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Published: November 7th 2008
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Horseman
Waiting for a customer Greetings -
We left Indonesia late Tuesday for the surprisingly metropolitan city of Kota Kinabalu in Malaysian Borneo, arriving in time to revel in the McCain/Palin beat-down as it unfolded on CNN from our room overlooking the South China Sea. Our arrival in Malaysia followed a week spent taking in the sites of Java, Indonesia's most heavily populated island at five times the density of Great Britain.
First up on Java was the 8,200 foot volcano Gunung Bromo. Diminutive by Ring of Fire standards, Bromo makes up for its size Napoleon-complex style by being among the most active in the region--constantly spewing large amounts of smoke and ash that swirl around the sunken, other-worldly lava fields that encircle its center cone. The resulting imagery proved truly awe-inspiring, particularly on our second day when we arranged a 3:30 a.m. wake-up call to take in a glorious sunrise that tinted the whole scene a soft magenta, and had Anna calling for our camera's back-up memory card. Afterward, we took advantage of the less litigious nature of Indonesian society and climbed up the lip of the main crater, passing numerous opportunities to let fourteen-hand horses (who looked seriously relieved when Jub walked
The view from Penanjakan at sunrise
So many pictures of the volcanos. But it was truly amazing to see. by) do the climbing for us.
Faced with an unfavorable train schedule, we spent the following two days braving Java's highways by hired car--i.e. with a driver--an experience that surely rivals any extreme sport for pure adrenaline rush. Unlike the U.S., the heavily travelled Javanese highways handle all manner of transport (from bicycle to two-trailer semis), are one lane in each direction, and have either no shoulder or a narrow dirt path along the side. The constant need to pass slower vehicles wrought by this scheme meant that we spent near-equal time in the travel lane and the oncoming traffic lane, where it became obvious that the rule of the Indonesian road is the larger vehicle always has the right-of-way. At one point, our van got pinned directly behind an ox-cart and held its spot in line by refusing to yield any space to the steady stream of scooters that flew up on the left / shoulderless side in an unsuccessful attempt to pass. Simultaneously, our driver tried more than five times in five minutes to pass the oxen himself, but was unable to squeeze through as dump-trucks and semis barreled through from behind us having pulled out to
Offering to the Bromo God
We made a wish for a healthy and happy trip (and for an Obama victory!). So far, we're 3 for 3. No whammies. pass without slowing down, often forcing the swarms of oncoming scooters onto the right-most 5% of their lane where the drivers ducked their heads so they didn't get clipped by a rear-view mirror. We were only able to make our move after a semi headed the other way came blazing through tail-back style, allowing us to swing immediately out into the void it created and pass the oxen (who were white and pretty) before being forced back into our travel lane by another on-coming semi. Yikes.
Dozens of similar scenes played out during our eleven hours on the road, scenes that took on an added amount of drama after Jub read in an English language newspaper about a growing problem with long haul truckers in the area taking Ecstasy pills to stay awake. Thus, we were elated upon arrival at our destination, Borobudur, although we were also saddened by the fact that we could only give our driver and co-pilot a thumbs up rather than the profuse thanks we felt we owed them, since neither spoke a lick of English and the elementary school phrase book we had used to communicate all day (especially chapters 1 & 3 "Meet
Your New Friends!" and "At the Market") didn't have any phrases that really captured our feelings of profound relief.
We made the trip out to Borobudur because it is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Built in the 9th century and abandoned in the 14th as Java fully embraced Islam, the massive, intricately carved and Buddha-adorned temple was buried in ash and forgotten for hundreds of years before being rediscovered and dug out in the early 20th century to become Indonesia's number one tourist attraction. Armed with this knowledge, we continued our recent trend and explored most of the temple the following morning at sunrise. It looked for a bit like we might be rained out, but, as the pictures attest to, the greyish scene ended up being a perfect backdrop to the grey-stone temple, as the morning mist burned off letting the sun, the surrounding peaked hillsides, and a distant volcano come into soft focus behind the dozens of stupas that dominate the top levels of temple.
After some hard-core napping, we headed south to what turned out to be our favorite Indonesian city--Yogyakarta. Known as both a university town and center for traditional Javanese culture,Yogya
Cemoro Lawang
The small village right next to Mount Bromo, where we stayed (as its known) lived up to its double-billing. In two days of touring we saw Indonesian punk rockers, the Sultan's Palace (which was being spruced up for a visit from Prince Charles the following day), lots of impressive graffiti, over a hundred batik shops, pick-up soccer games competing with elephant rides and picnicking families in an inner-city park, and the ruins of an ancient bathing complex, where we received our ninth and tenth requests by Javanese locals to take pictures of themselves posing with us--this time by a group of field-tripping girls from a nearby madrasah and, later, by an Indonesian teenager who inexplicably spoke to us using only American slang, but with a thick Liverpool accent.
One month in and one country down we are now psyched to check out Malaysia. On Saturday we break radio contact and head inland to the jungles of Borneo for what should be an interesting week of river-boats and remote lodges. Stay tuned!
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Kevin
non-member comment
Wow!
Fantastic commentary and photos. Once again you have made my day. Please keep the adventures coming. It's raining like crazy in Bellevue. Ciao