Saturday 14 April 2012

Bogor and the Tour to Pangandaran

Took the most crowded train I've ever been on to get to Bogor. It was only a couple of hours but it was hell and I kept having to keep an eye on my pockets for fear of theft as everyone was so close. Got there in one piece though and managed to find the hostel I was looking for with no issues. Then I decided to have a wonder to the bus station to find out about how to get to the Pangandaran. On the walk there I spotted a couple of western looking girls so asked them what they where up to. They where both dutch and backpacking through Indo for a couple of months. One of them was a lot more talkative than the other but they both seemed pretty cool. So we exchanged numbers then I wondered off to find the bus station. Couldn't find it for shit so thought fuck it, I'll just go to a pub to watch the Football. Proper splurged (by indo standards this is) and nailed a few european beers whilst eating Pizza and watching footy. I tried to skype Rob and Lillerz back home on the PC's in the corner of the bar but they stupidly didn't have any headphones but had web cams! Anyway, the Dutch girls met up with me and we played a couple of games of pool before heading back to the hostel. I was kicking ass at pool that night, think I potted 6 balls and the black in one sitting in one of the games! The rest of the people playing where pretty shite so I really looked like a super star :-)

The next morning I woke up and headed off to the botanical gardens, cus that's what you do in Bogor. It was pretty cool really, nice to get away from the urban sprawl and see some nature as it had been a while. Nothing particularly to report though, there was a load of school kids trying to practice their English which I was happy to help with. Then I got a call from the dutchys saying they were talking to a tour guide about a 2 day tour they'd been discussing. It sounded pretty good and to be honest I was over negotiating prices of hostels and trying to find public transport so decided to splash out a bit on it. And in hindsight it was a good call as it was a really enjoyable tour. The more time I spend travelling, by the way, the more organised tours have been the more enjoyable way to get around and see the main sights. So I hauled ass over to the hostel to pack up my shit then we went off to meet the tour guide and his driver. Off we went in our private little mini van to the first place, which was on the outskirts of Bandung. We stopped off at a few pretty view points and I got to see a rice paddy type mountain which was one of the things I was keen to do before leaving South East Asia:


That night we stayed in a place that was on top of a natural hot spring so had mini swimming pool/bath's in each room which was luuuuuuuush! My first bath in 7 months. Mint.

The next morning we got up pretty early and headed off to some volcano. It was my first volcano i'd ever been to so it made a nice change. weeeeeeeeee, this whiskey has gone straight to my head. typing is becoming difficulty. anyway, volcano. errr, yeah it was cool, lots of steam and that. Oh, some really cool looking rocks that made it look like we where on a different planet. Check my photos on FB in the album Indonesia.

Then we went off to Pangagadangardang which is this beach town and checked into a really cool hostel. right. off to get shitted with my cousins.

Laters potaterz

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