Hey everyone and how nice that you are reading the new travel update again! This time a lot faster than usual because I think it would be the most fun to write the travel update while I am still traveling. When I am in the Netherlands I will probably be busy with other things and it may take a while. I’ve been having a bit of trouble posting updates lately because my website is acting strange every now and then. If anyone has some knowledge of WordPress, I would like to ask some questions if possible 😊
I am currently in Bali and I still have a day to fill before I fly to Istanbul via Singapore tomorrow, I still have 6 days there until I land back in the Netherlands on June 14! I have been traveling through Sumatra and Java in recent weeks and that is what this update is about, here it is!
I flew from Bangkok to Medan on Sumatra and already had something fun planned for my first days, a multi-day jungle tour! Sumatra is one of the few places in the world where you can find orangutans in the wild, and the jungle near Bukit Lawang is the perfect place for this. The orangutans were ‘moved’ here years ago, as a researcher had concluded that everything the monkeys needed was present in this jungle. Injured monkeys, among other things, were brought here to protect the species. At that time they were fed, but this no longer happens, the monkeys have become independent. Of course, it is not guaranteed that you will actually encounter orangutans, because in nature you never know. But I was lucky! Actually, at the entrance to the jungle we saw the first orangutans sitting in the tree, very cool! This immediately relieved the pressure and allowed us to enjoy the rest of the jungle tour. There were all kinds of animals in the jungle, in addition to the orangutans, there were also many other monkeys, but there were also beautiful birds, for example. The best was yet to come as later in the day we came across an adult male orangutan who walked past us just a few meters away! That was very special. Apart from the monkeys, the tour was a lot of fun anyway, we slept on a mat by a river and ate our dinner there. It is always nice to be in nature, especially to sleep there.
After Bukit Lawang I went to Berastagi, a place that is somewhat higher and surrounded by 2 volcanoes. You are currently not allowed to climb one volcano because it erupted a few years ago, but fortunately you can still climb the other. I did that and the view was very cool. The nice thing is that there are hot springs downstairs, so you can relax there after a day of hiking.
However, on the day I wanted to leave again I got food poisoning, which was the first time in all the time I have been traveling. I’m not going to describe what that day looked like, but it was clear that I couldn’t travel. I was lucky enough to stay in a guesthouse where they were super sweet and took good care of me. Luckily I only felt bad for 1 day and was able to continue the next day.
Tuk Tuk, a place on the island in Lake Toba was on the agenda. Lake Toba is the deepest crater lake in the world. This lake was created by the eruption of the previously mentioned Berastagi volcano. It used to be known as a party place, but due to the rise of Bali it is a lot quieter nowadays. It was quite strange to see, because the place still has many hotels and restaurants that are mostly empty. I was there with Niek and we scootered around the island together. We came across a local football match where we stopped and later that evening we even found a Dutch restaurant that sold ‘kroketten’ and ‘frikandellen’, which I hadn’t had in a while! I was so excited to eat that kroket that I burned the inside of my mouth, but it was worth it 😊
Then it was time to leave Sumatra. Maybe I would like to come back here someday. Sumatra is a really large island and the travel times are quite long, it would take me a lot of time to see everything. So I chose to go to Java. I flew from Medan to Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia. I don’t think everyone knows this, but Indonesia is number 4 when it comes to the number of most inhabitants per country, number 4! You wouldn’t quickly think of that, would you? 275 million people in total! And about 55% of that number lives in Java. I noticed it immediately upon arrival, Jakarta was extremely busy! I still had a nice time there. I did a walking tour with my hostel and there we went to the 2 freedom monuments; the National monument and the National Mosque. The 4th largest mosque in the world, a total of 200,000 people can pray at the same time! That Mosque is completely filled twice a year, I think that would be cool to be there.
For the rest it was also nice to see the Dutch influences. We have a considerable colonial past here, which is not exactly something to be proud of, but that is why there are now granny bikes on the square of the former Batavia and you can order pancakes. That’s the fun part of it 😉. Many words from Indonesian come from Dutch, the Dutch readers can probably guess what the words kulkas, asbak, handuk, klamboe and pienter mean!
From Jakarta I went to Bandung, and I did that together with Thomas. I met him in my hostel in Jakarta and we got along well. We would be together for the rest of the trip and that was a lot of fun! Thomas is a hobby photographer, but if you look at his photos you would think that it is his full-time job, because they are really beautiful. You can find a few here, but if you want to see more you can look on Instagram: @thomas_kuipers. I did not ask permission to put the photos on the blog, so if the website is down, you know that I have a big lawsuit pending 😉
We didn’t have very long in Bandung, so we did a 1-day tour to the highlights: the White Crater, hot springs & many tea fields! That tour was a lot of fun. It was a very full day, we were on the road from 6:30 am to 8:00 pm! We did the tour with Fanji and he organized it very nicely; For example, we saw how rice is collected, participated in a football match with local kids & ended the day at Fanji’s home with his family.
