Sunday, May 6, 2012

Borobudur & Prambanan, Indonesia

Day 4

Today my plan was to visit in Borobudur temple. Andry wrote me last night instructions how to get there and after breakfast he took me to the bus stop. After adventuring with Yogyakarta's bus system I found myself at a bus station in the northern part of the city. From there I took a minibus to Borobudur. On the way I saw my first rice fields which was exciting for me. Roadsides seemed to be full of shops selling statues, especially Buddha statues. Borobudur influence, maybe? Bus also stopped at some market where street players and sellers filled the bus in hope of getting some money.

At Borobudur bus station I was little confused which direction I should go. But Indonesians are so helpful and soon there was somebody pointing me in right direction without even asking help. Ignore all the rickshaw and taxi drivers because the temple area is only 1 kilometre or even less from the bus station.

At the gates to the temple I forgot there was a special entrance for foreign tourists so I first asked ticket from a normal ticket office. No wonder the entrance prices looked cheap. After I found my way to the tourist entrance it was big relief: they had air conditioning there! And free water (just a very small bottle), coffee and tea. And free internet so you can tell all your friends in Facebook that you're in Borobudur now. After getting the ticket, they gave sarong to wear and then I was off to explore Borobudur temple.

The temple area was quite full of people because it was holiday season in Indonesia. First view to the temple is quite amazing, it rises on top of small hill. The path there is quite cleverly designed so that you can see the first view of the temple after a curve. Some locals didn't really care about the sarong rule and used it as head scarf against sun which was shining from a clear sky. I burned myself very badly on that day. After climbing to the temple I had my first "Hello Mister!" experience. And soon I had probably 100 more of those experiences. Indonesians love to take pictures with tourists and as I am blond and very tall I was quite popular photograph friend. I enjoyed just enjoyed this, but I noticed that some other tourists weren't so happy about this habit. There was also some "official" photographers and one of them started to follow me and forced some people to take pictures with me, so funny. I also scared many small kids almost to death that day.

Views from the temple are really nice and very green. If you want to know about the carvings hiring a guide is not a bad idea but I myself was just walking around the temple and taking pictures by myself and with others. The temple is large but somehow it didn't really impress me that much. I, however, recommend to visit it, even just to have "Hello Mister" experiences. I skipped the museum which was included in the price and went to explore the souvenir village outside the entrance. I bought some chicken to eat and a traditional farmer's hat to hide from the sun. Then I walked back to the bus station and in the bus back to Yogyakarta I met a lovely local couple and the trip went fast by talking with them. I walked back to Andry's place from the bus stop. It was a long walk but really interesting. During the walk I saw how normal Indonesian neighbourhood lives, experience that not all tourists are able to do. Andry came back home in the evening and we went to eat near his home.

Day 5

Today my plan was to visit in Prambanan temple. It is located at the outskirts of Yogyakarta so the trip wasn't going to be as long as to Borobudur. Andry got new work order from his boss and he had to leave the city that evening. That meant that I was going to stay alone at his place my last night in Yogyakarta. Again Andry took me to the bus stop and we said goodbye to each other. Again locals were very helpful and they helped me to get to Prambanan as easily as possible.

Prambanan also has different entrance for tourists with same luxury services. But Prambanan has student discount, yay! I already saw quick peek of the temples from the bus but I was amazed when I saw the first sight of them after the entrance. My judgement: better than Borobudur. The temples are totally different in architectural style than Borobudur and I like more this Hindu style. The biggest temple in the Prambanan complex is Shiva temple which was closed during my visit. Other temples were open. There was more foreign tourists here than in Borobudur which was surprising for me. Also "Hello Mister"s were here too and again I took like 200 pictures with people. I also met some school children who spoke very good English and chatted with them quite long time. When I had enough of the Hindu temple complex I walked to the Candi Sewu which is a Buddhist temple almost 1 kilometre away. It still belongs to the same area but because it is far away from the Hindu temples only few people had found their way there. Actually there was only 2 American tourists with me there and we were quite excited to have a whole ancient temple just for us. Also in the area there is a small museum and zoo with deers and a cassowary bird. Like in Borobudur here was also a souvenir village.

Next day I was going to travel back to Jakarta so my next destination was train station where I had to buy a train ticket for tomorrow. In a bus from Prambanan to the city centre I met an American girl who was working in Indonesia and we chatted the whole ride back to the city about our travels. It was really nice to meet her. At the train station I was shocked: the line to the ticket counters were 1,5 hours long! After getting my waiting number I went to buy some snacks for waiting. The waiting time actually went by fast because there was so much happening at the train station and I also got to chat with some locals. It also started to rain little bit. After getting my ticket to a morning train to Jakarta I went to find a internet cafe or something. I didn't need to look for long because I was in the backpacker area and there was internet available at a first hostel I saw. Internet wasn't working in Andry's place and I needed it to check my next hosts contact information. After my time was up it was already dark outside and rainy. I took a bus and went to visit in a shopping mall near Andry's home. I also had visited in this mall in the morning to buy relief for my sunburns. I had now dinner in there (some Chinese food) and then bought some food for tomorrow's train ride and for breakfast. Because it was quite long way to walk from there to Andry's place and it was dark and little bit rainy, I decided to took a taxi to home and after shower I went to sleep.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

I travelled in Southeast Asia between December 2011 and January 2012. During the trip I visited in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Next posts will be about this trip.

