World Heritage Sights, Earthquakes & Tsunami's

2006-07-21, Surabaya, Indonesia

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Hi all...

After the disappointing Jakarta, I caught a train to Yogyakarta to visit a couple of old temples that are situated near it... Borobudur (Buddhist) and Prambanan (Hindu) both were built in the 9th century and had been restored and they are both world heritage sights. The train took 12 hours and was 2 hours late... my bum was numb by the end of the journey.

A couple of weeks previous to my visit Prambanan temple had been closed of to the public due to a earthquake... although friends and family of the people who worked there still could take a look inside a temple not just walk around the complex, which p***ed me off a little... I paid to get in they did not!

But both temples were worth visiting and due to the time we left to see them, the sun was rising over the temple which made for an awesome sight.

The next stop was a 10 hour bus journey away which was slightly more comfortable in a little mini bus. I went to view an active volcano called Mount Bromo near the city of Surabaya. We left for the 'viewpoint' at before sunset and watched the sun rise just to the left of the volcano. Later that I climbed up the side of the peak of the volcano myself and looked into the crater.... bit disappointing, new molten lava in sight... just a bit of smoke coming out of its hole and a strong smell of sulphur in the air. There is another volcano nearby blew smoke every twenty minutes without fail, reminded me of shopping with Sharron.

Later that day I was back on the mini bus and on the way to Bali... so in 3 days I had spent almost 28 hours sitting on my ass trying to find something to amuse me... it was like the last few months at Voda.

So I am in Bali now (where I heard about the tsunami that hit Java), as always mixed feelings about the place but will update soon.

Travel Tip: Mounth Bromo and Temples - If you are going to watch the sunrise at dawn, take a warm coat as it is really cold.