I left Barcelona on August 6th, 2018, a little bit worried. On the previous day, an important earthquake hited Lombok and the news were pretty sad. It would be really hard to visit Lombok and Gili, one of the main destinations in Indonesia.

To arrive at Jogyakarta and start my visit, I had to take 4 planes. The first three to arrive at Jakarta, and then a domestic flight to Jogyakarta: my first stop would be Borobudur. So, I arrived very late in the evening, and only sleep for 3 hours before the departure to the temple. At 3:00 am a driver came for me at the hotel and took me to see the sunrise.

This is a really big temple. If you come at night to see the sunrise, you will not have a real idea of how big this temple is. But when you leave, and you can see it with full light… It’s amazing!

Don’t think you will be alone. There are hundreds of people there, and if you want a good spot try to be the first to arrive (that means, 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning).

If you forget about the people, the temple is awesome. Not only it’s architecture impressed me, the walls are full of histories tailored in the rocks.

Borobudur is a must visit if you come to Indonesia.

Here are some images (click on them for fullscreen).

After the visit, I went to Semarang to take another flight, this time to Borneo. But on the way, visited other places and Gedong Songo, another interesting place if you’re in Java.

Click on the thumbnails to see them fullscreen.

If you want to see the biggest Asian simians, the jungle of Tanjung Putin is an excellent place to have a close look at them.

The «classic» way to do this, is to rent a «Klotok», a boat that will take you into the river that surrounds the jungle.

I made a «3 days 2 nights» trip, that means you sleep on the klotok in the middle of the jungle. It’s a good experience.

You can get really close to them, and they’re pretty big, especially the «Alpha» male.

There are more different monkey species at this location. And if you travel in the Klotok, the river ride and the night full of stars it’s pretty awesome.

One of the best landscapes you will see in your life. Period.

That’s the Bromo. You have to wake up early in the morning (around 2:00) to see the sunrise at this spectacular location. There are hundreds of jeeps that offer the transport service to see the volcano, and after sunrise, they will pick you up again and after a short ride you can see the volcano crater.

Be careful! Don’t let the summer fools you, at the top of the volcano sightseeing point, the temperature is very low.

From Denpasar Airport I went directly to Ubud, at the center of the island. I arrived around 11:00 pm so nothing to do at that time. In Bali, at 6:00 pm you can have dinner and it’s almost night. At 11:00 pm… nobody was on the streets!

So I decided to sleep and the next day I would take a short walk and visit the downtown area. It’s a very touristic place, and you will find lots of souvenirs. The main street it’s just a kilometer long. Let’s say that starts around Monkey Forest and finishes around the Real Palace. In between, lots of stores to buy souvenirs, restaurants of different types, and many currency exchange places.

The first thing you will notice is that you may find some monkeys on the streets. The Monkey Forest is really close!

There are many things to see close to Ubud. There are many drivers that will gladly give you a full day trip (for around 60€) and guide you to some temple, rice fields, a volcano, a coffee fabric (with a «special» method to make coffee)… You leave your hotel at 8:30 am and you come back for the dinner, at 6:00 pm.

If you can find a guide it’s perfect, because he or she will explain a lot of things about the different places you visit. I went to Pura Tirta, Gunung Waki, Tegalalang and many other places, and it was perfect for really great photos.

At the end of the day, I went to a «Gedong» Dance, a show close to the Real Palace where you can see a traditional show of dance and music.

It’s very impressive the way they’re dressed, and the makeup it’s just awesome. It was a perfect show for my camera!

I think this is the most classic visit you can do at Ubud. The Monkey Forest is a big space where the monkeys do whatever they want to do.

But be careful, because they’re very good thieves! They can open your backpack and pick up anything that calls their attention. Try not to come with a plastic bag, because they know that in this kind of bags usually there is food or water, two things they love to steal…

They’re very used to see people every day and they don’t have any problem if you decide to get close to them. There’s a lot of personnel at the park that will be watching how they behave, and if there is any problem they can help resolve it easily.