Day Two in Indonesia.

Dear people who actually read this blog,

Please accept my apology for abandoning this site for more than a week now.

Yours truly,
Me.

Okay, that was completely off topic but I couldn't think of a better way to start this. If I'm not mistaken, we woke up pretty early that morning. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this earlier, did you know that we are one hour ahead of their time? Well, now you know.

Standing outside the cheap hotel we spent the night in.

The water heater in that hotel was the scariest heater I've come across. This heater uses gas to heat up the water and there's a transparent glass so you can actually see fire when you turn the gas on. Hahah, we were so afraid it would explode.

After having our breakfast, we checked-out of the hotel and travelled again to see a volcano.

Before that, the driver had to fill in petrol. The famous brand there is named Solar.

It started pouring quite heavily during the journey so our hopes in seeing the volcano were already halfway crushed.

Just to prove my point that the weather there is chilly. That day, however, was extremely cold.

Reached Point A (forgot what was the actual name) but due to the bad weather, we couldn't see anything. =(

The driver then drove us to Point B, another point where the volcano can be seen. Point B was not easy to reach. We had to go through the narrow and winding roads and I mean seriously winding roads. I was this close to throwing up it's not even funny but I survived! Hahah. Poor Mella (Kak's daughter) didn't though. She puked. See, proves my point again that it was a crazy 'ride'.

Point B is called Ketep Pass.

Paid a small fee to watch this totally boring documentary film about the volcano called Gunung Merapi. I fell asleep, 'nuff said.

Squint if you have to. The volcano is somewhere in the background. Heh.

Her beautiful family.

Next, we moved on to a historic site. A place where most of you have read about in your history text books. This place is none other than...

Candi Borobudur! Ring any bells? If you still don't recall, did you fail your history? Heh. Kiddin'.

Tourists will find this place quite a rip off. They practise price discrimination here. The locals only pay like less than RM5 while we foreigners had to pay RM 40 plus. At first we wanted to pretend as Indonesian Chinese since we were touring with my kak and her family but the plan instantly failed when the security guard asked my dad whether we are foreigners and he just smiled sheepishly.

Despite the rip off and rainy day, we continued walking chirpily because you can always stand...

Under my umbrella ella ella eh eh eh. Hahah. Forgive me for the lameness =p

Papa and mummy. The whole area is basically covered with that stone sculpture in the background. There's a Buddha statue inside each of those stones and it is believed that if you can stretch your hand in to touch it, you will have good luck. *Somebody made a joke about how those stones look like ...*use your imagination*. LOL. So sharp wan meh?

That *somebody shall not be named to protect his privacy. =)

We got interviewed by a bunch of school kids because it was one of the ways for them to brush up on their English. However, it turned out that I was the one interviewing the student because she was so shy to speak up.

I shall not criticize on their command of English because apparently, they only picked up the English language three years ago.

Bunch of students.

Many stupas.

Failed attempt.

Slightly better.

Yay! (Notice the missing person? Ahahah)

Went for dinner after that at a stall. We sat by the road side on the mats because that's how the locals do it. Ordered bird rice. I think it was a pigeon hahah.

Dinner was not very filling so we went out again to pack this.

J. CO Donuts!

What a healthy way to end the night right, I know. Hahaha.

Goodnight peeps!

Apa Khabar? *with Indon accent*

Hello people! I think it's about time to blog about my recent trip to Indonesia which lasted for 5days & 4nights.
27/10/2008

That morning started off really early. Remember the night before I said we were to leave at 4am? Well, we didn't. We only left at 5am, with my uncle, aunt & 2 cousins who reached our house even before we were ready and as usual my dad rushed us like crazy. Haha. They were so nice to send us off to the airport at such an early hour of the day. Thank you Mark & family =)

In the car, Sarah & I realized we left our toiletries at home. Uh-oh. That means I didn't bring my contact lens case with me. And yes, we were left toothbrush-less. But no, we did NOT not brush our teeth. The hotels obviously provided toothbrushes. Thank God for that. =)

Some camwhoring moments.

After the 2 and a half hours (or shorter than that) journey, we finally landed on the soil of Indonesia. The Solo Airport to be exact. Although I did prepare myself mentally that this place would not be as urbanized as it should be, it still didn't cross my mind that the airport was an actual airport. I mean, looking at the condition of it, I thought I just landed in some kind of...run down shop? Should have taken a picture for you guys to see it.

Now Everyone Can Fly.

I was carrying a juice extractor.

Right after getting hold of our luggages, we walked out of the 'airport' and my dad instantly recognized my kak's family members. I was surprised at how quickly he could recognize them because there were quite many people around. My kak was still stuck lining up at the counter solely for locals. Since there wasn't many foreigners there, it only made sense that we got our passports chopped quicker. Looking back, I realized we actually greeted her family members first instead of her introducing them to us. Kinda weird if you ask me.

