Waffles, Beer, Chocolate and Moules Frites...

Yup Belgium!  Famed for its extraordinarily large portions, Belgium is the next place to experience.  Aside from quantity, Belgium is comparable to France for its fine dining and high quality produce.  So for Autumn half term the plan is to catch the eurostar with some friends and spend a few days in Brussels along with a trip to Bruges.  Damn its great being a teacher...  :o)

Ghana - Summer 2010

Resources
Wednesday, 21 July 2010

Resources coming to Ghana

Just a couple of days until i leave and i have pretty much sorted out everything i am taking.  I have bought/made a number of resources (right) to help me teach, a lot of which i can leave for the school once im done.  Still not knowing much about the school and what resources they already have, i will wait to buy anything big until i am there.  I have made my own mini whiteboards by laminating coordinate grids.  To buy they were looking to be stupidly expensive where as mine work just the same if not better! 

More resources

Looking at extra curricular activities i am hoping to teach them how to play ultimate frisbee as hopefully this will be something new and different to them.  I figured that the Ghana pupils would love anything thats from England (though i could be completely wrong!) and so as wee prizes im taking English super sour sweets and will keep a look out for others before i leave.

So theres 12 of us altogether and luckily they all seem pretty sweet.  Though it is me, one other guy and 10 girls!?  Now i know that sounds brilliant on paper, but through experience i can say that its not necessarily so.  Its like The Apprentice, or Americas Next Top Model (not that i watch any of these *cough*)... its the girls that always fall out!  Having said that,  im not anticipating problems as again, they genuinely all seem great.  Further still the guys a top dude and i know a few of the girls already who are absolutely lovely.  we'll see...

Being Michael Jackson...  
Tuesday, 27 July 2010

Though a few mishaps from BA (overbooking the plane and making 3 of us wait until the following day to fly), the whole team have arrived safely and happily in Ghana (below - ok so this photo was taken way into the trip and it is missing Stacey but its the closest to a group photo i have!).

The whole group...almost

We are staying in University accommodation but most students are on vacation.   The accommodation (below) is half decent though pretty much the bare minimum.  A bed, a wardrobe, a desk and no hot water.  A cold shower in the morning may turn testicles into raisins but it is sure to wake you up. For charity work, the place is great!

Having slept one night, the plan was to head off into our schools the next day.  This however was not the case as our transport to and from school was not really organized as planned.  Our group of 12 has been split into 3 lots of 4 with the intention for us to spend our time in 3 separate schools.  So the first day one group managed to spend some time in their school, my group didn’t make it into our school at all but best of all the last group managed to spend the whole day in the wrong school completely!  Though they were slightly confused to why the school weren’t expecting them, they introduced themselves to the school and planned their whole 4 week stay with the head teacher!  They now have to find a way to politely tell them that they’re not coming.  Anyway, for the evening a meeting was called for us to sort out and organize the rest of our stay and clear up the mess of transport etc.  The meeting was interesting… we wont say more than that.

After the meeting however, we had our first real Ghanaian meal!  We all strolled down to a night market and I paid the equivalent of one pound for a bag of Jollof rice, fried chicken, roast plantain, cow hide stew and drizzle of shito (Ghanas type of hot sauce).  We all carried our bags back to the accommodation, sat on the grass outside, and ate (left) :o).

Today, having finally taking things into our own hands, we had a taxi to take us to and from our school… on time!?  It is seeming that in Ghana, the term ‘on time’ does not exist.  However, drilling in that we must be on time and that he loses money if he is late, we were well sorted.   Low and behold, this morning we got to school on time.  On arrival, we were welcomed with smiles, stares and an invisible red carpet.  The pupils seemed somewhat nervous to approach us yet would happily stand there gazing and beaming directly at us from afar with little discretion at all.



Primary school kids

The headteacher reminded me very much of 'The Last King of Scotland' dude with a very friendly, smiley character but at the same time somewhat scary.  The school consists of 2 buildings (with 3 rooms in each), an orange sandy football pitch and a makeshift volleyball court… that’s it.  The classrooms (left) are pretty bare with broken furniture and crammed with around 50 pupils a lesson.  Pupil behaviour, as predicted, is wonderful.  Total respect for their elders.  Even the younger pupils listen to the older pupils doing exactly as they are told.  Me and Kate spent some time going round classrooms and played naughts and crosses with them with coordinates and the enthusiasm of the pupils were simply unmatched to England standards.  I can tell already that it is going to be an absolute joy teaching these guys next week.

The Lord is with thee...

