Ambon Manise!

In Bogor we had to say goodbye to Hendrik, he was heading up to Malaysia or Thailand (we don't know, he also didn't knew yet) and we planned to pick up my mum from the airport in Jakarta! Very exciting!!!! Unfortunately the picking didn't really work out the way we wanted but thank god, eventually we could hug mama Josefien, which was amazing!

We had a lovely, warm and really good welcoming at Sentul City (close to Bogor) by Yola's family (Yola is my cousin Julius' cousin, understand?? Haha!) We stayed there for 2 nights. Steven mentioned to Donny and Hansel (Yola's husband and son) the surf competition in Cimaja, at the coast where we were last couple of days. So the next day they took us all the way there, because Hansel likes to watch the surfing as well.. cute! And of course, Steven had to give him his first surf lesson, Hansel was so stoked!

The next day the two of us went to Jakarta city to go to the Quantas office to arrange something with our flight tickets. After arriving at the train terminal we were surrounded by lots of skyscrapers and... Plaza's (shopping mall's). And then, all of the sudden we bumped into the first Burger King we've seen in Indo and went straight for it! Haha! It was unbelievable GOOD!

Later that evening we met mum and Yola in Indoplaza to go to the airport to Ambon!

We arrived in Ambon at 06.00 in the morning, the sun was slowly crawling up, fresh air and the most beautiful landscape! AMBON MANISE!!! (sweet ambon) Steven immediately loved it!

At the other side of the gate, oom Jeffrey was already waiting for us. Good to see him again. With his fancy car he drove us to the kampong (tiny village) where our close family still live, named 'Airlow'. Located right by the beach, between the lush jungle forest with lots of quite poor standard houses but with huge soundsystem boxes right outside on their veranda playing the lovely local ambon songs (lagu lagu). The atmosphere is so different compare to the rest of Indonesia, it has a really nice island cosyness (ons-kent-ons)which is very pleasant to experience.

It was lovely to see the family again at the traditional family house of my grandfather, and for Steven the first time!! And again so good to see how mum feels so at home there and so confident. She's like the queen, hahahahah! She knows everyone there, unbelievable. For us it's still one big mystery, so enormously big the family is!

We've been quite busy everyday. Visiting my grandmothers family just a few minutes down the road:
Seen Pintu Kota, literally translated: Gate Town. It's a beatiful rock that sticks out of the water formed into a gate. This is a very important site- seeing for our area.
Went to oma Yaya (aunt of mum) in Seri. We had to go by 'Ojek', it's like your hitchhiking on the back of someones motorbike for a bit of money. Stunning ride over the hills with constantly the beach on our side. In Seri, Steven and I had a lovely walk on the rocky beach with all of the sudden a dozen kids accompany us. Showing us all the sea animals that exist! Great!

And then was finally the day to meet Naftali, my cousin from Holland. It was really good to see him again after 1 month. He's been visiting his family too, for 2 weeks now.



The next day together with mum, naftali, oom Docky and tante Ona we hired an 'Angkot', a bus, for the whole day to explore a bit more of the island.
First we went to Waai where Steven and I held huge Moray eels. "Iehhh!" their so slippery/slimy, great and scary!
Then we drove to the 'Air Panas' (hot spring) to bath in almost 50 degrees!! Very hot, but nice. We ended the day at Natsepa beach, stunning white sand beach to chill. Met a lot of people from Holland. Tante Antoinette, oom Jonkie en Crishna.
Tonight we are going to the Ambon Jazz festival here in town to enjoy ourselves with some lovely chilled music from musicians here and abroad.

We hope that the electricity and water will work a bit better than this last weekend. Because of the Ambon Jazz Festival they shut down ALL the electricity of everyone on the island from 9.00 in the morning until 04.00 in the morning, so basically the whole day! It's unbelievable but very true...you cannot understand it!

We spent 5 nights sleeping with my grandfathers family and from today we spent another 5 nights sleeping with my grandmothers family. So we still have lots to do!
AND... to write to you very soon...

Lots of love us

Java

After checking out lots more that bali had to offer, including Sanur, Canggu and the Bukit Peninsula we decided to move off into Java. We took a bus, ferry, another bus and before we knew it, we were at the second viewpoint of Mt Bromo for Sunrise! It was truly beautiful and we had the view pretty much all to ourselves. This was one of our goals to see this and it didnt disappoint.





After getting some well deserved rest and food we browsed the area and enjoyed the surroundings which were a great change from Bali. The following day we planned a jeep trip to the highest viewpoint of Mt Bromo which was a different experience. Hundreds of jeeps lined the tiny path upto the top again for sunrise (4am!!!) which was hectic and almost sickening due to the pollution and mass of tourists. After the trip up, we actually headed to the crater rim. Shireen took a horse up which was great fun and myself decided to trek the 250 steps and take in as much of the sulphuric air as possible. Rad. The views from here were sweet and made our morning.





When back in town we experienced some rather unpleasant scenes unfolding, such as my ipod being stolen followed by our transport rushing us onto a crammed bus and then onto another for the 12 hour trip to Yogyakarta. Nice. It was boiling hot, no air and so uncomfortable we were at quite a low in spirit. A big change from the highs of Bromo. Finally arriving in Jogja we shacked up in a cheap room and woke up to a new day.

The fun didnt end there - no. This is what indonesia repeatedly throws at us and although there are some amazing things to do, see and experience here, the journey to the end goal is a huge undertaking - extremely tough, demanding and challenging.
In Jogya ( Indonesias city of soul) we began to enjoy again and unwind. We found a great homestay with a pool and met 2 great guys - The Ranger (from french canada) and Hendrik (our medical student from berlin)

We took a wonderful drive to Borobodur, got a guide and really enjoyed the history and beauty of this Buddhist temple. It was spectacular. Even better was that shireen paid the entrance fee for 'Local indonesians' after we kicked up a fuss and i used my dutch train discount card as student I.D to get in for half the price! haha suckers! We also went to the Kraton, an area ruled by the Sultan inside the city of Yogyakarta, had a very special meeting with some snakes at the 'snake market' where hendrik drank the snake blood and then ate its meat. lekker. Our stomachs will never be the same again. I enjoyed a great night out with the boys and some bintang beers - see the video!





The Train journey from Jogja to Jakarta was a MUST DO before this trip ended for me. The reality (as we have come to suspect always now) is that it should have been substituted for a plane journey. We sat there for 12 hours with a non stop flow of people selling the craziest things possible, ALL DAY. It was so frustrating, like being stuck in a market and constantly having to tell people you dont want their goods! It was very tough but we made it to jakarta and then onto Bogor, a more 'relaxed' city 1 hour from JK in the night.

In Bogor we went to the amazing botanic gardens and then upto the 'Puncak Pass' for a high up view over the city, tea plantations and for some 'internet' - no not the web based internet, but a culinary specialty in indonesia, its a noodle based dish made of 3 different foods which definitely didnt put a smile on our faces - It did afterwards though as we laughed so hard about it. classic indo. This was a really charming moment as they really had us fooled but in a warm hearted way (for a change!). we really didnt mind and instead just ordered another beer and soaked in the view.