Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We arrived late into KLIA ( airport)  and got a taxi to the closest area with a hotel. I think the taxi cost more than the hotel... Next morning put the bikes together and biked 46 km on a quiet rd to Putrajaya where our friend Malou is living and working at an international school. It was a great till we got to Putrajaya. It is the Canberra of Malaysia. It has 15 precincts, all the rds around them are designed like petals and there are many motorways. Lots of bike paths that just stop. Malou spotted us on her way home from work, we were stopped trying to decide if we actually had to go on the motorway. We had to!!  It was a scary few km till we spotted her waiting for us on a quieter stretch of rd. So it was condo apartment living for a week, with swimming pool while we sorted our 60 day Thailand visa, shopping at Tesco' s and enjoying some of the food we have missed, cereal, yoghurt, cheese, wholemeal bread,  potatoes...  Wine... It is only 20 minutes to KL by train, we went in on the Friday but the embassy was closed so had to go back on Monday to apply, then Tuesday to pick it up. Biked around Putrajaya on Sunday, went to the big mosque, everyone has to cover up and it is so hot it is unbearable. Then around the river trails, the wetland area and botanical gardens.
KL, we went to the Central Market, China town, the Batu caves ( Hindu shrine) the bird sanctuary and the butterfly park. Dinner out one night at Marriott's, a 5 star hotel, gorgeous seafood buffet,  with ex-pat teachers, we all looked under dressed but no one seemed to care. It was definitely a Western week out but time now to get back on our bikes and find the real Malaysia.

Loving life in Yogyakarta with the locals.

We made contact with Anto, a warm showers host - this is an organization for cycle tourists - initially to meet up to chat and talk about cycling in the Yogyakarta area. We met up and he had Reon (Ryan) in tow, a 14 year old young lad who also loves cycling. He was proudly wearing a NZ bivouac cycle shirt sent to him by another NZ cyclist, Graham Frith from Hammer Springs who is cycling 43000 km from NZ through Asia and raising awareness of prostate cancer. His blog " grumgoesglobal.com" is worth checking out. They met him a couple of months ago. We had a nice afternoon and on Anto's encouragement cleaned our bikes... Another cycle tourist, Tim, from the Netherlands arrived that evening. Tim has been cycling for 2 and a half years, and his budget for Indonesia was only $3 per day which was for food. He camps or stays with people, has had an amazing trip finishing in Bali where his family are joining him. ( Photo of Tim, Trevor and Anto) Anto took the 3 of us for a 55 km cycle the next day to some smaller temples, local eating places and quieter roads, a really enjoyable day. Great chatting with other cyclists. 

The city roads are busy, I am quite amazed at how we are negotiating the streets, traffic, lights, it has been good following Anto and Reon around, they are both steady careful cyclists as you need to be! Anto helped us get some bike boxes as we have decided not to extend our  visa but to fly to KL instead. Trevor just tied the boxes on to the  back of his bike like the locals. After our trip out to Borabador we stayed with Anto which was great. The hotel was fine but it is easy to feel a bit of a spectator in the tourist areas instead of being a part of local life. The food in Yogyakarta was the best and amazingly cheap. There were food stalls on both sides of the rd from Anto's place. They changed about 2 pm with different people running them and different food. We could get 3 meals, nasi gorang or noodle soup and 3 ice teas for NZ $2.50!! We did quite a bit of sitting around outside eating and drinking tea. One day they made corn fritters, I think we had 20 between us for $1

We were going to go caving with Reon and his dad but it rained all night so had to change plans. Reon took us cycling for the day, first to a local eatery across the rd from his place for a traditional breakfast of rice porridge with vege, then out into the country side to a local park and to two waterfalls. We had a dip at the second one. He was a fantastic guide, sharing his local knowledge and we had a fun day cycling 55 km. He is also one of Indonesia's top age group climbers, amazing who you meet along the way.

Java is definitely more wealthy than the other islands we have been on. More infrastructure, more people, more fertile land. 

It has been an amazing 2 months in Indonesia, just over 2000km of cycling. Our most enduring memory will be the fantastic, friendly people and the endless " Hellooooooo Misterrrrr"  that resonated through the villages on the islands of Flores and Sumbawa. The excited school kids running down the roads after us as if we were celebrities and the many people who took the time to escort us or help out. 

Selamut Jalan Indonesia!! 

