Pangandaran/Jogyakarta, Bromo, Ijen

Indonesia is an amazing coutry with equally amzing people. I am enjoying myself so much here. My visa runs out next week and i am looking to extend it a month. Actually, if you told me i had to spend my entire trip here, it would be a real treat

The place is hot, damn hot, and muggy (it is rainy season). It hits 30C before I fifnish breakfast. The rain comes most days, a few times a day. That being said, it is just a variable, along with no easy train/bus info, squat toilets , cold showers, really lousy bread, etc. All these things can be workded around. I have been to the mountains a few times and the drop of 5C is worht the work to get there. Everyone can help you get to where you want to go, either as hostel support of local tourism.You take a bus/shuttle/car/moto/train somewhere. for a few bucks, someone picks you up where you are staying.

Whie I genrally like to be my own support staff, this place is just so social and inter-connected that I am enjoying the different way to get things done. I am spending about $32 a day for food, lodging, beer and including transport and the guided and non-guided tours.

Breakfast is usualy in the losmen , homestay of hostel. Lunch a steet stall or resto and same for supper, which runs to $2.50 without a drink.

Local Buses and trains are a riot. As many people selling food and services as customers, and they all change every stop or so, so are continually inter-acting with these people, who are basically polite about their business. I enjoy moving about this country a lot. I smile,say hello or laugh with people 40-50 times a day and it is addictive. When you get in a public spot, like a temple, like Eva from Germany says, it is like being Madonna, surrounded by people who want to talk to you, take pictures with you. It really is a heart-warming culture

You give an Indonesian a smile, you get a bigger one back.

Been busy with sports and cultural, a few volcanoes, rivers, plantations parks, temple sites, beaches, day hikes, mucho hours on a moto. The traffic here is intense. No way a description or photo does it justice. It is not as intense a India, but in the same ballpark. Really need to follow the rules whne xrossing lanes of traffic that splay all over the roadways:

Walk, don't run. Don't stop

Traffic will flow around you. Honest. Believe it. You have to believe ro never cross a street.

Been way more social than usual, as the backpackers crowd tends to hit the same places and between the tourist attractions and bars, you keep hanging out with a flowing group of 10-15 people that changes as the towns change. Facebook is the common language, which is why I bought a for, for the wifi connections that exist everywhere and people post and comment like CDNs text all day. I have to work a bit to get time to myself and get things done like reading and this blog. I use

PANGANDARAN

What a week, nice little surf town, great place to stay (Panorama), lots of new friends, a few nights at the beach bars being silly, a jungle walk (the pic is from a swim...stunning view), a tour thru the kampung (local villages), coconut farms, a day of canyoning with some big jumps and of course, surfing. An amazing week all around.

JOGYAKARTA

Another amazing week, the little backpacker section of the city is all little alleyways maybe 6 feet wide, no vehicles. You can get anything you want without leaving, sleep, eat, drink, laundry, internet. The tours around include Borobador and Prambanan, plus the Merapi volcano. Did all of this, but no luck with a view on the volcano. Also finally got a phone, as wifi is everywhere but internet shops not so much. The train to Jogja was a riot.

BROMO - IJEN

Bromo is the crater everyone goes to see when travelling from JogJa to Bali. With the Merapi washout, we also went to Ijen...a most stunning place with guys digging sulphur out of the volcano crater and hauling it up. We live in a funny world.

Stunning amount of bussing it takes to get this done. 12 hrs to Bromo, 8 to Ijen and another 8 to Bali. Current medical report has a heat rash on my ass, a rash from climbing Merapi in the rain with sandals and a foot infection (small abrasion canyoning, exacerbated by leash on surf board and the volcano hike, no way to deal with in 3 days of bussing) and voila...now holed up in Denpasar, Bali with antibiotics. No surfing, no beer. Catching up on things which is good.

Indonesian Hospital...in and out in one hour with doctor appt, cleanup and meds..all for $40. Sweet.

