Java and the Lion City

I quite like the title this time. It sounds like an epic fantasy novel set in a far away, exotic country. Maybe something to be written some day :-)

This blog post will wrap up my travels through Indonesia, and outline what you can afford to do in Singapore when travelling on a tight budget. Just like last time, I have focused on the photo captions and I'll only make a few remarks here. The links to the photo albums are:

• Jovial Java
• Lion City

From Bali I travelled by bus (and a short ferry ride) to the beating heart of Indonesia: the island of Java. Now that I'm in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and can do a bit of comparing, I have to say that I had an absolutely amazing time in Indonesia, especially in Java. Though not as rich a country as Malaysia, Balinese and Javanese life and culture seemed extremely vibrant and colourful. Don't get me wrong, the Malaysians are a wonderful people and I especially like the lack of touts, who were like flies on stool in Indonesia, but there was just... something about Indonesia that really appealed to me.

As far as experiences go, in Indonesia, surfing was an awesome thing to try out, as I've already pointed out. I'll definitely try to surf again during my time in Southeast Asia, but it depends on finding a beach with suitable surf for beginners (by the way, my ear is much better already). Otherwise, looking down at the moonscape of the Bromo national park in Java gave me an otherworldly feeling. The three volcanoes - one of them a smoking caldera - looked simply stunning as the light of dawn hit them. This is something I would not have anyone coming to Java miss, unless you've been to the Moon.

Bromo national park.

Singapore didn't rock my world. Sure it was nice to be able to drink tap water again, however, after Indonesia the big city felt like dreaming of spooning, and waking up to find you've been hugging the pillow. Singapore is also a lot more expensive than the rest of Southeast Asia. I hardly did any activities that weren't free, and I still exceeded my daily budget of 20 €. If you have the money, I reckon there are lots of cool things to do in Singapore, like visiting the zoo and doing a night safari. Still, walking around Chinatown, the Muslim quarter Kampong Glam and the Indian quarter Little India, is free and very interesting.

Forget the skyscrapers and the modern quarters of Singapore; Kampong Glam and Little India is where the charm lies!

Furthermore, there are many temples you can visit for free, and many museums are actually free after 6 pm. Another good way of saving money is to not order any drinks (not even water or soft drinks) when eating out (which you do all the time, since you can hardly prepare cheaper food yourself and most guesthouses/hostels don't have kitchen facilities). Drinks of any kind are usually quite expensive at food stalls and in restaurants, and you can easily spend almost as much money on a soft drink as on the meal itself. At least this is how I do it; after leaving the restaurant I take a swig out of my own water bottle, which always rides with me.

Tomorrow I'm off to the island of Pulau Pangkor on the west coast of Malaysia. Hopefully it's like paradise. Let's see how long I can lie on the beach and read a book before becoming restless. Only another 7 more weeks to go...

The Northern Territory of Oz and beguiling Bali

I know I haven't updated the blog in a long time and much has happened since my last proper entry. The things is that the spare time I have apart from the sight-seeing, is easily used on writing emails and such, writing my journal (by hand) and reading and doing research on my next destination. Today is a different matter though. I'm in Singapore for the third day, have seen all the free attractions I'm interested in and I have already exceeded my budget for the city-nation. So I'm lying low and just waiting for tomorrow when I'm heading into cheaper Malaysia.

Kings Canyon in central Australia.

In the mean time I'll use the opportunity to catch up on recent (ehm...) events.

Rather than writing humongous blog post about all that has happened since the Great Ocean Road in Australia, I'm going to do things differently this time. I'll post the links to the photo albums here, but the telling will be done by the captions of the images. For those who care to read a bit more, I'll briefly summarize my best experience in Australia and Bali further down in this text. I was hoping to post pictures from my entire stay in Indonesia today as well, but I didn't get further than Bali, so Java will have to wait until next time, not to talk about Singapore. Sorry.

Here are the links to the photo albums in the gallery:

• The Red Centre of Australia
• "The Track" - from Alice Springs to Darwin
• Beguiling Bali

As far as experiences go, by far the best thing I did in Australia was visiting central Australia: Alice Springs, Kings Canyon, Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It is a unique area and so very different from anything else I've ever seen. The problem I found with the East coast was, that it resembled the north island of NZ too much. Sure it's beautiful, but not until I got to Alice Springs did I feel like I was in the Australia I had always imagined. Sleeping in swags under the stars. The heat. The red sand and rock. The dryness. These were the things I came to see in Oz.

