I chose Ubud as my first (and also the longest) stay in Bali as it was known to be the cultural capital and the more “laid back” area of Bali. However you do need to take a few steps back and take off the “hype” glasses to see what it is really like. Ubud is definitely full of cultural sites. Scattered throughout an area easily navigable with a bike, you can find Saraswati Temple, the palace of the Ubud royal family, Goa Gajah – an old temple possibly dedicated to Lord Shiva, rice terraces, fire dances, yoga retreats, traditional cookery classes … whatever you can think of, you will find it he ..read more

Sleeping in a ship anchored in a bay is one of the most magical experiences you can have. If you choose to do a 2D1N boat tour from Labuanbajo, this is what you will get as well. The only downside is that you’d be waking up around 4:30 in the morning to start trekking up a mountain. Padar Island Padar island consists of several bays that act as natural harbours. Being a volcanic island, the landscape of Padar island is quite jagged and extreme. The tallest point of the island is over 220m high and is only about 350m from the shoreline. The trek however takes a bit of a longer and a comfo ..read more

At a length of 10ft (3m), the world’s largest extant lizard is the Komodo Dragon. It lives in the islands of Komodo in Indonesia. The second leg of my journey in Indonesia was largely motivated by this enigmatic lizard. When I started searching about how to get to Komodo, I realised that there is more to the surrounding islands than just the Komodos. The Komodo Island is part of the Eastern Nusa Tenggara island group. With a total of more than 500 islands and an area of over 47000 sq. km., I had to limit my visit towards the western end of the islands close to Labuanbajo, one of the main c ..read more

The first Sultanate of Jogjakarta was formed around 1755 when the Mataram Sultanate which reigned Java finally fell and split into two. At the inception of the Jogjakarta Sultanate itself, it was set up as a vassal state for the Dutch East India company who were setting up their bases in Java. The Water Palace of Taman Sari is located about 2.5-3km south from Marlioboro Street in Jogjakarta. Since I was located just off the Marlioboro Street, I decided to take a walk all the way there. If you are not so near, you could probably catch a local motorbike taxi or rent your own motorbike to get ..read more

My third stop of the Jogjakarta trip was Prambanan, a Hindu temple dedicated to the Trimurti. Believed to be built in the 8th century during the time of the Mataram kingdom, it is also the largest Siva temple in Indonesia. Prambanan is located right next to the Solo-Jogjakarta highway. If you are travelling from Jogjakarta, it is only about 7.5km away from the airport. I realised a little too late that I have to pay yet another 350,000 IDR as an entrance to Prambanan Temple. However had my tour organiser been more considerate, I could’ve done both Borobudur and Prambanan for a combined tick ..read more

Smokes of Mount Merapi never seem to stop.The first thing that I noticed about Mount Merapi was that it was smoking. The first thing that I thought after that, was whether there is a lava flow. Mount Merapi was my second stop on my morning tour of Borobudur-Merapi-Prambanan. It is about 35km from Borobudur and takes roughly about 1hr to get there. The mountain is so huge that you can see it pretty much from anywhere in the route. As we got closer to the mountain, I could see the majestic mountain with the smoke plumes rising up. The road to the mountain is a paved road and there is an entr ..read more

My visit to Yogyakarta, or Jogjakarta, or Jogja as most Indonesians call it, was motivated by its historical and cultural heritage. Yogyakarta is home to the world’s largest buddhist temple, Borobudur and the only Hindu temple that I knew at the time that was dedicated to all three of the trimurti, Prambanan. As I read more about the city, I found out that it is also home to Taman Sari, the water palace of the first Sultan of Jogjakarta. Prior to the occupation by the European colonial powers it was ruled by Hindu and Buddhist rulers followed by Muslim sultans. Jogjakarta would give the oppor ..read more

“You always have time for your own backyard”. This is what I was thinking of a travel destination for 2019. I was looking at options to travel outside of the South and South East Asian peninsula as, like I said, it’s my own backyard. But as luck would have it, I had some rewards miles accumulated on my Sri Lankan airlines frequent flyer account and I figured I might as well make some use of it. Given that Sri Lanka is an island country, the only way out is by flying and flying costs. Free tickets come in very handy for countries like us. My revised plan was to spend a 2-3 week vacation cov ..read more

(It’s been a while since I last updated my blog. I originally planned to update it during the week of Easter, covering the South and South East Asian New Year celebrations that fell a week before. On Easter Sunday, Sri Lanka underwent through a coordinated attack of six bombs that killed over 250. Targets were mainstream hotels and churches, where many gathered for the Easter mass. In the time from that, I haven’t had the state of mind to write much, but I figured that I should start, and at least focus on Sri Lanka so that more people will learn about my country. So here goes.) Sri Lanka i ..read more