Surakarta is the second largest royal city on the Indonesian island of Java, a peaceful and quiet place, whose cultural character has been preserved. It is here that we begin our visit to the Javanese volcanoes.

We first visit the old sultan courts, considered relics of the past, which have been transformed into museums, as well as the Puro Mangkunegaran Palace, where the sultan still resides today with his family and 200 servants, and the palace gardens, with its surrounding tranquillity and water splashing in pools.

Surakarta Station brings us back to the present day. From here the train journey starts into the mountain air of Malang. For the first part of the journey, the volcano Gunung Kukusan accompanies us on our way, hidden partly by the clouds at 2,300 metres. At Blitar, the weather changes suddenly, and we are reminded why everything here grows so well, particularly the rice all around us. Before long, we reach our destination, the economic centre of the province of East Java, Malang.

Malang was the seat of government of the Singhasari dynasty, which controlled Indonesia from here for 70 years. Later, a Dutch mountain station was built here and tobacco and coffee brought wealth to the city.

Malang has become a big city in the mountains, with an exclusive residential area and rush-hour traffic. A special attraction is the bird market with all the different species near the river and the Eng Ang Kiong Temple, a symbol of Malang's Chinese population.

But Kampung Warna Wari is indisputably the city’s most beloved tourist attraction. This colourfully painted collection of small cabins on both banks of the River Brantas is a place to which every visitor to the city and the volcanoes is drawn.