Honestly, I wasn’t looking forward to Bali or Ubud.  To most people Bali sounds like this magical Eat Pray Love kind of a place.  To me I thought it meant lots of foreign tourists and not many authentic experiences in local places with local people.

Ubud turned out to be a place for authentic experiences despite the popularity with foreign tourists.

Our plan was to check out Tude’s Family Homestay when we arrived. It was the first place on WikiTravel, with a good review, and in our price range. We stepped out of the taxi, put on our backpacks, and were approached by a man. This was not a surprise since it happens EVERY TIME we have our backpacks on.  He said he had a room for 150,000rupiah ($13) and for some reason we followed him. I guess it was his honest face (you don’t see many in Indonesia).

We walked in to the garden and saw that it was actually Tude’s Family Homestay – the very place we were looking for.  So we rented one of his two rooms and felt it was meant to be. The owner, Putu, has only had these rooms for a few months and is still a waiter at a nearby restaurant (where he met his wife). We woke up to tea waiting for us on the porch. Then he cooked and served us breakfast on the porch.  In the afternoon there was more tea waiting for us. His son and friends played in the garden.  His mom put out the offerings for the Gods in the morning. It was such a nice experience with a Balinese family. We had privacy but still felt like we were staying with a family.

Putu told us the next day the cremation ceremony was starting at the Monkey Forest.  We were very fortunate to be in Ubud because it only happens every 6 years. All women and men must wear a sarong. To show up without a sarong on would be considered disrespectful. I had one but my boyfriend didn’t. Putu generously offered to lend one to Michel. In the morning he helped him put it on and sent us on our way to the ceremony.

When the lower class Balinese die and the family doesn’t have enough money for a proper cremation ceremony the bodies are buried and the family waits for the next group cremation ceremony. Some families had been waiting for 6 years since their loved one died.  The cremation ceremony sends the deceased into their next life.

The ceremony started with everyone in front of their loved one’s sarcophagus (coffin). In this ceremony the bodies weren’t actually in the sarcophagus.

Next the sarcophaguses were carried to the spot where they would be burned. They were really beautiful to look at.

Sometimes children would sit on the top. Usually they looked like they were having fun but this poor kid was terrified.

Carrying the sarcophaguses was hard work. Sometimes when they turned a corner it looked like they were going to tip over.

Next gifts were brought by the family members. This was mostly done by women carrying the offerings on their heads.

The presentation of the gifts took hours. We watched the band for a while.

We left for a couple hours. We thought we missed the actual burning part but we got back just in time. I was surprised to see the fire department there. They made spectators move to the other side of the fence for the actual burning. I couldn’t help but think back to the fireworks I witnessed in China where no safety precautions were ever followed.

This was one of my favorite experiences in Indonesia. It wasn’t a show for the tourists like most everything is in Indonesia. It was real and they permitted us to watch. Though our funerals in the west are nothing like this I can’t imagine inviting foreigners to watch and photograph.

Merapi was just a one hour taxi ride from Yogyakarta.  We tried to find the bus because we thought that would be cheaper but in the end we ended up taking a taxi for only 100,000Rupiah.  Lonely Planet said this was possible but we didn’t believe it.  This really was the most convenient option.

We read about Vogels Hostel in Lonely Planet and on the internet.  They give tours and have accommodations so this seemed like the best way to see the most active volcano in the world.  The rooms are nice and the food is delicious. There was a schedule written on the board in the dinning hall. Christian (the owner and tour guide) told us that he’s been doing this for 30 years and never had a TV crew come to film the tour but the next day there would be a crew with us. Of course!  I can never seem to get away from TV.  The crew was from the Indonesian CNN and focused mainly on Christian.  Their goal was to bring more awareness to Indonesians in hopes they’ll come visit.

The day started at 3:30am.  We had breakfast and Christian gave us a little history of Merapi as well as the schedule for the morning.

Merapi is the most active volcano in the world so this hike at first sounds quite risky and scary.  But Christian told us the activity is very closely monitored. He had a walkie talkie so he could be informed if there was activity detected.

