Sabah and Java with Dave
My brother Dave flew into KL about 6 weeks ago. As I was still working, he spent the first three weeks on the East Coast of Malaysia, in Northern Vietnam, and at Angkor Wat. He flew back to KL a few days after I finished work, and we headed to Sabah. We spent some time diving at Sipadan (got to see sharks, turtles, some barracuda, tons of other fish), then tried to get off the beaten path to a wildlife reserve, but unfortunately couldn't find a way to do it at a reasonable cost within our time restrictions. So we hung out (got stuck) in a town called Lahad Datu for a day. There is nothing at all in Lahad Datu to attract any tourists. This turned out to be a good thing as we were the only foreigners around (Dave's first such experience) and we spent some time wandering around local markets and the pier. We left Lahad Datu and headed to KK. We had an appointment with a mountain.
My second time climbing gunung Kinabalu, this was a very different experience from the first. When I did it the first time, I was relatively fit (I haven't been to the gym in about 6 weeks because of an injury -no worries, I'm ok now) and it didn't rain off an on for the entire climb.
The first few times it rained Dave and I were close enough to shelter that we didn't get too wet. But on a long downpour, we were out in the open for a solid hour, got soaked right through everything, and had gained enough altitude that it was bloody cold. We were so miserable that we considered turning around and going back down. We continued, the rain pounding away, made it to the guesthouse (their thermometer read 8.2 degrees), slept for a few hours in an unheated hut, woke up at 3am, put on our cold wet shoes, and in our last remaining set of dry clothes, praying it wouldn't rain, we made a push to the summit.
Coming down off the mountain we flew into Indonesia's Java, happy to be in warmer climes. I couldn't be out of Malaysia for too long (tax reasons) so it was a bit of a whirlwind tour of Central Java. We flew into Solo and immediately got on a train to Jogjakarata. We spent some time walking around the city and had a few interesting encounters: Probably 5 or 6 locals stopped us to tell us not to buy batik from any of the touristy areas of town (because they are poor quality and/or prices are really marked up) but to go to some government art centre and buy it from there. We had no interest in buying batik, but were curious enough about this "govt" shop that we wanted to go check it out. Unfortunately we ran out of time. We had one conversation with one of the local dudes that went something like this:
Local Dude: Friend, do not buy any batik or any souvenir from sellers in front of sultan palace.
Me: For sure
Local Dude: People selling out front of palace are Mafia.
Me: Is that right?
Local Dude: You know why they are mafia?
Me: No I don't. Why?
Local Dude: 5% or 10% that is commission; But 50% and 60% extra, that is Mafia.
Me: I see.
Local Dude: you only buy batik from government art centre
Me: We are going there later tomorrow. Thanks for your help.
Jogja is a town with a lot of people scamming tourists. An endless number of people came up to us as we looked at our map, or paused on corner or at a shop. And they all pretended to help us and almost all of them wanted to take us to a "special batik exhibition. Only today!". As an example: On our way to find the tourist information centre, we had 3 separate people stop us and give us "directions to the info centre" and afterwards tell us, "Oh...but it closed already today" and then of course they would lead into "I can find a good guide for you" or "come to shop X, they have info for tourists". Avoiding all those people, we got to the open tourist info centre -the people here were really fantastic; we found out exactly how the public transport operates and how much it should cost to get to various places.
One thing I did not like about the buses (although this doens't happen on the nicer/new city bus network): While waiting at a bus station or at stoplights, often vendors would come on selling newspapers, drinks, snacks or strange knick-knacks. This didn't bother me at all (and I've seen this before). What did bother me was the "musicians". They would come onto the bus, play/sing a song and then ask you for money. And there were a ridiculous number of them. While waiting at one bus stop, three different pairs got on, in turn, to do their thing. Not only that, but you could be sitting in a cafe, or checking out wares in a shop and a duo would come over, get in your face, and belt out a tune.
In Indonesia, they have the "becak", a bicycle rickshaw, their drivers are notorious for overcharging, or charging you a ridiculously low amount and then taking you, not to where you asked to go, but to a shop where you'll be really pressured into buying something. Dave and I were walking to the Sultan's palace (if anyone is reading this as research for going to Java -don't go to the palace! Nothing there at all!) and we were within about 100m of it: a becak driver calls out, "Becak! Can go Sultan palace!" I'm not sure if he really thought that we would take a becak to go 100m; More likely is that he was betting that we didn't know where it was/how far it was, and that we would agree on a ridiculous price for him to take us there. 100m!!
Now, having shared these anecdotes I must say that in general the people of Indonesia are amazing, friendly, genuine people and we had so many absolutely fantastic encounters. One of many of these was a member of the Navy, on his way home to visit his family, gave us a better way of getting into town and further offered to go with us out of his way and help us find a guesthouse and make sure we didn't get cheated anywhere along the way. We thanked him for his advice and politely told him that we would be ok. He really was a great guy! And there were many more!!
From Jogja we made a trip out to Prambanan, a Hindu temple, and Borobudur, a Buddhist temple, and another very different Hindu temple: Candi Cetho.
