SO - I have two months--8/9 weeks to make this journey and no real plan, just a vague idea that I can travel over land and sea to the Philippines and keeping an open mind to any diversion that may appeal. That's the kind of travel I like--just totally footloose for the feeling of absolute freedom and that is something you don't get when you plan all the details--the less the planning the more the freedom, like a true vagabond. Anything can happen!

I took my only flights to Bali Sunday August 2nd and arrived in Denpasar about midnight and avoiding the overpriced taxi touts, walked out of the airport and down the road in the beautifully warm night to reach the main road and get a taxi for less than half the price (took a minibus last year) to Denpasar and as usual stayed at the comfortable, clean and friendly Nakula Familiar Inn (75,000Rp--AU$8.50). I had booked via the internet but Adi sold my room thinking I wasn't going to show. Accommodation was in short supply there due to renovations--I slept on a mattress in the lobby. Stayed an extra day to see some friends and then off to the northwest by bus to the port of Gilimanuk and the short ferry ride to Katapang on the island of Java. Immediately boarded a bus to Banyuwangi and on to Probolinggo and arrived well after dark.

I found a cheap room in the rather seedy Hotel Moro Nyota (65,000Rp $7.50--listing a few prices here for any interested travellers). Walked down the road and got a 'nasi goreng  special' (fried rice with chicken) and a beer for less than $5 at a warung--a temporary food stall, the type that spring up everywhere after dark in Indonesia. The food is usually better than it is in the regular cafes. You can see these proprietors wheeling their carts along the street to their favourite spot on the footpath and they set up their burners, tables and stools against the closed doors of an existing business and you can just sit there in the dim lantern light and order as you please from any of the separate warungs that may be in the group, each one providing their own specialty. You can spend the warm evening there reading or just watching the local life and improving your language as all sorts of people show up and want to have a chat. You can also see the occasional rat under the table! I was surprised to find that all my 'Bahasa Indonesian' had deserted me after so much effort learning the language last year. It took more than a week to remember what I'd forgotten but I was soon adding new words and phrases. Unlike European languages there is nothing to remind you of the words from day to day after you leave the country.

Up early and took a local bus up to the incredible Bromo Volcano, (a volcano within a volcano) one of the most wonderful  sights I've seen --maybe a close second to  Maccu Piccu in Peru.  Mount Bromo (2392m) is a pyroclastic cone which rises 133m above the surrounding floor of the massive (9x10km) Tengger Caldera. This caldera, also referred to as the sand-sea caldera due to its flat sandy floor, is the result of the collapse of the top half of a probably nearly 4500m high pre-caldera over 250,000 years ago. Bromo has been frequently active since historical records began in 1804, with a total of over 50 eruptions being recorded up to the present date. I walked across the flat base of the old volcano in the middle of the day when nobody, mad dogs, Englishmen or even the locals were around and that was  great as I had it all to myself for several hours not another human in sight as I walked about up there on the rim amid the clouds of gas. I met the first tourists on the latter part of my return journey, coming out on motorbikes, jeeps and horses. Eruptions may occur with little warning. such as in 2004 that accounted for 2 fatalities in the vicinity of the crater. While I sat up there on the lip of the caldera I was treated to a fantastic show of belching smoke and gas. The view all around was incredible and well worth the effects of the sandstorms on my Irish skin!

I stayed the night at the Hostel/Café Crater--a tiny room with wicker walls, just big enough to hold a bed and double the Lonely Planet price at Rp110,000.  The whole place is a bit of a tourist trap with 4/wheel drive vehicles to transport the fat tourists and the drivers and touts dressed up in parkas and alpine clothing  - what a joke in such hot weather! Anyway, I was so happy to miss all that as I had made my trek in the middle of the day. Then as I left for Probolinggo I had to put up with the drivers and  touts as I walked down the mountain, offering to take me for a ridiculous price. Eventually haggled to 20,000Rp ($2.50) just in time to catch a train to Yogyakarta via Surabaya for 26,000 ($3), about 11 hours, 'economi' class but very fast and great fun as I could sit with me legs dangling out the back (try doing that in Australia!) as I watched Java slip away behind. Had a meal in the street at a warung--nasi goreng (fried rice) for less than a dollar and a room at hotel Karunia for 95,000Rp ($11,50).

Next day I travelled by local busses to Kaliurang to see the Merapi volcano. Stayed at the long established Vogels for two nights. Nice place nice people and a nice area to relax. Up at 3.15am to climb up towards the volcano with the guide Chris Vogel--plenty of history from him but nothing to see in the way of an eruption and we didn't go very far up the mountain. A pretty poor affair really, particularly after seeing Bromo.

Sunday 6 August: Took local busses to Borobudur Temple:  Borobudur is a ninth-century Mahayana Buddhist monument in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.[1] A main dome, located at the centre of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa.
Being a Sunday it was very busy. Arrived at 11.30 and left at 3.30 for Yogyakarta by