Got rice??

Well we've definitely left this too long, is all I can say. It's so hard to choose which stories to tell and pictures to choose from the past month!

Here's my attempt:

We were in a movie the other day! Half way to our Bollywood dreams! It was a Chinese/Malay one called Paper Moon, about kites such as these:

It was in no way glamorous and in almost no way fun, so at least I can cross that career path off the list...

Anyway that was in Kota Bharu, the most Islamic state in Malaysia (99%), during Ramadan, so it's not really any wonder they needed some foreigners and our flesh-showing ways for their beach scene.

The stars of the show in Kota Bharu, for us, were probably the markets. So colourful! Not just the fruit, but the rice too!

"Durian: The King Of Fruit" according to the locals...we beg to differ...

Another fun thing was spying on people, this hot-and-bothered old soul in particular:

Before that we were in Kuala Lumpur, which had some cool things to see, this fish to name but one:

Most insane thing I've seen in a while. But aside from South American aquatic life, we actually really liked the KL vibe, and all the Indian and Chinese temples and food got us really excited for our next two (intended) destinations!
Their flagpole of independence was also rather tall, which is always a plus...

(you can see me at the bottom if you squint really hard)

And before that we were still in Indonesia. Lake Toba, Sumatra, to be exact. This photo pretty much sums it up. Pretty and calm.

With some really cool houses:

and a few stories of cannibalism thrown in here and there, as demonstrated by this enthusiastic guide!

Longer ago still, we went on a jungle trek in Bukit Lawang, where we saw lots of orangutans and other animals, it was great.
Look at the face on the baby!!

For those of you we've already told, here is a video to embellish the story, and for there others, here is the story of how we were nearly killed by an angry orangutan...
So here we are, trekking in the jungle. And suddenly we come across about 20 other tourists and guides, all gathered in the one spot. And the reason, it turns out, is to marvel at a huge male orangutan, like huge, like bigger than an adult human and about 10 times stronger. Anyway, you can probably guess that with so many people around the guy was not happy, and it was only a matter of time before (while I was trying to get a video of him) this happens:

Did you hear Ilya shout out "Phoebe"? Well, according to him, as he did, he looked over his shoulder and sees it only a few metres behind us, running, with bared teeth, and snatching at whoever was within reach!
Clearly, we all survived, but it sure got our adrenaline pumping at the time!

Ok well that's all for the minute. Next time you hear from us it will be from India, since we fly there in 2 days!!!!

Thanks so much for reading!
xxx

So here we are. Over a week in, sitting in a hot internet cafe together, or as the Indonesians would say ensemble. Or maybe that's the French (who knows?). We're writing this as much to inform all our adoring friends, family and random internet stalkers (this blog already has 168 views?!?!) as to just get out of our mosquito filled, rank smelling, shower-less, sheet-less Probolingo hotel. Minor setbacks aside, we're in fine spirits.

I'm going to structure this blog entry like Citizen Kane, constantly jumping back and forth in time.
So let's start at the beginning.

We touched down in Ubud on the 23rd of June after a super exciting ten hour stop off in Perth (WHY????). Ubud was, put bluntly, awesome. We stayed in a beautiful homestay amid the Rice Padies (Phoebe's note: Padi actually means rice, so rice padies actually means rice rices). During our stay we strolled though a "monkey forest" where monkeys were plentiful, and embarked on an amazing bike ride through the surrounding villages (and rice rices) where rabid dogs were plentiful.

bike ride around Ubud area

(dead) snake we came across on a walk

Phoebe was very lucky to have me holding her hand so that she wasn't afraid of the dogs. It wasn't the other way round *cough*. We also saw some traditional Kecak dance (which is sort of like breakdancing but completely different) in which a man walked on hot coals bare foot. One minute there was a big arse bon fire, next minute the dancer had just kicked it. And i mean KICKED it. How he proceeded to stroll over the coals I know not, but he did it. Props to that guy. Seriously.

lake bratan

Five nights later we left for Pemuteran, a small town of seven thousand people (or so; i didn't count) on the North West Coast of Bali. The homestay that we stayed in was beautiful (too beautiful for our budget as it turned out) with lovely staff who's lack of english made conversation an activity in itself. Especially when one of these non-English speaking staff took us on a hilariously awkward tour of the local handicraft facilities. In Pemuteran we swam, sailed and Scuba dived all of which were fun, bar unsettling interactions with a laconic yet insanely sleezy dive instructor. Needless to say, we were sad to leave Pemuteran after three nights.

mt bromo erupting

But there is no rest for travellers! Our 40 or so hours after leaving Pem were the most hectic of our trip so far. We spent ten hours in transit (bus, ferry, bus, motion sickness, sea sickness, motion sickness) during the trek from Pemuteran (Bali) to Probolingo (Java). As soon as we got off the bus we were heckled by randoms trying to get us to buy something (I think it was a trip to Mount Bromo but I'm still not 100 %). We fled from them and crashed in the first hotel we found (big mistake) thinking it was all over. BUT IT WASN'T!!!!!!.

tracitional sailing in Pemuteran

Running of internet time here but basically we went up to Mount Bromo that night and the following morning it exploded while we were on top of it. Scary right? Phoebe certainly thought so, as she bailed down the side of the mountain within about a nanosecond. I (this is Ilya typing for the slow ones that have not yet pieced that together) held my nerve and got some photos. Turns out it was meant to explode anyway. It does it every twenty minutes.

Anyway, back to the present. We're about to leave on a 9 hour bus ride to Yogyakarta (Motion-Bloody-Sickness). Exciting no?

Yes.

Until next time, or as the Indonesians would say sampai nanti.
Swag.

So it begins!!
Chilean-volcano-ash-cloud willing, Ilya and I will leave Melbourne bright and early Thursday morning and, after a long stopover in Perth (10 hours no less), will arrive in Bali!
Despite having insisted to all my friends that this would strictly be a blog and not a Vlog, I will include these videos as snippets of the continent's pop culture, just to get you all into the Modern Asian mood...

Until next time, when we will actually have some travel tales to report!!
xx