Living Like A Turtle

Selamat pagi from Indonesia

• Posted by Caroline on June 28th, 2005 filed in Indonesia, South East Asia, Travel
• 1 Comment »

Hello to all, its been a while since I last wrote to you all, but hope you’re all ok, and not missing me too much!!!

Since the last mail, we took a visit to Pulau Tioman, which was a little island on the South East coast of Malaysia which was very chilled, with beautiful waters, sunsets, great places for snorkelling…which I’m sure the little fishes enjoyed, as I kept getting knibbled by the little blighters while ol’ Jhon boy got to see jellyfish and sorts.

(Sunset in Pulau Tioman)

Moving onto Singapore, if I thought KL was modern, arriving in Singapore was even more so. High rise buildings, tv screens on the trains and buses, and numerous shopping malls designated for electronic goods purchasing!!! Very bad on me, as I went a bit crazy on some things in ol’ Sim Lim square, but its ok…until my credit card bill arrives!!!

The country itself seems somewhat artificial, with their random laws and efficient lifestyle, and this is shown in Sentosa Island, their equivalent of Disney Land. Got to be all childlike and see lots of shows with dolphins and lasers which I thoroughly enjoyed, but the highlight for me during our stay in Singapore had to be the Night Safari. Sitting in a tram for 45 minutes looking out for the creatures of the night…fantastic!!!

(The only photo I could take at the night safari, my night vision on the camera was dodgy!)

Unfortunately didn’t get to do Raffles, as didn’t have the money or decent clothing to look all sophisticato for a cocktail…and found the sikh doorman a bit intimidating, so skipped that one out for another time.

Now we’re in Indonesia, and all I can say is that it really is a blessing for me to come from an asian background, coz everyone here thinks I’m Indonesian. I’ve taken it upon myself to pick up a handful of Indonesian phrases (as its quite an easy language to pickup, which is saying something for me!!!) which have helped me out tons in getting charged prices below the tourist rate!!! Fab!

(Barong Kris dance)

Spent 4 days in Bali, and timed it well to make it in time for the 3rd Kuta Karnival…a celebration of Kuta and its traditions/tourism since the terrorist bombing 3 years ago. Its strange to see the area in which the bomb and club were located, and hard to believe that tourism was affected that badly as everything seems to be running well from what I can see…so much so that after being in Kuta for 2 days I’d had enough of the commercialism, and opted to take up some day tours around the island to get away from all the surfer dudes and such like. Got to see the Barong Kris dance which was a great insight into the traditional performances that they showcase on the island, after which we got to visit some hindu temples which involved Jhon wearing a sarong, which I found highly amusing!!!

br /> (Me and a local outside one of the hindu temples)

Since its coming towards the end of our travels, I thought we’d get involved in some proper adrenaline activities. Did some quad biking the other day which I thoroughly enjoyed, even if I accidently drove down a section which caused Jhon’s foot to smack right into a tree…ouch!!! (Opted for the tandem bike as we’re so low on cash we couldn’t afford our own!) Then upon our return to Bali, we’ll be doing some white water rafting, and yours truly is thinking of taking up some surfing lessons and MAYBE doing a 50m bungee jump (Jhon isn’t too keen, and I’m still debating it, but sounds like fun right now!?!?!).

As of now we’re in Yogyakarta in East Java, where we’ve booked ourselves some time to visit Prambanan (hindu temple), and a Ramayana Ballet this evening, and then tomorrow morning (5am to be exact), we’ll be visiting Borobudur (Bhuddist temple) which is apparently in the same league as that of Angkor wat in Cambodia, so can’t wait! After this, we’ll be doing a 2 day tour/trek to see Mount Bromo, a volcano with some impressive moon crater type views, before heading back to Denpasar to mingle with the 90% Ozzie population.

So I guess that’s all for now.

Ta ta and the rest, not long till I see you all soon.

Caroline
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