We then went on to climb an active volcano: Gunung Merapi. I had, nearly a year ago, climbed a volcano of the same name on Sumatra. Now, we were really unsure about this one (we were physically beat up as we had come down off Kinabalu only 2 days prior to this) but we decided to give it a go. The first task for Dave and myself was to get to a tiny town called Selo, from where we would begin our climb. There were a few bus transfers, but we had done the research so we knew what to expect. We even had a nice lunch with the owner of a restaurant in Solo who corroborated the details. He even told us about the owner of a guesthouse in Selo, a man by the name of Sony. We were prepared...right.
By the time we were on the last bus, finally heading to Selo, it was pitch black outside. We had ridden on the roof, as the bus had been jam-packed when we caught it, and most of the passengers had gotten off at one of the various villages along the way. Turns out, there were only a few people left when the bus stopped and the driver told us to get off. He spoke no English, and was in an extreme rush. I asked if this was Selo. He made it clear that we had to get off the bus, and as soon as we disembarked, he drove off (all the other passengers had disembarked and walked off). Looking around in total darkness (we later found out that the entire region had lost power), it eventually became clear that we were not in Selo. Talking to a few people we realized that Selo was still another 12 to 14 km away. There was no transport to Selo, there were no guesthouses in this little village, and only a few people wandering the streets. So we did the only thing there was to do: we hitch-hiked. I pulled out my torchlight and we started walking towards Selo, hoping that someone would come along and give us a lift. We didn't walk very far before a dump truck used for shipping soil passed by. The driver spoke no English, but we managed to get him to give us a ride to Selo. We hopped in the back (luckily it was empty) and off we went. As we rode along, passing through completely blacked-out villages, we realized that we had no idea where this guy was taking us. As we started to wonder if we had communicated properly or worse, he pulls over. We hop out of the back and he drives off. As we were wondering how we were going to find out, first, if we were really in Selo, and second, where to find a bed, a guy walks up to us and says hello. It was Sony.
A short while later we met a Swiss dude named Peter and we agreed to wake up at 3:30 and climb the volcano with him. It was a truly fantastic climb. Peter, in his mid-forties, was in much better shape than both of us, and he soon was long gone. So it was just Dave and I walking up the north face of Merapi. There was a brilliantly shining full moon to our right and the sun was coming up to our left. Brilliant.
We did get lost on our way up, but the beauty of climbing a volcano is that, as long as you keep ascending, all ways lead to the same place! It is only on the descent that you need to be more concerned. And the view from the top was awesome: many of Java's volcanoes in all directions all around; many little villages built on the edges of the fissures of these volcanoes. This was easily the highlight of our travels.
We flew back to Malaysia and spent a few days relaxing in KL and then in Langkawi doing the Langkawi thing -cruising around on motorbikes, hanging on beaches, swimming in the ocean. Dave flew back to Canada early this morning. I have a few days in KL and then I'm heading to Bali for a week and a half.
My second time climbing gunung Kinabalu, this was a very different experience from the first. When I did it the first time, I was relatively fit (I haven't been to the gym in about 6 weeks because of an injury -no worries, I'm ok now) and it didn't rain off an on for the entire climb.
The first few times it rained Dave and I were close enough to shelter that we didn't get too wet. But on a long downpour, we were out in the open for a solid hour, got soaked right through everything, and had gained enough altitude that it was bloody cold. We were so miserable that we considered turning around and going back down. We continued, the rain pounding away, made it to the guesthouse (their thermometer read 8.2 degrees), slept for a few hours in an unheated hut, woke up at 3am, put on our cold wet shoes, and in our last remaining set of dry clothes, praying it wouldn't rain, we made a push to the summit.
Coming down off the mountain we flew into Indonesia's Java, happy to be in warmer climes. I couldn't be out of Malaysia for too long (tax reasons) so it was a bit of a whirlwind tour of Central Java. We flew into Solo and immediately got on a train to Jogjakarata. We spent some time walking around the city and had a few interesting encounters: Probably 5 or 6 locals stopped us to tell us not to buy batik from any of the touristy areas of town (because they are poor quality and/or prices are really marked up) but to go to some government art centre and buy it from there. We had no interest in buying batik, but were curious enough about this "govt" shop that we wanted to go check it out. Unfortunately we ran out of time. We had one conversation with one of the local dudes that went something like this:
Local Dude: Friend, do not buy any batik or any souvenir from sellers in front of sultan palace.
Me: For sure
Local Dude: People selling out front of palace are Mafia.
Me: Is that right?
Local Dude: You know why they are mafia?
Me: No I don't. Why?
Local Dude: 5% or 10% that is commission; But 50% and 60% extra, that is Mafia.
Me: I see.
Local Dude: you only buy batik from government art centre
Me: We are going there later tomorrow. Thanks for your help.
