Wonorejo monkeys

We drove to the Wonorejio national park, to follow the rocky road through a jungle and savannah to the beach. There we were welcomed by the monkeys who stolle in tottal: carrot, apple, that was long forgotten inside our bus, and scared Augusta to witts.  Elios was couragous however walking around the monkeys with his big stick, like a Tarzan. see film

Bromo

As we drove to Bromo, we were looking forward to finally getting out of the heat and into the cool hills.  Just as the road started to get windy we got into a heavy rain storm with strong winds, that were knocking out branches. We decided to find a spot to wait out the storm, and as Elios was sleeping we too took a nap.  30 minutes latter everything was over with no more rain, and cool air around us.  To our surprise a bamboo three fell behind our bus, as we slept.  Latter as we continued, we found alot of cars lined up waiting for a removal of a huge three!
The whole village along with the drivers got together to remove the obstacle.(see film)  Chopping it down in 2 places, than rolling it out of the road.  Lucky for us we decided to stop, who knows maybe that three would fall in front of us or behind us, surely not on us, otherwise no more blog updates ;)  As we drove up to the crater edge of the Bromo vulcano, we were told that we may not go further, and we had to sleep in the parking before the barier.  We were told that we must rent a jeep to go further, as the road is not passable by normal car.  In fact it was nothing as a trap. The barier was guarded till dunrise, so that the locals with their jeeps could drive up their pray = tourists up to the crater edge.  Augusta decides to boldly walk up the mountian, and Filip stays with Elios to explore the village. She gets a lift to the top of the crater edge to see the beautifull site of the Bromo vulcano.  After returning also by a lift we drive up, but by than it was already too foggy and rainy, so we returned to the valleys below, to drive on to the National park.

Surabaya

 We sepent our days again with our host familly in Surabaya. On sunday we were invited to a bbq of friends of Marta and Eric, our very nice host familly from CS. Menwhile Filip repaired the bus at the local vw garage.

The volkswagen surabaya garage, where Nonod a mechanic worked there, and insisted on Filips comming to the shop for a rewelding job. It was nice few hours spent in a great atmosphere of aircooled friends who latter insisted on inviting us for diner.  We had to decline, as we already had an appointment to visit with Joni, Antos friend - a director of one of Antos bottle factories. We had a nice sleep, and the next day we visited the factory.

Madura Island

We decided to go to Madura Island, though alot of people didnt recomend it to us.  We were told that its hot, the roads are bad, no forests,  its flat, and the people are hostile.  In truth its hot here, the island is flat, but not tottally flat, in the middle there are some nice hills, the roads were not the best but at least we had for the first time a brake from the traffic and crowded roads.  here the only problem are wide trucks that transpord lime stone and salt.  We drove through the center on small roads, that are being in constant reconstruction.  The people seem not to ever see a foreigner and as soon as we stop to buy water, or some fruits or vegetables, we become the main attraction. No foreign tourist so far as we traveled.  We were hosted by a familly who held a restaurant, in Ketapang.  We learned that here has been a large emigration from saudi arabia and other african muslim countries, that make the islands peoples very muslim and variable, dark skinned.  As we followed along the beach we fell upon a beautifull festival in Ambuten, girls decorated with jasmin flowers and painted yellow almost like statues, were dancing on horses accompanied by musicians and dancers (see film).  It was so beautifull and non commercial that we were really surprised and so amased byt the procession.  Once the convoy arrived at the village cemetary, the girls were lined up for photos and people were offering (see film) the money to the girls whispering to their ears their wishes, and they in turn give to the dancers.  Soon however the painted girls stood alone without attension as the whole village seemed fascinated with us. Taking photos of us from every angle with everyone who had a camera... as we made our way slowly to the bus, they couldnt end staring at the interior camping setup of the bus!  We soon parted with some  regret, and let them continue their celebrations, otherwise, I think, the whole village would simply be looking at us instead of admiring their festival... We continued on our quest to find a nice hidden beach, that was a bit sandy.  In deed we found one, but the sea was hotter than the air, so we quickly left the beach to make our way to Sumenep.  But to our surprise, something strange happened to the bus: it was driving on its own, driving in zigzag, hard to control!
So as soon as we found some shade, Filip inspected the bus to find that the main steering rod box had almost detached it self from the front beam.  We auickly asked our indonesian friends how to call a welder = it was "las" like forest in polish. Sure enough as soon as we entered in a gungle forest village, there was a las near the beach dune.  So we tryed to bend back the rod into place and get it wesded and than reinforced.  It was a hot sandy sticky job, but we accomplished it!  Than night we ended up in Sumenep , and we cracked, to get a hotel for 100 thou = about 10$ to get a nice hot shower and sleep well and hard in an airconditioned room.
A brake we deserved, a first hotel since one month;)

We're getting famous!

