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Saturday 6 september 1997
We should go to the Borobodur this day, but because we were both ill the
group had to go without us. We both were feeling sick. Probably because
of the food we had the day before. We both had nearly the same meal.
In the afternoon we felt better and we went swimming in the swimmingpool. We also
went to a teaparty at Ron's place. Ron lives with his wife in Yokjakarta and they
run a guesthouse. We celebrated the birthday of Angelique and we had a
pretty pink cake. The snacks which were prepared by Ron's wife were delicious.
He showed us around in his guesthouse.
After tea we went together with Marlies to see some batikstores.
Sunday 7 september 1997
On this day we had the long trip to Malang. We still didn't feel very well but
things were going the right way.
It was Joke's birthday today and we decorated the bus. Again we had pink
cake.
We had to pay for it. Ron the travelguide aranged the cake yesterday and
we thought that this was a present from him to her, but it wasn't.
Ofcourse we wanted to give Joke a present, but Ron should have asked us first.
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We visited the Prambanantemple in the neighbourhood of Yogjakarta. It was different from the Borobodur, but probably just as beautiful. We talked for a while with some Indonesian schoolgirls who wanted to practice their English conversation. |
When we arrived in Malang it seemed to be very difficult to arrange an excursion to the Bromo-vulcano, because no one on our group wanted to do this excursion. Ron arranged things so that we could have the excursion the same night. We changed our appointment with Anna to the next day in the afternoon. We tried to go to sleep fast, because we had to get up at 1.00 at night.
Monday 8 september 1997
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After three hours of sleep we had to get up at 1.00 at night. We dressed fast and we had a small breakfast. Angelique, Monique and Marlies also went on excursion. It was a two hour drive to the panorama view. The road to this place was very exiting. The road had deep holes and probably we were on the very edge of deep ravines, but we couldn't see that because of the dark. Most of the time I shut my eyes because I was too scared to watch. At 4.00 we were at the panorama viewpoint. In spite of all the clothes we were wearing it felt very cold up there. |
| It was 5 degrees Celcius. Together with some Australian girls we were waiting for the sunrise. The guide had brought us some background music. It was very cosy until we had to listen to the moslim prayers. (If you're not a moslim it sounds very strange) At 5.30 the sun should rise. It was very quiet until 5 o'clock, at that time lots of other tourists arrived at the viewpoint. It was a pity to be with too much people at this beautiful place. The sunrise was great. You could see the Bromo-vulcano and other vulcanoes. It was a perfect view. The biggest vulcano had a large column of ash rising up from the inside. It was very impressive to see. |  |
The Bromo-vulcano was the smallest ( and probably the safest) vulcano of the group of vulcanoes. After enjoying the view we went along to the feet of the Bromo. It was a long ride with the most beautiful views I ever saw.
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| Horses at the feet of the Bromo-vulcano. | View from the Bromo-vulcano. | Vulcano besides the Bromo-vulcano. |
The landscape at the Bromo was very strange, almost alien. We drove through the black sand. We had a ride on a horse to the beginning of the stairs to the Bromo-vulcano. The horseride was fun. The stairs had 250 steps. It was not easy to climb them. There was much dust and sulphur. And the air was probably very thin. It was exciting to stand on the edge of the crater of the Bromo-vulcano. The smoke was very close.
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| Sulphursmoke from the Bromo-vulcano. | View over the crater from the Bromo. | Thomas on the Bromo-vulcano. |
On the way back to the hotel we had breakfast somewhere. It didn't taste well. When we went back to the hotel we heard an enormous explosion and we thought something fell on the roof of the car, but we were wrong. Angelique's lighter had exploded in her hipbag because of the heat. Creepy isn't it? At 10.30 we were back in the hotel and we had time to sleep until 13.30 in the afternoon, because aunt Anna would pick us up at 14.00. We were more tired then ever before. Anna came too early to our hotel so we had to hurry.
Anna welcomed us warmly. She looked older then I remembered her. She had a talk with Ans and Jan. ( Piet was ill.) Because Jan wanted to buy an antique music box he came along with us. Anna knew a good store to buy these kind of things. It was a very expensive shop. It was good to look around but we couldn't afford to buy something. Then Anna took us to her guesthouse and we had a cup of tea. She showed us around the house and it looked very nice. The guesthouse is in a good neighboorhood, not so crowded as the center of Malang.
We brought Jan back to a point where he could walk back to the hotel. It was a good idea Anna picked us up, because I don't think we would have able to find her home by ourselves. Together with Anna we went shopping in Malang. Thomas bought a batik shirt for his father. Anna showed us the center of Malang. The communication between us was difficult, but that was probably because we were very very tired. We had dinner in Anna's house where she is living. The house looked a little bit like the house of my uncle Bert ( very untidy.) A friend of Anna also joined us at dinner. It was a lady of 78 years old and she spoke very good Dutch!! When she was a kid she went to a Dutch school. We gave her compliments about it and she liked that. Son Roy also had dinner. He is a boy of 18 years old and he is very nice. He made a silicone sticker for us. Around eight we said goodbye to Anne. We were so tired that we slept until the next morning.
