Got to Singapore after a very long but comfortable KLM flight. There DJ was waiting for me and Laura. I sat down with DJ for a drink and next to the counter a sign read: "NO STUDYING". I have seen cafe-signs before but they mostly said: "no smoking" or something along those lines. Apparently the Singapore airport is a cool studying place for students so the staff needs to make sure that the place doesn't get overcrowded with them.
Laura got to Singapore as well and then we spent a nice evening eating out with DJ and her friends and had a close encounter with the famous durian fruit. It's uhmm... stinky and mushy. It's a love-it-or-hate-it fruit. I disliked it because of the smell and strange texture. But definitely worth a taste.
The next day we made our way to Yogya where we had a really nice taxi driver that offered to be our tour guide for the next day. We got to our hostel, Delta Homestay - quite good looking on the outside and cleanish on the inside. The bathroom wasn't great but otherwise it was worth the money we paid (125000Rp/night). The staff was very friendly and also got us tickets to the Ramayana ballet (140000Rp). The surprising thing in Yogya was that we got a bottle of water everywhere and that people always had a smile on their face. We walked around, had a good lunch, dinner at ViaVia - the expat cozy place - and then saw the ballet. The next day started early with a trip to Borobudur and Parambanan. For 12hrs with us we paied our guide 150000Rp/pers ...well, more with tip. Yoko, our guide and driver, has been extremly nice. He walked us around everywhere and told us about the temples, was watching out for us like a father and was always happy to take pictures of us. I'd recommend him any day! What was the most surprising about Yogya was that DJ forgot her money at the hostel and then they called the driver of our bus to Bromo so we can return and grab it. I've always been told that we need to watch out with our belongings in Indonesia but they made a big effort to get it back to us.
We took a 12hr bus to Bromo - the mistake we made was that we didn't book Yogya-Bromo-Bali from the beginning with accommodation. We managed to get a hostel in Bromo and after 4hrs of sleep we woke up at 3am to go to Bromo. From one peak you can see the sun rise over Bromo, it's an amazing view. You then go by Jeep to a plateau from where you climb to the tip of the vulcano. You can either walk there or ride. We rode. Once we got to the vulcano, the view and smell of sulphur transport you to another world. Strangely enough we felt like in a Lord of the Rings landscape...Mordor. After 5hrs around Bromo we got driven back to Probolinggo where we waited for another bus to take us to Bali. Unfortunately, the bus ride was almost 12hrs from there to Denpasar, not 6hrs as they said. There are around 6-7 hrs to Lovina but a lot more to Denpasar. We then managed to get a hostel, slept well and made our way to Kuta in the morning. Now we're in Kuta, treating ourselves at a nice hotel, 25$/pers/night. We'll stay here for 2 more days, go to Ubud and then back to Singapore for a day.
I thought the roads here would be terrible, surprisingly they are better than in Romania. The driving though is much worse. The way they overtake is insane. I think 1cm is a decent distance for overtaking here. The honk also is an essential part of driving. And funnily enough the vegetation is different and so are the styles of the houses but most of the part we drove through in Java looks like rural Romania. I don't know if they're more evolved than I thought or we're way behind....still the shock was quite small. Interesting!
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