After the historical part it was time to discover the green side! We started a long walk in the botanical gardens. We walked for about 2 hours and my feet were hurting a lot but the beauty of the gardens made me forget my pain!
Our guide told us that the botanical gardens are one of the largest in the world, they have a surface of 110 hectares with 12000 different sort of plants. Most of the plants are exotic, they even have more than 3000 different sorts of orchids. My mother would really like this, she has 6 orchids at home but this is nothing in comparison with what I saw today.

On our way back with the motorbus we took a route that passed by tea plantations. Even behind a window it was breathtaking. On the advice of a friend of us our last stop of today was Puncak pass.
So far I think this was the most miraculous view I have seen since day 1 of our trip.
It is the highest point and is located 1500 meters high. 
We were all glad that we had some cooling because it was that high. We all walked for the last time today to the Telaga Warna lake.
It is a volcanic lake and is well known because of the debut novel Oeroeg written by Hella Haasse!

I was very surprised to see this because it is something that you’ll never see in Belgium. It made me think of something prehistorically. When I was little I saw some movies and cartoons about dinosaurs and this made me think a lot of dinosaurs!
But I was glad when I could leave because I was a bit scared that I would be attacked by a dinosaur! (Just kidding)

We were devastated when we arrived at the hotel so we are having a quiet evening.
Enjoy your evening!

Kimberly

The view from pancake pass

Telaga Warna Lake

Botanical garden

Yogyakarta is a province of middle-java and is one of the most famous places to visit in Jakarta. A lot of tourist have visited the monuments of Yogyakarta, so we were very interested in the things we would see.

In one of our hotels we had found a brochure of Borobudur, nearby Yogyakarta, which we could visited with a local guide. We were very lucky because the hotel, where we slept that night, also organized these trips.

We woke up early in the morning, because we had a trip from a few hours. We arrived in Borobudur around nine o’clock. There were a lot of other tourists so we had to wait for about an hour before we could started our visit. 

Borobudur or Vihara Buddha Uhr is the Sanskrit word for ‘Buddhist monastery on the hill’ and is rediscovered by the British in 1814. The exact purpose of its construction is not clear. One theory is that the temple represent Buddhism cosmology. This cosmology is represented in 3 different levels;

1. The world of desire
2. The world of forms
3. The world of formlessness

The construction counts nine levels and each wall is adorned with Buddha relives. At each level the inhabitants had to do an exercise of meditation to reach the highest level. These days the local people use this place to pray and if you are a real crusader you walk 7 times around each level to show your believe. We actually saw some people walking around each level, we showed a lot of respect. 

Happily we are no crusaders so we left Borobudur to relax on the beach. It was a hot afternoon, so we had to went into hiding.

For that night we brought our tents so we could sleep at/on  the beach. We enjoyed the sunset and got a rest for the next day!

Eline

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur

https://www.tmreizen.nl/indonesie/bouwsteen_java_west_reis.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txujqGtB_6g

Head to Cambodia!

When I was a child, one of my mother her favourite tracks was the one from Kim Wilde, singing a song about a Cambodia. I don't know whether this was really the thing that triggered me to go to Cambodia and to feel so terribly good about it, or that i'm just extremely into it's culture and nature.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y3TKv7Chk4

In this section, i'll talk about the touristic side of Cambodia.

Cambodia, officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is located in the south eastern part of Asia. Its neighbour countries are Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.

We've all seen the tags and labels in our clothes telling us that they have been originally made in Cambodia. The textile industry is actually the biggest industry and greatest source of income in Cambodia. On the second place, we have the incomes arriving from the tourist industry.

Most visitors arriving between January and December came into the country through Siem Reap or through Phnom Penh. One of the most popular touristic areas in Cambodia are located in the south west, called "Sihanoukville". This is such a popular place thanks to its several beach resorts. The area around Kampot and Kep are also very popular amongst tourists due to their Bokor Hill Station.

So the three most well - known places to visit are The Angkor Wat historical park in Siem Reap (1), the beaches in Sihanoukville (2) and the capital city Phnom Penh (3).

Tourism in Cambodia has been increasing a lot since 1993, coming from 118 183 yearly international tourists and going to 2 161 577 international tourists in 2009. I'm sure this number has been increasing more ever since. The predictions a couple of years ago were that Cambodia will have three million foreign tourists in 2010 and over five million five years later, in 2015.

