And so the Indonesian experience continued. Simple equation: Smog x notbeing able to find much interesting to see= short stay. Still I enjoyed walking through the little streets in the Jalan Jaksa area of Jakarta in the morning, seeing Indonesian life waking up. We had safely arrived there after a flight from Padang. During the multiple double digit bus journeys in Sumatra I was already looking forward to the Javanese train system which would drastically enhance the comfort of transportation. The 8 hour train journey to Yogyakarta reveiled where all that rice comes from. Yogya (for friends) is discribed als the soul of Java, and the area where we found accomodation was already quite atmospheric. After a first day of looking around we rented motorbikes to go to the famous Buddist temple the Borobudur on the second. We were warned not to go on the weekend, but you cannot always plan that out (especially if you plan very little anyway). So we went in computer game mode again, navigating our bikes through the busy traffic and made it safe to the Borobudur. The warnings were right, it was Busy. Still it was a great experience walking around the complex, studying all the very detailed carvings. Most people were on the photogenetic top where it all kicked off with people wanting to take pictures with us and it never stopped. We went back through Yogyakarta to see another temple, a Hindu one this time, the Paramban. Pretty calm there and very impressive as well. The rest of the time we visited some sights within the city, chilled out at our guesthouse and Flo and I had some great sushi for her birthday.

We had already booked a flight from Surabaya to Lombok and figured it was an easier accesspoint to mount Bromo that we still wanted to visit but time was getting scarse, so after our arrival there we booked a taxi right away to drop us off there. After a weird drive with our narcoleptic driver we arrived at Bromo for sunset, which was beautiful. Surabaya wasn't the most inspiring place, highlight (once more) was the amazing seafood we had in front of the beautiful colonial times villa we had a room in. And we visited a kretek (strong Indonesian cigarettes with cloves in it) factory were you can see 200 people making cigarettes like someone is holding a gun against there head, which is like watching a movie being played on twice the speed. The next day it was straight off to the airport from where a propellered plane took us to Lombok. The idea was to see at least one of the three Gili islands before exploring Lombok, so we stayed one day in Sengigi (I wouldn't recommend that place) before taking the boat to Gili Trawangan. Gili Trawangan felt a bit like going to Mallorca or some place like that, overdeveloped without any cultural awareness. I got my 'padi open water' diving permit two years ago and had never taken a dive ever since (the Netherlands and Switzerland aren't really known as top dive spots), so even though I really wanted to take a dive I was a bit hesitant because I would be a bit rusty to say the least. In came Adam, who was still honoring us with his company since we met him in Sumatra. He is a dive master and worked in Lombok as an instructor before and in all his kindness had offered me to take me out on a dive under his experienced supervision. It was the ideal way for me to get back into it and be able to forget some stuff without dying right away.

We had seen enough of Gili Trawangan and wanted to check out what life was like on another Gili, so Flo and I (Adam was going back to Lombok to see his girlfriend) hopped over to Gili Meno. Life was very different there indeed. Thanks to Ela's (Flo's twin sister) tip we got a great bungalow in the interior of the island, where it was very tranquil. The people of Meno keep control of their own island. Land can be bought, but what people want to build on it has to pass a commission of islanders. And they don't trust the police, so there is none to be found (and isn't necesarry). Nice aspect of all the Gili's (even still Gili Trawangan) is that there is no motorized traffic, only horsecarts and bycicles. We enjoyed the beautiful beach, great snorkelling and on our last night a great evening with amazing fireshows and numerous shots of ricewine.

Even though Meno was a little paradise we still felt the need to make the circle round so again spend 10 minutes on a boat to go to the last on the list, Gili Air. Bit more then Meno there, but still very nice. Scored the best bungalow of our trip there where it was nice to relax at the veranda, we enjoyed the BBQ fish, hung around in the oldest bar of the island (the guys behind the bar showed some effects of longtime barkeeping on a tourist destination) and walked around the island.

Having spend 10 nights at the Gili's we had to make a choice between exploring Lombok or Bali and it became the second to at least get a little idea of the apperently very different culture on Bali. We got on the local boat to Bali, went through the hassle of getting transport at the harbour and got to Ubud, which we had chosen as base camp to explore the island. Ubud sounded nice on paper, it being the cultural capital of Bali with loads of art. Can't say it was a punishment to be there, but Ubud has a poshness that I'm not looking for when I'm travelling (or anytime for that matter). We made a nice little walk on the north side of town where some nice rice paddies are situated. Next day we rented a motorbike once more and headed up north to look for some mountains. It was mostly a lot of driving and not so much seeing anything except for a nice view of two of those mountains. Sumatra's sceneries had spoiled us too much already for Bali to be any competition.

After spending a night in a place that's not really worth saying anything about (Kuta) our two unbelievable months in Indonesia were over. We left the country flying to the land of Oz, promising it we would see eachother soon again.

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