The Dutch influences kept coming because we had found everything at a local bakery in the center! Sausage rolls, gingerbread, filled cookies, you name it! Of course we had stocked up on that, because we had to get up early the next day, so there was nothing wrong with having that for breakfast.
Via Pangandaran, where we had gone to the green canyon with scooters, we went to Yogyakarta. This is a famous backpacker destination, so we planned a few days here. Upon arrival at our hostel we met Robin and Pauline again who were in our group for the day tour in Bandung, which was fun! There was plenty to do in Yogyakarta and we did 2 tours here: one on foot and one by bike. For the rest we went to the 2 well-known temples, the Borobudur (Buddhist) and the Prambanan (Hindu). By the way, if you want to know what it’s like to be a celebrity, you have to go to Sumatra or Java. It doesn’t matter where you walk, everyone waves at you or wants to take a picture with you. Fortunately, Indonesians are still quite shy, so not everyone dares to ask for a photo. But if one Indonesian is over, many more will follow!
Then it was time to fulfill our volcano needs: 3 volcanoes in one week! We started with the Marbabu. This is a volcano near Yogyakarta where you have a view of the Merapi volcano. The Merapi is currently active and you can sometimes see lava coming out of it! We didn’t actually hear anyone else about climbing Merbabu, but Thomas had been recommended it by a friend. And that was a very good recommendation! The rest of the week we kept telling each other that we were glad we had done this. We climbed the volcano in 2 days, and stayed overnight on the volcano. We did this with 1 guide and 1 porter (someone who brings gear) and we were almost the only Western tourists on the volcano! That experience was really cool. After the 1st day of hiking we had a beautiful view of the Merapi and we just stayed silent for half an hour looking at this beautiful view. Then we went to sleep in our tent and set the alarm at 3:00 so that we would be at the top at sunrise. And we succeeded; we were even the first ones upstairs! The view from here was so incredibly beautiful. We had a view of 7 other volcanoes and the clouds in combination with the sunrise made it even more beautiful. Yes, that was an unforgettable experience! 😀
Then the 2 other volcanoes: the Bromo and the Iljen. For this we first had to take the train to Malang. Unlike Merbabu, these volcanoes are super popular among (Western) tourists, but despite that, they were still good experiences. We had a tour of 20(!) people this time, but luckily it was a nice group. For the Bromo you don’t have to do much except set your alarm early (at 1:45), because you are driven all the way up. The view here was also beautiful. Afterwards we went to the crater and you felt like you were in some kind of desert here. Thomas has also taken beautiful photos here.
For the Iljen we had to set our alarms even earlier, namely at 11:20 PM! For this we also had to hike a bit, it took about 1.5 hours to arrive at the crater and another 45 minutes to come down. What made it so long was the masses of people who were there. I thought it was a bit too much at first, but afterwards it was still a good experience. Iljen is known for its blue fire, and this was very cool to see. There is a lot of sulfur in this volcano and we were given masks for that. They only told us that the smoke was not toxic and that we should only use our masks in an emergency. That turned out not to be entirely true because the day after the tour almost everyone in our group had become ill. Me & another guy even fainted out of nowhere, which was obviously no fun. Luckily I was sitting at the time so I didn’t make a big hit but it was scary. So if you go to the Iljen, wear your mask all the time, not just in emergencies 😉
That is also the reason why I am finishing the blog on the plane on the way to Istanbul. I started in Bali, but at one point I fainted. Everything is going well again, so don’t worry 😊. I have now officially left the Southeast Asia region and am on my way back to Europe! I still have 6 days in Istanbul, which I like because I’ve never been there before. And then it’s time to go home again! I’m looking forward to it, but at the same time I’m also a bit nervous. After all, I lived a completely different life for 1.5 years. It will definitely take some adjusting, but that’s okay. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again and will therefore spend a lot of time on this and get a lot of energy out of it. I really enjoyed writing these updates and that has ensured that I have always had the feeling that I am still in contact with many people in the Netherlands. Thank you for reading and the many messages I have received from everyone over the past 1.5 years, it always brought a smile to my face when I received another message and so I knew someone was thinking of me. I will definitely write a new update when I’m back in the Netherlands, I think it would be nice to write down those experiences and also reflect on the trip. And… I also have ideas to do another trip. In any case, I will probably stay in the Netherlands for the whole of 2024 and during that time I will see what happens. I still believe that these years in my life are the time to do these kinds of things. And so far it hasn’t brought me many bad things. We’ll see, let’s enjoy Istanbul first. See you again soon, lots of love! 😊