2010 was the last big eruption. I thought eruptions happened and no one knew it was coming.  But actually they monitor the activity and can predict when an eruption will happen so there’s time to evacuate.  In 2010 they evacuated 350,000 people but 350 people stayed behind and were killed.  The lava made it to Christian’s hostel but didn’t cause any real damage. You can see the lava on this newspaper article:

We left in the dark so we could watch the sunrise.

After the sunrise we hiked further up to get a better view of Merapi.

Apparently there are healing powers around the volcano so we laid barefoot on rocks and walked in lava sand.

Overall this experience was worth the money.  Christian is knowledgable and passionate about his volcano.  We thought we would get much closer to the peak but still had a good view.  Starting early was important because by 9am the clouds have moved in and you can’t see anything.   We were back for our 2nd breakfast by 10:30am – fruit, banana pancakes, and a huge egg sandwich.

Yogyakarta is on the island of Java.  It’s pronounced Jogjakarta and means  ’a city that is fit to prosper’. It’s quite touristy but with Indonesian tourists as well as western tourists.  Malioboro is the main street with lots of shopping.

In the evening restaurant tents on Malioboro open for dinner. You take your shoes off and sit on the floor.

We woke up early on our 2nd morning to go to Borobudur – an impressive ancient Buddhist temple complex.  At times it felt like I was back in China. It seemed like the Indonesian tourists  had never seen a foreigner before and were always asking to have a picture together.

Sate (meat on a stick) is a popular food in Indonesia.  In Yogykarta there were women on the streets with their tiny BBQ’s grilling meat.  As a vegetarian I passed on the meat (we were never sure what kind of meat it was) but still had some delicious street food.

We decided a 30 day visa wasn’t enough to see all of Indonesia properly.  We found out it was possible to go Immigration near the airport and get an extension. Unfortunately the process was pretty complicated.  We needed to show proof of a flight out of Indonesia, fill out an application, pay another $25, make sure we were dressed properly at immigration, and had to wait 3 days. Finally we got it and we had 30 more days to explore the 18,000 islands of Indonesia.

Next we flew from the island of Sumatra to the island of Java.  We landed in Jakarta – the capital of Indonesia

All over Asia whenever I say I’m from America the people usually say ‘oohh Obama!’. But this seemed to happen more in Indonesia. It turns out most people are quite proud of Obama because he lived in Jakarta for 4 years when he was 6 years old.

Over 10 million people live in the city.  There is a huge difference between the rich and the poor.

In the morning we found ourselves exploring a very poor section of the city…..

And a 20 minute taxi ride later we were in the richest section of the city with all the expensive stores and 3 huge malls.

I read Jakarta’s traffic is the worst in Asia. I’m not sure how accurate that is but I believe it. We found taking a taxijek was quicker than a taxi if we couldn’t walk.

While we were in Jakarta there was a huge demonstration happening near the monument and near the shopping center. At the time we weren’t sure what they were protesting. It was pretty unsettling walking by a huge group of angry / Muslim men with no idea who they were against.

We researched on the internet and found a pretty big story about Jakarta and the protests. The Miss World competition was supposed to be held in Jakarta but due to Jakarta being predominantly Muslim the people weren’t happy about this kind of a competition coming to their city. In the end the government listened to the people and moved it to Bali where it’s more common to see women who aren’t covered up.

From Jakarta we took an overnight train to Yogyakarta….

From Berastagi we decided to continue on to Parapat and then take a ferry across Lake Toba to Tuk Tuk island. Lake Toba is a huge volcanic lake covering an area of 1,707 km². We stayed in a traditional style house accommodation. The inside was quite huge. There were 2 balconies and an extra bed. Unfortunately the door and ceilings / pillars were pretty low and we hit our heads a few times – luckily no one lost consciousness. There was a nice view of the lake from our porch.

