With so many early starts in the last few weeks, my body clock has adapted and I awoke at dawn, looking out the window onto Lake Toba, only 5 metres away. I grabbed the camera for a few quick snaps…
Sumatra
I had crossed to Sumatra just in time – my frustration with the traffic and general pushiness of people on Java had reached a critical point; I needed to go somewhere quieter, more laid back. After resting for…
Temples and Traffic
Yogyakarta (pronounce the Y’s as J’s) is a small city by Indonesian standards, but is home to two World Heritage sites – Prambanan, an ancient Hindu temple, and Borobudur, a contemporaneous Buddhist temple. I spent a day at each, exploring…
Fire and Brimstone
As I alluded to in the last post, I awoke at 1:30 AM, freezing cold and 1800m up. The reason for such discomfort was to try and see the legendary ‘blue fire’ of Ijen crater. One of Indonesia’s many active…
Lombok and Bali, in a hurry
I had decided to cross this part of Indonesia (specifically Lombok and Bali) as quickly as possible, as it will be quite easy to come back and explore in more detail later, with daily cheap flights to Denpasar from Australia.…
Island Hopping through Indonesia
Setting off the next morning, we let the gorgeous Flores scenery roll under our wheels. Arriving in Labuan Bajo, we saw the first big concentration of other tourists so far on the trip – drawn here by the…
Finally in Flores
We had arrived in Kupang on Thursday night, having heard there was a ferry on Saturday that could take us to Flores, the next island in sequence. On discussions with the staff in the office, and the friendly locals running…
Mountains to Maubisse, then Into Indonesia
With the bike finally back in hand, and the need to return to the Indonesian embassy at 2PM to collect our passports, we set off early for a day trip into the mountains south of Dili – the target town,…