INDONESIAN TOUR

The first day was mostly spent on the plane. After one 6 hour flight and another hour and a half flight we made it to Yogyakarta! We were met by our tour guide Tini who was extremely funny and we enjoyed our time with her. We arrived at our hotel, Ibis Styles, really late and had an Indonesian buffet before settling down and enjoying our top floor views.

The first thing we did the next day was to take a trip to the Prambanan temple. There were several temples for several different gods and or beings. I heard that some of the statues were stolen and I was mildly confused because they were made of stone. But it was still fun to look at the statues. After our tour of the temples we took a little train ride around the area before walking through a market area to get to our bus. Later that day we went to watch a puppet show. I liked the music but the show was slow paced, however we did get to see how the puppets were made so that was pretty cool.

The next morning we woke up so early so that we could be at the Borobudor temple at three to watch the sunrise. We waited there for 3 or so hours but because it was extremely foggy we didn’t see anything. When we left the temple the sun was already halfway in the sky. ! Talk about bad timing. We went back to the café and had breakfast before heading back on the bus. We then had free time to explore the market just down the street and visit a mall. It was really fun and everything was crazy cheap.

The next day was we went to the volcano riding in a Jeep all the way up to the top of the mountain stopping three times to see some amazing sights. We went to a bunker where two helpers had been killed, one by the lava and the other by being boiled alive. After that we got to a spot that had a killer views of the volcano. We then headed to an old house that had been destroyed by a volcanic eruption. A lot of the stuff there was melted and covered in ash, it was pretty cool. We went for a ride through a dried up river and it was kind of like 4 wheel driving it was fun.

The next temple that we visited was full of artefacts that had mainly belonged to the emperor. We went to a silver factory after that and saw some really nice expensive artwork. Across the street was a chocolate shop which we tore through. A boy got Tini a box of chocolates to thank her for being our guide which was a really nice gesture.

The next day was supposed to be a free day but our teachers decided to take us to a water temple which wasn’t made of water but had several swimming pools in it. We went into an underground cave network and water theme park called Jogjakarta Bay which was really cool.

On our last day in Yogyakarta we had the opportunity to learn how to create a Batik design using wax and dye and then toured the Batik museum. We went to lunch at a chicken place that had amazing tasting chicken, it was better than KFC! On our ride to the airport we stopped at a shopping mall that had an arcade on the top floor with a roller coaster! It took me a while to find the place as the escalator was hidden in a shop. We said goodbye to Tini at the airport and enjoyed a hour and a half flight to Denpasar where we were transported to Ananda Cottages by our new tour guide Pak.

The next day we had some fun with music followed by dance lessons. The dance lessons were hard but all the girls enjoys watching the five boys dancing, it was hilarious. After a bit of free time we later enjoyed a Kecak performance that involved a bunch of guys saying kecak to music. We watched several performances including a man, pretending he was a horse, running through fire! It was absolutely amazing.

I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bike! We had a bike tour! It was mostly down hill, but some went uphill, which was surprising for our tour guide. “First group to do it” he said. Before this though we drove up a high hill, stopping off along the way. We started at a restaurant which was pretty high in the mountain that had amazing views. We then went to a coffee/ chocolate shop and everyone tried and bought the coffee and chocolate, it was so good! We started the bike tour after this and it was great. Some people almost ran into other people and or motor bikes and cars. We were able to see what village life is like for ourselves.

We went to a school the next day and I was actually scared at how good their English was. You could pass them off as Australian they were that good. It was really fun to walk around their school and talk to them. We also enjoyed an assembly with a performance that looked better than the professional ones. We later got our hands dirty, literally dirty when we worked in the rice fields planting and ploughing and getting extremely muddy.

Our next destination was Sanur which is located near the beach where we visited a girl's orphanage talking with them as well as showing them dances. The rest of the day we spent as free time it was one of the boys birthdays so we had a cake by the pool. Pak dropped us off at the airport later and guess what? We had another passport problem. One of the girls visas expired and we waited for over an hour at the bag check- in waiting for her to get a new visa. Thankfully she got it with an hour to spare. We raced through the rest of the checks and relaxed at the terminal.

After a long and exhausting trip home we arrived back in Australia. It was a fun and meaningful experience that I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from.

Ruby Davies - Year 8