After a short detour by the biggest buddhist temple in the world, Borobudur, we made our way to Malang through nice and fresh coll volcanic mountains with also one stop in an aircon mall with nice playground for Elios. When we stopped for the night in a village near a waterfall, a woman came to us saying: "Filip! Is this your son Elios? And where is Augusta?" She'd seen us and the bus in a newspaper article (see last post). Meanwhile, in France, they are publishing our first 2 months until Mongolia on the national Super VW magazine: 4 double pages and plenty of photos!!
No problem on the road, we're getting used to it even if it is not so easy, my biggest fear was when a monkey jumped on me to try to catch Elios's shiny feeding bottle at the waterfall!
After that we spent a few days in Malang, hosted by 2 Polish guys Dawid and Marcin, who teach English here in Indonesia. Marcin also has a very nice business organizing practices for Europeans in Malang, as a cultural experience. They introduced us to many people, Indonesian and foreigners, and we got together to the closest beach on the ocean, Golacina, a spot really unknown by foreigners. Last hours before leaving Malang we visited a Danish-Indonesian Muslim family which was very unique: Hassan is into ecology and sustainability for 30 years now and gave us a lot of tips and information for our future life. Filip took time to meet the vw people in Malang.  Helped Mario with his black low rider bug to regulate his carb, and distributor.  Mario in turn took him on a tour of vw shops and garages in an effort to fix the muffler, and the overcharging problem of the bus.  On the way to Goacina in the heavy rain, the radio blew up in smoke and all the lights, and bulbs went out.  It was due to overcharging, and thus battery went dry.  After finding the distilled water, the problem diminished.  In one shop the mechanic adjusted the regulator so it would charge less, but that is a half way sollution, next thing to do would be to find a regulator. The coil is overheating heavyly too, to the point that it starts to oooze out.  Mario also showed to Filip a cool vw shop, led by Tarima, a muslim woman who lives in the shop along with the spare used and new parts.  She kept the shop for over 25 years.

vw meeting in Yogjakarta the vw eruption

This was our first meeting and at the same time the first drive in Indonesia.
After finishing up the last things on the bus, we hit the road, minutes before the rush hour from Bandung.
The night fell as usual around 6pm and Filip drove through the night to about 1am to make some distance, while Elios and Augusta slept.  The night was much cooler , but also many unexpected obstacles.  The mountain roads are a bit tight, and the express itercity passenger buses seem have the absolute priority, passing and simply honking to make things clear.  In Indonesia there is no insureance for vehicules older than 8 years!  This means that the bus is uninsuared, so are other vehicules around, making it a huge risque factor.  It is why everyone learns to simply AVOID accidents, and it seems to be working well. Alot of scooters though everywhere, passing from any side, make it hard to turn suddenly.  Driver must have his eyes around his head.  Finally we reach Yogjakarta after 24hr drive. About 550km for a price of abot 14e worth of fuel.  The meeting is in the fevor of preperaton.  We meet the organisors an find a spot in a relative shade.  Slowly some teams trickle in, but not like in Europe.  The real flow of vws starts in the early morning hours before the sun rise.  The organisors open the registration at 8 and already about 200 teams await registration.  The participation fee is NOTHING, as the whole event is payed for by sponsors = a ciggaret company.  Here smoking advertisement is legal. On saturday there is a sceeninc drive to the Volcano  that blew up just last may!  A convoy of about 30 vw buses tackles the lava, you could see it on this short film. There are alot of vendors too. Selling all kinds of gadgets, from traditional Batik shirts to rare in europe Airconditioning systems for bus, and stainles steel roof racks.  Clubs from all over Indonesa come to this the "central" meeting, where its closer for all Indonesians to arrive.  In tottal 789 teams are registered, so without counting 200 cars from Yojgja Club there was nearly a 1000 vws at the show!  Prizes are given to people from as far as Papua, and Sumatra as well to us.  Journalists interview us, and the article shows up in the sunday paper.  We have warm invitations from alot of vw fans around Indonesia.  Inviting us to stay at their homes, to see their islands ect.  We slowly say good bye as we make our way to the next vw meeting , this time in Bali.  On sunday night we stay at Purbas, another vw friend met at Bad Caberg 4 years ago.
For more photos of the vw show, please click HERE

