Adventure Accounting

Communication Language may be difficult at times, the tour guides can speak enough English to get you . Sign language / charades helps. Food in Cemoro Lawang Like I shared in a lot of my previous blog entries, I am not a foodie. I like eating, but I will not exert a lot of effort researching about a place’s unique cuisine. I was lucky I found this really nice eatery-type of restaurant in Cemoro Lawang. This is just a couple of meters away from my homestay. The prices are reasonable. And I love it that their menu is short. I feel that if a menu is long, it is more of a “customer-pleaser” than “sharing a cooking talent”. Also, less options makes me more decisive. I urge you try their drinks! I really really love susu jeruk (milk with orange), susu jahe (milk with ginger) and their teh (tea).   Tea with potato fries :) Their Indonesian hot soup is also amazing. Their mi goreng is really pansit . I like the instant mami version better. Buy ...

Cemoro Lawang is the closest town that you can use as a base to Mount Bromo. It is a quaint and quiet town which thrives on the flock of tourists. The tours start as early as 3:30am, and then you’ll be back in your homestay by 9:00am. The tours are arranged in such a way that you can catch an afternoon flight out of Surabaya, which is around 4 hours away.   By 11:00am, there’s almost no tourist in sight. My homestay offered tours for IDR 125,000. I didn’t haggle down the price, I thought it was already fair. He offers the usual tour: Sunrise at Penanjakan view point then hike to the Bromo Crater. I inquired if there’s a tour to include the Savanah and Telletubby land. I wanted to go back   - after showering and eating. He said he doesn’t offer those tours but he could get an ojek driver for me so I could tour it that afternoon.   There's not a lot to do in town. So I hired the ojek for IDR 75,000 to take me to Savannah and Telletubby land. BUT the v...

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I took the one less traveled, and that has made all the difference. - Robert Frost” The usual route from Yogyakarta to Mount Bromo is via Probolinggo, a bus terminal filled with touts. I read lots of horror stories about the drama in Probolinggo (I have one as well but that’s for a separate blog post). The other option is to get a package tour from your hostel or any travel agency and then endure a 15-16 hour minivan ride with other tourists. Two lousy options. Both not fun. After some careful research, I stumbled across the Bromo backdoor route via the town of Ngadas. I read about the Malang-Ngadas-Cemoro Lawang route from these amazing bloggers. A good acquaintance, who also did this route, helped me out with the details. Kurtzy WalkFlyPinoy Ambot Ah So there are some adventurers who did this route. The thing is, they are all male. That made me a bit apprehensive about doing this route. Since you are reading my blog post...

Airport Jakarta airport has three airport terminals. If you are catching a connecting flight, allow at least 2.5-3 hours in between flights. This allowance considers the delays in flight, baggage retrieval and waiting +riding the free shuttle across the terminals. If you need to get a visa for Indonesia, add some time to that. My seatmate from UK told me it took him two hours to secure a visa in Jakarta airport. (+points for PH passport-holders coz we don’t need one).  There's a free shuttle bus (color yellow) that goes around all the terminals. The shuttle comes every 20 or so minutes. I advise that you to check your terminal arrival and departures if you have connecting flights - BEFORE booking your flights.    Indonesia charges airport fees when you check in. Terminal fees are collected when you check-in. I paid IDR 150,000 or Php 600 when I flew back from CGK to MNL. Don't waste all your IDRs in duty free.  Around Yogyakarta Yogyakarta airpo...

An hour’s worth of sleep in Soekarno Hatta International Airport left me groggy. My alarm went off; it was time to catch my   Yogyakarta flight. Man, I’m getting old, sleeping in airports is not my thing anymore. :P There’s an airport fee of IDR 40,000 when I flew from CGK to JOG. Fee was collected at Air Asia’s check-in counter. I fastened my seatbelt upon finding my seat and slept peacefully. I was asleep even before the plane was filled with all the passengers. I arrived early in Adisucipto International Airport past 6am. The tourist information center was still closed. The Customer Service booth was open, I was able to get a city map there. I also asked where I could find the Transjogya terminal. There are nosy touts when I exited the airport but I held my nose up and pretended I was a local and I knew what I was doing – even with my camera in front of me. Maybe I partially succeeded coz they left me alone.   I followed where the buses stopped, and I deduced that...

Indonesia: Planning, Preparation, Budget and Itinerary At the close of 2013, I had four definite trips for 2014: South Korea (winter edition) , Batanes , Romblon and China. My major target for 2014 is Egypt. However, I realized I wasn't too brave to conquer Egypt given the unstable political situation there. Plus, I'm a female solo traveler. I can be brave but I have limits. So there's no Egypt 2014. :( To compensate for this, I booked a Manila-Jakarta flight during the January Piso-fare sale of Cebupacific. I booked the return flight from Jakarta to Manila on another Piso-fare sale which was also in January. Jakarta is not my main destination: It is Borobudur in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. I was led to Borobudur by the Discovery documentary Ancient Aliens - I borrowed a copy from my wushu classmate and I was intrigued by these theories about Aliens. I cannot explore the Pyramids of Egypt yet, so it is gonna be Borobudur. I added Mount Bromo to my itinerary alt...