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.