Alex & Lizzy's (Travel) Blog

From Perth we flew to Alice Springs where we hoped to book onto a 3 day trip taking in Uluru (aka Ayers Rock), The Olgas (aka Kata Tjuta) and Kings Canyon (aka Watarrka).  Still very much in the Asian mindset of doing everything last minute, we got a few eye rolls and sighs from our hostel ‘tour agent’ when we asked to book on a 3-day trip leaving the next morning, but she eventually managed to find us a place on one and off we set early the next day.

Five hours later, we arrived in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta. National Park. As the temperature was predicted to be 48 degrees C, we spent a few extra hours in the cultural centre, waiting for the temperature to fall to a mere 40 degrees before setting off on a very short walk to the Olga’s.

Sunset at Uluru, where we drove afterwards, was spectacular for very different reasons- Our guide told us that a cyclone with 140mph winds was predicted to be coming our way (hence our free upgrade from sleeping in swags to tents….although what good a tent would do in 140mph winds I don’t know)! As we approached Uluru, we could see the dark clouds massing to our west and saw the beginnings of some very cool twisters behind lots of lightning. All the tourists who’d braved the winds and the extremely annoying millions of flies that constantly try to fly up your nose, eyes, mouth and ears (Thank God for fly nets and the top tip we’d had to get one- thanks Tom and Jules!!) stood with their backs to Uluru, snapping shots of the storm instead.  Fortunately for us, the storm by-passed our campsite and all the tents where still standing in the morning. We heard a campsite several miles away had been utterly destroyed by the storm so we were pretty fortunate !

At 3:45am the next day we got up to see Uluru at sunrise and then do the 3 hour walk around its base before the heat was too unbearable. How the Aborigines survived for so many thousands of years in a land this harsh is beyond comprehension! It was very interesting learning more about how they survived and why Uluru is such a sacred space for them.

The rest of the day we spent driving through several different eco-systems en-route to our campsite near Kings Canyon. After dinner, stories and games around the campfire, we got into our swags for the night, trying not to think too much about dingos (wild dogs which sometimes get aggressive) and creepy crawlies that might try and eat us as we slept under the full moon. I think Alex was a bit freaked out when he awoke at 00:00 and turned to see a Dingo a few metres away from us. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) it didn’t stay around long enough for me to grab the camera!

The next morning we were all psyched up for a 3-hour walk around Kings Canyon. Fortunately, the ‘difficult’ section we had been warned about, would have been what guides in Asia called ‘very easy’ so the time we spent psyching ourselves up for a horrendous climb where completely wasted! This was our favourite walk of the trip though- much more interesting and varied landscape than we’d already seen.
All in all, a fabulous trip!

More photos @ Picasa

It was lovely to be met by familiar faces at Perth airport – Tia & Ali, friends who’ve recently moved out there, picked us up and then looked after us for a whole week! It was great to hang out with them and go exploring a little. On the evening of our arrival we had our first home-cooked meal in months – a lovely roast chicken – very much enjoyed!

The things to do in the south west seem to be going to beaches, drinking alcohol and looking at trees. We did a good amount of each, starting with a day around the Swan Valley tasting wine. Tia kindly volunteered to drive and the rest of us tasted about 22 wines over the course of a few hours interspersed with samples of cheese, olives and even honey (they had 4 different flavours of natural honey!).

The next day we went into town, bought the Lonely Planet (which is a third more expensive here than in the UK, despite being an Australian company) and then headed to the beautiful, windy and wavy Scarborough beach for a swim and a slight sandblasting.

The 4 of us then set off on a 3-day road trip to see some of the sights of Australia’s South West. We travelled via Australind to Margaret River (where we sampled some more wine) and then on to Augusta where the Indian & Southern Ocean’s meet and which is Australia’s most South-Westerly point. It also has a locally-famous Chinese restaurant which turned out to be rather average.

The next day was all about BIG trees. We climbed a 68m karri tree using metal spikes that had been driven into it and some ladders near the top. Great view! (I say that ‘we’ did it, when in reality Lizzy decided not to continue at the 25m rest point… I overcame my fear of heights and pressed on up to the top!). Next stop was the Giant Tingle Tree and then on to Walpole for the night.