Wednesday, 29 July  2010

Wednesday morning Worship

Today was a worship day at our school (and all the schools in Ghana it seemed) and we turned up to our school with the sound of pupils worship.  Ghanaians are largely Christian and being a practising Catholic myself it was something truely special to observe.  The pupils were leading their own worship going from hymns to worship songs to their own sermans and talks on Christ.  I have noticed that Ghanaians in general tend to talk very softly, but my gosh they have no reservations when in worship.  In a time of personal prayer the  room filled with a gentle hum of mumbling as where i am used to praying in my head, these guys do it out loud and proud.  It really was quite an emotional experience and went on for a good half an hour.  On finishing they asked if i would like to do the closing prayer and i felt more then honoured to do so.  :o)

Condolences
Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Wednesday night was amazing!  Seriously had so much fun with the group.  We went to a beach party called "Raggae Raggae" in some place called Labadi Beach (on every wednesday).  Was only 7 Cedi by taxi from East Legon and had live music all night.  Now i would be lying if i said that i had much to do with Raggae music and never have i before danced to it.  This was all a first for me and damn i enjoyed myself.  Tunes such as "we're Jammin'" just set the tone for a really chilled but fun night.  The locals were more than keen to teach me the steps and dance with us all.  Their uber friendliness was mostly welcomed... well i was happy to be taught how to dance by a drunk old Rastafarian, didn't care much of being grinded from behind and saw the humour in the smelly guy trying to dance with Kirsty.  In all, a recommended experience. 

Reggae Reggae!

Winning at Cluedo

After a good night on wednesday, thursday was a welcomed "do absolutely nothing" day.  Well for the most part.  I won at a number of board games (Left) and a small group of us eventually decided to head off into Accra centre to visit Makola market.  What is interesting is Accra poor people are nowhere near as persistent as other poor countries that i have visited.  People selling things along the road side and in the markets never really tried asking more than once or made you feel bad for not buying anything.  On the other hand, they're a little funny about us taking photos.   Some people (only women as far as i have noticed) get pretty angry with the idea of being in a photo.  Having asked a local, it has something to do with showing everyone in England how poor people are in Africa.

Friday we had a sweet day planned.  Sarahs Aunty lives in Accra... in a pretty damn nice place too and she invited us all round for dinner and a swim in their pool!  Again i thoroughly enjoy hanging out with the group and so it was real nice to lounge by the pool, plan lessons and play games.  Come the evening, a bar opened by the pool and we... well, lets say we bonded and leave it at that.  This followed through to be a sleep over and so 2 days worth of lounging by the pool was gained with a wee trip to some trade fair on saturday morning (above right).

Waterfalls in Volta

Kids in Volta region.

A trip to Volta was long in the planning and was finally sorted for Sunday.  3-4 hour drive got us to baboons, a waterfall, a cave and monkeys.  The Baboons were a no show but none of us really cared.  We arrived at Logba, a small village seemingly out away from most busy civilization (left).  From here the plan was to do a short trek through some rainforest to the waterfall and caves, guided by 6 or 7 guys from the local village.  The waterfall was pretty sexy (right), the cave on the other hand was just a small hole in the rock face where you have to walk through a couple of inches deep guano (bat shite) to look at one small stalagmite.  Not to mention that the ceiling was absolutely covered in some form of 6 legged insects that looked like big spiders.  Literally 100s of them!

Swimming under the waterfall

The trek back up however lead to some unfortunate turn of events.  And i mean whole heartedly, real unfortunate.  15 of us plus 6-7 'guides' trekking back up to the village and suddenly a lot of noise was coming from the local guys.  Shouting and stampeding past each other, confusion was in the air for just a short while.  It turned out that a heavily poisonous snake had entered our walk path, out of nowhere, and managed to bite one of the local men.  Having the rest of the guides carry him back to the top, he was already feverish.  Our driver decided that we would take him to a main road and find a taxi to get him to the hospital.  On our way home, during a visit at the monkey sanctuary, we recieved a phone call that informed us that the gentleman did not make it.  I have prayed for him and his family and i know we all offer our condolences.

Anyone need a pen?

Wednesday, 4 August 2010 

Our real teaching started on Monday.  We arrived to a staffless school where it was the job of the 4 of us to make headway.  Having gathered them outside the classrooms (using an old school bell you shake by hand) we split them up accordingly (by ability) and started our days teaching.  As mentioned previously, aside from a little over excitement, behaviour was great.  you feel such genuine respect from the pupils and power of what ever you say goes.  Working through the day we started to realize actually how much work we had given ourselves.  Our timetable (that we created) means that we teach 2 hours in the morning, 1 hours activity (im teaching ultimate frisbee) and then 2 hours of lessons again after that with just a few minutes break in between.  Ultimate frisbee in a suit, in such heat, is hard work!  Having said all this, the pupils really are like sponges in how eager they are to learn as much as they can from you.  To me this is a whole different ball game in comparison to teaching in the UK.  Another thing, these kids are really properly poor and many walk over an hour to get to the school.  This being in mind one would presume pupils would be lacking pens, pencils and general equipment!  In England, a pupil with a compass would be hard to come by.  Here, every child has a compass, protractor, ruler, pen and pencil.  Ok so nobody has a calculator but we can let this slide as this would clearly be the most expensive of the set.  This is how teaching should be...

