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Published: October 10th 2008
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Tuba Prohibition
I honestly don't know what this is all about, but assume it to mean no tuba playing. This is a real sign in Yokya, across from the police station. I saw no other similar restrictions pertaining to other brass instruments, but would logically assume that this sign applies to sousaphones as well. Well, my Indonesian visa expired on October 10th, and rather than overstay my welcome, and possibly find myself shelling out some serious cash as a penalty for doing so, I decided it was time to leave. I'm not sure what possessed me to think that I would be able to see
all of Indonesia in a month's time. Kind of the same logic that I child might use, thinking that with enough persistence and determination that he might be able to dig his way to China from the back yard. I now realize that it would take, at minimum, a solid year of backpacking through this country before being able to say, "Now, I've seen it all." But even that would be a stretch. Nonetheless, it was time to move on but not before taking in a few sights on the island of
Java, Indonesia's most populous island and home to its capital,
Jakarta, as well as its cultural center,
Yokyakarta.
To save time in transit, I flew from the island of Lombok (where I had just completed the Rinjani trek) to Yokyakarta. I spent three nights (I think) in a small losman (i.e. cheap hotel) and from there
Prambanan Temples
This overexposed photo is just one of many abysmal pictures that I took of this cultural landmark. explored a few sights. On my first day I just explored the city, which was about the same temperature as the surface of the sun, and visited the Sultan's palace in the city center, where the current Sultan still resides. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed. Now I've never been exactly sure what a sultan really is, but by the number of staff and guards prowling around the grounds, I guess he's a pretty big deal. I would think that he would have had fancier digs. I mean, maybe even just one of those big mansions that you might find in West Palm Beach or Newport, RI would have sufficed. It kind of looked like the campus of a small community college, and I was never really sure which of the building structures was actually the Sultan's actual residence, they were all pretty nondescript and, well, ordinary. I mean, any of the single story, whitewashed, concrete buildings could have just as easily have been adorned with a Starbuck's, or Radio Shack, or Payless Shoes sign on the front awning. Eh, but what do I know. Next were the Hindu ruins of the Prambanan temples. They were pretty impressive to take in,
Prambanan Temples
These Hindu temples were badly damaged during earthquakes over 100 yrs ago, as well as by more recent terrorist activity by, you guessed it, Muslim extremists. The restoration work will probably continue for decades. particularly their scale. A series of stone masonry temples ranging in height over 25 meters tall. The effort it must have taken to construct them may have been on par with other man-made marvels such as Easter Island, Stonehenge. Again, I'll just post up some pictures and let you all take a look.
My next sojourn was out to the Borobudor temples near the city. The temple, one of the largest and most intricate Buddhist temples in the world, was more impressive. It resembles, in my opinion, a large, Mayan pyramid, similar to the ruins in Tikal, Guatemala or southern Mexico. Not much to say here, I'll just post a couple of photos, including some goofy photos that I couldn't resist having a little bit of fun with.
Okay, getting from Yokyakarta to Jakarta by train. Let me first explain how the train system works. First, it's very efficient and trains run on time - that, of course, is a plus. There are three fare schedules: Economy (i.e. "ekonomi") which is a cattle car. Seriously, it's where you and perhaps 200 other miserable souls will share what little space remains with actual cattle. Okay, well maybe not cattle,
Borobudor
Seated Buddhas adorn Borobudor on all sides. but certainly some pigs, goats, chickens, etc. I saw one of these wretched trains packed to the gills with flesh of man and beast alike. I looked into the eyes of many of its human cargo. Some seemed to quietly accept their current fortune with a visibly apparent grace and dignity, while the overwhelming majority seemed to be praying for a quick and merciful death. I was very happy not to have opted for economy class. The next, and most popular class of travel is business (i.e. "bisnis") class. This is what I opted for, and was pretty happy with, especially after seeing the economy class train. The one thing I found a little funny at first, and quite maddening towards the end was the conductor's slowing the train to a crawl every five to ten minutes to allow hawkers to jump onboard (and then off again a few miles later) to sell their wares, most of it useless junk. The funniest thing was that all the way from Yokya to Jakarta, it was the same narrow selection of stuff that virtually all the vendors were trying to sell, not realizing that if one (or more likely every) passenger onboard
Borobudor From the Ground
This is the best I could do at trying to capture a wide-angle shot of Borobudor. declined to buy a pirated Justin Timberlake CD near the beginning of the journey from one vendor, that the same passenger(s) would probably not change his/her mind later. At one point the train cars were so thick with vendors that they were shouting over each other to sell the same assortment of items. It was quite a show. Among the junk hawkers were some food vendors that made the rounds, so I did patronize their services during the journey in order to encourage free enterprise (and avoid passing out due to extreme hunger, as I had not eaten anything that morning). The high end of the scale is executive class. I don't know anything about it other than it costs twice as much as business, but I hear it's about the same thing add air conditioning.
