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Saturday 30 august 1997
The alarmclock was ringing at 6 o'clock. We didn't know when we would
depart, but it depended on the wake-up call.
Around 6.30 we had our wake-up call. We were very relaxed because we
thought that we had enough time. When I opened the door of our room I
saw some other couple of the group leaving the hotel.
At that time I began to worry. We packed our backpacks and hurried
to the breakfast room. We had to leave at 7.00. We were not the only
people that were late so we left at 7.30.
Tanjung Karang is a very rich beautiful town. The ride by bus to the ferry
was also very beautiful. Much green, beautiful houses and large roads.
At the ferry we got a boardingcard and we had to take our handbagage with
us to reach the boat by the foot passengers entrance.
Just before entering the boat we discovered that Tiny, Elly and Machiel weren't with us. They were still in the bus and didn't have a ticket for the boat. ( maybe Ron our travelguide took this money for himself?) Everyone was very worried and angry. The reason Ron gave us was: they didn't have to walk to the boat this way. The bus also went on the boat. Elly and Machiel were very angry when they were with us again. Tiny was very upset. Elly and Machiel wanted a ticket for the boat before we left the shore. Ron talked about the corruption of the people on the ferry, but I don't believe that because he succeeded in arranging tickets voor Elly, Machiel and Tiny in the end. Ron is the travelguide and he has to care about all the people in the group. Everyone was very very angry on Ron and angry words were spoken to him. When we arrived on Java we drove directly by bus to Carita. We didn't stop at the lighthouse were the program said we should stop. We had to reach it ourself was Ron's explanation. We arrived at 14.00 in Carita. We expected a very luxurious hotel, but our hotelroom looked more like a prison. Walls without windows and lots of tiles and a matras on a small tiled platform. There was no hot water. We went to the beach to watch the sea. We had lunch in the restaurant that belonged to the hotel. The rest of the afternoon we spend sunbathing at the swimmingpool. ( oh I love it) At night I made a phonecall to my parents. In Palembang we received a phonecall from my father in the hotel when we were out. Everything was alright at home, but you never know. I tried to call twice in Carita. Then I called my sister and she was home. She was very surprised I made that call to her. My parents went on holiday for a few days so that was probably the reason they called in Palembang.
Sunday 31 august 1997
We tried to sleep half the day, but woke up very early because our bodies
were used to that this holiday.
We had breakfast at 9.30 and then we went to the beach. We didn't have a great time
because all the people were watching us. We were the only white people on the
beach and it was very crowded. A chinese girl wanted to take a picture of
me in bikini, but I didn't like the idea. ( maybe that is pornographics
to them).
After a short while we walked back to the hotel. We met Ron and he told us the
latest news.
Princess Diana
died in a car accident. According to Ron it was a complot against her.
When there was a journal on tv Ron translated the Indonesian language
for us. We spent time at the swimmingpool until late that afternoon.
Monday 1 september 1997
All other holiday guests were gone so it was very peaceful and quiet.
We had the beach to ourselves. After the sunbathing and the swimming
we searched for seashells. We had a cup of soup at lunch. We had our clothes
washed and they were ready. Ofcourse we relaxed at the beach that day.
At sunset we went to the beach. Ofcourse some women came to sell
their stuff. Thomas tried to make a picture of the sunset. I watched
the stuff of the women. I bought a brown with blue sarong with a
tsik-tsak on it. A tsik-tsak is a lizard.
Tuesday 2 september 1997
We had to get up at 5.15 and we left at 6.30 by bus. We drove by bus
through Jakarta. It seemed to be an American town because of all the
skyscrapers. The trip went to the postoffice of Bogor were we put
stamps on our postcards. We met our new group member and her name
was Marlies. She is a very nice middle aged women. We visited the
botanic garden of Bogor, but it was not what I expected to see.
We liked to have a tour with a local guide, but they had lunch at that
time so Ron decided to do the tour himself. You can imagine that Ron's
knowledge of the botanic garden is very poor.
The garden was neglected and dirty. The only nice thing we saw was a Kalong
or flying dog. It looked like a big bat. The animal looked very sweet. Thomas
also had him hanging on his hands.
We had lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. We went along to Bandung. The
bus had to ride very slowly because of all the hills. It was not a good
bus because it didn't have enough power.
At 18.00 we arrived in Bandung, but because of the darkness the bus drivers got lost
and it took them one hour to find the hotel.
Thomas and I got the worst room of the hotel. It smelled bad and we had two
holes above the door, without a wire gauze. We complained about it.
All normal rooms had bath and tv. We had one of the driversrooms. At the
end we exchanged rooms with Ron and that was a bit better. We had dinner
in the hotel, because we didn't want to go downtown.
It took some time before we had something to eat. And we were unlucky to be
the last guests.
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Wednesday 3 september 1997
We had to get up at 6.00 and we left at 7.30 for the excursion. First we went to the Tangkuban Prahu volcano. That was so beautiful. The bustrip went over a road with trees and flowers. On the crater edge you could see the smoke. It was impressive.
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Enthusiastic children making music on instruments of bamboo. They played a classic song and they were very skilled. We also made music ourselves on the angklung and that also was fun.
Thursday 4 september 1997
We went to the train station at 6.15. Our backpacks were put in the bus
and brought to the next hotel. We only had to take our handluggage with us.
The trip by train to Yogjakarta was beautiful but very long. At 15.00 we arrived.
Because the bus wasn't on the station we went by taxi to the guesthouse. The bus
arrived not much later at the guesthouse. Our room was nothing special and we had
a view over the swimmingpool. We walked around in the neighbourhood and had
spaghetti at the restaurant next to the hotel. My dinner was good, but Thomas
didn't like his.
Friday 5 september 1997
On this day we went shopping in Yogjakarta. We had a good night sleep and did a lot of walking. An Indonesian boy walked along with us, but no we didn't want to visit the batik-atelier. Then we decided to take a becak to get rid of the boy. The other boy in the becak also tried to take us to a batik-atelier. We didn't give him a tip because he was very annoying. We went to a big shoppingstreet and we also bought a batikpainting. Tired but satified we went to dinner with Elly, Machiel, Andries, Joke and Tiny. It was very cosy. A less happy event on that day was that Hilda was feeling ill and wanted to go home. She had diabetes and she didn't want to take any risks. In the evening they arranged things and Jan escorted them to the airport.
You can go further to week 4., or go back to week 1., or week 2..
You can also go to the homepage..