Colourful Cheerful Coffins...

Monday, 8 August 2010

After a whole week of teaching the weekend was welcomed with arms wide open.  On Friday I was in the middle of teaching my class whilst a load of cattle started walking by (below)...  Something quite random to me was just a common occurence for the pupils and they seemed rather amused by my excitement.  The pupils are reeeaally getting into ultimate frisbee (left) and it has come to a point where i could quite easily just sit back and leave them to it.  Considering that none of them had ever thrown a frisbee before and now are playing the full sport competitively gives me some great sense of achievement.  This is something i know will definitely still be played several months after i leave.  Overall my time at the school is still going extremely well.

me amongst the cows outside my classroom

Sarahs Aunty (the absolute star that she is) invited us to stay at their complex in the guest flats for free for the whole weekend!  I could not think of anything better than to lounge by the pool, with good company, after a long weeks tiring work.  Furthermore, it was decided that this night we will go out out, a club and everything! In the end, after an evening by the pool, just 6 of us were up for going.  A number of us by now had been ill with some form of stomach bug so its fair enough.  We started by the pool bar (above left - Sarah with Aunty Gene and her uncle at the pool bar) winning at giant Jenga before heading out to a bar called Bella Roma in Osu.  A slightly pricey (though we wouldn't have thought twice about it in England) but lively, clean and half decent bar.  This was followed by a taxi to the club Tantra.  Now we had been given mixed reviews on Tantra, some saying its the best night out in Accra and others warning of the several thousand prostitutes that hang out there.  From the outside, the latter seems closer to the truth and then first impressions once inside does not do it any favours.  The place is pretty damn small and doesn't get busy till at least 2am.  We got there at around 1.30am and once we got over the initial "is this it" and onto the dance floor we had an absolute blinding night!  The atmospheres great, musics good and people aren't toooo intimidating.  Ok so the girls did get hit on at pretty much a constant rate but this all added to the entertainment... for me.  

Kirsty, Laura, Kate, Vimal, Tash, Katie and Sarah at Bella Roma.

Arriving back at our luxury flats (hot water and all!) at gone 4am we had an Accra tour bus (organized by Warwick) picking us up at 10am.  By now, several people were either ill, hungover or just plain exhausted and so the Accra tour had a few empty seats.  Also, it being two weeks into our trip, we have kinda seen most touristy things in Accra by default. Still, it was free and it included lunch, i'm in.  We traveled in an air-conditioned bus with a friendly guide who seemed to know the answers to all questions thrown at hi.  First stop was the burial place (right) of Kwame Nkrumah... who? i hear you ask.  None other then the first ever ever president of Ghana! Ok so it didn't mean all that much to me but it was somewhat, if only vaguely, interesting.  Next was the reason to get out of bed; lunch, and then it was the burial site of the world renowned Du Boi...  sorry was that "who?!" again??  ok this time its fair enough.  I spent the best part of an hour following a guide around Du Bois Centre and still have no idea of who or what he is (and if indeed he is actually a he!?).  Obviously this is just me.  If you are interested in such things then these places are really well organized and worth the visit.  That is a pretty substantial if though...

Last stop was an art gallery, which actually i enjoyed a lot.  Accra is supposedly famous for their elaborate coffins (above - yes that really is a coffin!).  Taking possibly the most morbid object out there and turning it into something pretty damn cheerful is a unique yet slightly strange skill.  There were coffins designed to look like fish, crabs, coke bottles, cars... you name it they would have it.  One was even designed to look like a bag of flour!?  This was pretty much our weekend, sunday was a good rest day where we made use of a number of the complex facilities in the day and then prepared for schools in the evening. :o)

How's school?

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Most of the way through the second week of teaching and I feel that i am really getting into the stride of Ghana life.  Cows arrived the second time at school to feed on our pastures and i barely batted an eyelid... settling in just fine.  I have pretty much covered the topics that the pupils listed as priority and so next week will all be extra stuff that i feel they could do with learning/practicing.  Yesterday it was planned by Kirsty that we would have a sports day (after worship in the morning which i did the Serman to!).  And my gosh what a brilliant plan it was.  Hats off to her as really it was 99.9% her organisation.  My lack of contribution to the planning however did result in my team colour being pink (above) but obviously this did very little in stopping my team from winning.  The pupils loved it, every single bit of it.  Completely out of the blue, halfway through the day, some very important people from England turned up.  The lady that is head of the whole Warwick in Africa project and the family that seem to fund a heck of a lot of it,  along with camera men and recording equipment had decided to pay us a visit.  I wasn't sure whether taking a day off teaching and doing sport instead was showing us in a great light but really, in the end, they can get footage of us teaching any day.  Capturing a sportsday was something different and they really liked it.  Having said that, the next day they chose to come back, record some of our lessons and interview me on camera.

