiktiyo, we made a short trip to Bago, which contained some temples and buddhas which were just more of the same and not really worth the stop. The main thing that happened to us was that we both got extremely ill, which made us dislike this town even more. So, on we went on the night bus to Inle Lake, an experience that made a long-lasting impression on at least one of us.

Once the bus had finally dropped us off - 2 hours too early in the middle of the night - we had paid far too much for a taxi ride to the village we actually wanted to stay and we had managed to find a hotel with rooms available (praise the Buddha for Nawng Kham The Little Inn!), we spent the next couple of days loving Inle Lake and recovering. Inle Lake is quite high up and therefore cool, stretches from North to South in an idyllic valley and is surrounded by green swampy lands which make it difficult to see where land ends and the lake begins. We took a boat tour on the lake to visit floating gardens and villages on stilts, cycled around it to see local villages and crumbling stupas, did some great souvenir shopping and relaxed in hot springs.

We then quickly went on to Kalaw, a former British hill station renowned for trekking opportunities through the hills and to neighbouring villages. We were lazy, however, and just around town and towards some nearby sights. We had lost some time being ill and could not stay any longer but would have loved to stay another night at our chalet-like hotel with its lovely Nepali owners (fried eggs on chapatis for breakfast!!)

Our next destination was Mandalay, a name evoking more idyllic and romantic images of a 'quintessential Asia' than the dusty, sprawling, modern city deserves. There was an interesting reconstruction of the former royal palace though and we saw some astonishing teak monasteries. Mandalay itself is also the gateway to the former capitals of Amarapura, Innwa and Sagaing, which we visited on day trips to see the world's longest teak bridge and old temples and stupas seemingly forgotten among the fields and heather. Another day trip to Pyin Oo Lwin turned to be less interesting, although the 'Mini-Myanmar' park with its tiny reconstructions of famous national landmarks and their strawberry juice made up for some of it.

Then it was on to Bagan, the temple-studded plain in a bend of the mighty Ayeryawaddy river which is the site of an ancient royal city of great riches. The around 1,000-year-old temples, some of which are in ruins and some of which have been restored and are active places of worship, are exceedingly scenic and great for cycling around, taking breathtakingly gorgeous pictures of sunset and simply baffling just by the number of temples and the wealth this city might once have possessed. It is not surprising that this was also one of the 100 modern wonders of the world which we are collecting and the days we spent cycling around the temples definitely one of the highlights of this trip. It is impossible to describe the beauty of this site in words, just look at the pictures (see link at the end of this post) and you will understand what I mean.

After Bagan, we managed to squeeze in a day at a beach resort in Chaung Tha Beach, a welcome change after trudging through the dust for a couple of weeks, before heading back to Yangon for a final day and taking a plane to Jakarta. I was sad to leave and would love to come back, especially when I realised how little of the country we had actually seen!!

Here's the links to the pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/115645655489714063238/Myanmar2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCPnB5eq-vMGhtQE

Stay tuned for another update about our weeks on Java!

Winter holiday part 1 - Malaysia & Singapore

Hey everybody,

It has - as always - been ages since I posted anything here. This is partially because we were on holiday to escape from the winter, and partially because I am a lazy f*ck. I am going to try and make it up to you by overloading you with pictures and stories from our amazing time in South East Asia.

Let's start at the beginning. Only barely having escaped the onset of the Berlin winter (for in truth temperatures dropped to far below zero and it started snowing only 2 days after we left), we arrived in Kuala Lumpur. I was pleasantly surprised at how modern Malaysia was and how well everything worked. We walked around town for 2,5 days, acclimatised to being in our beloved South East Asia, ticked off the Petronas Towers, walked around Chinatown, agreed KL was not as cool as Bangkok but that we could easily live there and feasted on Malaysian food and terribly expensive (well, relatively so anyways) beers.

After this we flew to Myanmar for the next 4 weeks, which I well tell you about in a later post because it really has nothing whatsoever to do with Malaysia (and I need some more time to sort through the pictures). When we came back from Myanmar, we took a bus South to Melaka, the old trading town on the Malacca Strait which was fought over so many people in the course of history that it is futile to start enumerating them (the Chinese, the Malay kingdoms, the Dutch, the English...) and which dominated trade for centuries under different rules until the British eventually started favouring Singapore and Georgetown to piss off the Dutch before later acquiring it for themselves (by trading it with the Dutch for the port of Bengkulu/Bencoolen) and let it slip into history. Melaka has a tiny Dutch centre with some old houses, a ruined church on a hill, the one remaining gate of a Portuguese fortress, a scenic Chinese cemetery on another hill, a lively Chinatown area which nowadays is no more than a tourist trap and reputedly the best food in the world (a mixture of Malay, Chinese, Portuguese and Indian food). We thought it was rather touristy but alright for day and were rather amused when we heard the bus driver correct some local tourists when they said the wanted to go to the Stadthuys (City Hall) in perfect Dutch.

After Melaka, it was on to Singapore. We were only therefore for 24 hours, but were blown away by pleasantly surprising atmosphere of this very Western city. Public transport worked flawlessly, the air was clean, the people were focussed on their careers and having a good time, the shopping was amazing, the food nice enough and the alcohol on the expensive side. It was a breath of Western air which was more than welcome after a couple of weeks of slumming it, but still a city with its roots very clearly stuck in Asian soil and not a bad place to live.

From Singapore, we flew to Jakarta for the next part of our holiday (see another post).

Here is a link to pictures from Malaysia and Singapore: https://picasaweb.google.com/115645655489714063238/MalaysiaSingapore2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCPSep9-gn9eH4wE