There were a lot of restaurants around Tuk Tuk but there never seemed to be any people eating at these restaurants. We found a place with a really sweet woman running the place so we decided to keep going back to her.  She ran the restaurant with help from her son when he wasn’t teaching English to the local children or taking motorbike rides with foreign women.

When it wasn’t raining we rented bikes for a few hours and made a few stops around the island. It was nice to have the freedom of a bike.

We found it very rainy here as well so we decided it was best to leave Sumatra and head to Java where hopefully the rainy season comes later. So we took a ferry from Tuk Tuk to Parapat where we arranged a mini bus to take us 5 hours to Medan. The roads  on Sumatra aren’t in the best condition and they’re definitely not flat and straight so the rides were a little rough sometimes. Mostly it’s pretty cheap though and you’ll mostly make it to your next destination in less time than quoted. Finally we boarded a plane and flew to Indonesian’s capital city, Jakarta, on the island of Java.

There’s not a lot to do in Berastagi (apparently known for their cabbages) but we decided to check it out before heading to Lake Toba / Tuk Tuk Island.

We really wanted to attempt a partial climb to one of the two volcanoes in Berastagi but the weather had different plans for us.  It rained a lot – HARD.

Between storms we visited a couple of markets…

We also took a local bus to a traditional village. On the way we met some school girls who offered to show us around the village. There were 6 houses and 6-8 families live in each house.

The volcanoes looked beautiful from where we were. Climbing wasn’t possible but we would have plenty more opportunities to visit volcanoes in Indonesia.

From Medan we took a public bus about 5 hours to Bukit Lawang. Sometimes the bus was quite crowded. School kids even rode on the roof of the buses.

We found a nice place to stay near the river and booked a jungle tour through them. We could order coffee and breakfast from our porch. It was very peaceful with a nice view. There were quite a few monkeys around trying to steal whatever they could get their hands on.

We started our jungle trek in the morning. There were 2 guides and 6 people in our group. It rained most of the time on the first day. It was difficult to get our clothes dry that night but it was nice to have a real rain forest experience. We stopped to have lunch in the middle of the day. The guides’ mom made nasi goreng (fried rice) with an egg, cucumbers, and chips.

There are only 2 places where you can see wild orangutans – Borneo and Bukit Lawang. Along the way we saw a handful of orangutans in the trees. There was a pretty aggressive male that even the guides seemed a bit scared of if he got too close. There was also a gentle female who we took turns feeding.

We made a steep and slippery descent into the camp. Other groups were at the same camp. The food was really good. It’s amazing that they can make delicious meals in the middle of the jungle.

The next morning we visited a waterfall.

Before lunch we ate a beautiful tray of fruit.

After lunch we packed our belongings in plastic and loaded them onto a raft made of inner tubes. This was one of the scarier parts of the trip. At one point the guide trying to control the raft from the front fell over board and almost took me with him. The water was moving pretty quickly but he got back on. The scenery was beautiful and we made it safely back to Bukit Lawang.

From Bangkok we flew to Medan, Indonesia. Indonesia is a huge country and we only have 30 days on our visa. We decided to start on the island of Sumatra.   It was easy to get our visa on arrival in the Medan airport. The workers seemed pretty interested in us and why we were in Medan. They were friendly and not afraid to ask personal questions.  Immediately I found Indonesian people to be more genuinely friendly than the Chinese.

We knew Medan wasn’t going to be a nice city but it was fun to explore a new country and get our first taste of Indonesia.

There weren’t many accommodations to choose from in Medan so we stayed in the Swiss-Belinn hotel- probably our most expensive accommodation in Indonesia.

Indonesia is the World’s largest Muslim country.  The call to prayer is heard 5 times everyday no matter where you are in the country. There are mushollas (prayer rooms) everywhere, including in McDonalds.

There were a lot of Western fast food in the mall – Dunkin Donuts, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Texas Chicken (Church’s Chicken).

The first of many noodle dishes and Bintang (Indonesian beer).

We spent enough time in big cities so we found a public bus and headed to the jungle of Bukit Lawang….