Pupil at the front of my classroom

The lovely Lauras school

So far i have spent about £75 on sports equipment for the school.  This included sport bibs, footballs and volley balls.  Unfortunately, frisbees are no where to be found.  Though the school that i am working in has whiteboards, the other 2 schools our still working with blackboards and chalk (above right).  I think it would be money extremely well spent to have new whiteboards installed in all the classrooms.  The English teachers seemed to have found some decent books, from novels to junior dictionaries, for a good price too.

 

Last night a few of us were asked to go meet these important people (above) in the place where they were staying.  This time there were many more important people including many highly respected Ghanaians that were potential funders for the future of the project.  After getting suited and booted, we put on a best smiles and mingled with the best of them.

Filling your belly

Friday, 13 August 2010

I think i have eaten enough Ghanaian food by now to be able to share my opinion.  The conclusion;  Ghanaian food fills your belly really really well.  They have so much carbs and starch in all their food and i guess this is what comes out of a still developing country.  Fufu, Banku and Kenki all seem to be the locals favourite food.  All of which are seriously dense starchy carbs.  Next on the list is Jollof and rice 'n' peas, again both staple carbs.  Fufu is made by pounding (left) ground cassava and plantain into a doughy ball.  Banku and Kenki are very similar but made with maize flour and fermented (kenki being fermented more).  These are all eaten with some form of soup (light soup, groundnut soup, goat soup, Okra soup etc) and eaten by hand.  I have to say that i am not all that fond of fufu or Kenki.  I think they simply are both just textures that im not used to (though there is a definite taste eliment of the fermented feet in the Kenki) and so i still struggle to find them palatable.  Banku is just a happy medium that really i can more put with than genuinly enjoy.  I had Banku with a crab and okra stew (which i presume is Gumbo?) not to long ago and that was lovely.  All the rice dishes are great and goes well with the local hot sauce (shito).

Food can be really cheap some places but then stupidly expensive in others.  Many places, Lobster (right) is cheaper then crab!  A platter of 4 good sized grilled lobsters with chips (easily enough for 2) cost a tenner.  In the night market you will get the Ghana staples for around 2 Cedi for a meal.  Water is sold everywhere in little square bags which would be great for England to introduce for a greener planet.  However, I am sure we would turn our noses up at sucking water from a bag.  

The slave trade was not very nice...

Monday, 16 August 2010

    

Our third weekend and Warwick have organized another trip for us.  This time to a place called Cape Coast which is famously the port where the slaves were held and shipped out to be sold around the world.  We travelled in the same bus and with the same guide as last weekend for about 3-4 hours.  We visited two castles and spent a night in a "boatel" aptly named as it kinda rests on a crocodile lake.  The visit to the castles (above) i found very interesting and it is all put together really quite well.  You can really feel (and almost smell) the horrible events that took place whilst walking around the dungeons and cells and finishing at the "door of no return".  The Boatel had potential to be an absolutely beautiful hotel and im sure that once upon-a-time it really was.  Now, however, not so much.  The experience was still nice, crocodiles were easily visible from the restaurant (top right) and me and Laura took a wee pedalo boat trip to get even closer.  This trip also involved a canopy walk (below) in a place called Kakum on the way back to Accra.  This was pretty fun and our guide was the loveliest woman you could ever meet.  The bridges are totally safe but at the same time, if you have a fear of heights, they don't really look (or sound) all that welcoming.

Kate and Laura 30 metres up in the trees

"Kwame and his 3 beautiful girls"

Friday, 20 August 2010

Today was our last day in our schools and I had woken up with the worst stomach ever (Potentially bad decision to go for the sushi last night).  I was in two minds whether to go in or not but eventually came to a decision of drinking a load of thick pink stuff from Kirsty and braving the lack of toilets for the next few hours.  Had i not gone, i could not have made a worse decision.  The last day was something i will remember for a very long time.  It started with just a chill out hour with pupils and chatting about non subject related topics with a few goodbyes.  Pupils kept giving me reassuring hugs as being as ill as i was, i didn't look to good, and they thought it was because i was very very sad to be leaving.  Don't get me wrong, i am a lil sad to leave, just considering the nature of my work last year, big group goodbyes are a pretty common occurence for me.

Final group photo

We gave out several prizes for effort and achievements in the subjects, sports day winners and various other things before donating all the things we spent our money on.  By this time there were footballs, volleyballs, games, maths sets, English novels, African Novels, Maths text books, white board sets and sooo much more piled up infront of the pupils and teachers.  They all seemed (including the head master) extremely grateful and appreciative of our contributions and rewarded us back with Kente Cloths and necklaces.  Further still, the head teacher announced that they will be building a library which they are going to name after us!?  If this follows through, it would be the biggest honour i'd have recieved in this life time so far.  

