Malang

23 – 25 March 2010

Travelling to Malang by public bus got me off the tourist route again. The public bus was great fun at each stop 1 or 2 people get on who will be selling drinks and snacks, you are also likely to get some buskers, these pass along the bus then get off the next time it stops.

Apart from the brain ache of reading through and critiquing Sonya’s final year project on three occasions I spent a pleasant couple of days wandering around the city and travelling further afield on local bemo and buses. There is nothing spectacular or exceptionally remarkable about the area but sometimes it is nice to be somewhere where you are not over stimulated. When I eventually got to it I did enjoy Kibun Raja which is a large botanical garden and arboretum. As so often in Indonesia people do not know where the place you want to go to is but tell you confidently to head straight, left or right and I went round in a very large circle and was put on bemos that did not go anywhere near the gardens but at least I saw a lot of different villagesJ

There is a very large bird market in Malang – these are primarily sold for their songs. From what I gather these are captured in the wild then kept crammed into communal cages before being sold to spend the rest of their lives in solitary existence in a small cage. The market also had a small selection of other pets, rabbits, dogs, cats, lizards, snakes and monkeys and all the cages and food needed for their keep.