Discovering Java




30th March Bangalore :Just the other day on the tennis court , I was telling one of my friend's how much fun it use to be this time of the year when we were at school , with exams over and no worries of the world and upcoming summer vacation usually meant a trip out and it struck me that life wasn't that bad after all even today. I had booked my tickets to Indonesia , a short summer vacation after all for a working person but nevertheless.

The day of the journey started with my first photography exhibition at IIM , Bangalore ,after a bit of running getting prints done and framed and also the jitters of first timers.I was exhibiting my travel pictures and lots of interesting conversations happened about places, travels, photographs and some folks even wanting to purchase them to my utter surprise. I headed home from the exhibition and got myself all set for the late night flight out of the city.

The only booking I had was the return air tickets. My exploration plan was to visit an active volcano at Mount Bromo and also the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan and anything I could in between on the go .
Original Rough Plan was to do the following Circuit:
Jakarta -- Surabaya -- Probolinggo -- Cemoro Lawang --> Mount Bromo --> Yogyakarta --> Borobudur & Prambanan > Jakarta

Turned out that I could manage a few more as the commute time I had estimated originally took a lot less .
Places Covered:
Active Volcanoes at Bromo and Ijen:Jakarta--Surabaya--Probolinggo--Cemoro Lawang--> Mount Bromo --> Mount Ijen
Temples :Mount Ijen--> Probolinggo--> Yogyakarta --> Borabodur & Prambanan--> Yogyakarta
Small Beach Village:Yogyakarta --> Pangandaran--> Jakarta

Indonesia is the 4th populous nation in the world and also has the most Islamic population .  I found the people very peaceful and open (close to the Hindu/Buddhist way of life ), there were women in all kinds of attire from shorts/skirts , some had a scarf around their head but most didn't . They were openly mingling around with people . I found them on bikes , around shops , working , going to college and didn't find much discrimination as compared to some other countries I had visited.

Details about my wanderings around the Amazing Volcanoes of Java and Spiritual Wanderings around the temples.

Picture set :
Volcanoes
Temples


Useful Links and Info:

Lonely Planet Java
Indonesia Train Travel

 

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