So this is it.  The end of Ghana.  Many pupils were crying as we left and so did some of us teachers.  It really was an emotional day as we slowly realised the true extent of our impact on the school and the pupils.  Its actually enormous.  And to think that in Ghana this was happening in three different schools, and then further still in schools in South Africa and in Tanzania; due to one small project.  This is goodbye from Ghana and long live Warwick in Africa.  :o) 

Here is the video that came out to promote the Warwick in Africa charity.  I'm in it!! 

Singapore!

I have just yesterday passed my PGCE with Outstanding status and to treat myself I booked flights to Singapore for christmas and new years.  Well ok Singapore was a long time in the planning as I have been living with a Singaporean for the duration of my PGCE who is also in love with everything that is food.  Her family are in the food industry (Abalone, Shark fin and birds nest) back in Singapore and I will be staying with them.  Singapore is amazingly famous for its top quality, wide ranging food and with the connections through my friends family, Singapore is going to be a serious experience in gastronomy... :o)  

Warwick in Africa...

In less than two months from now I will be heading off to Africa to teach Maths to the poor kids of Ghana.  As I have mentioned, Warwick are paying every single expence for me to go... from flight tickets to yellow fever jabs (which cost £50 and last yeeaaars!).  But they did mention that we may choose to fundraise money for us to personally spend on teaching equipment, resources and stuff for the kids in Ghana.  This could be pens, pencils and calculators through to blackboards and sports equipment.  Currently I have raised £370 by means of a generous family and charity events that I have held.  I will keep a log on here to show what the money is being spent on as and when it is spent.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/lenny_henry_clinton

Warwick University have just launched their promotional video today (Link above) to raise money for the whole Warwick in Afica project and having just watched it, I realise how lucky I am to be part of something so powerful.  It really is a great project, please check it out...  :o)

Indonesia - Summer 2009

After the hustle and bustle of Hong Kong, Indonesia made for a great contrast.  We landed in Jakarta at about 7PM and welcomed by big red signs warning the death penalty on anyone with drugs in their suitcase.  My friend (Conor) that i was planning to meet was a guy i had lived with in Nottingham during my degree who had gotten married to his wife Rini in indonesia.  I had promised to go out and see him, and now was my time.  Having not spoken to him since leaving England 5 days ago, i was a little anxious that he may have forgotten to pick us up... he didnt.  We put our bags into his car and he drove us straight to a seafood restaurant to eat (below).  Without a doubt, this kind of restaurant in England you would expect to spend no less then £30 each for the evening.  We ate mussles, squid, prawns, clams, fish and much more and i was a little worried that i had blown half my spending money on the fist night.  Turned out that it cost less then £5 each, including drinks.

Arriving at Conors house we were warned that they were having a few problems with mosquitos and Conor felt it good practice to tell us about his friends that have gone down with Dengu fever recently.  That night we played Poker, caught rat-like super mice (don't ask...) and Conor helped us plan out our trip for the next three weeks.  He knew every bit of indonesia; where we must stay, what to see and how long to stay in each place.  I left it to the girls to plan whilst i played poker and looked forward to a good rest after travels.  The girls paired with Conor found that the best plan would be to catch a 5 o'clock 8 hour train journey the next morning to Yogyakarta and gradually travel south over the three weeks to Lombok Island.  Confident in the knowledge that Jess has extremely similar interests to me, i was happy to sit back and tag along to whatever they planned.  And what a brilliant plan it was.

So early morning and we were on a low budget but kinda decent train to Jogja (Yogyakarta) getting our first views of indonesia in day light with bright green paddy fields and old school farms.  Half way along and a man comes round with a menu for something to eat and i saw the chance to order my first indonesian breakfast.  Not understanding a word of indonesian, the man recommended me the most expencive meal on the menu (about £1.50) claiming that i will like it a lot.  Not having a clue what i just ordered i sat excited waiting for my first traditional indonesian breakfast to arrive... never before have i been so disapointed to recieve steak and chips. 

8 hours gone we arrive in Jogja and now try and find a means of getting to our hostel.  Boring but safe Taxi? or exciting but seemingly deadly old man with a pedal bike (a Becak - left)?  2 Becaks it was, to carry three of us plus luggage across town.  I began to doubt our decision as we came to our first junction onto a busy main road and the old man jumps off the bike and starts pushing us into a hoard of oncoming traffic.  Surprisingly we arrived safely and they asked for just £1 for their troubles.   

Our first hostel was just £4 a night and had a swimming pool (right) and breakfast included.  After getting refreshed i headed straight out to make up for my disapointing indonesian breakfast and found a little stall selling some proper local food.  Bakso- a soup with some sort of meatballs, noodles and veg.  With a side of Spicy sambal (a crushed chilli and shrimp condiment) and chicken feet (below right).  Cheap food typically came from wheely street venders and stalls (below left) and though they look sketchy i regularly ate from them and had no problems.