Indonesia : The new bus

PHOTOS  Here we are in Indonesia, the greatest place we could imagine so far! People are the nicest, chocolate and coffee are delicious, so are fruits like goyava, lychees and avocado, and there are Volkswagens everywhere!
Filip had met Endra from Jakarta's VW association at Badcamberg meeting in Germany: this man was just like an angel for us, coming to pick us at the airport late at night to drive us through the huge 50 million inhab. city of Jakarta. We stayed just one day, in BSD, visiting the Pasar Modern and spent the evening at a perfect chill out place called the "Carburator Springs", which joins together a VW garage, a Steak house with very good meat, a street art gallery and kids playing the guitar and the djembe and singing Indonesian reggae.
Next day another VW friend Harry took us all the way to Bandung, 150 km south east of Jakarta. He showed us his friends who all have the most beautiful villas, and Filip went to Anto from Terror Garage, who has a marvelous surprise for us: after showing him his collection of rare VW, not only did he help us find the bus, but he also just offered to buy us a bus for our stay in Indonesia!
So the bus is a German one, year 68, color Bordeaux, that's why we called it Bordok. We stayed a few days here around Bandung until the bus could be ready: we were hosted by a very nice Muslim family with two boys aged 5 and 3, two very good friends for Elios. In the meanwhile, Bordok received seat belts, new wipers, etc. We customized it with many stickers from our sponsors. We borrowed a GPS and a baby seat, and Filip made his first driving tests in the terrible left side traffic full of scooters. Now we are ready and will leave in a few minutes to get tomorrow to our first Indonesian VW meeting, in Jogjakarta!!

Vietnam 1-15 November

Only 15 days to reach Saigon...
On the first day, we took a wrong bus and couldn't find the border but were brought to a beautiful each instead. In the end we reached the bridge Dongxing-Mong Cai and felt relieve: we got out of China without losing our baby boy!
From the beginning, Vietnam is so different and so delicious: green tropical vegetation, cafes with terrace everywhere and even hot chocolate, cute balconies on two-storey houses. All is a little more poor and falling apart than in China, communication is not easier but more people speak English.
The first day we take a sleeping bus, very comfortable. In Hai Phong we got invited to a girl's birthday in a small flat crowded with people. Elios proved he was no more a baby and go to sleep even when his bottle was lost. 
Next stop was in Thanh Hoa and Samson, on a nice beach, where we could swim and taste some delicious seafood, such as a crab - the first one for Filip. Our intention was then to buy a rickshaw to ride slowly southwards, but once we chose one the seller changed the price at the last minute. So we took a night train with a cabin special for foreigners, and arrived in DaNang with big rain. It rained for more than 24 hours so that the river came out and the streets became rivers. Taxis and scooters stopped working and we got stuck in the train station for the night, after crossing a street with our backpacks and the baby in our arms and water above the knees.
So we stayed 2 more days in DaNang, until everything could come back to order, it gave us time to visit touristic and beautiful HoiAn, to buy a new cheap telephone, to let Elios play for hours in a play room, swimming in plastic balls.
Next we stooped in Nha Trang, and the sun was back. This beautiful beach has big waves and deep water, white clean sand. For surfing the internet, we visited the slum which faced a 4 star hotel, kids were surrounding us and repeating Elios's words, or playing bear footed in sewer ground. On a rickshaw we made a small touristic tour to see a Buddhist temple and a cathedral: both religions are present here in a funny manner, you can find catholic churches with original decorations and Buddhas that look like Virgin Mary!
After that we had a hard day on a bus to reach DaLat, we were so frightened with that driver who was racing as much as he could horning loudly in the city, in the curves and in darkness. In DaLat, we met a couple of retired Germans who've lived on a boat for 15 years and already 4 years in Malaysia. One day we split, mama could walk in the mountains and tatus found 6 beetles and regulated their carburator, while Elios got a new haircut, so everyone was happy! Next day we rented a scooter and could see better and freely the beautiful surroundings.