A blissful (yeah right!) 11-hrs later, I found myself in Jakarta's Gambir train station, with every taxi operator looking at me like a thanksgiving turkey as they routinely overcharge western tourists for fares, capitalizing on the tourists' (1) general unfamiliarity with the city, (2) inability to work out exchange rates between rupiahs and whatever one's home currency is, (3) genuine cluelessness about what
Cleaning Borobudor
There were dozens of these signs everywhere, and they were all filthy! I was there for hours cleaning them! a fair charge for a cross-town taxi ride should cost, and (4) genuine panic of the thought of being left in the station after dark. I, however, had done a little homework about such matters in order to avoid being ripped off and so confidently negotiated the terms of my intra-city transport with the the attending taxi operator. In the end, I'm pretty certain that I got ripped off bigtime. I thought I had negotiated a fantastically good fare, but then the first attending hack that I dealt with showed me his "taxi" which was really a dilapidated motor scooter that was missing the left handlebar segment and most of its seat. Looking beyond his shoulder as he took obvious pride in displaying his mode of conveyance, which looked to me as if the wheels could fall off of at any second, I glanced at the snarling, merciless, Jakarta traffic and thanked him for his offer, but declined and took a different taxi... one with four wheels.
I wish I could say something about Jakarta... I was only there for 24-hrs, just long enough to locate a McDonald's which was more of a thrill to me than any cultural
Breaking the Rules
I tried to obey the rules, but after a while, I just couldn't help myself! I was really itchy that day for some reason. landmark that I had visited in the previous 72-hrs. I hate to say it, but after a month of fried noodles, rice and chicken, the heavily salted and overly processed Golden Arches french fries took on a spiritual significance. I will write a letter to the Indonesian board of tourism suggesting that they find the Sultan more, well, sultan-like accomodations, and convert his current residence into a shopping plaza featuring a Walmart, McDonald's, KFC, and Subway. I think that might draw more visitors and revenue.
Next stop is Malaysian Borneo. After only one month in Indonesia, I can now count to 10 in Bahasa, except for the number 9 which I always forget how to pronounce. I can also say chicken ("ayam"), hello, (which is just "hello," a I've learned), and "I am looking for..." in bahasa Indonesian. All this learned in only one month of immersed, Indonesian living! Yes, I know, I'm a quick study! Actually, I'm quite pleased to learn that the Malaysian and Indonesian dialects are pretty much the same. So I can say, "Hello, I am looking for chickens," in Borneo, too!
Actually, I'm already in Borneo, arrived last
The Sultan's Gongs
From the Sultan's palace (i.e. kraton) in Yokya. night, but haven't done or seen anything yet, so I'll write about my time here later.
Selamat Tingal
(bye for now)
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Roy
non-member comment
Train Classes
Hi there, hope you enjoyed your time in Indonesia. I think there is another significant difference in the train classes. the executive trains always have priority. If for some reasons more trains have to "fight" for a railway, you can bet the executive one will get through first.