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Published: March 14th 2007
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After a relatively easy 10 hour bus ride from Bali I arrived to my first destination in Java. I started in Malang because my Australian friends that I met in Flores (Kat and Rachael) are studying Indonesian and teaching English there.
The first day in Malang I just rested and looked around the city. It had a good feel to it. Most people when making eye contact with me smiled and if they knew any English would say hello. Rachael and Kat showed up the next day to take me around. There are not any sites in Malang. It is just a good example of a Javanese city. That's all I wanted to see. So we did what they would normally do with an afternoon off, we walked the malls and streets. We went to their largest mall and with good luck on our side there was a moped show. I thought Hawaii was the only place that tricked out their mopeds. I was very wrong. The best ride I’ve seen on Oahu wasn't even in the same class as these. Some had 3 or 4 carbs, chrome, custom paint, and rimless wheels.... too many modifications to list. It
was the highlight of the day for me. The next day in Malang, Rachael asked me if I wanted to come with her to her class. It was an English conversation class and I thought it would be fun, so I went along with her. The class was much smaller than I expected. I got up in front of it and introduced myself. When I was done I asked Rachael how much time we had left. She said, "Oh, at least an hour". So I just went on for an hour long babble about Hawaii and the US. I think she liked being able to sit back and rest her voice. After we met up with Kat and some of their friends. It was one of their birthdays so we went out for a nice dinner. I decided to splurge and order an imported steak. It was excellent. Nice change from noodles and rice.
After Malang I headed slightly north to Surabaya. The bus ride there should have been only 2 hours, but was closer to 4. There's a mud problem on the toll roads. It's been flowing up and causing road blocks for a few months. There is
no end in sight for it. Can't stop nature when it decides to spit up. When finally getting to Surabaya I met up with my friend Nien. She ended up taking me to her English class the first night. It was funny, I was doing a repeat of Rachael's class. The next day I was going to go out, but finally I became sick. Almost 5 months on the road with no tummy problems and it finally caught up with me. Was stuck in my room for 3 days. Took some antibiotics and slowly I was better.
After getting better I headed to Yogyakarta. It is no doubt the most touristed city in Java, but it still had much less than any part of Bali. The first day I just wandered around. I made some friends who worked in a town north and were there for a mini vacation. There was a fair going on, so we checked that out. Made for a good diversion. There was carnival food and some simple rides. The night ended early because I booked a 5am ride to go see Borobudor and Prambanan temples. They're a major draw for tourists to come to
Yogyakarta.
The one good thing about a room with no hot water is that your morning shower at 4:30am becomes much more awakening or shocking. Whatever you call it, it does the trick to get you up. We left on time to the first temple on our list: Borobudor. It was built between 750-850AD by Buddhists. It is by far the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia and was very photogenic with the sunrise. We managed to beat the crowds. When we were getting ready to leave at least 300 local students were coming up the steps. Good timing. Our shuttle still had half an hour before leaving so I sat and talked with one of the teachers. Their school was in eastern Java and most of the students were farmers from the surrounding villages. They would come up one by one and ask to have their picture taken with me. It was amusing because here was this beautiful temple behind them and they wanted to use their film on me instead. Definitely boosted my ego a bit.
Before heading to Prambanan temple we stopped of at the smaller Mendut Buddhist temple. It was much smaller than Borobudor, but
was older and had an Buddha statue within it. Made for a good stopover. When finally getting to the Hindhu temples of Prambanan the sun was out in full force. The sky was bright blue without a cloud in site. When there, the local university offered free guides to help with their training. So I ended up having 2 guides. Felt kind of bad for them. They had to wear these hot blazers and here I was complaining about the heat while wearing shorts and slippers. One unfortunate thing about the temples is that most were destroyed or severely damaged by an earthquake last May. You had to keep a slight distance from the surviving temples too. It was a shame because they have some intricate carvings that were not able to be seen from our safety distance.
When getting back to Yogya, I just rested. I booked an early morning train to Jakarta for the next day, so I took it easy.
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sooo sick.
where can i buy one of these mopeds?