Nasi Goering for Breakfast and Rats the Size of Footballs | Banyuwangi, Java, Indonesia

After a night in front of Indonesian television game shows I realised just how lucky I was to be Australian. Despite still feeling a little off colour I was now in the right frame of mind to tackle anything Eastern Java could throw at me. Anything that is, but Nasi Goering for breakfast.

Is it just me or is there something sinister in even the pronunciation of Nasi Goering? Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't it just reek of some top secret German plot in a Second World War film. "Vhat now mein commandant?"
"Now ve zit and ve vait. Vait for ze effects of (drumroll) ze Nasi Goering." (close up on Officers scar ridden face, complete with monocle).
Well for breakfast for the tenth day in a row, Nasi Goering seemed to be breaking some of the rulings of the Geneva Convention if nothing else. Could I really be expected to eat it again? Could I be made to? There it sat complete with rubbery fried egg looking up at me menacingly with its big yellow eye. I forced down a couple of mouthfuls and washed the whole deal down with lashings of thick Javanese coffee.

Banyuwangi means sweet smelling water. Perhaps a touch optimistic. But in all fairness we didn't give Banyuwangi much of a go. The eastern most township of Java, gateway to the delights of Bali and beyond, Banyuwangi was a travelers junction not a Mecca. It, like so many other locations was a place to lay your head, a place to grab a meal, a place to board a ferry or a place to change trains.

I'm not sure if its just me, but quite often it is the Banyuwangis that stay in the mind. The unplanned overnight stops free from the tourist traps that linger longest in the memory. They give the opportunity to meet people who rarely see tourists. People who seem genuinely interested in you rather than the contents of your wallet. Far from the prettiest spots and more often than not lacking in any central attraction, but in my memory at least, they emerge time after time.

As it was, Banyuwangi was little more than a main street surrounded by the obligatory shanty town housing that came with the parts. A few small cafés dealing out the same ordinary fare, a mish mash of shops selling all manner of wares and a couple of budget hotels with rats the size of footballs. It was almost refreshing after Kuta.

One thing I can conclusively state about Banyuwangi, of all the places I have been, it is possibly my favourite to say. Try it now. BAN-YU-WANG-EE. Fun or what?

Budget Accommodation in Indonesia