I had a flight to Singapore from Helsinki via Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt I had 6 hours to spend so I visited in city centre. There was Christmas Market going on so I of course had some pretzels and Glühwein. I had been in Frankfurt before so there was no nothing new to me. The flight to Singapore went easily, I was sleeping most of it. Lufthansa's Airbus A380 is very good plane, very good entertainment selection.

I arrived to Singapore in the evening. I found my hostel, went to eat to nearby shopping mall and then I went to sleep.

Day 1

I woke up early in the morning and checked my departure time to Yogyakarta, Indonesia many times. But still I arrived to airport too late. I blame jet lag of my stupidness in that morning. AirAsia is the only airline which has straight flights to Yogyakarta from Singapore and only once per day. So I had too options: fly next day or fly today to somewhere else. And I decided to fly to Jakarta and take a train from there to Yogyakarta.

Couple hours later I was in the plane going to Jakarta. I had no clue what I was doing because my careful plans were now gone. There was woman and her daughter sitting next to me and they wished me good luck in Jakarta because it is very dangerous city in their opinion. This just made me more excited! In Jakarta I first bought visa on arrival before passport check. After customs was time to find a reliable taxi to the train station. I ignored all the taxi drivers shouting offers at me and I tried to find a taxi stall. I found one and they had metered taxi which took me to the Gambir train station. I was enjoying every moment of the drive to the station. Singapore wasn't that much different from Europe (except the weather) but Indonesia was already showing its different face. At the station I bought a ticket to a night train to Yogyakarta.

Day 2   

In the train I tried to sleep but it was quite hard because the train was noisy, other passengers were noisy and at every station there was coffee sellers shouting "Kopi! Kopi! Kopiiiiii!" And I saw some huge lizards climbing on train stations' walls and trying to catch some huge moths.

I arrived to Yogyakarta around 4am and then I tried to find a hostel or hotel. I walked to one hotel which was recommended in my guide book. The receptionist was sleeping when I came in. I asked if they had rooms available and he said no. Then I asked if I could spend the rest of the night at the couch in the reception and he said it was ok. But I really couldn't get any rest because of the noises from the street and soon the sun come up and the city woke up so I gave up with resting. I started to wait call from my couchsurfing host Andry. He was supposed to come to the city in the morning from Jakarta. While waiting his call I walked around the neighbourhood which is called Sosrowijayan. It has narrow streets with many backpacker hostels and colourful houses, very lovely neighbourhood in the day time, not so much at 4am. I also bought my street food in Indonesia: delicious chicken soup and fresh mango juice. And I learned probably the most useful words of my whole trip: ayam means chicken and goreng means fried. These 2 words helped me a lot next days. Finally Andry contacted me but he had bad news: his boss asked him to visit in other city before his return to Yogyakarta so he couldn't host me yet. So I took a room from the hotel where I spent my morning. And I went straight to sleep as I was really, really tired. I woke up when it was already dark outside and I went to find something to eat. I ate at a restaurant which was full of other tourists and then had some snacks and drinks from supermarket. Before I went to sleep I was watching how gekko was walking on my ceiling.

Day 3


Andry sent a message that he was going to meet me afternoon so I had time to go explore Yogyakarta. I first walked to Kraton, the sultan's palace. On the way I met my first group of school kids, they were almost scared to death when they saw me. During the next days I would see this happening many times again. I also liked the small amusement park next to the Kraton. It looked like it was abandoned because it was in very bad shape. I entered to Kraton from it's northern entrance, I was surprised how the entrance fee was cheaper than what it was mentioned in guide book. Soon I realised why: I was only allowed to walk in a small part of the Kraton. Days later I heard from other tourist that you should use southern entrance which allows you to explore bigger and more interesting part of the Kraton. But there was some guides hanging around near the entrance of the Kraton. I asked them if this was really all I could see. They told me the rest of the Kraton was closed on that day. So I don't know who I should trust and believe. But at least I got the see small part of the Kraton.

After my question to guides one of them wanted to show me a batik workshop. I tried to refuse this offer as friendly as I could but soon I was walking with him to that batik workshop. Of course at the workshop they tried to sell me everything they had but I got away from there quite easily. Guide still gave me advice which way I should go if I want to visit in Taman Sari, the Water Palace. I was really surprised that he didn't ask me any money. But I started to walk towards Taman Sari. On the way I passed pet market which had very interesting selection of all kinds of crawling things. But the place made me feel very sad too so I continued my trip quickly.

