Burning Up Rubber & Brakes

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Above is the approximate route of my (Greg) most recent adventure.  There were some slight variations because of turning the wrong way and I'm going by memory of what I imagine some of the side roads looked like, not knowing exactly where we were but just a general idea of the area.

The main purpose of this trip was to take my friends cousin back home to her in-laws.  She had been out visiting her family over Christmas as her husband is out of the country working at the moment.  We had planned on taking the trip two weeks ago but Mt. Kelud decided it needed to belch out a bunch of ash which covered all of East Java and a lot in Central Java which included Salatiga.  We experinced a few millimeters here in Salatiga but was much worse were we went as we were about 1/2 way between Salatiga and Mt. Kelud at our final destination.  My odometer read 393 kms when I got home on Sunday afternoon.  May not seem like a lot but it took about 7 hours to get there with one stop for a flat tire, one stop for a quick bite to eat then a longer stop to visit one of her friends point B on the map then continuing on to her in-laws.  The trip home was a little quicker, we left a little before 8:00 AM and we were back in Salatiga a little after 1:00 PM.  Didn't take a lot of pictures during the trip just a few of the area and of a cute baby monkey that one of the neighbors had caught.

Not sure how to describe what it's like driving here particularly the style of driving required to keep up.  Maybe I'll just say I have a headache today as I go through withdrawals of living on adrenalin Saturday and Sunday.  My friends daughter road with me on my bike and we came home with all our toes and fingers still intact and even all the mirrors and signal lights are still attached and in one piece on the bike as there were several opportunities to trade paint and parts with others on the trip.  A couple times I asked my passenger if she was scared yet.  She is either calm as a cucumber or she is a good liar.  I will admit a few times my heart was racing a little faster than I prefer.

Got to another taste of what life is like in the villages of Java.  They don't have a lot but they are very generous with what they do have.  They had me sleep on a mattress of sorts while they slept on the tile floor with a sheet and a pillow.  And breakfast was what was left over from the night before, keep in mind that I don't remember seeing a fridge, so Lord willing I won't experience any fun stomach bugs over the next couple days.  So far so good.

This wasn't from the trip but it was taken the day we had originally planned the trip.  And being that I had a bunch of free time I felt a trip to the bank would be to make a withdrawal would liven up my day.   But I found myself short a black hat, spurs and a couple six shooters to make my withdrawal so I just ended up running my errands I need to do instead :).

Their rice field nestled below a beautiful rock formation.

This was the monkey mentioned above.  He didn't want to let go once he attached himself to my friends arm.