Puncuk Pass and Taman Safari

The beautiful (cool) Puncuk Park, where tea is picked and safari's can be had, was a great little getaway with the family.

This was the view from our room. Tucked away in the mountains it was green and cool.

Here are some of the cute little munchkins napping before we headed out for the day.

We spent one day checking out a beautiful botanical garden, complete with the world's largest topiary peacock, a maze and a tram! It was a fun relaxing day.

Taman Safari Park was great. We drove through each enclosure in our own car, amongst lions, elephant, hippos, tigers and many other animals. I LOved it! We had to wind the windows up and keep moving!

And we stopped in to eeeeeat at many delicious places!

And sleep.....




Thankyou for showing us Indo and spending time with us! We had a great time and hope to visit you all again soon!

Borobudur

Borobudur is a huge Mahayana structure (55 000 cubic meters of stone) near Yogjakarta. We arrived in Are's pickup after crawling through the holiday traffic.

Like many aspects of Buddhism, the structure is steeped in meaning that is not always easily interpreted from the outward appearance.

The lower terraces, that depict 'samsara', have been partially covered by conservative Muslims. According to Buddhism 'samsara' is the cyclic existence which continues for beings that have not perfected all their qualities, eliminated bad qualities and realised the way things actually exist. In samsara a whole lot of suffering goes on, as does a bit of nudity and violence, hence the covering up.

The historical Buddha's life story and former lives is carved into the next level. The top few levels house Buddha statues that sit within small stupas.

This structure seems to encompass the entire Mahayana teachings from the teaching on karma to the stages on the path for a Bodhisattva. It was far more than I could take in and I was sick (again) for much of the time there!

Rob and Are woke early to see Borobudur by sunrise. Although it was cloudy it was still beautiful!

This is how Borobudur looks from the air.

Some of the many Buddha statues.

This removes some of the water (rain) that falls on the structure.

One of the many carvings.

Cilacap

Rob's mum is from the coastal village of Cilacap. It was here that his mum and dad met and where Rob spent the first couple of years of his life. Most of the family still lives here and because we came during Lebaran (a huge Muslim holiday at the end of Ramadan) everyone who didn't live there was there visiting the family.

This picture was taken at Uncle Gyu's house. From left to right is Rob, Henry, Are, Ani, Olek, Levi, Tante Mewah, Uncle Gyu, Fifi and me.

Little Levi was sick but still so cute. I really wish I could speak Indonesian so we could play! Rob's spunky haircut was care of Are. Previously, Rob had a tragic Indian cut but Are saved what he could.

This was taken at the beach in Cilacap. The water looked good but no one swims here. I think it is partly because bikinis are a definite no no here, partly because there are rips and partly because swimming lessons are hard to come by. The sand is black and as the waves wet the sand it is like a beautiful mirror reflecting the sky. Little Matthew (another super cute one that I wished I could chat to) was scared at first but soon loved playing in the waves with his grandad (Uncle Jin) and his mum Sanda.

The mode of transport of choice in Indo are motorbikes. They are cheap to buy and run, you can sneak around all of the traffic and its surprising how much you can pack onto them (family of five is no problem)!

Are and his mates love these old style bikes. They are pretty cool! I feel cool just hanging out with these guys!

Rob had a little putt around in the backstreets.

I love these little street petrol stops.

This is Are and his mum Aunty Neneng at their shop. It is a busy second hand clothing store that is popular because it is cheap and good quality. I loved the mangoes that are growing outside.

Jasmine and Jarkarta

Oh dear! I still haven't posted all of our travels even though we've been back for a while now.....

This part of the trip was fantastic! I got to meet all of Rob's family on his mum's side which he hadn't seen for 10 years or so.

This is us with Bohboh (Rob's grandmother) at a beautiful botanic garden in Bogor (about an hour out of Jakarta).

This is Rob's uncle Jung with gorgeous Jasmine. She is soooo cute and totally stole the show!

I just want to bite those cute little cheeks, yum!

This is all of us, including Jung's wife Rianna.