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Published: March 30th 2008
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Hanging with the locals
And new friend Costa, at Borodudur At the train station from Pangandaran to Yogyakarta the staff stuck the other two foreigners and I in a fan cooled room with two sofas and a television letting us know we could wait there until the train arrived. They seem to really take care of you, as a foreigner in this country, sometimes to the point that they baby you haha.
The city of Yogyakarta, (pronounced Jogjakarta or Jogja for short). I'll spell it Yogya. Anyway.....the city of Yogya is fairly interesting and right on the beaten tourist path. This is the first city I've seen more than a handful of tourists in since I've got to Indonesia. There's not an over abundance of foreigners like you would see in some places in Thailand or the rest of SE Asia. It's a strange place to me, because it has the tourist infrastucture, just not so much tourists. I'm staying in a very pleasant $4.00 family run guesthouse, and of course that price includes breakfast and all the Java coffee you can drink.
"Hey remember me?!" The tout said with the usual big Indonesian smile. "Where are you from?" He goes to extend his hand. His goal is to
get me into a Batik arts store to apply sales tactics and try to sell me something for about 10 times the going rate. Or letting me bargain him down to 5 times the going rate. Usually with the excuses that students are here from the art school and today is the last day etc etc. Unfortunatly because this is a touristy town, instead of meeting friendly locals who are genuinly interested in meeting me, I'm meeting all the friendly salesmen and con artists. Thats not to say the town itself isn't friendly though. The people are just as kind as ever.
Yogya's streets are old vs new. Becaks and horse & carriages battle the streets against motorbikes and cars. Warungs (Food stalls) & vendors battle for room against large modern shopping malls. It's a small city of just 500 000. And lots to see in and around.
I took a walk to the Kraton which is a compund in the middle of the city where about 25 000 dignified people live, and still dress and do the same things they've been doing for 100's of years all under the rule of the current Sultan. It was an interesting
Mount Bromo
The middle crater, evidence of a massive eruption is where we stood looking down in the firey pits of hell place to walk through during the afternoon heat.
The next day I got up for 5am to visit the 900 year old Borobudur Temple to watch the sunrise. The ride up there, in typical Indonesian fashion was stunning. I think Indonesia has got to be the most beautiful country in the world. It's like Costa Rica on steroids. We crusied past villages and jungles, and in the distance you could see the majestic Merapi Volcano. I slept through the earthquake here that night, which was kind of dissapointing. I always seem to sleep through Asia's natural disasters including a typhoon in Vietnam. My guess is the earthquake had something to do with Mount Merapi, as it's very active and only a few years ago it blew up killing 100's of unlucky villagers.
Borobudur temple was of course beautiful and magnificent. Walking through makes you wonder how people so long ago without modern machinery constructed such a monument. And why was it abandonned for so many years? There are carvings that tell a Buddhist/Hindu story all over the sides, maybe somewhere lies the secret. I feel incredibly privilaged and lucky that I am able to visit Indonesia's Borobudur, Burma's
Bagan, Burma's Shwedagon Pagoda, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Thailand's Wat Phra Kaew and the Emerald Buddha, and much more. These are some of the worlds most amazing monuments, people make lifetime pilgrimages just to see on of them. I've seen them all.
"Dave! Hello Dave!!" I heard from acorss the street when I arrived back in Yogya. It was Dadir, whom I met just breifly in Pangandaran. Small world I thought! I hung out with her for a couple hours which was nothing short of strange. She's a really cool girl, a bit on wild side. She knows English well, but it's so hard to understand her rapid talking and thick accent. She asked me to come with her that night which I accepted. I didn't understand where we were going but I guess for me, thats the fun of it.
That night she led me on a 15 minute bus ride, then we transfered to another bus ride, then another and then another. About 5 or 6 bus tranfers in 2 hours. She's very animated so it made the ride interesting, but whenever I asked where we're going she would laugh and smack me on the back hard
At the Kraton
traditional man playing the gong as she could, and start rambling in rapid English that I couldn't understand and laughing. Finally the last bus dropped us off exactly where we started 2 hours later. WTF?!!! haha That was her plan from the begining. I really have to learn to stop following people, they're all crazy. From ther it was a short Becak ride to a karaeoki place where we drank a beer and chatted. She is half Indonesian, half Chilean, living in Bali. She is also a tourist doing pretty much the same route I'm doing from Java then back to Bali. I left early as I had to wake up early to head for Mount Bromo the next day.
The visually stunning 11 hour drive to the mountain village of Cemera Lewang was uneventful and just plain long. I love just looking out the window and seeing the daily life of Indonesia before my eyes. One of my favorite parts of travelling. We drove along side of the ocean by fishing villages passing several smoking volcanos. Java is a super populated place, this island that is not too much bigger than Vancouver island has 120 million people residing on it. Its rare to
Merapi Vocano
Ready to blow! see an area that is not populated.
Being in an airconditioned minivan with lots of leg room at least made it more enjoyable. Travel has been easy in Indonesia, not what I expected. Their infrastucture is surprisingly well run and maintained.
We were put up in a beautiful hotel overlooking the mountains and villages. It had hot water and a real toilet. It was the nicest hotel I've had my entire trip, and even nicer than most of my last trip. At first I was upset the van would drop us off at an expensive hotel not having any other choice. Then I found out it came free with the transportation........and that included breakfast.....Amazing!
We were given a choice when we arrived. At 3am we could walk up the volcano in the dark unguided, or at 4:30am for a 75 000 ($7.50) fee each they would drive us up in a jeep. Everyone picked the jeep, except for me. My years of mountain experience and my good friend Ron has taught me that doing things in jeeps or the like is for yuppies. So that's just not my thing. I couldn't bring myself to do it. I luckily
Yogya Streets
Becaks waiting for a customer convinced 2 other girls to come with me.
We walked across a baron wasteland, in reality a large lavafield in the darkness of night totally disorientated, relying on what little light the moon gave us. We could see the siloutte of the mountian and we were told just walk to it and there will be some stairs to the craters edge. Seemed pretty straight forward to me, and it was.
Upon reaching the top of the smoking volcano we could look right down into the middle of the crater. Bromo is very active and last erupted in 2004. If we wanted we could literally walk into the centre into the burning firey pits of hell. We watched the beautiful sunrise all alone, it was surreal. It felt as if we were on the moon. We spent a total of 2 hours up there, before all the jeeps showed up from all the hotels providing us with dozens of loud package tourists. I knew right then and there that I made the right decision to walk up.
The bus ride to Bali was another long one. A sucidal maniac minivan driver brought us down the steep, windy mountain
roads where we saw so much evidence of recent landslides and trucks going over the edge. After reaching the town of Probolingo we were put on a VIP bus, which included a buffet lunch at the restaraunt stop and we slept for the next 12 hours on our way to the island of Bali.
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