Central Java - Plateau and Volcanoes (Day 4-5)

After 3 days of mainly city and Temple tours, My kids were yearning for more Nature and Adventure.

So, Day 4 of our trip was a 3 hour drive from Magelang (where we stayed) to Dieng Plateau but the scenery is beautiful with more backdrop of extinct and dormant volcanoes along the way, colourful lake at Dieng Plateau and the experience of the strong fumes of sulphuric acid at Dieng Plateau

Entrance to Dieng Plateau

Colourlake - as a result of the sulphur

Steam and sulphuric acid at Dieng Plateau

Dieng Plateau Temple in the midst of the mountain

  Day 5 - This time we ventured into an active volcano, on a zeep tour around Mount Merapi which erupted in November 2010. While we saw remnants of the eruption, many villages have actually moved back to live at the fringe of the volcano building their homes and attending to their farms.

Our zeep against the backdrop of Merapi

Path of the Lava - now heavily mined for the rocks and sand

Aftermath of eruption- ash-covered and burnt household items

Ruins of a Village house

Yogyakarta : Cultural and Nature (First 3 days)

My trip to Yogyakarta, aka Yogya was inspired when I saw the web images of the UNESCO listed Borobudur! And I must also admit that I am a fan, have always been a fan of Volcanoes - yes, it does sound crazy but a Nature and Geography lover will attest to the magnificent, mighty and menacing Volcanoes.

Starting with our first 3 days which were largely spent in Yogya city,  Prambanan Temple (Hindu Temple), and the famous Borobudur Temple (Buddhist). Both Temple sites are UNESCO heritage listed.

Interior of Kraton Palace (in Yogya city)

Showcase of traditional Javanese costume (in Kraton) in Yogya City

Interior of Taman Sari (Water Castle) in Yogya City

An external Wall at Taman Sari in Yogya City

On Day 2 : Temples in Slemen (Prambanan, Sewu & Sambi Sari)

Prambanan Temple ( many of the smaller temples were destroyed during the 2010 earthquake)

Sewu Temple

Sambi Sari (an underground temple discovered by a Farmer)

Day 3 :  A hot but lovely Visit to Borobudur, followed by lunch and Water rafting at Elo River (12 km long !)

Entrance to Borobudur

Garden View at the Entrance

In the temple (lovely mountainous background)

Lunch Venue near Borobudur

Family Pic before we set off to water rafting

End point of our rafting adventure

Asia Markets - Rainbow of Colours

I love markets, wet markets, fish market, flower markets or bazaar; they carry stories of how the locals live and what they eat everyday. Best of all, they showcase the freshest ingredients close to the source.

So, I thought I will share some colourful pictures of 3 markets, namely in Sri Lanka, Vietnam (Sapa and Hanoi) and Turkey - Istanbul.

Sri Lanka - Best Find : Bananas & Seafood !

Vietnam (Hanoi & Sapa) 
- Best Find : Lychee & Coffee !

Market at Sapa (Ethnic clothes made by the local H'mong villages)

Night Market in Hanoi

 Turkey - Istanbul - Best Find : Dessert & Lamps !

Famous Istanbul Bazaar

 

Sri Lanka Food - Delicious!

I cant get by without talking about Food, that is, the lovely spicy, aromatic Sri Lanka cuisine!

During the 1st part of our trip in central Sri Lanka, we did a village tour which include lunch and we were all treated a buffet of yummy, rustic home-made curry chicken, fried river fish, dhal curry, papadoms, deepfried eggplant,coconut mixed with chilli and tamarind,  all served in claypots. We dived in, including my children - the elder son loves spicy food, eating off the plate lined with banana leaf and our hands! The only word to describe - as a Singaporean is SHIOK! Checkout the pictures.

The refreshing and juicy coconut drink @ 50 cents per coconut

Papadoms, fried fish, curry chicken, chilli coconut pulp, dhal curry,friedn eggeplant

The children happily tucking in

Sri Lanka cuisine is similar to Indian but it has less coconut milk and has many spices added to it, including their very (own) Cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, fennel, cloves, etc.

I also want to make a special mention of Tea in Sri Lanka, previously known as Celyon Tea and share some of my knowledge on the tea leaves and how to brew a aromatic cuppa!

•  Orange Pekoe is the full tea leaf and after 3 minutes of brewing in a 98 degree C, it best drunk with a touch of honey. For a tea lover, the aroma is intoxicating.

•  Broken Orange Pekoe also commonly known as English Breakfast is make up of broken Orange Pekoe tea leaves. It is slightly stronger, again best drunk with honey and/or milk after the same brewing time of 3-5 minutes.

•  Of course, there is the Broken Orange Pekoe Fanning, a strongest version of the broken orange Pekoe, best drunk in the afternoon with milk after 5 minutes of brewing.

Since our trip, we have been enjoying freshly brewed tea. No Lipton and Dilmah tea bags, sorry, for as long as my tea leaves can last!

Oh, I must mention about their fried noodles/rice. As two of our children in the group does not enjoy spicy food, we had no choice but to order stirred fried noodles and rice. AND to our pleasant surprise, the fried noodles and rice turned out very tasty, sometimes with a touch of curry leaves and coconut oil scent but it has what we called WOK HEI - heat of the wok! And the fried rice has salted fish added to it like some of our zi char style So, for families worried about the food for their children, there is a non-spicy option. Oh, just a quick note to share that the noodles are rice noodles - bee hoon/vermicelli.

