Kawah Putih, volcano crater lake

Our trip to Kawah Putih, the beautiful volcano crater lake to meet our new Indonesian friend didn't turn out that well. The night before Jack had food poisoning and was up the whole night running between the toilet and our room. We had to cancel all our plans and recover from the night eating biscuits, as that was the only safe food we could find. At least the food poisoning only lasted for one night and we felt like going to Kawah Putih the following day. Unfortunately we couldn't meet Erika there anymore. 

To go to this volcano crater lake we had to take 4 different transports and it was only 50 kilometres away. It is though very normal in Indonesia. Sometimes you have to wait hours so that the minibus is full before it leaves and small journeys take extremely long time. We had done a little bit of research and new already that as a tourist we had to pay more than locals to get to see this place. In fact local people pay only 10% of what the tourists have to spend. 

As we were told you had to buy a mask for better breathing but it smelt so bad around the crater that the mask didn't have much of a purpose. The smell of sulphur is terrible and inhaling it can be poisonous and might even end up with death. As we heard later Kawah Putih is actually one of the least stinky craters and in some places you have to wear a gas mask. It was definitely worth putting up with the smell because the sight itself was quite pretty and very different from anything we'd seen before. 

And of course many locals wanted to take pictures of us and with us. Sometimes it feels like we are in the zoo and we are the monkeys. People everywhere pointing at us, starting at us like they've never seen a monkey before and in the end taking a picture as proof. Most of the time it's nice making all those people happy with just one picture and they can show it to all their friends and family and post it on Facebook as "My foreign friends". But sometimes it's too much, specially when we've had a long and tiring day with lots of photo shoots. It's hard to see their sad and disappointed faces when we say no to a picture therefore we've only said no once and regretted it later.

Bandung

Yesterday we arrived in Bandung. After a stressful few hours walking around to different ATMs and having our cards rejected, we were finally directed to a hotel by a friendly policeman. We walked to the hotel thinking how lucky it was that we had taken some US dollars otherwise we would have been stuck in the mountains! When we got to the hotel, we were told they didn't exchange money however a very friendly owner agreed to change 25 dollars for us at a good rate! We could now afford the bus.

We took an economy bus again and once again met some really friendly locals. On the bus journey we met an Indonesian lady called Erika, who had a degree in English. As she wanted to practice her English and we wanted to learn about Indonesia, we quickly became friends. After talking for a few hours we both got off and she directed us towards 'Braga' where we would find a hotel. We were not expecting to find a hostel as good as the one we ended up finding. For around £6 we finally stayed in our first place with a hot shower, air conditioning, good WiFi and clean rooms. For the next few hours we sat in the lobby feeling very relieved to find such a great place.

We have spent most of our time thus far wandering the streets and exploring the city. Tomorrow we have planned to meet Erika again at local volcano crater 'kawah putih'. To demonstrate how friendly Indonesian people are, she is leaving at 6am and riding her scooter for 3 hours just to meet us there!! It is funny when you think both of us have friends that we have known for years, who are closer than that and we rarely see them.

Puncak tea plantations

The local economy bus is an adventure and introduction to the culture. It gets unbelievably hot in the bus as for the money you pay air conditioning is not an option and having all the windows opened doesn't help much. They don't have many bus stops here in Indonesia although the bus stops a lot. You just have to raise your hand up and whilst the bus is slowing down jump in or out. There are also a lot of people coming in the bus trying to sell water and snacks, and musicians singing a few songs and then asking for money. So the journey can be bit more expensive, even the poor local people give money to people who ask.  The 80 km journey took us around 3 hours in the end.

We got chucked out of the bus in the middle of nowhere at the top of a mountain surrounded by tea plantations. They said it was called Puncak, the place we wanted to go. As we hadn't done any research we then realized that Puncak was going to be a little village not a town. Seemingly the locals there hadn't seen many white people and it took us about 10 minutes shaking their hands and being asked for pictures with them. We started walking in hope to find a cheap place to stay but unfortunately due to heavy sudden rain ended up in a bit overpriced hotel. In the end it wasn't too bad, it included breakfast and even a pool.

