Adventures in Yogya

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Hello all,

The internet is up and running at my school, so I can post pictures - yeah!

Let’s see, I just returned from a week-long trip to Java. All of the ETAs had to go to Jakarta to give fingerprints, signatures, ect. for our residency permits. Many of the ETAs, including myself, then extended our trips to spend a bit of time exploring Java.

I spent one night is Jakarta, a sprawling, polluted city and then headed to Yogyakarta. Yogya for short, this city is considered a cultural stronghold of Central Java.

Just after arriving in Yogya, a couple of us decided to, spur of the moment, spend the night hiking a local volcano. We left our hostel at 10pm, beginning the hike up Mount Merapi at 1am. The hike was anything but easy; we hiked through the night, arriving at the summit just in time for the 5:30am sunrise. We watched the sun come up over small towns and rice fields - quite a sight!

We then slept-walked down the volcano, dreaming of switch-backs as we slipped and slide through loose rock and dirt. That is, the trail went straight down the mountain, leaving us to climb down relatively steep angles. We arrived at the bottom, safe and sound but a bit scrapped up, at 10am…it was quite a night.

Later that day, after a brief nap, I visited Borobodur, a ninth-century Buddhist monument. I touched the lucky Buddha, and then watched the sunset from the top of the Stupa (a Buddhist structure of a specific shape).

The next day we visited the other ancient religious monument in the area - Prambanan. Pramabana, a Hindu temple, dates to 850 AD. While the temple was destroyed in a 2006 earthquake, several of the towers have been re-built. A myth states there were, at one time, 999 temples at Prambanan. While most of what we saw was piles of stones, the piles hinted at a past splendor I can only imagine.

I spent my final day in the city walking around, shopping, and touring buildings historically used by Yogya’s sultan. I also rented a bike and explored the outskirts of the city. Biking in traffic was a bit of an adventure. At traffic lights, turn lanes, a car lane, and a lane for bicycle taxis spontaneously formed, with motorbikes filling any and all empty spaces. The roads had, at most, two lanes of traffic running in each direction. I quickly learned the divisions between the lanes were of little importance- only cars remained approximately in one lane, and I think they did this only because it provided the largest continuous space for motorbikes. Motorbikes ruled the road, weaving in and out of each other, going around cars, and avoiding those on bicycles.

While the trip was amazing, I had a bit of trouble with plane tickets while traveling...I ended up purchasing 11 seats for four plane rides. All I will say right now is that e-tickets are my favorite technological innovation 😊

I hope everyone’s summers are wrapping up well!

Kerry

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Photos

Tangkubanparahu
A volcano outside of Bandung, the city we were in for orientation.

Pupuk Kaltim Plant
Pupuk Kaltim in the largest fertilizer company in SE Asia. I work at the high school for children of plant employees.

Bontang
A view from a walk around the city.

Comments

[Mom]

I am finally getting caught up on your blog. I love it!!! Keep posting more pictures. It sounds like a fantastic experience. When are your interviews? Love you, Mom