Special trip to Surabaya

Keeping a blogg is taking alot of time and i have some cathing up to do.

I'm now in Ubud for the Ashtanga yoga retrait with Kino and Tim. They are so nice and giving a loving vibe to the hole group. Also the group is great.
I'm going to try here in Ubud to update my blogg every day. I hope i can remember everything, caus i saw in the last week so must and so must did happend. So i hope to write every day one adventure. So you guys can follow it to.

When we left Yogya we were for 3 days in Indonesia and i felt totaly fine, not very different from other countries i've bin. My thoughts about the trip so far was that i went with no expectations, so i'll felt totaly open for what every day would bring me.

First we went from Yogyakarta to the Bromo vulcano. We took a 10 hour trip with the bus to Probolinggo, a small village at the foot of the mountain.
At one of the stops we made true the whole trip, i met 2 sweet little girls. They were realy curious. And they could speak a little bit English. So we sitting and talking to eachother. It was so nice. I felt, for the first time i was in Indonesia, a deeper connection. Dont know exactly with what. But the feeling was very nice. We played around for half an hour and then my trip did go on to the next stop.

That night we got up at 4am to drive to the lookout spot for the sunrise to see. It was a very bumpy ride and we were all shaked up from it.
But at the and, the trip was worth it all. The vieuw was incredible.
After that we climbed the Bromo vulcane. It was so cool to see the still active vulcano. You could feel the energie around that place. Realy intens en alive feeling.
The surrounding of Bromo is amazing. Every were you look, people are working hard on the plantations, carry rice awy on there schoulders, selling the food.
The landscape is truely amazing.


After the Bromo trip we went to Surabaya. It was a three hour drive and we arrived at twelve.
Surabaya looked realy modern. Big, high buildings and very buzy. We had to be extra carefull, cause Surabaya is known for the rogues and villains. But luckaly nothing happend.
First day we checked the malls and got to bed early. Second time we switched from hotel. Caus the facilitisch were much better. We took it slow. And i was preparing the trip to Sukorejo. Caus the number was not right and there are more Sukorejo's in Indonesia, so it wasn't that easy to look the thing up.







Thirth day we went to Sukorejo, my birthplace. It was a 1,5 hour drive with the bus.
I met a realy sweet woman who was now helping with running the place and an old lady, who worked with the Pinati family for many years.
The owner of the childrens home and hospital is now the granddaugther of the couple Pinati. But she was not there. She is not running the place.
The women who worked there now, could not tell me any thing about administration of former adoptions. Granny and granpa Pinathi both past away, 5 and 3 years ago. The records of those days are so neglected, that there's nothing left from it.
It was ad to hear, but for me that was ok. I didn't came here to find my biological parents, i just wanted to look around and absorb the energy of the place. One of the workers, who was also a child of the home before, but is now working here, showed me a card. It was from 'Spoorloos"(a dutch program, who's specialized in finding lost family members from all over the world). The program had found her 2 years ago. Her sister from Holland went looking for her.

We could also see the hospital. But is was totaly rebuild. The old section was now a parkinglot. You could see the tiles still laying on the ground. Also the foundations what were before the walls, you could still see.
When we first went there, there were not alot of kids. Just one sleeping. But after we finished the tour, outside of the building there were standing 5 kids of the home.
They could speak a little bit English. They were very open and were laughing alot.
For one moment we were standing outside talking. And standing there like, and now what to do: Go home? Or staying? But then to do what?

And then Reni saw at the end of the street a restaurant, and she brought the idea to eat together with all the kids and one worker of the home. That was a great idea, caus now we could connect a little bit with each other!
We eat and laughed and had a great time. It was an wonderfull experiance. I liked the every one very much.
I had a good feeling about the first meeting with my birthplace. I made some pictures for you all te have a look.

Yogya city, smiling faces every where!

Yogjakarta welcomed us with a smile!