We spent a few days in Jogja as there was a lot to see and our hostel organised a few trips for us.  The first day we spent roaming around Jogja taking Becaks to a temple, the water castle, bird market (below right) and a batik art show room.  The water castle was under construction so wasn't overly interesting.  I found the bird market pretty kool, though slightly disturbing as they had all sorts of animals caged and not best kept.  from lonely looking baby monkeys to great big grandad owls.  That evening we ate at a local restaurant where a really cute old man (below left - see actually really cute!) would come and sit on the floor and sing a really spooky song for money.  Also that night I splashed out and treated myself to the very rare (rarest in the world) Kopi Luwak (Civette Coffee) which originates from Indonesia and is famously made from cat poop.  Was about £7 for a cup, in comparison to the £45 it would cost in London, and it is deffinitiley one that had to be ticked off my list.

Our trip that we (i say we, i really mean Jess and Lizzy!) organised with our hostel was a 2 day trip to Borobudor, a Buddhist monument, followed by Dieng Plateau and then heading back to our hostel in Jogja.  It started in the early hours of the morning to watch the sunrise up some big hill but this didn't really work out as it was too cloudy to see anything.  Borobudor was pretty impressive for the first 10 minutes.  After that your pretty much walking around looking at the same thing from different angles for about an hour.

However, towards the end of the tour, a group of school kids came upto us with their teacher asking if they could practice their english with us.  The sweetest kids ever started with the question "how do you do?" followed by "what do you do?" and finishing with "is your country a republic or a kingdom?".  What kinda question is that??!!  Once the tour of the Buddhist monument was over we still had a few hours to kill before our car came to pick us up so the girls sun bathed and i sat and wrote post cards and chatted to the local people working there.  In this time i managed to get a full body massage and talk my way to a free tour on this dudes horse and carriage thing.  I called the girls up and he took us around Borobudor and showed us the resident elephants! We went down for a closer look and the keeper asked if we would like to feed them, which we did, and then he followed up by asking if we would like to ride one?!?! Hell yer i would (below)!  Out of pure happiness we paid the horse dude probably more then he'd usually make and i left with a great fat smile on my face.

It turned out that the guy that picked us up and was driving us to our next destination (Dieng Plateau) was the same guy that took us to the sunrise in the morning, had been working all day and now was feeling the strain and falling asleep at the wheel...  Lizzy was also feeling the strain and was getting travel sickness which strangely worked out well for us.  We sat her in the front seat next to the sleepy driver who suddenly became much more attentive.  First thing i noticed when we arrived at a little village in Dieng was that it was unbelievably cold and all we had with us were shorts and t-shirts.  Further more it was one of the dirtier hostels we stayed at in our whole time.  Me and Jess had a wander around the village and ate some beautiful barbecued satay lamb in a little tent/shack thing filled with smoke and old local men bemused by our presence. 

The next morning we trecked down to see a second sunrise and this time the weather held out for us and we were treated to the perfect sunrise.  From there we headed to a sulphur spring and then onto the Dieng Plateau.  The Sulphur spring was pretty much just a big boiling pot of eggy water but the Plateau was a great view and experience (right). 

Back at the hostel in Jogja we were knackered and decided to have a wee break and some lone time to do whatever we wanted.  I took this opportunity to go find the strangest dirtiest meal out there and asked a becak to take me to the cheapest food place he knows.  I tipped him well as certainly didnt fail.  I entered through what looked like somebody's front door to their house and sat in what looked like their kitchen.  The meal consisted of barbecued chicken head, stewed cow hide, fried balls of chicken offal, fried fish, rice and sambal (above left).  That night we spent resting at the pool and i went out and ate snake curry which wasn't very nice.  This was our last night in Jogja as we (again just Jess and Lizzy!) had arranged to head to Mount Bromo the next morning.  Our hostel was great in helping us organise everything and even gave us packed breakfasts to take with us on our journey.

 Mount Bromo (above) was busy, full of tourists and hawkers.  We all agreed that we prefered the sunrise at Dieng though there was still something special in the idea of watching the sunrise from the top of a mountain.  The trip we organised with our hostel was to Bromo, Merapi Volcano and Ijen Sulphur mine.  Merapi next... and we wern't going to climb it, we were going to horse ride up it! Unlike Jess and Lizzy, i have never ridden a horse in my life and my first time was going to be atop a volcano with death defying drops to be flung off.  ok so im exaggerating... but not much!  Jess' horse actually threw her off! not over the edge but still, i had good reason to be shitting myself.  Having survived it however, i was soooo glad i did it.

I wasn't sure however whether or not i would survive the next feat, our 7 hour bus journey to the next destination.  This bus (above) was shocking and would fail any mot 10 fold.  Forget airconditioning, you would struggle to open the windows without them coming off!  It had 8 seats and we squeezed 11 of us in there, the floor was burning hot from the engine so you had to keep your shoes on, and pretty much the whole thing was held together by duct tape.   And incase we had not noticed how dreadful this bus was, pasted along the side of the bus were the words FEAR FACTOR!? 