Near Taman Sari I got one guide following me. I tried to ignore him first but then I started to follow him because he wanted to show me the way to Taman Sari. At one point he stopped and wanted me to come with him to batik shop. I said that I'm not interested and continued walking because I saw some other tourists in front of me so I started to follow them. Guide didn't try to follow me anymore. I walked through a tunnel and then I stopped to have a rest at a small kiosk with lovely terrace. After rest I went to visit in Taman Sari. Guide was included in the price but I didn't understand most of his stories because he was speaking so fast, quietly and with heavy accent. And of course he took me to a batik shop. I bought some postcards, got haggled down the price little bit too. He also showed me shadow puppet shop but prices there were definitely not for my budget. I gave a small tip to the guide after tour (small for me, big for him judging from his face).

After Taman Sari I walked through some ruins next to it. I decided to sit down and have a rest on top of them. From the top was great views over Yogyakarta. The city seems to lack high buildings but because of big earthquake risk I think it's understandable. I could also view first time Mount Merapi, the active and dangerous volcano. Well, the top of it was behind clouds but I could see some of it. I sat there for an hour watching how locals or local tourists were either scared or interested of me or both. Then I walked back to my hotel where I then met with Andry. He was with his scooter but I had so big luggage so it was better for me to take a bus. Andry gave me instructions and then we met again at a bus stop near his place. Then I hopped on his scooter and we drove short way to his place. It was my first time on a scooter so I was little nervous of the ride first but soon I realised there was nothing to be scary of. I had to give copy of my passport to gate guards of Andry's apartment complex so that they knew I was there. Andry offered me lunch and dinner and we stayed at his place rest of the day talking about all kinds of things. But we both were happy to go sleep early as we were quite tired both and next day I had new adventure ahead of me.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Belgium - Brussels, 2

So day 3 in Belgium started very sunny. As usually I hunted first breakfast. Today my was European Parliament. The parliament has 2 free tours per day and I went to the first one 10 am. I was there early so after getting my visitor tag I had time to walk around the Léopold Park which next to the parliament. When I got back there was some other visitors already waiting. After security check they gave us small video guides. Video guide told the route we should follow. The tour only visited in 3 rooms: the lobby, some room where you could see a statue and the hemicycle. Video guide was in a language of your choice, all official EU languages were available.

After the disappointing tour (but because it's free I recommend it) I walked to the Royal Palace. The palace was more bigger and grand than what I expected. I had a walking break at Parc de Bruxelles where I watched how immigrant women were taught how to ride a bicycle. The ladies seemed to be very happy to learn this new skill. I also checked the Federal Parliament of Belgium building next to the park.

From the center I took a metro to see the Atomium. Atomium was also bigger than what I expected. Sun was shining bright and I could just wear a t-shirt - nice! I was also surprised of the Expo 58 buildings near the Atomium, they looked interesting. I had a lunch at the cafe under the Atomium - not the cheapest cafe but it was under Atomium so I had to do it! I took a small at the Parc d'Osseghem and then I took a metro back to the city center.

I came back to the surface at Schuman station which was located to my surprise next to the European Commission building. It isn't that fabulous looking but I just didn't know it was located there. My reason to come here was to visit in Parc du Cinquantenaire. It was lunch time and the sun was shining bright so people were enjoying their lunch break at the park. It was full of people. And highlight of this park is the triumphal arc which is huge! I loved it! There was a pop-up restaurant on top of it at the time. Because this was the last must-see for me in Brussels I took a metro to the old town area where hunted down many comic strip walls and took sunny pictures of Grand-Place. I decided walk to the Hans' place from the center. On the way I saw lots of small lovely parks and many churches. I also visited inside of the Palais Justice which looks amazing inside! I bought some African food from a market in St Gilles which was good! Fried bananas were quite blaah but the goat meat and the super spicy sauce were great.

I checked if Hans or one of his room mates were home but they weren't so I took a metro back to the European Parliament where I was supposed to meet my friend Mira and her friends. I was at Place du Luxembourg hour too early so I had time to watch people. The bar terraces around the square were starting to get full quickly. Soon Mira came and we went to buy beers from a supermarket. Then we went back to the square and we hangout there almost until 10pm with all the Eurocrats who enjoyed evening sun after work. As me and Mira had early wake up tomorrow as we were leaving together to student meeting in Netherlands we didn't stay later. And metro also stops working around 11pm and I really didn't want to walk back to Hans' place from there.

Unfortunately Hans wasn't at home when I came back to his place. And even more unfortunate was that his room mates also weren't at home. Hans also didn't answer my text messages. I waited some time behind the door while eating chips. Then I went to sit in a bar across the street where I could see the door of the house. I ordered one beer and started to read some papers which I had in my backpack. Soon I saw one of Hans' room mates coming back home and I run to the door and got inside. When I was getting ready to sleep I got a text message from Hans saying that he was part of an accident that day in Antwerp and he couldn't come back to Brussels. He provided his room mates numbers and apologized everything. I answered that I already got in and wished luck to him. Weird finish to my visit in Brussels.

Next morning I left Hans's place, walked to the Midi Station, bought some breakfast, took a train without ticket to Central Station and there I met Mira. And then started our trip to Netherlands which is a different story.