Temples on the Hill

On our last night in Jogjakarta, we booked a so called travel car to an arbitrary place in the direction we wanted to travel – North. The travel car concept was something we learned from a good Samaritan who had previously given us a lift. He gave us magic words in Bahasa Indonesian to type into google to find cheap and direct minivans that would take us from door to door between close but not too close cities. Our destination was Ambarawa, a small village on a large lake almost directly north of Jogja, halfway to the North coast of Java.

Jakarta to Jogjakarta (Part two: Mt Salak)

Arriving back at our new hostel after exploring waterfalls around Bogor, we found there were quite a number of local travellers who had checked in, as well as some other foreign tourists. One of the local travelers suggested to us foreign tourists that her friend would take us up to Mt Salak the next day, a nearby volcano, for just the cost of whatever a grab car would be. This sounded pretty good as we knew there was a shady guard post at the top that would charge foreigners whatever they felt like on the day, so local help would go a long way. The person offering this help wouldn’t be coming with us, as she had already booked the train for the next day for her and two other foreigners to another popular local destination. She offered for us to join her many times and kept telling us how surprising it was that she could book these train tickets for tomorrow, a public holiday. We declined however as we already had our minds set on seeing the volcano.

Making our way up the path to the crater

Bus Treachery/Wretchery

Warning: The following post contains graphic imagery of being on a bus.

Mimi at Mojo, looking how she feels

After our experience on Moyo Island, we were pretty eager to get away. We were in the mood to get to Labuan Bajo, Flores, where we would be able to board a tour of Komodo National Park. Flores was just four legs away, ferry from Moyo to Sumbawa Besar, bus from Sumbawa Besar to Bima, bus from Bima to Sape, ferry from Sape to Labuan Bajo. We assumed that after the slow, loud, two hour ferry trip from Moyo, our troubles would be gone and we would be away free.