On our last day in Yogyakarta we slept in, Skyped with our parents and then had lunch. At noon we boarded a bus bound for Bali – a journey that would take about a day. Although we knew we would go a little insane, it was definitely the cheaper way to go. Unfortunately, the budget airline Air Asia does not fly from Yogy to Bali. I amused myself with my ipod and Nook again and Sean alternately read and napped. The bus wasn’t that comfortable but at least it was air conditioned. Incredibly, we didn’t even have to pay for meals. Each time we got off (which was minimal), they gave us a little coupon which entitled us to buffet access. At about 3am we reached the coast and boarded the ferry to the island of Bali. ($8 lunch, $50 bus tickets)

All the Java locals like to talk about Bali. Most told me that since it is so different you can’t even consider Bali to be part of Indonesia. Many call it jokingly “Little Australia” because of the number of Aussie tourists that frequent the island. Though Java is mostly Muslim, Bali is mostly Hindu.

Bali is the little island that has it all: surfing, culture, volcanoes, hiking, temples, great food, diving and snorkeling, lots of rapids for rafting and of course loads and loads of beaches. We had five days slotted for Bali and we knew that even though it seemed like a lot of time, there would still be a lot we wouldn’t be able to see and do. One of the cool things about Bali is that there are places for all kinds of budgets, from top end to budget hostels. Each beach and city has its own character from where the retired people hung out, to the extreme hippy surfers and yoga junkies. Even though Indonesia is so huge, for many tourists, Bali is the only part of the country that they see and I was very eager to see what all the hype was about. Total for 2 people = $58h

This proved to be a wise decision as it was quite a journey getting to Borobudur. Of course there were many tour package options in town, but we wanted to do the trip on the cheap and on our own. This involved a rather long (and excruciatingly hot) hike to the bus station and then about a 3 hour bus ride on an old local bus. After we got off the bus we still had to walk to the temple which was a little ways away. ($4 bus)

The entrance fee was pretty steep which was fine except for that when I asked for an English brochure they informed me that they were all out and that I should pay for a human tour guide instead because it was much better. This was annoying because I didn’t want to pay for an English guide - I just wanted one that I could read to do the tour myself. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was all a ploy to get you to spend more money as there were mounds of other brochures in other languages. I finally solved the problem by asking for a brochure in Spanish and then just translated the important parts for Daniel and Sean. Too bad my ancient archeological vocabulary in Spanish isn’t exactly up to snuff. ($30 entrance fee, $3 lunch, $2 bus, $2 taxi)

Borobudur is considered one of the great Southeast Asian monuments and reflects what Java must have been like in its Buddhist heyday. It was constructed in the 9^th century AD but was covered in volcanic ash in 1006 by a nearby volcanic eruption. It was rediscovered in 1814 when Raffles governed Java. Borobudur has about 1500 relief panels and 432 Buddhas on the terraces. The temple itself consists of six square bases topped by three circular ones.

After climbing around the temple for awhile we grabbed a quick and cheap bite to eat in some of the questionable food stalls nearby the bus station before we started the long journey back to Yogyakarta. Over dinner and dessert we planned our next place to meet in Bali. Daniel was flying out at 8pm the following day whereas Sean and I had elected to take the 24 hr. bus which left at noon. It was going to be a long trip which made one last night and breakfast in a really nice guesthouse especially enjoyable. ($28 hostel, $1 laundry, $5 postcards and stamps, $23 dinner, $5 coffee) Total for 2 people = $103

Yogyakarta or "Yogya" (pronounced 'Jog-juh') as the locals call it, was a very cool city. After we enjoyed our breakfast of fruit pancakes, eggs and fresh fruit with plenty of thick and strong coffee we met up with Daniel for a little walking exploration tour of the city. ($28 guesthouse)

The next day started early and ended up being really long and tiring. We got up at 4am, had a quick breakfast and then Yudi took us to our first bus of the day. After about three hours we had to switch to another bus which would take us to the train station in the city of Bandung. Once there we bought tickets for the eight hour train trip to Yogyakarta. Unfortunately, we bought tickets for business class instead of paying a few bucks more and getting air conditioning; this turned out to be a big mistake. ($1 both buses, $26 train, $6 lunch $4 snacks)

Our last day in the home stay involved an early morning hike through rice paddies and up hills full of jungle to reach a local village. On our way, Harry pointed out lots of different plants like the one used to make Batik ink and the tiny fruits that eventually were used for coffee beans. Many other friends of Harry and Hendri accompanied us on the hike which turned out to be a lot of fun.

We finally arrived at a house whose inhabitants were friends of Yudi. They showed us how they use the liquid from sugar cane plants to make pure cane sugar. They boil it for hours and then pour it into molds which they then let harden. We got to try some at each stage of the process. When it was in its thick liquid form we ate it over cooked bananas and when it dried you could break it off like candy. The women sell the pure sugar at the market and use the money to buy things that they need and can’t get in the jungle on their own. ($39 food and lodging)

After the sugar-making demonstration the women made us a traditional lunch which we ate on the floor and with our hands. The meal consisted of: dried salty fish, rice, jackfruit curry, spicy tofu rolls, cooked greens, soy bean curd paste and tea. The food was great and all homemade and from the jungle. We had to leave in a hurry because of the afternoon rains and then got completely soaked on motorbikes as we cruised back home in the downpour. ($35 hike excursion and lunch)