Our travels back to Perth included a stop at Mandalay Beach, where every 10 years a ship-wreck seems to appear from the sea at very low tide (we weren’t there at the right time it seems), a pause for a chance encounter with a woman who rescues orphaned kangaroos (we got to stroke them and watch them feed), a brief visit to a cidery which made some OK cider and finally at a weird place that I can’t recall the name of. It’s a tiny place with just a general store, some farm buildings and accommodation and a rather large population of semi-wild kangaroos, emus and parrots! You can buy feed from the store and then become like the Pied Piper as all the animals pursue you to get to the food. It sounds cute and friendly, but the emus are pure evil and the kangaroos aren’t much better (OK, slight exaggeration, but I was freaked out by the emus). The emus will peck hard at anything that looks like food – the feed, the bag, your hand, your feet (where someone might just have “accidentally” thrown some food – thanks Ali!) and stare at you with unblinking orange eyes when they’re not busy pecking.

For Australia Day, we headed down to Freemantle (or “Freo”) and learned about some Australian shipwrecks and innovative Australian beer-brewing at Little Creatures. A taste of local fish & chips, a swim in the sea and it was time to head back to Perth to join the celebrations. Australia Day is a national holiday and a chance for everyone here to be proud of being Ozzie (even if you’re not!). We joined tens of thousands in Kings Park (which was just one view point) to watch ‘Skyworks’ – a huge fireworks show with sound track played over the local radio. Wow!

A packed and lovely week – thanks Tia & Ali & everyone who made it so fun for us!

More photos @ Picasa

As per the last blog – we have 20 hours in Singapore. We planned to spend about 8 of them sleeping and another 6 of them getting to and from the airport and checking in etc. So we had 6 hours to see the important things in Singapore. We decided there were two of these – food and drink (we’d been told this was the thing to do in Singapore ).

So, after a quick trip to Chinatown for some grub, we did the customary trip to Raffles for a Singapore Sling and about 5kg of peanuts (yes, you really do just chuck the shells on the floor – cool eh?). We weren’t blown away by Raffles really, but we were by the view from the top of the Swissotel next door. 71 stories up with cocktails and more crispy nibbles in hand we watched the sun go down over Singapore and the lights begin to come on – a lovely place to kill a couple of hours (and a lot cheaper than Raffles!).

And now it’s time to get some of those 8 hours of sleep…

From Medan, we ventured further north into the province of Aceh, via the 10 hour quite-comfortable-but-nowhere-near-as-good-as-a-bed night bus. Aceh and its main town Banda Aceh became famous when somewhere in the region of 150,000 people died in 3 minutes when the tsunami hit a few years back. As you stand in the low-lying city, it’s hard to imagine a wave washing over it, but at the same time easy to understand how it was so vulnerable – it is very flat and only just above sea level. Thanks to all the foreign aid, much of the city has been rebuilt and it feels like one of the nicer cities we’ve gone to – at least in terms of quality of roads, buildings etc.

We passed through Banda Aceh on our way to catch the ferry to the island of Pulau Weh which is a speedy 45-minute boat trip off the northern coast of Sumatra. The attraction for us, once more, was the beaches and the diving – and both lived up to expectations – the worst thing about the place was that we couldn’t stay more than 2 nights!

We did 2 more dives, which were both really good – loads of fish (most noteworthy one was a 1.5m long Napoleon wrasse) and lovely colourful coral (including some impressively large fans). On the last dive, Lizzy stayed down longer than me (she always uses less air) and was helping our dive master collect a huge fishing line with large hooks on it (a shark line we later found out). After it was all collected, the dive master told her to ascend on her own, which is a bit weird since you’re not meant to do that. He then stayed down for a further 20 mins whilst everyone in the boat wondered what he was up to. We never did find out, but Lizzy found it rather exciting

The rest of the time we spent relaxing on the beach and waiting for food to arrive – the restaurants on the beach were really slow and quite often confused. One morning we ordered a pancake, a fruit salad and a coffee. What we got was 2 fruit salads, 2 coffees and a pancake (although I think the pancake they thought was for someone else)… then later they brought out 2 more fruit salads! I don’t think anyone had a clue what was going on. Having said that, the food we had here, when it eventually turned up, was some of the best we’d had in Indonesia.

