Java farmhouse

Experimenting with other tools. A bit like Sanjeev Joshi's style of painting/drawing, but not nearly as good as his. Wet-in-wet watercolour and sepia coloured paintbrushes. Based on a picture of an abandoned shed in Java, made during our biketour around Prambanan (Yogyakarta). Experimenten met nat-in-nat aquarel en paintbrush. Schuur in Java, vlakbij Yogyakarta.

Final sketches

 

Our last morning in Bali, while waiting for our flight back home, we hung around the swimming pool. I made above sketch of the boats next to the hotel, and an impression of our hotel.
After a 20 hour flight, and stopovers in Jakarta and Dubai, we landed on Schiphol the next day.
I can only say that we had a fantastic trip, not only for Indonesia and its inhabitants, also for our fine travel companions we had during our trip.

Sawa

It was about the last of our days in Indonesia, and I got a little tired of the style of drawing I had been doing so far in my travelbook. So I tried something else, something wet-in-wet, inspired by a scene I saw somewhere on the road in Bali.

Rural Bali

During our trip around Bali we visited a typical rural family house. It's a complex of small bamboo thatched buildings within an enclosed garden. And there is a small temple for each family member, even for the deceased.
We drank Luwak coffee, the most expensive type of coffee existing. It's made of coffee beans, that were eaten by civet cats, pooped out, and collected. It tasted very soft for coffee.

Bali temples

On Saturday, after a well deserved resting day, we hired a taxi to make a tour through the southern parts of Bali.  Bali is very different to Java: colourful temples at every corner, and food or souvenir stalls at every meter.
I should remark that it was Ramadan during our trip through Java, so restaurants and foodstalls were closed over there. But in Bali everyone seemed to sell something.

On Bali religion is everywhere, each house has as many temples as inhabitants. And on every doorstep little bamboo baskets can be found with some flowers, cookies and other small tokens for the gods (see sketch).
We visited a few temples, the most beautiful was that of Mengwi. It even had a special temple for cats.....
We also went to visit the famous sunset at the island temple of Tanah lot, but that was a dissapointment.

Bali

Here a sketch of the parts of Bali we  visited in the four days we stayed on the island.
Well, the first day we just did nothing. Sitting in the shade on the beach, reading books, eating, drinking and swimming. And getting red skin.
The only little sketch I made was of the orange coloured starfish you could see in the shallow sea when the tide was out; just in front of our Ashley-Benoa resort/hotel.

Ferry to Bali

Early morning the next day we left Java by ferry, and crossed over to Bali. Above a sketch of the ferry we took, drawn while it was still unloading from an earlier trip. The other sketches are of boats we passed, while being seated at the upper deck. Crossing took about an hour. After that we still had 5 hours in the bus before we reached our final hotel in Benoa. What a difference between Java and Bali! More next time.

Plantage, day 10

On day 9, our last day on Java, we visited a large plantation. We made a guided tour around the plantation and learned everything about cacao, cinnamon, coffee, vanilla, nutmeg, pepper and numerous other spices. Very Interesting. The woman who owned the place also ran an orphanage; the children performed some dances for us. When it got down to a polonaise, I retreated myself to make the above sketches. In the evening we stayed at a fine resort, and enjoyed the swimming pool.

Mount Bromo

For me this was the highlight of our trip: the visit to the (still working and steaming) Bromo volcano. We started out from our hotel in the middle  of the night, at 1.00 AM, driving for hours in busses and landcruisers to a observatory on a mountaintop. There we watched  the sun rising, at about 5.00 AM. And as the sun hit the mountaintops we saw an awesome scene, which I tried to capture on below sketch.
Bromo is the little steaming crater in this 10x10km sea of volcanic sand, an ancient volcano crater in itself.
After this we drove with the jeeps towards the crater, and climbed to its rim, a difficult trip through thick layers of volcanic ashes. I was able to make a quick sketch of the waiting jeeps on the bottom of the plain.
We finally made it back at the hotel in Batu about noon, a long but rewarding trip. Time for a bath, some sleep, and a dive in the swimming pool.

Busride,day 8

Day 8: we made a long busjourney from Yogyakarta to Batu, 400 km or so. Not much to tell, except the delicious mocca cake we had buring our coffee break.
I made sketches of a vegetable market we visited on the way, and of workmen waiting to repair broken down scooters or selling bottles of gasoline.
The sketches are wobbly, these were made or finished during the shaking busride.

Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta, day 7. No rest after the busy program of the day before. Early morning we visited a batik-painting workshop and were brought with rickshaws to the sultans palace, where we found a plastic teasieve on display. Then to a silver jewellery factory, and a leather workshop (see above sketch of the craftsmen). In the afternoon we visited the ancient Hindu temples of Prambanan, fantastic temples, although large parts were still in ruins due to recent earthquakes.
After the temples we did the best part of the day, a 10km cycling tour through the rural parts surrounding Prambanan. I love that kind of thing, cycling through villages and fields.
And in the evening we enjoyed a nice juicy hamburger, some change after a week of rice.

Rural Java

 After Borodudur we made a tour in horse carriages through the rural surroundings (still our 6th day).
We visited some farmhouses, saw how local families lived, how their houses were built, how they prepared meals and what they grew on the fields.
All in all very interesting, and I enjoyed the open and friendly people.
I was able to make above sketches on location, sometimes you get just enough time. The below sketch of the ricefields was made during the traintrip, and was a compilation of what I saw through the window.

Borobudur

On the same day (6th) as our visit to the Dieng plateau, we also visited the famous Buddhist temple of Borobudur. Actually it's a small hill converted into a huge temple, with a long winding path circling around its base. And on top/roof of the building you see a lot of these bells (stupas). In each a Buddha is seated (hardly visible); fortunately one of the bells missed its top, see sketch. I managed to make the ink sketch on location, before the guide and our group proceeded to the next sight. Bezoek aan de Boeddistische tempel van Borobudur.

Dieng plateau, day 6

 

This day was one of the busiest days of our trip. Early morning at 6 we left for a trip to the Dieng plateau, about 2000m above sealevel. There we visited a multicoloured lake (due to volcanic activity and minerals), and an active geiser. And a beautifully detailed old hindu temple, over 1200 years old (see sketch). This region has a lot of potato and tobacco agriculture, which is manually transported over the steep fields.

 

Bandung station, day 5

The above sketch is the view from the Ashton hotel in Bandung, we had a room there on one of the higher floors.
Early morning we set out for a trainride towards Kroya. A sketch of our train just before we were leaving, and the dinner in the train (nasi goreng with salad and eggs). It was a beautiful trip through beautiful landscapes.
Schetsen van de treinreis tussen Bandung en Kroya.

Bandung, day 4

 This day we spend in Bandung, an old colonial city, with very beatiful old colonial houses, although not all in good shape. Early morning we visited the still steaming and sulphur smelling volcano Tangkuban Perahu, where I was able to make this sketch. I used my grey ink fountain pens and waterbrush.
Later that morning we visited a teafactory and bathed in hot water springs.
And finished the afternoon by visiting a music school, where a traditional puppetshow (wajang) was shown, and children showed us traditional dances. At the end of the show we all made music together, with traditional Angklung (bamboo) instruments. 

We finished the day with dinner in Bandung, eating the best sateh of our trip.

Java, day 3

Day 3: we left Jakarta for a busride to the famous botanic gardens of Bogor. These gardens are the largest in Asia (60ha), and already 200 years old. We saw all kinds of exotic trees, plants and flowers, of the kind we only know from expensive florists. Below a sketch of the buildings and palmtrees.
After that we continued towards Bandung; during a brief stop I had the chance to draw the above hilly teafields.

Some of the pages of my sketchbook.

Indonesia

The past 2 weeks my wife, some friends and I went for a 16 day tour through Indonesia. We had a fantastic journey, not only because of the beautiful country, good food and fine weather, but also because of the excellent guide and pleasant group of fellow travellers (26 in total).

Above you see the 10-day route through Java, by bus and train.
After a 19 hour flight (we had 3 hours of delay in Dubai, during which we had to listen to ancient christmas songs) we arrived in Jakarta around noon on Tuesday.
Notwithstanding a huge jetlag we immediately proceeded to the harbour where old wooden ships were being loaded by hand (see sketch). Still yawning we visited a colonial museum in the city center of Jakarta. After that we we were allowed to catch up on our sleep deprivation.
De afgelopen 2 weken hebben Gertie en ik een 16-daagse rondreis door Java en Bali gemaakt. Een fantastisch land.