Indonesia - Jakarta/Bandung

My Remembrance Day moment of silence in Jakarta

Indonesia is quite a change from Japan. Time and space mean different things here. It is a very fast-paced country with a large, traditional Muslim culture. It is also very dense with people, motos and cars. Being in the middle of all this interaction is a lot of fun. Everyone gets about on little combi buses and motos. Watching Muslim women hikes their skirts (they all have long trousers underneath) to get on the back of a moto is very odd. Definitely not a picture-taking opportunity.

There are malls that inside look like middle America (with mucho more people) and yet outside, the street teems with food stalls glued to every conceivable usable space, open sewers, garbage without end and enough traffic to keep you on your two. To cross, you have but one rule, walk, do NOT run, do NOT stop. he traffic will flow around you. Trust me. My first experience of this was India...which is another level up, so here I am quite fine.

First night in Jakarta, we drive some scooters over to Monas Park to play soccer againsta small crew of 14-15 year-old, barefoot locals. The temperature was in the 30s at 9:00 PM. There was a chnace of this being my last day on the planet. Then it was off for a few beers and back to hostel. We saw a girl on a moto get hit as we left the bar. This made the 20 minutes back a little more hair-raising.

People have been more than friendly, with lots of eye-contact, smiles, hellos and nods. In tourist areas like the volcano, you deal with street touts, but they are friendly, not really aggressive and no grabbing, so easy to be polite or ignore them. Otherwise, all I get is lots of hello, Mister!.

The hike above the hills in Bandung yesterday was very cool. Took an hour to bus to Lembang then a bit of walking to get out of town, then uphill thru a few villages, surrounded by working rice paddies, cut into the mountains.

My favorite part of travelling includes hiking the backs of small towns and then getting up into some elevation to look back down. The Lembang hike was perfect.

Wwoofing with the Kinezuka Family in Fujieda

I think the Japanese drink more beer than Canadians!!!!

Cxxx  / Mxxxxxxx / Oxxxx / FARM

Wwoofing is such a great concept. You show up at someone's farm, agree to live and work with the family..and they take you in, feed you, give you a bed, expose you to new food and a bit of local culture. I have done this in Canada and New Zealand and it was always a lot of fun. Woofing in Japan adds the variable of a different language and a lot of food I have never seen nor heard of before.

The Kinezuka family in Fujieda took me in for a week, and all I had to do was put in 8 hours of back-breaking labour, and the rest was free sailing. My best buddy was the patriarch of the family, Toshiaki. In the first minutes we meet, we are having hand strength contests and putting back beer and sake while eating what was to become a serious array of (to me) exotic foods. Then it was off to an outdoor onsen (hot spa) to soak up some serious heat and watch the moon come up over the low mountains (Fujieda is in some small mountains just SW of Mt. Fuji).

It takes a certain type of family to want to take in a variety of un-skilled, non-Japanese people to help out on the farm. They have to be curious about the world, be open to other cultures and allow strangers to share their family life. The Kinezuka family is all this and more. There was a lot of warmth in the family, between themselves and towards me. It was the best part of the experience..that and the fact that they have a sense of humour, especially Toshiaki. I tend to may a lot of wisecracks about the situations I am in...even tho they may or may not come across in another culture. I felt very comfortable being myself in this family.

I bring 2 things with me when I am Wwoofing, a strong work ethic and the desire to eat everything placed in front of me. This went over well in the Japanese family. Kazue and Toshiaki seemed to be intent on not having the same food twice for my entire week. Everyday was a lot of new tastes and textures.

I got to learn about soy beans, rice and tea farming (very hands on, you could say), we got out to three restaurants, a tea festival, the onsen and some horseback riding. All in all, fantastic way to spend a week and one of the coolest experiences I have had in the past few years.

Thus ends my Japan visit for now..my plan was to visit 4 areas (City - Tokyo, Mountain - Fuji, Ocean - Izu Peninsula and Farm - Fujieda) and that went very well. Onto the next country!