Unfortunately, no sooner had we settled in than we had to pack our bags and start the big trek to Perth, via a carefully-coordinated series of taxis, becaks, night buses, flights and a quick stop-over in a hotel in Singapore… We have 20 hours to explore Singapore, so we’d best get going!

A few more photos @ Picasa

Thankfully, with Alex dosed up on several different medications courtesy of Julie and a Sumatran Dr, we were able to leave Medan (which was just another big Asian city really) and head out to the wilds of the jungle to spot some orang-utans (the only ape found in South East Asia). Several bumpy hours later we arrived in Bukit Lawang- a small riverside village on the edge of the jungle. Within minutes of arriving we’d spotted a family of monkeys/gibbons swinging through the trees ahead and instantly knew we were going to like it here. Apparently, Bukit Lawang used to be on the tourist trail, but due to floodings, earthquakes and various other natural disasters, it was pretty much forgotten. While it was horrific for the community, for us it meant we had all the facilities a tourist could want (including treehouse cafes which are wicked!) but without the hoards.

The jungle trek we did the following day was definitely another highlight and it felt adventurous scrambling up steep slopes and down gullies all the time trying to listen for the sound of orang-utans in the trees. It wasn’t too long before we spotted trees moving overhead and spotted the orange fur. They were captivating to watch- they look so clumsy as they flop around in the trees but somehow they manage to move gracefully and without any obvious effort. The 8 orang-utans we ended up seeing during the course of the day were all semi-wild and had been released from the rehabilitation centre so they were fairly used to humans and came really close to us. They looked like giant teddy bears- cute and cuddley but I don’t think they liked me saying that as one of the ones almost directly above us decided to take a pee, hitting the couple stood next to us and narrowly avoiding us!  Then the ‘King of the Jungle’, an orang-utan called ‘Mena’ started following us which worried the guides a bit as apparently she can get aggressive so we ended up having to throw bananas in the opposite direction to us and she ended up causing us no problems at all.

Having seen some orang-utans, we trekked a bit further down to the river where we swam and then rafted back to where we’d started.

More photos @ Picasa

Having arrived by bus after our trip to Ketep pass, we were really pleased to find a clean hotel with a hot water shower,  western toilet, free wi-fi, breakfast AND a swimming pool still well within budget . We spent a day visiting the Kraton & Water Palace (pretty forgettable and not well maintained or particularly impressive) and then went to a Batik gallery where we were shown how batik is made and then bought a couple of mementos so that we can have a piece of my Indonesian heritage in our house

The next day we got up at 4:30am to go and see Borobodur, a huge Buddhist temple, at sunrise. It was pretty impressive as the mists hadn’t completely risen from the ground so the temple was almost floating in a sea of mist. Apart from that, being there so early didn’t seem to have much advantage other than we were maybe there at a quieter time.  There were however, still plenty of ‘local’ tourists who all wanted their photos taken with us.  It still seems bizarre how much effect skin colour can have- I guess the UK is pretty multi-cultural so we’re used to different skin colours whereas here maybe people have only seen ‘white’ faces on the TV. Fortunately, no-one tried to pinch my cheeks (jupet me) as was common when I was a chunky white baby out here, and we were quite happy to provide them with some entertainment.

So verdict on Yogyakarta- an arty place with lots of places to chill out and watch the world go by. Tomorrow we leave for Sumatra, which is four times bigger than Java and far less populated. We’ve been led to believe the travel is much harder over there and it’s even less touristy so we’re ready for a hopefully very rewarding challenge.

More photos @ Picasa

After a memorable visit to Salatiga, we decided to continue the reminiscing and head to Kopeng, where Lizzy had been on holiday with her family when she lived in Java. It was just a short local bus journey up into the mountains and we found ourselves there before lunchtime and looking for accommodation. We’d expected it to be a bit more foreign-tourist-friendly, but we got strange looks as we walked through town examining the different hotels on offer. After visiting a few less-than-desirable options, I finally discovered a nice little place down a little track and we booked in for the night.

We had 2 things on the agenda for Kopeng – firstly to find the “Shangri La” guesthouse where Lizzy had stayed with her family 20+ years ago, and secondly to find our way the next morning to Ketep Pass for views of Gunung Merapi and Merbabu.

