Ramadanadingdong

Swimwear in Jakarta - the Burkini - head to toe coverage for
swimming


Now I know why muslims celebrate Eid-ul-Fitri - they get a good night's sleep after a month of deprivation!

We finally made it to the end of Ramadan and following it is Eid-ul-Fitri (Lebaran in Indonesia) - the muslim world's equivalent of Christmas. You can imagine what it would be like spending Christmas in the UK without any family to spend it with in a hotel - you'd be stranded in the hotel, it would be cold, it would probably be raining, there would be nothing open at all except service stations... Over here there isn't much happening, all the tours have been cancelled and many cafes and restaurants are closed, but the touts are still operating, telling us where to go and what to buy. And it's hot, so at least we can jump in the hotel pool. We think we must look rich, the touts are always focusing on us and pulling us towards expensive clothes shops and art galleries, Steve says I should wear shorts more to make me look less rich, but then I don't like to expose too much flesh over here as it draws a different kind of attention... I can't win.


So Java so far has involved sleepless nights - Jakarta was very hot and sticky but a lot more pleasant than we expected. There was very little hassle on the whole, apart from the inevitable battles to cross the road. You eventually have to force your way across holding up a hand to stop the traffic (we call it "the magic hand"). We tried to go to a puppet show but guess what - it was closed for Ramadan.

We spent several days trailing around Jakarta in search of a thermometer (the number of times we've wondered how hot it is...) and ended up in the flashiest mall I've ever seen, with the biggest plasma screen I've ever seen - 103 inches and supposedly the biggest in the world. We found an inner ear thermometer and a baby's bath thermometer but no run of the mill atmospheric thermometer. It took a bog standard supermarket in a small city to find the equivalent of Halfords and finally, a thermometer. It seems to be constantly 32 degrees out here, for those who are interested...


The biggest plasma screen in the world - 103 inches.

Our next stop was Cianjur where we were visiting a homestay programme. Arriving at the bus station to get the bus out there we hit the touts big time. One literally jumped onto the taxi and rode it into the station to try to get our business. One tout spoke quite good english and kept pushing us towards a bus and saying "why don't you trust me?" as we tried to find the company we wanted and futilely resisted his demands. Eventually we followed him and waited for the bus, which did show up as he promised, but then he asked for Steve's sunglasses "for the memory" of the wonderful time we'd spent together at the bus station.

In Cianjur we stayed in Yudi's homestay, literally in his house. It was in some ways absolutely wonderful and in some ways incredibly stressful. The great bit was that we met loads of locals, including a group of schoolchildren who we helped with their english lesson. A group of them were involved in a hip hop dance group called Asmaterz and invited us around for Gado Gado (the local dish) which they worryingly prepared by chopping vegetables on the kitchen floor and washing vegetables in a bowl next to the toilet... Anyway we didn't have any ill effects, it was delicious and I know how to make it (and don't worry future guests, my hygiene is a bit better than theirs)!

Steve takes to the stage with Asmaterz to do some hip hop and the veggie chopping session on the floor at Angie's house


The stressful thing was that we slept incredibly badly. During Ramadan night becomes day since muslims fast during daylight hours and cannot eat or drink. So at 2am local children parade around residential areas playing drums and singing loudly to wake everyone up. One night they made three circuits of the block outside Yudi's house, just to make sure no-one could sleep through it! The idea is everyone gets up to cook their Nasi Goreng (fried rice) for breakfast before prayers at 4am. Then at 4am comes the call to prayer, and then the sermon, which one morning lasted for 2 hours with a crazy imam laughing dementedly at his own jokes (no-one's told him it's bad form to laugh at your own jokes, obviously!) So you can imagine how little sleep we got.




Yudi and family

It can be difficult to eat or drink during the day during Ramadan as many of the restaurants are closed. McDonalds, though, is open throughout, but screened with Ramadan curtains to protect fasters from the sight of infidels (and pregnant women) scoffing their faces during the holy month. We found it really difficult to find hot food in certain places, particularly Bukittingi and Medan, although bizarrely during Ramadan we couldn't get into a Pizza Hut in Jakarta at lunchtime as it was completely full!



The Ramadan curtains at McDonalds

After Cianjur we stopped in Bandung, a big city of 2.7 million with a famous volcano, Tengkapan Perahu (a name which means overturned boat after a local legend) nearby. We stocked up on donuts and tackled it. We are debating whether Dunkin Donuts exists in Europe - can anyone fill us in? We are eating a lot of donuts over here though, good for powering you up volcanoes. At this particular volcano there is tons of tourist paraphernalia, like touts selling eggs to boil in the bubbling pools (it didn't work very well, much to our disappointment, despite sitting in boiling water for 15 minutes the eggs were still soft boiled). After the volcano we popped into a nearby hot springs resort which actually had a hot waterfall.





An Indonesian girl who wanted a photo with Steve (no-one is interested in me!) - we insisted she returned the favour!


We're now in Yogyakarta and holed up for a couple of days in a hotel with a pool - bliss. We went to the Ramayana night ballet at Prambanan temple, a huge temple reminiscent of Angkor just outside Yogya. The Ramayana is a classic account of good and evil acted out in dance form, although to be honest I think Sita was a bit dippy and if I were Rama I wouldn't have bothered taking my kingdom to war over her! Here we are with the monkeys (Steve) and giants (me).

At the Ramayana Ballet

We have just been to see Mt. Merapi, a very famous active volcano, at dawn. It was a great experience to see a beautifully conical volcano and it brings our volcano bag total to 3. Next up: Mt. Bromo.

Me at Mt Merapi, 6.30am 2nd October