Jogja is a town with a lot of people scamming tourists. An endless number of people came up to us as we looked at our map, or paused on corner or at a shop. And they all pretended to help us and almost all of them wanted to take us to a "special batik exhibition. Only today!". As an example: On our way to find the tourist information centre, we had 3 separate people stop us and give us "directions to the info centre" and afterwards tell us, "Oh...but it closed already today" and then of course they would lead into "I can find a good guide for you" or "come to shop X, they have info for tourists". Avoiding all those people, we got to the open tourist info centre -the people here were really fantastic; we found out exactly how the public transport operates and how much it should cost to get to various places.
One thing I did not like about the buses (although this doens't happen on the nicer/new city bus network): While waiting at a bus station or at stoplights, often vendors would come on selling newspapers, drinks, snacks or strange knick-knacks. This didn't bother me at all (and I've seen this before). What did bother me was the "musicians". They would come onto the bus, play/sing a song and then ask you for money. And there were a ridiculous number of them. While waiting at one bus stop, three different pairs got on, in turn, to do their thing. Not only that, but you could be sitting in a cafe, or checking out wares in a shop and a duo would come over, get in your face, and belt out a tune.
In Indonesia, they have the "becak", a bicycle rickshaw, their drivers are notorious for overcharging, or charging you a ridiculously low amount and then taking you, not to where you asked to go, but to a shop where you'll be really pressured into buying something. Dave and I were walking to the Sultan's palace (if anyone is reading this as research for going to Java -don't go to the palace! Nothing there at all!) and we were within about 100m of it: a becak driver calls out, "Becak! Can go Sultan palace!" I'm not sure if he really thought that we would take a becak to go 100m; More likely is that he was betting that we didn't know where it was/how far it was, and that we would agree on a ridiculous price for him to take us there. 100m!!
Now, having shared these anecdotes I must say that in general the people of Indonesia are amazing, friendly, genuine people and we had so many absolutely fantastic encounters. One of many of these was a member of the Navy, on his way home to visit his family, gave us a better way of getting into town and further offered to go with us out of his way and help us find a guesthouse and make sure we didn't get cheated anywhere along the way. We thanked him for his advice and politely told him that we would be ok. He really was a great guy! And there were many more!!
From Jogja we made a trip out to Prambanan, a Hindu temple, and Borobudur, a Buddhist temple, and another very different Hindu temple: Candi Cetho.
We then went on to climb an active volcano: Gunung Merapi. I had, nearly a year ago, climbed a volcano of the same name on Sumatra. Now, we were really unsure about this one (we were physically beat up as we had come down off Kinabalu only 2 days prior to this) but we decided to give it a go. The first task for Dave and myself was to get to a tiny town called Selo, from where we would begin our climb. There were a few bus transfers, but we had done the research so we knew what to expect. We even had a nice lunch with the owner of a restaurant in Solo who corroborated the details. He even told us about the owner of a guesthouse in Selo, a man by the name of Sony. We were prepared...right.
By the time we were on the last bus, finally heading to Selo, it was pitch black outside. We had ridden on the roof, as the bus had been jam-packed when we caught it, and most of the passengers had gotten off at one of the various villages along the way. Turns out, there were only a few people left when the bus stopped and the driver told us to get off. He spoke no English, and was in an extreme rush. I asked if this was Selo. He made it clear that we had to get off the bus, and as soon as we disembarked, he drove off (all the other passengers had disembarked and walked off). Looking around in total darkness (we later found out that the entire region had lost power), it eventually became clear that we were not in Selo. Talking to a few people we realized that Selo was still another 12 to 14 km away. There was no transport to Selo, there were no guesthouses in this little village, and only a few people wandering the streets. So we did the only thing there was to do: we hitch-hiked. I pulled out my torchlight and we started walking towards Selo, hoping that someone would come along and give us a lift. We didn't walk very far before a dump truck used for shipping soil passed by. The driver spoke no English, but we managed to get him to give us a ride to Selo. We hopped in the back (luckily it was empty) and off we went. As we rode along, passing through completely blacked-out villages, we realized that we had no idea where this guy was taking us. As we started to wonder if we had communicated properly or worse, he pulls over. We hop out of the back and he drives off. As we were wondering how we were going to find out, first, if we were really in Selo, and second, where to find a bed, a guy walks up to us and says hello. It was Sony.
A short while later we met a Swiss dude named Peter and we agreed to wake up at 3:30 and climb the volcano with him. It was a truly fantastic climb. Peter, in his mid-forties, was in much better shape than both of us, and he soon was long gone. So it was just Dave and I walking up the north face of Merapi. There was a brilliantly shining full moon to our right and the sun was coming up to our left. Brilliant.
We did get lost on our way up, but the beauty of climbing a volcano is that, as long as you keep ascending, all ways lead to the same place! It is only on the descent that you need to be more concerned. And the view from the top was awesome: many of Java's volcanoes in all directions all around; many little villages built on the edges of the fissures of these volcanoes. This was easily the highlight of our travels.
We flew back to Malaysia and spent a few days relaxing in KL and then in Langkawi doing the Langkawi thing -cruising around on motorbikes, hanging on beaches, swimming in the ocean. Dave flew back to Canada early this morning. I have a few days in KL and then I'm heading to Bali for a week and a half.
posted by Leon at 6:40 PM
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