After showers we asked Harry and Hendri to take us to a coffee shop in the city. We enjoyed fancy strong coffees while watching soccer and chatting. The owner of the shop was really excited to have us as customers and insisted on taking several pictures of us with mugs in front of his sign. He said we were the first westerners to come into his shop. ($8 coffees, $3 taxis)

Dinner was extra special as it was our last one and Yudi made us Indonesian satay – skewered sticks of meat grilled over a fire and then rolled in a special peanut sauce. It was delicious. The plan was to go to Yogyakarta the next day and meet Daniel. To accomplish this we would have to leave at 4am and take two buses and an 8 hour train ride. Because we had to leave so early we had to say our goodbyes that night and even though we had only been there three days it was still hard. Sean gave his Clive Cussler adventure book to Hendri’s sister and received a personal and written thank you for it. Yudi printed off detailed written directions for our trip the next day and we gave everybody hugs. Although we weren’t sure initially if doing a home stay would be a good idea, I’m glad that we followed through. I would highly recommend this program to anyone else who is interested in Indonesian life – we had a great time! (Total for 2 people = $85)

Note from Hendri:

thanks a lot sarah and sean for the book !!
i and my sister really happy for that book, it's hard to get book something like that here ..
:D
thanks for comming to my house..
both of you change my think about american people, both of you're really kind ..
thanks a lot !
i'm wait for the pics , lol
X hendri

We got up at around 9am to have breakfast with Yudi (who had already been up since 4am to go to the mosque). Breakfast was a mix of sweet and salty treats with plenty of fruit. There was a fried banana, a coconut yam, sticky rice and hot tea. While we ate, Yudi talked about the religious makeup of Indonesia. He said it was mostly a Muslim country except for Bali which tends toward Hinduism. He warned us that we would hear the call to prayer 5 times during the day starting at 4:30am. The call to prayer consisted of 5 minutes of a man urging other men to come to the mosque. This was transmitted by loudspeakers in the minarets. You could hear the call to prayer all over town from the many mosques.

We weren’t that sad to leave Jakarta and on our third day we slept in and hung out at a café for awhile before we decided to undertake the long trip out of the city and into the country. Getting to the southern bus station of Jakarta was tricky as it takes about an hour to get there because of traffic. There’s no direct local bus that goes there and although very cheap, the city’s 'busway system' is super confusing. Yudi had sent us specific directions on how to get to his house along with useful phrases in Bahasa but we still knew it would be a challenge.

Our first step was navigating through Jakarta’s numerous dishonest taxi drivers and meter scams. We failed horribly. Though we were using the supposed reputable company, our first driver drove us around in circles for about twenty minutes. After Sean noticed the same fountain that was near our hostel, he yelled for the driver to pull over and let us off. Our second driver had a meter that increased at an astronomical rate and promptly got pulled over for reckless driving. Needless to say we exited that taxi also. We ended up walking back to our hostel and hiring a private car to take us there. The whole experience was really frustrating but didn’t really surprise me since a) we’re obviously tourists b) we can’t speak the language and c) we aren’t aware of the best routes to take where. ($6 breakfast, $3 taxis, $11 private car)

The bus station that we arrived at is almost never visited by tourists (according to Yudi) and he was right. We got a lot of curious stares and interested questions about where we were going, why we were there and where we were from. After some confusion and lots of questions, we eventually found the correct bus that was headed to the tiny town of Cianjur where our home stay was. The other riders were very friendly and wanted to sit by us and chat. They were all shocked we were going to Cianjur and wanted to look at our paper of directions. Many asked if we could speak Bahasa and a few could speak limited English. ($5 bus, $1 minibus)

The trip was long, the seats were miniscule and the bus was crowded but the scenery was beautiful. We wound around rice paddies, volcanoes, jungle and small villages with terracotta roofs. I was surprised at how steep and hilly most of the journey was and found myself struggling to trust the braking system. Since the bus driver knew exactly where we were going as we were the focal point of the bus, they made a special stop at the entrance to Yudi’s neighborhood. As Sean and I stood there with our packs on staring at our sheet of directions and feeling slightly lost, a small red mini-bus screeched to a stop in front of us, looked at our directions and took us to Yudi’s house for about thirty cents.

All the neighbors were hanging out on the porch and we were greeted with a crowd of people when we pulled up. Yudi and his wife were really nice and welcoming and gave us a quick tour of the small house. Then they gave us some cold fruit juice and heaps of fresh papaya while they talked to us about their goals of the home stay program and the possibilities of what to see and do while we were in Cianjur. Yudi’s goals of the home stay program are to “show Indonesia to the world” as well as provide jobs to the community. He employs locals to do some chores around the house, act as guides, transport guests and do laundry. The daily fee that we paid him included accommodation, all meals and snacks, transportation, laundry and internet. ($39 food and lodging)

Since much of Indonesian food is similar to Chinese food and Yudi knew we taught in China, he had arranged a menu of dishes unique to Indonesia. For dinner we had pickled cabbage with tangy tofu, spicy potato cakes, rice and tea. After dinner, two young friends of Yudi took us around the town on their motorcycles. They were a lot of fun and extremely excited to talk to us, hear about America and practice their English. They took us to try a traditional dessert in Indonesia called ‘martabak’ which is a big sweet pancake filled with chocolate and peanuts – it was awesome! (Total for 2 people = $65)