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So today we spent time in and around Yogyakarta. Saw inside a jewellery making factory and the local workers showed us how they make silver and gold jewellery. I amost bought a beautiful butterfly necklace...until I realised I'd got the price completely wrong and it was 200 pounds not 20!! Also saw a batik making factory which was pretty cool. I bought a couple of pictures. They are ideal for home as you can wash them and roll them up. Sent a couple home as presents. Went to visit the Sultans palace in Yoggy (as the locals call it!). The Sultan is like the King / leader of the town. Most big towns have one in Java. He's the first Sultan in a long time not to have more than one wife. Most previous ones' had up to 25 wives and some over 85 children!!! The palace and grounds were pretty amazing. We also saw another temple at Prambanan which was a Hindu temple and the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. Its actually a UNESCO world heritage site too. It was being restored as parts of it had been damaged in the Java earthquake in 2006. Stayed in a gorgeous hotel that was like a palace but really cheap, I love Indonesia!
The next day was mostly travelling to get to Bromo in preparation for our sunrise tour of a volcano. Arrived pretty late and we were awoken at 3:30am on 14th November (my birthday!!) to be taken to Bromo volcano. The earliest I've been up on my birthday, usually still out in town!! Decided to hire horses as it was my birthday and Sam joined me. Vix was hard core and walked with 'mum', 'dad' and 'big brother'. We adopted a surrogate family - this amazing retired couple from Holland who were so down to earth and fun, really good company. Also, Lucas from Poland who enjoyed wailing along to the muslim prayer calls and debating religion with 'mum and dad'. He didn't really like people but we seemed to get along ok with him! Up the volcano there were lots of people doing the same, quite a big tourist attraction in Java. The Sunrise was really pretty, just a shame there were so many others there really. I enjoyed the horse ride up the side, very different and at 5am in the morning! The girls suprised me with a birthday cake and vodka alcopop and sang happy birthday to me! Mum, dad and big bro bought me a bunch of flowers picked in Bromo. Definately a birthday I'll never forget. The rest of the day was spent travelling to the port and catching a ferry over to Bali...
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