Me by a funny looking termite "mound". I believe "tower" suites better. Check the image gallery for a much larger mound!

My ear which got hammered while surfing on Bali, is now much better. I will surf in Southeast Asia again before long, no doubt about it! Surfing was my best activity in Bali, it was so much fun and such an experience. Why is there no surf back home?

Pretend that's me.

Melbournia

The time flies and it's already two weeks since our ways separate with JBB. He tries to cope with an unpleasant surfing accident in Bali whereas I am still settling down here in Melbourne. My first priority is to find a flat and of course a decent job, because living in a hostel is only bearable for so long. And more permanent form of residence brings the possibility to achieve my aim to built up a "normal" life instead of almost constant travel like in New Zealand.

Even thought our journey together with JBB was the most pleasant and a success I do feel pretty happy about the decision which take place about three weeks ago. JBB clearly had find what he was looking for and the new situation gives me all the time and freedom to find the answers and experiences which where originally the reason for me to leave.

I really hope that JBB:s Southeast Asia experience continues without any more accidents and he's professional surfing career continues successfully. But now it's time to tell you a couple of words about the Australian sporting and cultural capital Melbourne:

Federal Square in the evening.

Melbourne lies on the natural bay of Port Phillip and it is Australia's second largest city (population approx. 4 million) and constant rival for Sydney. In 1880 Melbourne was one of the most wealthiest city of the word because of the huge amount of gold fields and from that time there is still many beautiful building and architecture remaining. That combined whit new contemporary architecture boom before the recession (especially in banks of the Yarra River) and many beautifully maintained parks makes Melbourne nice place to live. Melbourne does have many nominations on the most livable city list.

Federal Square and The Flinders Street Station.

My favorite thing here is the public transport. World largest tram network provides good options to explore the city. And if you want to explore suburbs its relatively cheap: our trip to Mornington Peninsula which take 2-3 hours one way costs only three dollars! Could you imagine to travel to Turku or Tampere and back for only 3 euros?

The spring is good time if you don't mind the unpredictable weather. The Spring Carnival consist of the biggest sporting event in Australia: The AFL Grand Final where Geelong was slightly better than St Kilda (80-68) and The Melbourne Cup which stop the whole country for a moment. These events run weeks before the actual day and provides loads of news and side events. The great sandstorm in Sydney was only a minor news compared to the 30 odd articles about the upcoming Gran Final. To better understand how massive these events are there is two examples: 1. In the AFL Grand Final there is only 15 000 tickets for normal punters and the rest 75 000 tickets is sold for different corporate packets and the prices vary from 500 to 20 000 dollars! 2. When the actual Melbourne Cup is held the whole country stops for approx. 10 minutes and it's as much an horse race than a massive fashion show.

Before JBB left from Melbourne we did have time to explore the city. For the cultural side we visited in the Day in Pompeii exhibition in the Museum of Victoria and the Dali: Liquid Desire exhibition in NGVI (National Gallery of Victoria International) which was smartly composed.

NGVI. The Dali: Liquid Desire exhibition.

We did also enjoy the diverse food culture and various attractions, but that's all for now..

More pictures of Melbourne are available here.

And last: We just started "kesäaika" as it is in Finland called.. isn't it great!

Surfing on Bali

This is my fourth day in Kuta on Bali. It's frenetic, it's warm, and too touristy, but I like it as my first touch with Southeast Asia. The main reason why I wanted to come to Kuta is its beach, which has the best surf on Bali for beginners. And indeed, I have tried surfing here. It was heaps of fun, and not at all as hard as I would have imagined. I hired an Indonesian instructor on the beach and practiced with him for about 3 hours. It's real work out, I'll tell you. I never imagined it would be so energy consuming to get out there again once the waves have given you a ride to the shore.

Kuta Beach sunset.

Sadly, I won't be able to surf again on Bali. An unfortunate fall off the board due to a huge wave made me accidentally hit the side of my head on the board. As a consequence I now have a small perforation in my left ear drum. I can't swim or surf until it's healed to prevent infection; doctor's orders. And the worst thing is that it can take weeks, up to a month, for the ear drum to heal by itself. So until then, not only do I have to refrain from surfing, I also have to live with reduced hearing on my left ear, which is quite annoying. I'm disappointed, but such is life.

This just means I have to change my plans regarding my time on Bali and do something else. I'll probably travel to the less hectic cultural centre of Bali, the overgrown village Ubud, and take a lesson in Indonesian cooking.