Proof of Life with Haley May

It’s our second last day in Indonesia today, and we are on the ferry from Gili Trawangan to Bali. We have one more night in Bali, and then tomorrow evening, we fly to Vietnam.

I guess I’ll start with a little recap of our Komodo National Park boat trip.

We swam in the sea and snorkled with Mantarays, Fish, and Turtles.

We hiked up small peaks to watch sunsets, and we ended our nights on the top deck of the boat stargazing with bintangs.

We visited pink beaches, saw Komodo Dragons in their natural habitat, and ate a variety of delicious Indonesian food.

After our Komodo trip, we headed straight to Mount Bromo to climb the crater of the Volcano.

We did the walk and climb ourselves, opting out of doing a tour or getting driven part/most of the way. As we walked down from the entry from the wee town, there were so many people driving past us on their bikes, scooters, jeeps, and utes – all beeping and calling out at us. Everyone seemed perplexed that we would choose to walk.

Standing on the craters edge filled me with equal parts of anxiety and awe. We took some snaps, had some snacks and headed back down (and then up!), to get back to our accommodation. On the steep hill on the way up, a ute filled with cabbages stalled. Conor and I raced over to help the guys push the ute to get it started again – with one of the bricks being used to stop the car going backwards down the hill, almost taking Conor out! The locals thanked us as we all continued to chug along up the hill. All I could think of was “Not my cabbages!!”. 😉

From Mount Bromo, we headed to Surabaya at about 4 in the morning to get our train to Yogyakarta. I will only say that the drive was one at times we both thought we might not survive, but hey ho, that’s the way of travelling sometimes! We arrived in one piece and on time to the train station, fell onto the train and arrived in Yogyakarta late morning.

In Yogyakarta, we were greeted by Dini and Ignaz, the parents of one of Conors best friends from Uni, Maria.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Dini, Ignaz, Maria, and their family for their hospitality and kindness. Our time in Yogyakarta would have paled in comparison had we not had the insider knowledge of such wonderful locals.

Despite all the walking and exploring, we definitely left Yogyakarta a few kgs heavier – not just because of all the delicious food we ate, but because our hearts were heavier with the happiness of our experiences.

We visited both Borbordur and Prambanam temples. We walked down Malioboro Street a few times and visited a Batik art show that was due to finish “that day at 6pm.”

I won’t say much on the food aside from the fact it was all delicious and we had such a great variety of dishes – especially those local to the Jogja region. All the places we enjoyed, I will add in another post, probably tomorrow, while waiting at the airport.

We headed from Yogyakarta to Gili Trawangan, where we have had a holiday from our holiday!

It’s been nice relaxing, not having to wake up at any set time and not having any set plans. People forget that while travelling is a type of holiday, it isn’t always relaxing. It’s been restorative to take a few days of just going with the flow and having a bit of a bed rot.

We’ve now arrived in Bali, we’re headed to our accommodation to drop our bags, and then we will head out to meet my friends Sam and Tam.

That’s all for now folks!

Remember to be kind to yourself and others. May peace, love and food that fills both your bellies and hearts be with you.