Tuesday 9 september 1997
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At 7.00 we went on our way to Bali. We had to say goodbye to Monique and Angelique, because they had to go home. The bustrip to Bali was long and tiresome. Ron told us that we would be there in the afternoon, but we arived at Lovina Beach at 18.30 in the dark. On our way we made a stop to eat mango. It was the most delicious mango I ever had. |
We bought a shell necklace. Our hotel at Lovina beach was in the middle of nowhere. Our room was not great because of all the big ants walking over the walls. After complaining about it we got another room. That was a nice room with white walls and no scary bugs. We had dinner at our hotel and the food wasn't very good.
Wednesday 10 september 1997
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We went to the black beach of Lovina but it was not a succes, because you couldn't walk into the sea without shoes. Very sharp stones were everywhere. Thomas hurt his feet. In the afternoon we discovered another hotel with a swimmingpool. The entrance fee was high ( R 7500 ) and we went to the beach again to search for shells. Jan gave us some shells he found himself. |
| I bought a plaid for the table, serviettes, a sarong and a short on the beach ( R. 35.000) We also bought two "krissen" ( knifes). We had dinner in the restaurant besides the swimmingpool. It was expensive, but it was worth it. At night we discovered a colony of ants in our souvenir bag. We didn't understand why we had ants in there, because we had no food in that bag. We unpacked the bag and discovered some cakes that Anna had given to us. We threw the cake away and all the ants left the bag. | 
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Thursday 11 september 1997
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We left by bus to Ubud and we had to say goodbye to Joke, Andries and Tiny. They went home two days earlier because of the new job of Joke. We were with less people in the bus. This bus was smaller than the other buses we had been in. There was not much space. We had a stop to watch the mother temple. Elly and Machiel wanted a blessing over their marriage and I had to put it on tape. The ceremony was good to see. All offers looked really beautiful. They are everywhere so you have to mind them when walking around. |
Ron was so "good" to drive first to Denpasar before we went to Ubud. Ron had to arrange something in Denpasar and that's why this trip took longer then it would have been when we had driven directly to Ubud. We arrived late in the afternoon. Our guesthouse was named the Happy Inn and was in the middle of all sawah's ( ricefields). We had to walk a bit to reach the center of Ubud. Ofcourse we had a room with some strange things. We had no toiletseat and no gaze for a window. We complained about it and got another room.
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| View from our hotel in Ubud, Bali. | Lotusflowers in the pond. |
We had dinner in a budget restaurant and the food was fine. Ans and Piet gave us the tip to eat out there. We saw them there and joined them at dinner. We shopped around and made a phonecall to the Netherlands at a wartel. My mother made the mistake to disconnect us, so we had to call again and we had to pay extra for that. In front of our hotelroom we had a chat with Ans and Piet. When we entered our room we saw a very big spider. Thomas was my hero when he killed the spider!!!
Friday 12 september 1997
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We shopped around in Ubud and that was fun!! We saw very nice shops and many nice souvenirs. We came home with all kinds of stuff, although it wasn't planned to buy that much. I bought a fishmobile, a t-shirt and a wooden lizard. Thomas bought wooden apes and also a t-shirt. For my daddy I bought tropical fruit and tropical fruit juices. |  |
| Market in Ubud on Bali. | Shops in Ubud. |
Elly and Machiel had the idea to spend our last evening together with the whole group. It was impossible for us to have dinner together, because we had to go to a kecak dance performance. Thomas and I had dinner in the expensive lotus-restaurant. Thomas had spareribs and I had lasagne with spinach. I even had a glas of wine!! The dance performance was in open air. The dance was beautiful, but it was a pity it began to rain. The performance just went on. The fire-dance at the end was very spectacular. There was a big fire and a man kicked it with bare feet from one end to the other.
Saturday 13 september 1997
We had to say goodbye to Elly and Machiel, because they went to Lombok. We were to late to say goodbye, because they left so early. We packed our bags and we left around 10 by bus to Kuta. Ron and Marlies took the same bus. They went to the airport of Denpasar, they had a flight to Medan. ( The trip of Marlies was not over yet and Ron had to guide a new group). We were over with Ans,Piet and Jan and we shopped around in Kuta. Kuta is very touristic. Thomas bought clothes and I painted my nails with flowers. Too soon it was time to go to the airport. The traffic went on very slowly and we were afraid to miss our flight. We were in time at the airport and tried to spend our last Indonesian money. Thomas bought a silver spoon for his mother. The flight to Singapore took 3 hours. We had to wait for 4 hours on the airport of Singapore. We shopped around and Thomas bought a hologram-watch. The flight back was not as luxurious as the one to Indonesia. No television, no computer. The best thing to do was to sleep and surprisingly we slept well. Most of the trip it was dark.
Sunday 14 september 1997
In the morning we arrived in Zurich where the plane had a stop. We shopped around and I met a girl which I knew from earlier days. On our way from Zurich to Amsterdam it was light and we had beautiful views. We had window seats. We arrived at 9.00 Dutch time. It was so early no family was there to pick us up. So we had to go home by train and because of rail maintenance we had to travel longer. We were not in a good mood when we arrived in Hengelo. At the station we met my parents and my sister Marijke with her boyfriend Casper. We had coffee and tea at Casper and Marijke's. It was a strange feeling to be home in such a short time.
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