vw meeting in Jogyakarta

Here a reminiscing full report from the vw meeting in Jogja.
It was our first vw meeting in Indonesia.
Together there were over 800cars, not including 200 from the local club.
A huge event for Indonesia.
The event was held at a nice City venue, where there were artistic butiques, and alot of other activities.
Concerts and Folk dancing, and a very hot sunny day.
Here Filip was first exposed to the vw sceene as it is - trade stands and proffesionals who make it happen!

Here are the photos 

Singapore - in transition to thailand

We flew out to Singapore, - wchich is like another world compared to Indonesia.
Very advanced and modern country. Here we visit Marcus, who drives us to the hotel and
invites us for a tasty sea food diner, along with our virtual friends, who like us travel with a little 3 year old boy from France, into Asia - with thier Iveco motor home. Our boys played on the beach as we indulged our best diner durring our travels so far. ;)

the Next day we go see the Singapore zoo.

the goodbyes

After arriving in Jakarta, we went to visit Carburator springs- a restaurant where we first had a steak ;) There we met as in the begining - Endra this time with his familly, and Fobo. After that we came to pickup our friends Anita and Tomek who came from Poland to travel with us for a couple of days.
We made our way to Bandung, to stay with Nissa and her familly. Clean the bus and return it to Anto. We pickup Pala and Piotr, our Polish traveling friends who returned for a farewell party.
The party went smooth, we cooked polish soup, and other Polish specialities to serve the people whom we met that helped us on our way. Augusta made a spectacle or a fire show.
The next morning, mr Purba came to see us and we were driven to the airport by Michael the caretaker of Antos shop. Anto decided to keep the bus, as to him it has now a historical value.
He will restore it, and keep it, for next time we would like to visit Indonesia... A tempting option, as we still would like to go and see Sumatra Island.

Semarang Yumos shop

We arrived in the late night at Yumos shop, and spent the night in the front of his shop.
That night the brakes of the bus got even worst, and at times they were braking very hard and uneffective, and than while pressing softly nice and correct.  In Effect, Filip had to drive slowly keeping the distance, and it was best to arrive in Semerang, thtough the high mountains while it was relatively empty on the roads.  Yumos was very welcoming, Elios could play with his children, while Filip took time to make a small interview about the brasilian - to split transformations.  The basic idea is to use popular in Indoensia - Brasilian vw bus made from 1980 to 1984 and converting it by cutting the front off and building from start a new vw split front.  The work takes time and an average conversion from fisrt cut to paint takes an average of 6 months.  The back corners get rounded off to oval lamps.  The air vents get cut out, fliped and an extra cm is added where its needed.  Front goes off, and new body is brought out. All the sheet work is done by hand.  Formed painstakingly by Yumos skilled workers.  The front doors, as well as side doors are also made to look like the old split. Even the Bumpers are folded and welded together to make a reproduction bumper.  Afterwards the whole bus is covered with epoxi fiberglass filler to even out the uneven welds.
The efect is amasing, and the new bus is resembling the actual vw split.  Its however only a replica.  Yumos took care of our bus, by taking it to his mechanic, where the bus had brakes looked at, and the horn put in order.  After the necessary repair Filip can now finally drive the bus like he should be driving in Jawa = being able to brake and sound his horn.  The next 3 days passed calmly in a rainy sea storm - following the coast to jakarta Airport.

Return through Java,

We drove on through Bali, almost over night.  Passing through the buisy Denpasar, we settled in on a beach on early morning hours.  Filip went to sleep wchile Elios could simply go out and play on the nice beach.
soon the bus was sort of stuck due to a crowd of scooters brought by surfers.  Taking adventage of the good early morn wave.  Comeback to Java Island and again the traffic over crowded with scooters, moving everywhere, Filip got spoiled wchile driving on easy going Bali.  We headed for Semarang and Yumos work shop. Famous for conversion of vw brasilian models into vw split replicas...

Newyears on Lombok

We left Bali Island to cross to a Lombok Island, where we cought a night ferry across to that smaller island.
We drove to the far south west coast to a desolate place, where we picked up hitch hikers-and Irish-Czech couple, who were making their way to a "Palm beach Resort" held by a German Andreas.  We chose a bungalow to share with our polish couple for the next 3 days, to spend new years celebration together.
Meanwhile Augusta recuperated her health.  Once Augusta got better, she stayed with Elios, while the 3 poles went for a drive exploring the Islands south coast.  Unexpectidely the roads got worst, and the villages got more and more authentic.  The south beach is really alot more beautifull than any beach we have so far seen in Indonesia.  Big waves. We tackled the bad road. After new years our Polish friends continued their travel to Flores, while we met with our french present bringers, at their hotel. walking on the beach and sharing a diner.
Than after the retourn trip began... Over 2000km to make before reaching Jakarta the 9th in order to pick up our vw friends from Poland Anita and Tomek.