Silly visa questions
Oct 18th, 2012, 08:28 AM
#23
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Kathie, we were in Jogjakarta in June. There's not much fine dining on Java, it's mostly ayam goren and nasi (fried chicken and rice) beef rendang etc in the warungs, and hotel food in the hotels.
We did have a few special meals in places organised privately by our travel friend, Kevin Pearce, who operates "Great Java Rail Tours" email [email protected] Please contact him, he will be most helpful.
One of those meals was in Jogjakarta, in a newly rescued and remodelled Dutch colonial power utility building.I can't recall the name, but Kevin will.
I don't know how much time you're planning to spend on Java, but it's worth putting in a few weeks to get your head around the place. It's very different to anywhere you may have been in SouthEast Asia, including Burma, where I know you have spent a deal of time.
We are Australians and spend quite a bit of time around Oceania and SouthEast Asia, but Java is quite a different proposition to Bali or Malaysia or Thailand, and is nothing like IndoChina.
On one matter, Java is culturally strong in its identity. There is a cultural Javanese pride that you must respect. If you do this, the people are wonderful, but you cannot disrespect their pride. It's a fairly young (1948) independent republic, and any slight is raw to them.
Have a nice time there. We certainly did. However, be warned that Java is not a western tourist's paradise. Few people speak English. Most tourism to Java is from Asia for business or shopping, not for cultural interests.
Go to Malang, Borobodur, Mt Bromo, Surabaya and the coastal fishing villages of east Java, and you will have seen a good part of Java. Most importantly, contact Kevin if you want the best word on restaurants, travel and trains.
Cheers, Maree
We did have a few special meals in places organised privately by our travel friend, Kevin Pearce, who operates "Great Java Rail Tours" email [email protected] Please contact him, he will be most helpful.
One of those meals was in Jogjakarta, in a newly rescued and remodelled Dutch colonial power utility building.I can't recall the name, but Kevin will.
I don't know how much time you're planning to spend on Java, but it's worth putting in a few weeks to get your head around the place. It's very different to anywhere you may have been in SouthEast Asia, including Burma, where I know you have spent a deal of time.
We are Australians and spend quite a bit of time around Oceania and SouthEast Asia, but Java is quite a different proposition to Bali or Malaysia or Thailand, and is nothing like IndoChina.
On one matter, Java is culturally strong in its identity. There is a cultural Javanese pride that you must respect. If you do this, the people are wonderful, but you cannot disrespect their pride. It's a fairly young (1948) independent republic, and any slight is raw to them.
Have a nice time there. We certainly did. However, be warned that Java is not a western tourist's paradise. Few people speak English. Most tourism to Java is from Asia for business or shopping, not for cultural interests.
Go to Malang, Borobodur, Mt Bromo, Surabaya and the coastal fishing villages of east Java, and you will have seen a good part of Java. Most importantly, contact Kevin if you want the best word on restaurants, travel and trains.
Cheers, Maree
Oct 18th, 2012, 08:42 AM
#24
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PS, Kathie, We're off to Burma for a few weeks in Dec/Jan. It will be very interesting to see how quickly the money is flowing in. We spent a lot of time in Vietnam and Cambodia in the late 90s/early 2000s and we watched it all change almost overnight. Russian and Chinese trucks and buses and boats went to Korean and Japanese in the space of a couple of years, the French returned as huge property and infrastructure investors (they did it through the EU but still reclaimed their holdings).
We'll be watching the China Syndrome in Burma, but I understand European interests are back. Good luck to them all, it's a frontier economy.
We'll be watching the China Syndrome in Burma, but I understand European interests are back. Good luck to them all, it's a frontier economy.
Oct 18th, 2012, 08:56 AM
#25
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Hi maree, thanks for your words about Java. I've been to Java before and just loved it. This year we will be in both central Java and eastern Java, whereas on my last trip I was only in central Java. We ended up working with an agent in Yogyakarta for our ground arrangements.
Have a wonderful time in Burma. It is changing rapidly.
Have a wonderful time in Burma. It is changing rapidly.
Oct 18th, 2012, 10:08 AM
#26
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Kathie, all of Asia is changing rapidly. Good luck to the growing middle classes, they are embracing the advantages of change through education, better food and the benefits of travel & tourism.
Happily, most of us don't live in a human zoo where one would still like to see old men pedalling fat people around town for the photogenic properties. I'd rather walk, and we usually do.
My first time in SEA/Indochina was in 1973, as a newly-wed 18yo wife of an Australian army Vietnam veteran, visiting my brother who was a RAAF officer at Penang/Butterworth base in Malaysia while the US military was still withdrawing. I saw quite an interesting time then, mostly in Thailand while the US forces were still in place.
My husband and I have spent money and time back in Vietnam over the years with people like Koto and the school and orphanage and hospital building programs supported by Australian veterans.
We think, after this Burma trip, that we might have gone back to square one of Asia as we first saw it, and won't be going back again.
Our favourite places now are in the Pacific: Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Noumea, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, even Fiji, boring as it is in places, but Polynesia and Melanesia in the outer islands are places that most people have never been to except by boat.
I should write about some of these islands, but when they only get some small thousands of visitors a year, why spoil it, when Burma is about to be inundated?
Happily, most of us don't live in a human zoo where one would still like to see old men pedalling fat people around town for the photogenic properties. I'd rather walk, and we usually do.
My first time in SEA/Indochina was in 1973, as a newly-wed 18yo wife of an Australian army Vietnam veteran, visiting my brother who was a RAAF officer at Penang/Butterworth base in Malaysia while the US military was still withdrawing. I saw quite an interesting time then, mostly in Thailand while the US forces were still in place.
My husband and I have spent money and time back in Vietnam over the years with people like Koto and the school and orphanage and hospital building programs supported by Australian veterans.
We think, after this Burma trip, that we might have gone back to square one of Asia as we first saw it, and won't be going back again.
Our favourite places now are in the Pacific: Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Noumea, the Solomons, Papua New Guinea, even Fiji, boring as it is in places, but Polynesia and Melanesia in the outer islands are places that most people have never been to except by boat.
I should write about some of these islands, but when they only get some small thousands of visitors a year, why spoil it, when Burma is about to be inundated?