 None the less, it got us there... Ijen crater lake and sulphur mine.  A looong uphill treck with the occassional wiff of egg is absolutely knackering, but then you feel like a complete wuss for being tired when you cross local mine workers doing the exact same treck but with 60 odd kilograms of sulphur rock on their backs!  Once you reach the top, you get the outstanding view of the crater lake and the thick smokey sulphur gas seeming to come out of it (above right).  Now you have the option to climb down through the thick smoke to get a closer view of the lake and see the sulphur miners at work... or spare your lungs and climb up to see the view from higher up.  The girls chose up, i chose down.  From where we were standing, every now and then the wind would blow the smoke towards us making you cough and splutter.  However, wrapping my sarong around my face i endured the sulphur gas and reached the bottom drenched in sweat and nursing a soar throat.  But my gosh it was worth it.  It was here where i got the best photo i have ever taken in my life (above).  If you're reasonably fit and healthy, i could not recommend Ijen enough.  A steaming baby blue crater lake and fascinating sulphur mining is well worth the effort in getting there.

Next on our plan was slightly off the beaten track and it was our intention to rest for a bit here after some pretty intense last few days.  Next stop was Baluran national park, east Java.  Not a tourist in site, only locals and school kids on science trips!  Aside from food, i am fascinated by animals and so this place was the BEST time out.  We spent one night in a cabin in the centre near a watering hole and one night on the beach.  Miles away from the nearest shop we had to live on pot noodles (indonesian pot noodles taste beaut!) though the first night our cabin neighbours, on a research trip, invited us for a fish barbecue!  Me and Jess went on a hunt for Python in a mangrove but didn't find any and got malled by mosquitos instead,  I caught a lizard and its tail came off... and we were struggling to decide whether it would be reeeaally lucky or unlucky if we bumped into the rare leapords on our explorations.

After our rest we were ready for crossing the waters to Bali, hoping to find a place to stay in Kuta.  This is something we probably should have done before hand (and we did try from an internet cafe in Jogja!) as it took a lot of walking around with our bags and rejections before we ended up staying in our first over budget hotel.  We spent one night here and made the most of our first hot shower and my first shave with hot water and then found a much cheaper, just as pretty hostel round the corner.  Kuta was by far the most touristy place we went to and the most expencive.  Some great seafood restaurants though, where you pick out your food from the front (above right) and they cook it how you want! This was a difficult decision for me so i went for a selection of sea creatures (prawns, giant clams, crab, fish, lobster and squid) prepared in a selection of ways (right - the other dude was some guy the girls picked up on the beach). 

                             

We only spent 2 nights in Kuta as we planned to head to Lombok and the Gilis pronto and then come back to Kuta to finish off our holiday.  We booked a bus to a ferry port called Padangbai purely with the intention to catch a ferry to Lombok.  Arriving in Padang Bai I realised that this little beach front (above) was easily my favourite place in the whole of Indonesia and Topi inn  was my favourite hostel.  It had a few rooms and the rest was a line of mattresses out on deck in the open (left).  The girls stayed in a room with all the bags and I slept out in the open air with the sound of the sea putting me to sleep. 

Padang Bai also happened to be the first place I ever snorkelled.  Not being the best swimmer (understatement...), the thought of jumping off a boat in the middle of the sea with no life jacket was making me a lil edgey.  But with a bit of peer preasure from Jess i went for it and told the boat dude i was a good swimmer.  The second i jumped in and 'put' my head underwater i was amazed by how many fish, coral and colours there were... and then inhaled about a pint of seawater.  But once i got the hang of it i realised how much i had been missing out on all these years!  There were soooo many different fish and i even saw a green sting-ray with blue spots! but nobody believed me because they were just jealous that they didn't see any.  But i really DID!

Our plans to cross the pond to Lombok and Gilis soon changed when we saw the price and the time we'd lose travelling.  We scrapped the idea completely and came up with a much better one.  More time in Padang Bai followed by a mini road trip across Bali! Our whole time in Indonesia we had been recommended to try and see a funeral...  how on earth do we get ourselves involved with a random persons funeral!?! Talking to other travellers, apparantly a box of cigerettes works well.  We kinda dismissed the idea until we learnt that the whole village of Padang Bai was closing down for the day to celebrate the cremation of a famous, well loved judge. 

The night before they had a special show of balinese dancing which funnily enough was also something we were recommended to see! Now the dancing was pretty impressive but i couldn't help but be a little (or a lot) freaked out.  The eerie music (old ladies playing with bells and gongs - extraordinarily well may i add) would fit perfectly in some oriental horror movie.  The dancing... well the dancers were kids made up to look like plastic dolls and danced like they were puppets!!  now thats pretty scary.  The next day was the main part though, so dressed in my sarong (which was compulsory) I dipped in and out of the funeral which lasted the entire day.  Went from carrying the body (just wrapped in a cloth), dancing with it, putting it on the top of a great big funeral pyre, put it in the sea (above left), danced with it some more and then set fire to it (above right).

