B is for Buffy, Bali, Borobudur, Batik

It has been a little while since my last blog post. Here are the highlights, which all happen to start with the letter B!

Buffy: It has been 12 days since my mom landed in Jakarta. We have two more days together before I put her in a taxi back to the airport to fly home. It has been great to have my mom come visit. First because she brought me creature comforts from home including my favorite Cliff Bar Kids. It also gave me an excuse to take a week of work and travel around Indonesia.

Bali: The first stop on our travels was to Beautiful Bali where we hiked Mt. Batur and Bicycled. Our first day was spent walking around Ubud trying to look at all the sights while avoiding all the holes in the sidewalk. The next morning we woke up at 2 am to leave for Mt. Batur. We were hiking to the top to see sunrise. The hike was exhausting partly because we had tiny flashlights that were not effective at lighting the path. We made it to the top thanks to the help of the coke salesman who pulled my mom along with his backpack full of soda bottles. While the sunrise was a little cloudy and the weather a little chilly, it was fun to explore the top of the volcano which is inhabited by some monkeys. The next day we went bicycling through the rice fields. It was a exhilarating way to see Bali, just be careful not to fall into the rice paddies. It takes a lot of concentration to stay on the narrow pathways. The final day in Bali was spent at the Beach in Kota. We also took a drive to see sunset over Tanah Lot, a cool temple that sits on a cliff in the ocean. You can only really walk to it during low tide.

Mt. Batur

Monkey at the top of Mt. Batur

Trying Luwak Coffee

View from Mt. Batur

Crater at the top of Mt. Batur

Rice Paddy

Ducks!!

   

Monkey Forest

Kecak Dancing

Tanah Lot

Borobudur and Batik: The next stop was Yogyakarta back on the island of Java. The highlights included seeing sunrise on Borobudur and Batik shopping. The first day was spent walking in downtown Yogya exploring the plethora of batik shops, it was a lot of fun scouring the racks for interesting clothing. Our second day we woke up early to see sunrise on Borobudur. The afternoon featured a stop at Chocolate Monggo for some tasting and purchasing. The third day we traveled to Prambanan, a Hindu temple, and then climbed the 300 steps to Imogiri, a Javanese cemetery. Before catching our flight on the last day we stopped at the Kraton (Sultan's Palace), Taman Sari (Water Palace), and some more shopping.

Sunrise on Borobudur

Prambanan - still has a lot of earthquake damage.

Imogiri

Happy to be walking down the stairs that lead to Imogiri.

Taman Sari

Kraton and Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppets)

Making Batik

Big Durian: Though the traveling was fun, it was great to get back to Jakarta, to the familiar even with its traffic and pollution.