 

Borabodor and Prambanan Ancient Buddhist Temples

Borabador is about 50 km from Jogyakarta. We just took enough gear for one night and biked out on a busy highway. We stopped a few kms past the main town for an ice cream and chatted to the shop owner asking if he could recommend a guesthouse. Turned out he was just finishing a room and said to give him half an hour and he would love us to be his first guests. So his dad and.him went to work carrying in a bed, couch, hot water machine, tv... and then the curtain men arrived and it was all done. Perfect for the night. His dad knocked on our door at 4.30 am on his way to the mosque to make sure we did not miss the sunrise. A lovely early morning visit to Borabador, a must see if anywhere near. I love the pictures (relief) depicting life years ago. This area was once a  Buddhist capital. After a big breakfast back at our homestay we headed back via the river rd, much more scenic but it bucketed down a few times so we had lots of shelter stops. The first stop was at a truck cleaning place so we cleaned our bikes with their high pressure hose. Then a cup of tea stop. Next was fried chicken from a street stall. We got a bit lost after that and went back to ask a lady we had been chatting to while we ate. She escorted us in the rain about 10 km through some back roads completely out of her way to get us to a main road.  We had purchased a ticket that included Prambanan temple which was about 65 km away back through the other side of Jogyakarta so once it fined up we had to ride fast through the busy city to get there in time. That was also nice, quite different, lots of smaller temples. It closed about 5 and then we had to get back to where we were staying. It got dark about 5.30 so it was a bit dodgy riding through the busy streets in the dark. The friends we were staying with were sure we had got lost but we arrived tired,bedraggled and after a shower enjoyed dinner and iced lemon tea from the food stall at the front of the house. A big day! We have ticked off all the places we had on our list before we left for Indonesia and many more,. except Sumatra, which we think deserves a whole trip on its own.

Sulphur mining at Mount Ijen, must be one of the worlds worst jobs...

After our fast descent from Mt Bromo we had a change of plan. Left our bikes at a tour bus place and joined 3 others on an overnight excursion to Mt Ijen, another volcano, took about 6 hours driving east and up in the hills. Arrived about 5, dinner at 7 then a hot soak in a thermal pool, men in one pool ladies on the other. At least that way we didn't have to soak with our sarong on! It was an amazing trip. At the base of the crater it is mined for sulphur. When the gases come out of the vents this amazing blue flame can be seen - only in the dark, it still happens in the day but cannot be seen. So we got up at 1am after 4 hrs sleep, drove for a little bit, then walked for an hour or so to the crater rim, then descended right to the bottom in the dark! The blue flames were stunning, not many places in the world where that can be seen (but the photos were not very good in the dark) There were quite a few workers mining the sulphur, it goes day and night. Must be one of the worst jobs in the world. The toxic fumes are unbelievable. The wind changed and we got one blast of it. Eyes streaming, coughing, hard to breathe and these guys work in it all the time with no masks. The sulphur comes out an orange liquid then hardens to yellow. Really heavy. They haul up 80 - 100 kg, sometimes 2 trips per day and get paid about $8 per load. There are a few u tube videos that are really good if you are interested in seeing it in action. Very sobering seeing the work being done. The crater lake is hydrochloric acid... We climbed back out in daylight and got back to our van about 7 am where I noticed the sign!! (last photo) After a cuppa and a jam sandwich we headed back in our tourist car. The driver drove even worse than the day before. I decided it was like being in a really bad car racing video game where u go as fast as you can for 200 km, over taking everything while more and more hazards appear along the way, cars, motorbikes, pedestrians, trucks, buses, road works, monsoon rain... And then u realise everyone coming toward you is playing the same game and it seems it is inevitable that it can only implode. Everyone else slept while I kept saying Hati Hati (careful careful) to no avail so in the end I just shut my eyes and didn't look either. I was so pleased to get back to Probolingo, alive, with just a thumping headache. We had reached the conclusion that Java traffic was no fun and since we didn't have much time left on our visa had booked another bus to Yogyakarta - 10 hours, which we thought was leaving at 7 pm to arrive in the early morning but when we got back at 2 pm there was this large minivan ready to go just for us so we folded down the seats, went to sleep, one stop for dinner and arrived at midnight. Our clothes still reeked from the gases from Mt Ijen and we were cycling around the city at midnight checking out hotels. It is a big city with a tourist area so found a suitable one and the lovely night porter brought us a flask of hot water and jasmine tea, finally to bed about 3 am, long long day. I think cycling is easier!!