I'm starting my story here going back a few years to 2003, my 1st trip to Beautiful Bali, and my first ever travel outside of Australia. First time overseas ! What on earth was I getting myself into ! LOL !
So being a foreigner travelling alone in a strange new country was a real "eye opener" to me to say the least !
It was very interesting to see a new culture, with many different traditions, food, lifestyle etc. compared to home here, and I have been lucky to live it too !
The thing that 1st hit me was the hustle and bustle of all the people and the traffic seemed to be a controlled chaos with no apparent road rules, scooter buzzing past your taxi on either side !
Bali was'nt my destination, as I was travelling to meet a girlfriend, a wonderful indonesian girl whom I met on the internet, our friendship had grown and there I was, now to meet her in person at Surabaya - Indonesia's 2nd largest city, on Java, about 1 hours flight north west from Denpasar.
I was the only foreigner travelling on the plane, and when walking out the airport arrival, there was just a huge mass of local people. OMG ! how was I to find "my honey !". But being a foreigner wearing a bright orange coloured shirt I guess I stood out like a beacon !
She found me in about 1 minute to my releif.
Now, it was time to jump in a taxi and head for her parents house which was about 40 minutes drive away and not far from the CBD in Surabaya. I thought Bali was a bit over the top with all the people and traffic, but Surabaya was 10 times more hectic.
I later travelled to Jakarta and lived there for a few months (but that's another story) JKT is absolute "Over the Moon" CrAzY !!!!
I stayed in Surabaya for just over a week, and was treated like a celeberity, the family of my girlfriend (by the way she's my wife now, living with me in Aussie) I guess it was very good Karma for them to have a foreigner as a prospective son-in-law.
They had regular vistors popping in just to see me !
We did quite a bit of travelling in and around Surabaya, wow there's some of the biggest shopping centres there that I've ever seen, like if you put a roof over the MCG and filled it with arcades, shops, and restaraunts, that's how big some were ! you could buy anything and at a cheaper price to what we pay here.
I don't think I saw another foreigner whilst in Surabaya ! Geesh !
I got some stares walking through those crowded streets and shopping malls, Now I know how celebrities must feel.
I did not get hassled by anyone, I guess because I was always with my indo wife or her family. But it did hurt me sometimes as she would tell me that some of the locals would make rude comments about her being with a foreigner as we walked past.
With my wife's family and friends we did a weekend trip out of town driving to a small holiday town high up into the mountains, the town is called tretes, it's near a active volcano called Bromo.
It was real refreshing going there, a escape from the hussle and bustle of the big city crowds, polluting traffic chaos, and from the heat and humidity !
This mountain area must be real high in elevation as it was quite cold there, about 12 degrees Celcius. It definately was not tropical as the local villagers were growing, cabbages, potatoes etc. in their fields, I even saw a apple orchard !
We rented a holiday villa a huge place big enough to sleep the 8 of us, cost us about 400,000 Rp for 2 nights.
That afternoon we walked down the sleepy main street, and wandered around the local shops and markets. Grabbed some snack food, goat satays with peanut sauce, rambutans (fruit), and a fresh young coconut to drink. Not much traffic there, I think I saw more horses and carts than cars there !
In the morning we were up early and went on a fourwheel drive tour up to Mount Bromo Summit, it was absolutely freezing, arriving there just on dawn and then had to walk about 5 minutes, all of us wrapped in blankets as it was soooo cold brrr !
We then stood amongst a crowd of about 100 other people watching the sun rise over the active volcano of Bromo, something I'll never forget.
Anyhow, I've written a bit of a novel here. Hope not too boring.
I may pop back and write about some of my other escapades in Jakarta, train trip to Cirebon, & Bali etc. etc. later.....have a great time in Bali everyone, and if you get the chance have a look further into Indonesia......Cheers.