So long, Surabaya

The Indonesian experience has come to an end. It was a good year, but also the time had come to leave the Sparkling City, Diamond of East Java, Paradise by the sea. Much thanks to all of our friends and the other various random people we met who helped make it a great year. Terima kasih banyak!

Sinead and I are now in Malaysia for about two weeks. She then heads back to England and I carry on to Bangkok for two weeks. Then, for me, it's Britain for a month, home for the holidays, then an extended period drinking beer and whiskey on my brother's couch while contemplating the future.

Sorry I haven't continued to be as frequent with the blog as when I started, but sometimes life gets in the way of typing about life.

For a fix of the life I've failed to keep you updated on, check out my friend's blog.

More photos will follow soon, possibly while I'm sitting on my friends' couch in Bangkok. Stay tuned; perhaps the adventures have only just begun....

Days of freedom

We went to Bali for Indonesian Independence Day. The holiday apparently isn't as big of an event as I would have thought; the holiday was Monday, and when we asked a hotel staff member on Sunday what was happening, he said he had no clue and would know more the next day.

We started out in Lovina on the north coast and spent a day looking at temples. We then drove through windy hills to see a volcano and ended up in Kuta because it is close to the airport. We checked about fifteen hotels before we found one with an open room, so we ended up cramming five people into a crappy little sweatbox.

Check out the vacation photos here.

Next weekend, I may possibly return to the Ijen crater, but this is based on hotel availability.

Volcano!

We traveled southwest to Gunung Bromo, an actively smoking volcano in the heart of East Java. I managed not to fall into the crater, and the only physical damage I sustained was some mild sunburn.

It was cold there, so I had to wear all the warm clothes that I brought to Indonesia. We also borrowed some cold-weather gear from a friend, including a dazzling pink sweater that got passed around from person to person over the weekend.

Check out the photos here.

In two weeks, I will be heading back to Bali for the long Independence Day weekend. This trip will include more mountains and temples, as well as some celebratory buffalo races and possible dolphin sightings. I will try to not get trampled by buffalo or eaten by dolphins, since they seek revenge from the pre-dolphin-safe-tuna days.

Solo, but not traveling solo

Last weekend, we went to Central Java to see two temples outside of Solo. There was also a waterfall. Check out the pictures here.

My friend Ian, who is an excellent photographer, also took a lot of photos. Check them out here.

We had a great time and it was calamity free, except for blowing a tire on the way back. This weekend, we are going to Gunung Bromo, one of the most famous volcanoes on Java. I'll try not to fall in, or get pushed in.

The horror! The horror!

Here is a buffalo being killed at one of the funeral ceremonies. Do not watch immediately before or after eating.


Also, I've put the rest of the pictures up. Here are the links:

The sulfuric lake at Ijen Crater

The orangutan rehabilitation center at Bukit Lawang and Danau Toba in Sumatra

Random photos from the last three months

Enjoy! If you want higher quality copies of any of the photos, email me.

Photos, finally

After some pestering from my mother during our last phone conversation, I decided to get my ass in gear and finally start uploading photos.

I'll upload them to Facebook and put the links here. On the Facebook pages, I'll try to put some informative captions so you know what you're looking at. I'm going to start putting the photos up from the most recent to those from about three months ago.

I just returned from Tana Toraja where I witnessed their unique funeral ceremonies and customs; you can view the photos here. The uploading is going fairly slow, but I should have them up by the end of the week.

I saw a lot of buffaloes sacrificed, but the most gruesome experience was when I was on the bus headed to the airport. Our bus ran over a motorcyclist and severed his right leg at the knee. The entire bottom half of his leg was gone. It was the worst thing I have ever seen and I keep having flashbacks to it.

Otherwise, the vacation was great.

Keep checking back for links to more photos as I attempt to recreate the last several months.

Yes, I am alive and well

Sorry I haven't written for so long. Several factors have conspired to keep me from writing. First, the internet went dead at our house for three weeks (service is not rapid here) so we cancelled it. Then my computer went into freakout mode. Also, I've had two four-day vacations and a nine-day vacation since I last wrote, so I have been away from technology quite often.

As soon as I have time to fix my computer, I'll start writing again. Talk to you then. And soon, hopefully.