Like I've said before, the scenario of how she reunited with her family after 3 years is priceless. Her daughter who is 9 years old now was still in a state of a shock when she saw her mother. She didn't show much emotion. We even thought to ourselves if she has forgotten how her mother looks like.

After the not-so-emotional-yet-still-quite-emotional moment, we briskly walked to the van which was responsible to bring us around the city for the next 3 days. Our first intended stop was to be back at her kampung, which would be another journey of 2 hours.

However, my dad couldn't resist himself from food, or rather his stomach was calling out for food even when we already had this on the plane.

Mum pre-ordered nasi lemak and 1901 hot dogs for the family online.

In the end, our first stop turned out to be at this shop which is famous for its bakso. Bakso is actually beef balls and you can literally find bakso anywhere and everywhere you go. We fell in love with this delicacy we consumed it practically every meal.

The entire family agreed that this was still the best after trying many bowls from other places.

FionaDeAnnoying posing with the family van.

Me talking to Rose (pronounced Rosi) but I prefer to call her Oci 'cos that's her nickname. She's so adorable and such an angel!

Oci & I acting like aunties after my kakak did her grocery shopping at a local market. Kak bought the petai (pronounced pete) especially for me! Heheh. Ironically, the petais in Indonesia didn't leave that much of a stench like how it should. In fact, the after-effect stench was so mild I couldn't even remember I just ate petai.

Those orangey thing are raw carrots!

The scenery on the way to her kampung. The kampung is located at a district called Karanganyar. As you can see, it's slightly misty because we were going uphill. The weather was awesome. Chilly, just right. The roads were pretty scary because it was very steep. To make matters worse, there were no side railings to prevent any vehicle from falling off the hill. What a scary sight!

Phew! We finally arrived safely after trembling in the van with much fear.

The newly renovated church which was very pleasant looking.

Her neighbour's house beside the church.

At the doorstep of the church.

The pulpit and musical instruments.

They even rare rabbits at the side of the house. So cute la!! I really, really wanna rare one (or two) myself. Speaking of which, I saw a few on sale at Carrefour the other day. They were so so so cute!!! Anyone wanna sponsor ar? Heheh.

I want one (or two) like this!

There! This is the one from Carrefour. I want!

Beside the rabbits' hutch were the lambs.

After being a Nosy Parker around the surroundings of the house, we went back to the church to have our lunch which was prepared by her neighbours/church members.

The simple lunch.

Dad digging into the mango bought by kak from the local market.

Carrot juice. Kak also bought carrots from that lady in the picture above. She wanted to show off to her neighbours what her brand new juice extractor could do. Hahah.

After we bade farewell to her kampung peeps, we left her home to explore the rest of the city. Her husband brought us to this place called Candi Cetho. It is said to have existed since the Raja Majapahit era.

The turtle-shaped stone.

Next, we headed to the waterfall. The journey from Candi Cetho to the waterfall took quite awhile, so I fell asleep in the van.

Upon reaching the said destination, I was greeted with the sight of two monkeys humping. Yes, I kid you not. It was like watching National Geographic live. My sleepy eyes opened wide almost instantly. Unfortunately, I couldn't reach for the camera in time to snap a picture of it. There were wild monkeys everywhere so I didn't bring anything with me in case those monkeys think it's food and decide to act violently against me. Safety precaution. Heh.

After walking about 15 minutes...

TA DAA! Gorgeous. *ahem* I meant the waterfall. It's called the Tawangmangu Waterfall.

We walked a lot throughout the day so it was time to find for a hotel. Checked-in, cleaned ourselves up then headed out to hunt for dinner by walking.

SOP BUNTUT. Hahaha. What is that man? Out of curiosity, we then decided to dine in this restaurant although there were no other customers inside.

Ordered a Soda Gembira (Happy Soda).

My dinner. Mie Rebus. Tasted so much like any other instant noodle they should have just named it Mie Segera.

This, is Sate Kelinci. If you're wondering what this is, rabbit satay is the answer. It reminded me of my ex-rabbit I could only bring myself to chow down one stick. The texture felt so much like when I used to cuddle my rabbit. Oh, and rabbit satays are easily available there that's why my kakak rares them for selling purposes. Being a rabbit is so sad! All they do is hop around, eat and wait to get killed. =(

What about this? Heheh, this is SOP BUNTUT la. Oxtail soup to be more precise.

Dinner was pretty cheap. Then again, everything there is cheap. However, we always had trouble converting the currency (1000Rp is about RM0.30) so that's where my handphone comes in handy. *grins*

Basically that was how we spent Day One in Solo city. That's it folks. I shall now end this entry with another picture of mine. Hahah!

Goodnight everyone, sleep tight & don't let the bed bugs bite.