Finding Shangri La was relatively easy (the locals fortunately understood the name of the place combined with our basic Bahasa Indonesia for ‘where is:’ “Di mana Shangri La?”).  Unfortunately though, it seemed to have closed a long time ago – the gates were padlocked and the gardens overgrown. We could only catch glimpses of the house itself through the gate and gaps in the fence as we looked around. Nice to find the place, but a shame that was where it ended – it was always going to be a let-down after our incredible success in Salatiga!

Our second mission proved somewhat harder. After having asked the only english-speaking person in the town (who promptly drove off with his small french tour group) about getting to Ketep Pass, he suggested we get a car to take us for $50 (!) or hire a motorbike and drive there ourselves for about $10. Neither seemed appealing – the former was way too expensive for a 40km round-trip and the latter seemed a little too ambitious considering the distance and state of the roads. However, we looked into both options and couldn’t progress either of them given the language barrier. We decided we’d just get up early the next morning and see if we could figure out a way there… and we were glad we did!

Getting up before 6am, we meandered out of our room with no idea how we’d get to the pass. Fortunately one of the owners was up already and told us we could get a public bus and then hire a motorbike nearer the pass. After 20 minutes waiting for such a bus, we were embarassed that the owner was still waiting with us on the road and he seemed to sense this and stopped a passing bemo (tiny minivan-come-bus) which we chartered for a few hours. After dropping his whole family at the market with their goods to sell for the day, we headed up to the pass.

When we arrived at the pass, the surrounding landscape was shrouded in cloud and we thought perhaps the trip hadn’t been quite worth it (another few hours’ sleep wouldn’t have gone amiss!). The whole place – museum, restaurant, terraces etc – was deserted and we figured everyone else knew better than us! However, as we stood there, the clouds cleared and we got amazing views over the valleys and across to Gunung Merapi (Indonesia’s most active volcano) which was spewing brown smoke and also to Merbabu. Well worth the early start and expense in the end!

More photos @ Picasa (with the Salatiga ones)

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting about returning to Salatiga, I guess I hoped I’d find my childhood home and maybe recognise and recall some more places and stories. I certainly wasn’t expecting what we got!

Having been told at the University where Dad lectured that the old lecturers’ compound we had lived on was now a car wash, I was fairly disappointed. Fortunately, we decided to see for ourselves and discovered it hadn’t been demolished at all . While we pored over photos to try and establish which house we’d lived in, a lady, (Mrs Titaley – wife of the Rector as it turned out) came out of one of them (probably suspicious we were planning a robbery!) and asked if she could help us.

Then – the 1980s	Now

She remembered the name ‘Brian Hills’ and we soon had a small gathering of people around us recounting stories of ‘Brian Hills’ (and his family) – the English lecturer who wore a seatbelt (obviously at the time a very strange thing to have done!) and meticulously planned and lectured the Sciences in Indonesian. One of the guys, Ferry, was Dad’s old student (now the Dean of the Faculty of Health) and he actually recounted specific things he’d remembered Dad saying in lectures and recalled watching me and my friends playing with frogs  in the pond outside his University dorm (my fascination and love of animals obviously started young)!

They insisted we come back the next day and Ferry showed us the lecture books Dad had written which he still had and gave us a tour of the Faculty of Health. He also interrupted the lecturers’ planning meeting to introduce us to everyone and practically offered me a job in front of them – I went as pink as my bright pink t-shirt! (They’re struggling to find Nurses to lecture as you need a Masters but I don’t think he realises I don’t have my Dad’s intellect or drive!) Next, he dropped us off with Mrs Titaley who showed us around her house (identical design to the one we lived in next door which is unfortunately pretty derelict and only lived in by visiting lecturers) and then she spent the morning showing us around the University, pointing out the kindergarten I went to and the church we attended!!! Being the wife of the Rector (the Head of the University), this was all done in the very sleek university car driven by the university driver (who’s been here since 1979 and also recalled Dad and his Daihatsu minivan)!!!!!!! She also took us to meet her husband in his office and then we were driven to see the Rector who was in charge when I lived here in the 80s!! Very very surreal-their generosity was almost embarrassing and we’ve been treated like VIPs all the way!

More photos @ Picasa