I must would also like to share that at the South, seafood is abundant and inexpensive. The range includes jumbo (really huge)river prawns - size of about 20cm, lobster, red snapper,travelly - think they call it butter fish - tender and juicy, tuna, sea crabs and mud crab. Mud crab are largely exported and with some help, we managed to get 3..fried with chilli.

Jumbo River prawn - how huge it is against my elder son

Our feast at the beach - red snapper, lobster were the highlights

Chilli mud crab and jumbo prawns

Just to give you a feel on the price - one lobster is about S$30; while 1 kg of jumbo prawns (7-8 pieces) cost about S$40.It was a haven for all of us! 

For food lovers especially seafood lovers,you will be "belly happy" at Sri Lanka South!

Sri Lanka - South : Part 3

The second half of our trip was down south to the Beach. As it was a long drive, we decided to break the journey and head for Yala National Park, a very famous wildlife conserve for many animals including leopards!

So on Day 8, we are off in a Zeep again to a Safari..and we saw many birds, buffaloes, sleeping crocodiles, spotted deers, etc but no leopards! Maybe our choice to visit the Safari in the afternoon was not good as there were many tourist zeeps roaring away. I think we have also missed the feeding time - typically in the morning. But we witnessed a kyte eating a abondoned kill, probably left behind by the leopard.

Spotted Deers at the estuary

A Kite having his lunch - leftover from the Leopard (Sorry if it seems gruesome)

Our adventure grew when we were confronted by a tusk elephant heading towards a rubbish dump filled with empty lunch paper boxes. Apparently, he found this place and it is routine stopover at 5pm in the evening and our routes crossed! I was not very thrilled with being too closed with a charged up young male elephant. 

The infamous Tusk Elephant

I sincerely hope the Rangers closed up the dump area both for the safety of the visitors as well as for the elephants' health.

I would also like to take a moment to mention about the effect of 2004 Tsunami in the South of Sri Lanka. Site like the Southern Point of Yala has a momentum to remind all of us of the visitors and villages who were killed by the tidal wave.

On Day 9th, while coping with a disappointing beach bungalow, we went to Mirissa beach, and decided to just lazed at the beach after a sumptuous seafood lunch. The kids were more than happy building their "death hole" while I was busy scouting nearby hotels to move both families across to a more palatable surroundings. And we managed to move to a lovely one just here.

View of Mirissa Beach from a nearby small island

View from our Mirissa Hotel Room Balcony - just perfect for chilling out without the sand

The children's creation " Death Hole"

On Day 10th, we got up at 4.30 am, yes, as we set off to Mirissa beach to head off for Whale watching. The boat set off at 7.30am with very bright and cheerful group...but after 30 minutes into the sea, not rough, I must add, it started to claim 2 "causalities", followed by 3 more who decided to head down to a lower deck.

I was still enjoying the breeze but eventually had to join the rest when my head began to spin. Unfortunately, thereafter, I was just waving a no..no....most of the time whenever the boat crew pointed out interesting sightings! At the end of the day, my husband was the one and only (in our group) who "survived" the sea journey and presented us his photographs collection:

Sperm Whale taking a breadth - watched by visitors from another boat

Sea Turtle catching a breadth too in the middle of Indian Ocean

Fishermen at Work Morning and Afternoon

All I could say is for the rest of the afternoon, most of us  spent the afternoon recovering at the beach hotel while the children continued their sand adventure.

Day 11th was brighter, we went to another beach for our snorkeling adventure. NO boat ride, just by the shore, and spent our evening at Galle Fort, a UNESCO heritage venue, walking on the Walls enjoying the lovely sunset! A very lovely town set up by the Portugese, then Dutch and English and  many buildings of the colonial days were restored into either government houses, hotels or shops. Mind you, things are a tad expensive as it is a famous place.

The Fort at the Entrance

Walking on the Fort - by the beach

Soldiers lowering the National Flag at 6pm

Day 12th, we went to a River Safari and caught sight of many birds, swaps and fish farms. At a fish farm, our tour guide helped us to enquire about the famous Sri Lanka mud crab and we were in luck, got a huge one and 2 small ones for only SGD32 and our fantastic Guide hunt around a restaurant to cook for us. Slurp..

River Safari Boat ride

Our Dinner !

 Our day 11th and 12th were spent at another hotel at Unawatuna Beach. While this beach is famous, the rise of the water level eroded few kilometers of beachfront and it is no longer possible to walk along the beach anymore during high tide. It is shame.. 

Unawatuna Beach

Day 13th was our last day and we drove to Colombo to meet up with our friend's boss's wife's family. The traffic in Colombo was a stark contrast to the outskirts. Not enough traffic lights and we were literally crawling. So, I made a good decision not to visit the major city. But I also must add that along the way, we saw beautiful colonial houses, black and white style, standing majestically along the street.

Well, the warm reception and home cooked lunch was more than made up for the jam and after thanking them, we had to head to the airport right away. 

Typical Traffic Condition in city, in this instance, Colombo

We have come to the end of our Sri Lanka trip! You know, we have been back for a month and each time I talked about the country, I am always feel with so much excitement. 

Amongst the various countries we have travelled to, we just love this country. As my husband said, it is a country with so much to offer: Nature, Adventure, Food, Beach, UNESCO heritage sites and great people!


If you still not convince that Sri Lanka has so much to offer, check out a re-run of Peter Kuruvita " My Sri Lanka" series in Nat Geo Adventure on Saturday at 1955hrs.  The episode on King's curry which he cooked at the top of Sigiriya sealed our decision to travel there!


Question : If you have been following my blog on Sri Lanka, tell me which part do you like better, Central or South ?