Tag: Indonesia
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Flying visit to Komodo National Park
I have a LOT of pins in my Google maps of places I’d like to visit… And I’ve had a pin in Komodo for as long as I can remember. The Komodo dragons are a fascinating species, endemic to the region, these monsters also have venom and harsh bacteria in their saliva which slowly kill…
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Finding Bali Roadtrip
Both Dave and I have been to Bali before. In my first visit I came full of anticipation after hearing tens of positive opinions of Bali, and how beautiful and spiritual it was. However, I left after about 10 days feeling oversold… I found Bali crowded, touristy, commercial and overrated. I left Bali and went…
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Snorkelling in Permuteran
From Probolinggo in East Java, we got another train to the coastal town of Ketapang. I’d been here before a few years ago when I attempted to climb Ijen. But this time, Dave and I were just foot passengers, so it was a lot easier. We bought our ticket from the Alfamart across the road…
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Sunrise and comets over Bromo
From Yogyakarta we got the train further East towards Probolinggo, the gateway to the volcano of East Java. We hadn’t been very lucky so far with our volcano experiences in Indonesia. Mount Sibayak and Sinabung in Sumatra had hidden from us under cloud, as had Mount Merapi in Central Java. We’d seen a few out…
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Ancient Temples in Yogyakarta
We flew from Medan to Jakarta for a flying visit, which consisted of basically eating, walking to a park which was closed, then sleeping in a capsule/pod hotel. In hindsight, we should have flown direct to Yogya, but the price of the flight to Jarkarta was about half, so it was definitely worth the savings.…
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Fascinating Lake Toba
From Berastagi, we continued onward towards Lake Toba. 74,000 years ago, the Toba eruption was one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in the history of the planet (well, in the last 25 million years, as Dave tells me). It was a VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) of 8, which is the highest on the scale –…
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Sunrise Hike to Mount Sibayak
After Bukit Lawang we wanted to travel south towards Lake Toba and a brief stop off at the town of Berastagi. Berastagi is saddled between 2 of Sumatra’s active volcanoes, mount Sinabung (on the FCDO red list because of it’s potential for violent, and often deadly, eruptions) and mount Sibayak, which is fairly stable and…
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Birthday Orangutans in Bukit Lawang
Before we even decided to quit our jobs and go backpacking, we’d both spoken about our desires to visit more of Indonesia. We’ve both been here before and loved it. For me, the lush green jungles are just as amazing as the underwater, with so many endemic species on land, and some of the best…
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Day Trip to Nusa Penida from Bali
Stage 3 of our Big Easter Adventure! It’s Pete’s birthday on 5th May, which was in 2 days, so for his birthday, I suggested upgrading our 9-hour direct flight from Auckland to Bali to business class. We’ve flown business before with Etihad by using their bidding service, we bid £100 each for the upgrade and…
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Big Easter Adventure to Thailand, New Zealand and Bali… Are we crazy?
Since booking the flights for this trip and telling people what we are doing, most think we are crazy to do so much in so little time and ask why we booked it. The simple answer is that the flights were on a super special sale with Emirates and we managed to bag all the…
Travel Alchemist 