Leaving Padang Bai we caught a bus to Ubud where we bought most our presents for friend/family from its famous market and played with monkeys at the Monkey Temple (top).  I took bananas in with me which all got stolen, pretty much straight away, by getting tricked by two monkeys! one destracted me(left) whilst another jumped on me and took them all! Refusing to be out smarted by monkeys i went to take my bananas back, until the monkey showed me its teeth and looked like he was ready to pounce.  I dont like bananas anway...

Then we rented our car 'Suzy'  (right), the cheapest one we could find! I am yet to be able to drive so how well it drives had little effect on me.  But as far as i gathered, it did not drive particularly well! Nonetheless it took us the whole way up north to Lovina beach with a few stops on the way.  We went to a hot spring which you could bathe in but in my own opinion hot springs in hot countries are more uncomfortable then fun.  Then we made a foolish attempt to drive round a big lake (above) on a crazy, narrow dirt 'road' that was far from friends with our car.  Jess and Lizzy were brilliant and we almost made it the whole way round! until the path kinda disapeared... after a 17 point turn we took a different route.

Lovina is famous for its big black sand... theres nothing pretty about black sand, it just looked like mud. (above left). Nonetheless Lovina was worth the visit and definitely worth the road trip.  Driving back to Ubud we visited a waterfall, another hindu temple and ate at a posh, over priced, tourist buffet restaurant (with amazing view - above right) that gave us about 70% off when we decided to find somewhere else to eat.  I wish i knew this technique at the beginning of the holiday! 

Having dropped the car off back in Ubud we headed back to Kuta to finish off our holiday in the most popular holiday destination of Bali.  Kuta beach is beautiful (left) with great waves to paddle, body board and surf.  It is well known for being a great place to surf... not so much a place to learn how to surf.  Or atleast that was my excuse for wussing out.  I had a great time body boarding instead.  An old lady told me that my nails needed cleaning and 'twisted' my arm to let her give me a manicure and pedicure.  After 4 weeks backpacking i did need it. 

Bali is also known for its massage parlours and i couldn't leave without a traditional balinese massage.  I've never been to a massage parlour before and my view of them has been tainted from various stories.  Not wanting to get myself in possibly the most awkward situation of my life, I chose the massage parlour wisely.  One with a completely open plan and great big windows instead of walls.  I walked in passing the rows of people getting massaged to some gentle rain forest background music.  I asked for a full body massage, they came and washed my feet and then i waited in line to be called.  One by one, people from the line were summoned forward by their masseus and then followed them to the rows of massage stations to get kneeded.  Then my name was called by a particularly pretty lady and i followed her... and kept on following, passed the rows of massage stations, up some stairs and into a dark, curtained off, private room... with a mattress on the floor!?? Shit...   In the little english she knew she asked me to get ready whilst she waited outside.  What "ready" actually meant i wasn't quite sure about so i simply took my top off and called her back in.  She giggled and hinted that more clothes needed to come off, so again she waited outside and i took off my trousers.  A second time she giggles and hints a little more... soooo standing bare butt, heart pounding and clutching my pride with both hands i nervously call her back in.  This time she didn't giggle.  This time it was a full blown laugh as she pointed to the pile of neatly folded sarongs which i was apparantly supposed to wrap myself in.  double shit... But, aside from my distracted mind desperately thinking of an excuse against a "happy ending", the massage was amazing... low and behold the massage finished, i paid, and i left. :o)

For our last full day in Bali we booked ourselves onto a day trip to "turtle island", organised through our hostel.  This included a glass bottom boat trip to get there, a spot of snorkelling and then a tour of turtle island.  The boat was good and had i not been snorkelling just a few days ago i would have been really impressed.  Turtle island was a project to conserve the turtle population of Bali and had plenty of other animals to attract more tourists.  I loved having the opportunity to play with all these animals but i couldn't help feel bad as most of them were blatantly badly kept and malnourished.  That night we watched the sunset on Kuta beach and finished with a night out in Kutas busy nightlife.

We had flights back to Jakarta the next morning to rest a couple of days with my mate before heading home.  Ramadan had started somedays back but had little effect on us in the Hindu island of Bali.  Jakarta was a different story and my friend and his wife were fasting.  Nonetheless, the great people that they are, they did not mind us eating where and when we wanted and Rini cooked a feast at sunset.  In the day Conor gave us a tour of Jakarta centre and then for our last night, we were invited to break the fast at Rinis sisters.  This was great as though we had eaten so much food on our trip, not once did we ever sit down to a proper Indonesian family meal (above).  I couldn't think of a better way to finish our holiday. :o)