Most of the Cambodian tourists are Japanese, Filipinos, American, South Koreans and French people. They based part of this statement on the earnings and import of American dollars, accounting for almost ten percent Cambodia's national products.
 

Because of the increase in tourists visiting Cambodia, the quantity of souvenirs that are produced are not sufficient to face the increasing number of tourists and the enormous amount of products sold to the tourists on the markets. A lot of souvernirs are actually imported from China, Thailand and Vietnam. Some of the local produced souvenirs are:

• Ceramic craftings.
• Soap.
• Candles.
• Different kinds of spices.
• Krama (the traditional scarf).
• Painted bottles containing infused rice wine.

Charlotte.

SOURCES:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y3TKv7Chk4
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodja

Phnom Penh

After talking about the tourism of Cambodia, we thought it was an interesting idea to have a look at Cambodia's biggest and most crowded place: Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia. It's located in the south east of the country, on the banks of the Mekong River and Tonlé Sparivier river. Phnom Penh used to be part of the French colonisation of Combodia. It's been the national capital ever since and has grown to become the country's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of politics, culture, security and diplomacy. The city is founded in 1434 and is remarkable for its beauitiful and historical architecture and attractions. Since Phnom Penh was used to be part of the French colonisation, you'll be able to find a lot of surviving French colonial building scattered along the grand boulevards.

One of the things i really adore about cities as old as this one, is the story behind it. Rome is also a city that has a "founder - story", with Romulus and Remus, the seven hills and seven kings. Phnom Penh is also a city with a story to tell, the story about a woman called Penh. Penh was a woman who lived near the River of Mekong. One day when she went fishing, she found a floating koki tree in the river. She decided to take it out of the water and found 4 little statues of a Buddha inside. These statues were to be seen as divine foundings. This is why Penh took them up on a mountain and build a temple for them, to honour them. This mountain was called Wat Phnom Daun Penh (Mountain of the Temple) and was the place were Cambodia current capital city was born.

In the late twinties of the 20th century, Phnom Penh was called "The Pearl of Asia". Thanks to building a rallway construction and the aiport of Pochentong, the city just kept on growing ever since.

Phnom Penh also offers a great amount of monuments you can visit. Going from tempels, to mosques, to museums and markets. You won't be bored if you're looking for a cultural adventure in a city such as this. Things I would really recommend visiting are the several beautiful tempels:

• Silver Pagoda.
• Wat Phnom.
• Wat Ounalom.
• Wat Lang Ka.
• Wat Koh.

The word "Wat" actually means "Temple" in English.

Charlotte.

SOURCES:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Penh
• https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phnom_Penh

We left Phnom Penh behind and took a bus to Siem Reap, the city where we found Angkor the capital city of the Khmer-Kingdom from 9^th century until the 14^th century. Angkor is one of the best activated places in the world and had sustain old and recent wars.

When we arrived, we couldn’t believe our eyes, the capital city was distinguished. It was so large, that we had to hire a jeep to see the whole place. Like you can see at the picture of Angkor Wat, the whole place was surrounded by water to protect the city from enemies. We had the chance to make a boot trip around the city, in the meantime a guide told us the history of the temple. He even told us a legend about the gods. Unfortunately we couldn’t see everything because laborers were renovating the building. We only visited the access of the building.  We were a bit disappointed because we saw an interesting documentary of the building and we craved to see the building from the inside.

Believe it or not but we made friends with one of laborers. He told us some things about the beautiful building. We even were allowed to take a look with him. We only had to swear we would never tell someone that we had visit the forbidden places. It was marvelous.

We left Angkor Wat and took a bus to our hotel in a local city.  When we arrived the weather wasn’t so beautiful anymore. A lot of clouds covered up the blue sky and it started to rain. Although the weather was bad, it was really refreshing and we did a rain dance with the local people!

Iadios!

Eline 

Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkyQO4axJxE

It’s dry season here in Cambodia and I’ve eaten so much rice the past few days that I totally forgot what proper bread tastes like!

We left Phnom Penh for the second largest city in Cambodia “Battambang”, pronoucend as “Bad’mboong” (I know this because I made a fool out of my self earlier trying to pronounce it right in a conversation with a local).

Battambang is known for its local market which is really an overwhelming and industrious hustle and bustle of locals. Rice is the city’s primary crop and its fertile fields have led to a mostly agricultural economy. Hence why we’ve been eating so much rice lately.