Quite a nice hotel in the end

In the morning we had a lovely walk around the tea plantations which were just on the side of the road. Lucky people who can have this view from their bedroom windows. After we had checked out of the hotel and waited till yet another sudden hour long rain had stopped, we took a local minibus to the next village around 8 km away called Cibodas. Cibodas has 85 hectares of natural botanical gardens and again we had no idea it was this big as we had done no research before arriving. A very helpful local guy nodded us to follow him after asking directions to a guesthouse. We walked with him about an hour up and down the mountain roads. After the first guesthouse being full he took us to Freddy's home stay and funnily enough Freddy happened to be his dad. Freddy was a very kind and helpful old man who did everything possible to make sure his only guests enjoyed their stay.

Tea

If one person asks to take a picture with us, then there are always more

We planned to trek up to the hotsprings in the botanical garden however when we arrived and found out the special tourist price was more than 10 euros we decided against it. This may not sound like much but in Indonesia it is a lot of money and more than we even had on us at that time. When we told Freddy he agreed and told us "better in Bandung" so that became our next destination. 

Jakarta

Its hot. With the humidity of almost maximum. Our first impression after stepping out of the airport was that we had arrived home, as that is what we had planned since leaving Asia the last time. In the first couple of minutes before taking a local bus to the city centre, we had never seen so many smiley faces. Once again after withdrawing just under £50 in Indonesian rupees we became millionaires.

After getting the bus to the central train station we met a Dutch couple and a Slovakian guy who wanted to head down to Bali. Together we decided as it was a national christian holiday that it would be better to sleep on this idea and decide where to go next in the morning. As they were travelling for a month and we were planning to stay in Asia longer, they opted for a good night sleep and we found the cheapest place possible and didn't sleep. That first night cost about £4.50 and although the owner was very friendly the hostel was the worst place we had ever stayed. By the morning the Slovakian guy who only had a week until he had to be back in Jakarta had flown to Bali. We met with the lovely Dutch couple Rabin and Tosca who were trying to get tickets to another city Yogyakarta. They had met a really friendly local who was driving Rabin around on his scooter to find tickets. When they returned the Indonesian guy who unfortunately never told us his name, basically planned our trip for us.

We stayed one more night in Jakarta in a hostel that was 50 pence more, filled with Indonesians seemingly staying there long term. The guys in the reception were really nice and after Jack rolled them some cigarettes, he painted us each a lighter one with 'Jack' and the other with 'Scorpio' as Marianne was a little long. Because of our experiences in Thailand we were worried the guy was going to ask for money, but the Indonesian people we have met have all been sincere without looking to get anything out of you. We had a little walk around the town but the weather had other ideas and a storm forced us to head home.

The next morning we took the bus to the coach station and got an economy bus to Puncak. The inter city bus in Jakarta is ridiculously crowded and we felt quite bad as with our backpacks on we not only took up more space, but also posed a danger to the slightly shorter locals.

Our first yummy street food in Indonesia

Venice

After a quick visit to our lovely friends and families we took a plane to Milan and made our way to Venice on the train. We stayed in a caravan park about 20 minutes outside of Venice, which was by far the cheapest place we could find as we left it to the last minute to book. We actually thought this was the best way to do it, staying outside of Venice and the crowds. It was more relaxing and allowed you to get completely lost in Venice and easily find your way home.

Grand canal

When we looked up the top free things to do in Venice, getting lost was the top. This was easily accomplished with all the narrow streets, alleyways and canals. The weather was beautiful, almost 30 degrees throughout both days, which was a welcome change to English and Estonian weather. It was also good practice for when we head to Indonesia on Tuesday as all we did in Venice was walk all day. We found our way to St. Marks square although heaving with tourists the architecture was impressive. Whilst being completely lost we stumbled upon the self proclaimed 'most beautiful book shop in the world' and whilst looking around we had to agree. Venice was completely unique and beautiful although we couldn't imagine visiting in the summer, it was busy enough in May!

After we spent two months visiting family around Europe, Venice finally felt like the start of our travels as for the first time there was nobody to meet us or to stay with. It was just us, it was a mixture of relief and excitement (no offence family). Next stop Indonesia.

Crowded st Marcs square