Finally we got to Saigon, too noisy, too hot, we stayed in the tourists' street and visited only the playground of the park nearby, Elios appreciated it. In the end, the little one took his first flight, but he was more busy reading magazines than watching through the window.
So we made it by land in 4 months until Saigon and now, after jumping over the sea, we are on the other side of equator!

China 6 weeks behind us

So almost 6 weeks of traveling in China.  Mainly trains, but also alot with buses.  Our travel style got a bit monotonous, always getting to and from bus/train station, to finding some cheep hotel, than finding parks, getting food and repeating the process...

Shanghai was a good surprise: a cosmopolitan and breathing city after that gray center of China. e stayed three days hosted by a French Qi Gong teacher, Marceau. Supermama would get up early to practice her favorite sport in the parks at 7, when they are crowded with old or younger Chinese. On the evening, she would test Marceau's invention, Qi Dance, a form of improvisation dance. We also met the son of our village's doctor for lunch in the commercial area and a former guest of our Strasburg's couch for dinner in the small streets of the French concession.

Fujian province
We chose a city randomly on the map towards South, took a train, watching lats years Walt Disney/Pixar studio movies and once we just got out, we heard: "Welcome to Ningde!" There stood Tony, a Cuban teaching Spanish in the University and Freddy, a Chinese-American teaching English. We sat in their pick-up and they showed us the English school where Elios could put the library upside down and forget it was late ad he was hungry. The following dinner was quite something:" we said we'd like fish, we're shown one fish, pretty big, around 80cm long, alive, just out of the aquarium, and a few minutes later it is cut in pieces and boiled in a bouillon on our table, we receive in our bowls the head, the tail and some delicious pieces. Next day we escaped to the mountain: we feel finally in the South, with green luxurious trees, the sounds of the jungle instead of that of the city. Then we passed through Xiamen, stayed one night in Longyan, famous for its Peanuts and got to Yongding, small city that abrina had recommended to us in Beijing. There, we visited some ancient houses called the "earth buildings", built in XVIII-XIXth cent., in clay and wood, all round. The small local buses we take to cross the countryside are getting more and more picturesque and in a poor condition.


Guangdong province: Canton and Zhaoqing
That night train was a nightmare: we misunderstood the lady at ticket office and received sitting tickets instead of sleeping places, and that in a full train, with the light on till 1 am, we couldn't close an eye. On top of that, the controller wouldn't let us out of the train station without our tickets, so that Filip had to go back all the way to our wagon and by chance found them. In Canton, we treat ourselves with a coffee for 4 euros in Starbucks, with great comfort. There we met a Polish guy, wearing a costume, leaving in Shanghai, and stared at the White people coming in and Chinese life going on outside. Canton seems less modern than Peking and Shanghai, bridges are covered with plants and buildings go back to the seventies-eighties. Zhaoqing is a charming city, some kilometers more west, its lakes and mountains attract many people from Canton and Hong Kong over the week-ends. We spent some time with an ex QiGong teacher, quite a unique person.
Guangxi province
We made some decisions for the months to come: we'll go to Indonesia soon, buy a new VWbus and visit some meetings there. We start to be tired of China. In Wuzhou, we got a room with computer to make some research and booked a flight Saigon-Jakarta for November 15.  No time for Yunnan and Sichuan provinces but just some days in Guangxi, which is also magnificent.
The bus runs along a river, and mountains with incredible pointing shapes come out of the earth. We cannot believe to have reached these sites that we saw few months before on pictures at our neighbor's house in Montfort. We stay a few days in the breathtaking landscapes, in Yangshuo, and rent a tandem to cycle around the countryside. On that occasion, some woman who works in a travel agency tells us we will need to make our visas before entering Vietnam. It's a pretty bad news, we rush to Nanning after teaching one evening in an English school.
The province capital city is not so interesting, we choose a backpacker hostel to share some experiences with other travelers, then while the consulate is preparing our visas, we relax on the seaside, in Fanchengang. Elios loves it on the beach, to draw in the sand with sharp shells, and he finds a 12 year-old girl friend Hojahuj who takes care of him like a second mother. Filip sees the pacific ocean for the first time, and I just Relax, whaww!