Surprisingly enough, Battambang is quite a restful place, a bit too quiet I would say. When visiting some locals we’ve heard their stories about the Red Khmers, a group of followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea in Cambodia that was the ruling party for almost 5 years.

This was a cruel organization that leaded the Cambodian Genocide, attempted an agricultural reform which led to famine across Cambodia and prominently is the cause of thousands of deaths because they would insist to have an absolute self-sufficiency even in the supply of medicine.

I was horrified to hear about the executions and tortures that had occurred in those years. A few locals told me that they were forced to move to the countryside and leave their homes and everything they worked for in the city. The organisation itself was officially dissolved sometime in December 1999.

The city itself wasn’t that damaged by the regime so we still saw some beautiful colonial monuments hidden in the countryside. We’ve noticed Thai influences in the architectures since the Battambang province has been among Thai government for a long time. You can still pay with baht, the Thai currency.

Greets fellow readers
Jihane

Today we were spending our last day in Battambang and we wanted to spend it in a special way. Our friends recommended a breathtaking boattrip from Battambang to Siem Reap but it wasn't possible due to the low water level... It would have taken us up to 10 hours to reach Siem Reap and in this hot and sunny weather we would have gone crazy in that little boat.

So we did a little trip with a bamboo train! This on the remains of an old train rail that isn't used anymore expect for little freight trains. Our train was made while we were watching they had a motor with some wheels and laid some bamboo and some pillows on it. And there was our ride! It was a marvellous experience with stunning nature and some funny experiences with opposing traffic. Apparently the one with the lightest cargo has to leave the tracks and wait until his approaching has passed by.

For our last night in Cambodia we went to a little cafe called 'Choco L'Art Cafe' in Battambang. They have a great concept; it's chocolate and art. Two things that we girls really appreciate! We ate delicious homemade food and almost all of this food was connected to chocolate. The chocolate mousse was delicious and Jihane was really happy to eat some chocolate bread. When you have been away for a while, it tastes so good! The owners are a French girl and her Cambodian husband. He's an artist and the cafe is filled with his pieces of art and those of local Cambodian artists.

We have just arrived in our hostel and we had a great last night with interesting company that consisted of local artists. Tomorrow we're leaving Cambodia behind and heading towards Thailand! The first stop we will make in Thailand is Rayong. A beautiful area where there are unspoiled and quiet white beaches, fruit plantations and forests. In the Rayong area the locals are still very traditional, the only tourists that come here are the inhabitants of Bangkok to find some peace.

So tomorrow you can find us between the locals at the beach with some fresh seafood!

Good night

Amina

Source: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g303666-Battambang_Battambang_Province-Vacations.html

Wow, it was only 5 am when Charlotte’s alarm clock went off. Too early if you ask me. Our bags were already packed so we just had to check out in our hostel and eat breakfast. Well actually I wasn’t that hungry that early in the morning so I just ate a banana.

The bus picked us up at 5:50 pm and it was going to be a long journey. We had to drive over 4 hours, it was 461 km. But I thought about the fact that I could sleep at the bus so I took peace with it.

It took only about 1 hour and  it was clear that this ride wasn’t going to be fun. Two trucks had a collision on the road and one almost tumbled down in the ravine. As the roads in the mountains are very small it was not possible to pass with our bus. We weren’t very happy with it because it would take a lot of extra time now to get to Rayong but we thought “everything happens for a reason”. So we looked at the bright side of it and started socializing with some other people on the bus.

There were 6 boys from Australia that where doing the same thing like us. They had done some other countries like Laos, Myanmar and China. By chance they stayed that night at the same hotel but in time we weren’t even sure if we would get there by night.

After 2 hours of waiting we could finally continue our trip.   The roads weren’t very stable so it was a bumpy ride. At 11:30 am we arrived at our hostel named Pramopun Rayong Hostel.  We packed our lunch and drove with bikes that the hostel placed in disposal to the beach.

The boys accompanied us so we were with 12. The sun was shining so bright. We played volleyball and swum in the sea. There was an amazing group atmosphere. In the late afternoon we went to the supermarket to buy some meat and potatoes for a barbecue.

Our new Australian friends made a fire on the beach and we started barbecuing. Natives came to sit with us and one was playing guitar.

