chitownclink

Kathmandu is quite an interesting and cool place. We of course had a flight at 7:30 which was delayed till 9 but still got us in early. We flew Air India, and let me say this plane was the ghetto express. Not very clean and a bit out of order, but it got us here and safely. We had a ride from the airport to hotel organized by the hotel. We had to wait for one more person to arrive though, so the three of us crammed in an 82 Toyota Corolla and we had our luggage in the trunk and front seat. It was about a half hour ride into town. We saw a bit of everyday life on our way. It is a very dusty town with roads constantly under construction, vegetable vendors on ... read more

India was quite an interesting and wonderful place. I think we both braced ourselves for the most extreme place we'd ever thought we would see. We pictured the most extreme of poverty, rampant begging and who knows what else. We arrived so late, but we found the metered taxi line and it was the usual developing world scenario where someone was trying to get you in another unmarked overpriced cab, but of course we were smarter than that. So far nothing out of the ordinary for Steve and I. After checking in, a bit of a sleep before being woken up by the most sobering of a door buzzer at 8 am, after falling asleep at 3 am to tell us we could move to the super deluxe room we had been upgraded to, we kindly ... read more

So today I decided I would sleep in as long as I could without missing breakfast, which was 10:15. I had a couple of things to get done before heading out to see the sights, I needed to take some clothes in to be washed and go to the post office to try to mail home my Indonesia travel guide. The clothes were easy, 1 item dry cleaned the rest laundered and for a good price. The book was another thing. I wanted to send it surface (boat), and was told I could but had to go buy the packing materials as the post office had none, so I did, but was told a padded envelope was not good enough and it must go in a box. I pleaded with the guy at the PO but ... read more

So I spend yesterday exploring the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Let me tell you I am glad I gave myself only one extra day there. I was a bit disappointed I went to the main palace first, about 11 am, I took a cab from my hotel which the hotel was much too far away but it was what it was. I got to the palace and paid my 50 cents for entry and I am glad I payed nothing more. Walking in it was basically open air spaces where the royalty either had ceremonies or slept, ate or chilled but there was no ornamentation, really no furniature and the museum of the palace, was not all that. There were manequins dressed up in traditional clothes and paintings of the sultans. One in particular was from ... read more

This morning started at the ASSCRACK of dawn. My flight was at 6 am for which I had to be at the airport by 430. I slept as long as I could, showered and then Niki's driver was waiting for me, to take me to the airport. I arrived about 4:45, checked in and then headed to the gate. I was headed for Yogyakarta, the cultural center of Java. I slept most of the flight but when I awoke I saw incredible volcano looking mountains out the window and lush green landscape. In true Indonesian style we exited the airplane onto the tarmac and dodged luggage carts and other airport vehicles on our walk to the terminal. My hotel had free pick up service, and my ride was waiting for me when I arrived. We headed ... read more