We arrives at Yogjakarta airport at 12.30 pm. We didn't booked a room jet, so we called some places. But these were al fully booked. Then we asked around, caus the airposrt was full of locals, and we had a couple of options. The taksi driver who we had spoken to, offerd to drive us around till we found a place to stay. And so we did that. The first option was not ok. To expansive. The second option was 700.000 rupia (47 euro per kamer) caus Reni is a champ in bargening, (she just walks away and then they come after her) she got the family room for 400.000 rupia. So that was about 133.000 rupia each. That's around 9 euro. We realy needed a good night sleep and the beds were supersoft. So we went for this one, orderd roomservice caus we were starving. Then we took a good warm shower and when out n the streets.
We came across a small desk who did arranged tours and stuff. At the desk was sitting a small man, almost sleeping at his desk. His name was Muji and he had realy cheap combi tours. We booked the Bodubodur and Prambanan visit at his place. And the Bromo- Surabaya tour, what would cost us the same as the traintrip to Surabaya. But now we had transport in a minivan, one night in a hotel, trip to Bromo vulcane, transport to Surabaya. This was super cheap (300.000 rp/20 euro), so we made the deal for the 15th this week.
Then we went for some to eat and went back in the hotel. First time this vacation that i lay in my bed before 23.30 pm!! It was an amazing goodnight sleep.

Around 5 pm the cousin of Reni came to join us with our trip. He's gonna stay till 31 of july. I did not even got awake, i was realy in a coma.

Next morning i felt great. We went for breakfast and every thing looked amazing. I took mixt veggi's and a cold salade. I was so hungry, and after i sad this to Reni i took a bite in the salade. It realy tasted good, but then... after 5 seconds i felt an explosion in my mouth! Everywhere were seeds! I spit the food out in a napken. What the fuck was this?! My mouth realy stood on fire. I didn't knew what to do. Cold water, lots of it, was the only thing i could think of. It was realy terrible. I thought the small green things in the salade were green beans! But mo.. they were hot peppers, realy strong ones. And i had just bitten three peppers open in my mouth.. Realy felt helpless, Reni sad that there was nothing i could do about. So i just had to go true it. It was realy terrible. My eyes watered, could noy eat anymore and we had 16 minuts to go check out and leave hem.

The one thing what was realy good of yogjakarta is that the smiling faces. People overheen are relaly friendly. We enjoyed it here for so much, maybe at the and of the trip we are comming back.

So at 10 am the pickup bus arrived. We went to Prambanan first, after that the Bodubodur. There's not alot to say about these tempels. They just are... and also you realy feeling history you see that or climb them.

Now we are totaly broken and are going to sleep.

Singapore: Shop till you drop!

Here i am again. The weekend is almost done. Eliette, Reni and i are now chillin in our room.

Nonie, the friend of Reni who's living overhere, took us first to Bali Lane. We eat some food in a little restaurant over there. The food was good. The typical asian food: fried rice with prawns, curry chicken and vegatables with white rice. We enjoyed our company, but after 30 minutes it starts to thunder and rain. it when so hard, that we could not sit any more on the table. But inside it was already full. So we had to stand and eat our food with the plate in our hands. After 20 minutes the rain stopped for one moment and we took the apportunity to find a cab as quickly as possible. Up to the Clarke Quay. It was a place with all kinds of shops and bars, covered with a rooftop. So we didn't straight our hair for nothing, but we could stil show of with the tight hairdo.
The club we went to was called Zirca. It was ok. Music was a little bit old, but we had alot of fun. There were two rooms. One with elektro house and one with sort of r&b/ hiphopmusic.
We came back after 2 o clock, packed my yoga stuff for the next morning, spoke to Jae on the skype and when to bed at 4 am.

Next morning got up at 8am. Took the Teksi to Yankit road nr 11, to follow the mysore class of James Figueira. I realy wanted to do the yoga, caus it is bin to long.
It was great, James gave me very nice advice for develope of my lotus. Also was he realy friendly and laught alot. For the yogi's, check this infoline: http://www.theyogashala.com.sg/teachers.html







Went back to the hostel at 10.30am and got with the girls some lunch. Nonie had took a friend with her, Nelli, so we were with the five of us.
We went to see the redlight district, area around Little India, the Singapora Leon, the Esplinate Theater, Raffle City and finally we when to a great Chinese Place, called Ah Boy.
I was exchausted! As you can see on the pics. My body was broken.
At the last day we saw the Shu-shop. Sale! Second par for half of the prices! Ok, Reni and i could not restist that one. Reni bought one pair high heels and i saw one pair of cool sandales.
After that we eat at Ah Boy. We orderd Hokkien Popiah, muesli chicken and fried rice with the vegetables. It was the best Chinese food ever! Love the Hokkien Popiah, gonna check that one out in Holland when i got back.

Tomorrow to Indonesia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm realy looking forward to!