It was an amazing night, and now I’m very tired. Its 2 am so I really should go to sleep.

Sweet dreams. 

Some photos

Amina at the beach

Eline, Julie and Jihane with our new friends (the Australian boys)

Charlotte at the campfire.

Kimberly at our hostel

Eline, Julie and Jihane at the accident.

Thailand's Full Moon Party.

After having a good time on the beach with the Australian boys we've met during our busride, we decided to, since we were in Thailand, talk about the posibilities of having a good night out! We discussed our options with the Australian boys, since they were going to accompany us for another week, and finally decided to visit the world famous Full Moon Party. We didn't really think of this, until a local guy in our hostel was talking about that party with one of his colleagues. 

I remember a friend of mine has visited the Full Moon Party a couple of years. As a cook, he got the chance to go working in Australia for a couple of months, during which he saved some money to go on a roadtrip afterwards. One of the things he visited was The Full Moon Party in Thailand. I remember he told me that doing such a thing has been a breathtaking experience.

The Full Moon Party in Thailand is actually a beach party that goes on all night. The first edition of The Full Moon Party was improvised by the people sitting in a local wooden disco not far from the beach, located on the island on Ko Pha Ngan in Thailand. It occured on the night of, before of after every full moon. Only by word of mouth, the party gained reach and grew out to be one of the biggest and most known parties Thailand has to offer. Although this is a party taking place in the eastern part of the world, it's mostly attended by Westerners. 

Every time a Full Moon Party occurs, it goes on until the sun rises the next day and the moon is gone. Since there's no party without music, the play several genres of music during that night, going from psychedelic music such as psy trance and goa to R&B, reggae, drum and bass, house and dance. Full Moon Parties are also very known because of their several attractions and activities such as fire skipping ropes, alcohol "buckets" and the usage of drugs.

Together with our Australian friend and between 10.000 and 30.000 other partypeople, we must say that going to a Full Moon Party really was a huge life experience. We got to meet a lot of new, interesting and fascinating people, but we also saw people going bad on drugs. I personally believe that's a thing you can't avoid when going to a mass event, so we decided not to let it ruin our experience.

Charlotte.

SOURCES:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Moon_Party
• https://fullmoonparty-thailand.com/index.html

Bagan "The Golden City"

We’re heading for Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, one of the least known countries in Asia.

Our first stop is Bagan, frequently referred as the “Golden City”, located along the Irrawaddy River. It is the country's largest river and most important commercial waterway. We saw a lot of boats passing by as we walked along the river to Bagan. I think that’s the one of the country’s source of income. However, you can notice that tourism is the country’s main economy as few tourists busses passed us by.

Along the road we saw a few souvenir shops that were specialised in Lacquerware. We decided to come back later to buy a few souvenirs for our families.

As I browsed through my guidebook I got really impatient to finally see this cultural and historical treasure located in the heart of Myanmar. Still to this day Bagan is the world’s largest area of temples, pagodas, stupas and ruins dated from the 11^th and 12^th centuries.

We finally arrived in Bagan and I was (taken aback) by the beauty of this “city”. We could easily consume three or four days here wandering in the magnificent ruins of Bagan. You get a feeling of freedom when seeing the vast land.

After our excursion to the temples we continued our walk to the farmland. It was rather impressive how their farming equipment is really dated but people still uses these techniques as a sort of regimen.

Afterwards a few of us hired a bike and took a ride throughout the rural countryside. Whenever we saw something we dumbed our bikes in the grass and explored the area , climbing the narrow stairways of the temples. It is something to see farmland and ancient temples intertwine

The rest of the group went for a real treat and flew over Bagan in a hot air balloon.

One of my highlights of the day in Bagan was the sunset. The colours of the sun pierced through the windows of the temples and this deep red sunset shined throughout the whole area. It was overwhelmingly breath taking.

Greets Jihane

 

Sunset in Bagan

Julie trapped under the balloon

sources:
https://i1.trekearth.com/photos/92908/bagan-sunset-3.jpg
https://wodumedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/American-cluster-balloonist-Jonathan-Trappe-holds-onto-his-balloons-after-landing-on-farmland-in-Moeres-France-Friday-May-28-2010.-Trappe-took-off-from-Challock-England-to-become-the-first-person-to-cross-the-English-Channel-960x647.jpg
www.wikipedia.be