Yogyakarta, Prambanan and Borobudur

Upon arriving in Yogyakarta we checked into our hotel and grabbed quick bite to eat in the neighborhood. Very fun area. Yogya (pronounced Jog-Ja) is a student city and there are a lot of young foreign tourists. Backpacker hippie types were common. Right outside our hotel was a street full of bars and cafes, all cheap of course. The hotel was clean, had a hot shower and a western style bathroom. It felt guilty to enjoy this sort of touristy thing after being in Pacitan but I can't say I didn't enjoy it. I even ate a pizza. (FYI, I gave up on the all Indonesian food thing. Just couldn't do it, it was wreaking havoc on my digestive system. I now allow myself a western meal every few days and that seems to have helped my stomach.) We booked an early morning tour of the Buddhist temple nearby. It is a world heritage site. A private driver for the day with an air conned van set us back about $26. Steep.

The first quality view of the temple. Each level is another step toward enlightenment and nirvana.

Here is our guide, who takes fashion cues from Tiger Woods telling us about a relief. Almost every wall is covered and each one tells a story. If I recall this was about families and children growing up. Around the corner they had examples of the good family, and the bad family.

Lots of Buddhas. Each cardinal direction has Buddhas doing a different pose.

Not all so serene.
Each of these cone things has a Buddha inside. This is very close to enlightenment which is represented by the giant solid cone in the back. The stick on top is a lightening rod because not even enlighteningment protects you from the weather. Yuk Yuk Yuk.

Daniela and Tamara our Indonesian student friends are in the foreground. They joined us from Indramayu for the weekend.
This is what one of the Buddhas looks like inside the cones. I guess one of them is smiling in another cone. Intentional or a sculptor with a sense of humor?

Mt. Malaria. The only place on Java that still has malaria. I told the health services nurse I would not be going near here.

Picture from the back of the temple. Brad Pitt in foreground. At one point at this temple I had a line form for pictures with me. I guess I look like Brad Pitt to Indonesians since I get that a lot. (cool)

This was another smaller temple nearby our driver showed us. Banyan Tree.
That evening we went to Maliaboro (butchered spelling) which is the shopping district. However, Jess got sick and we had to turn back. We were able to watch the US game at a local bar. The next morning we went to Prambanan which is the huge Hindu temple in the area. The temples were contemporary and the cultures coexisted peacefully with each other. Who would have thought?

This is the view walking to Prambanan. Gardens are very very popular here and most nicer homes and hotels have well maintained ones. It goes without saying that attractions like the temples are surrounded by enormous grounds.

These temples were also decorated with relief sculpting.
One of the mini temples nearby.
More sculpting.
I don't really have much to say about this since they were all out of guides at the official booth. Some guy saw us looking for one and tried to claim he was a guide. He told us his name was "Surprise" and that he was a "very good guide". However after several minutes he seemed to be only telling us stuff that we could see clearly ourselves so we decided to tell Surprise to get lost.
I do know that the temple dates from the 9th century and that the 3 large spires are devoted to Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva from left to right. (Creator, sustainer and destroyer) The smaller temples in front are devoted to their transportation, a swan, an eagle and a bull.
Vishnu's temple.

The evening after seeing the temples, our driver showed us a great restaurant in a small village down a narrow road. It overlooked a stream in a lush forest and the food was excellent. Following that we attended a traditional Hindu Ballet in front of Prambanan which was lit up. My camera obviously couldn't capture it, so here is a pic of what it looked like.

http://www.shotaddict.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/prambanan-at-night.jpg

The show was a story of a warrior taking revenge on a rival who had kidnapped his fiance. The dancing was only ok, as it used a lot of child dancers but the music was excellent and the story was great. I highly recommend it but don't expect broadway level dancing.

The next morning I snapped a few pics of the hotel. Breakfast was served at these little huts which was included in the $30 per night cost.

Right before we left we went to the Kraton (Palace) in Yogya. It was slightly disappointing but there were some nice parts. We didn't have time to get a guide so I think we probably missed a lot of the finer points.

Elf-man of the Kraton Yogya.
After we hopped a plane and spent a few hours in traffic on a bus back to Bogor. A kind lady sat next to me and engaged me in conversation for much of the trip. Her english was not strong but I understood. She was very nice and asked for my email, which I gave to her. She was from Sumatra and recommend I visit the island. She also asked me if I was afraid of her because she wore the headscarf and did I think she was a terrorist. I told her no, that I am comfortable with it and I see women in headscarfs in New York. (true) She seemed shocked that there were muslims in New York and in America in general but she happily accepted my response. She seemed very excited to meet me again, but I work all week. Our conversation must have been quite the spectacle as the man in the next row stared at us for almost 2 straight hours even after his wife started hitting him and trying to pull his face away. I'm not sure why but its probably to try and improve his english. People really want to work on their english with a native speaker and its not an opportunity they have often.

Back to work today. Fairly uneventful overall. I'm finally figuring out the Angkat (minibus) system around bogor. I made a valiant attempt to find this good indonesian restaurant across town in the pouring rain tonight but got hopelessly lost. I ended up eating fried chicken from Texas Fried Chicken. Apparently the states are in a fierce battle to come out as the top chicken chain in Indo. KFC vs TFC vs CFC (california fried chicken). By indonesian standards it wasn't worth the $3 I paid for a drink, chicken and fries.

Pacitan

Phew. Sorry for the long wait between posts. Internet was mostly unavailable in Pacitan and Yogya was too busy to write. However, I managed to upload these pictures on a fast connection in Yogyakarta and now that I'm on a bus to Bogor, I have time to write.

I took the 5am bus from Bogor to Jakarta to catch a flight to Yogyakarta. This was unpleasant to say the least but I survived. I was already feeling slightly nauseous at this point but I chalked it up to the early departure. After arriving, our driver was waiting for us to take Uchi, Worol and I to Pacitan. The drive was gorgeous as the sprawling cultural city of Yogya gave way to rolling hills then to steep sided bubble/hills. The road narrowed and twisted around the hills. Small paddies dotted the tiny flat valleys we occasionally passed. I was already stoked about Pacitan due to the terrain. The jungle just hangs off these cliffs that the road hugs and dirt goat paths switchback to the huts down below. As this was the dry season, little rice was cultivated, mostly corn or cassava.

This picture is one of the larger farms showcasing the terracing. It was taken on a rainy day a couple days after my arrival.

This is a beautiful beach we stopped at before arriving at the house. This is a traditional fishing boat. This beach is almost right at Pacitan "city" (more of a town) and is almost totally undeveloped. Just a "Warung" (family owned food stand) that sells cold beers, snacks and drinks. The locals didn't really seem to like to hang out at the beach so it left the whole thing for me.
Another view of the beach. Quite the place and very picturesque. "Cantik" (beautiful in Bahasa.)
This was a small family owned restaurant on a cliff overlooking the beach. It had a nice breeze which made the temperature very pleasant. I ate shrimp, fish, shark soup and several other dishes. They were excellent, but I would see them again all too soon.
After the beach I arrived at the house I stayed at. Pretty comfy and cool. It was situated on top of one of those round hills so it got a nice breeze as well. That dish is for satellite tv but its virtually useless since world cup games are blacked out over satellite in Indonesia. No AC but I didn't need it. We also had an excellent cook, Mrs. Sittie, which was convenient. It was here that I met the students working in Pacitan for the summer, Galei, Icha (my permanent paparazzi) and Rami.

After eating some coconut milk soup that evening which may have no longer been good, I got heinously ill. It also could have been the lunch or a holdover from my last bout. My stomach never felt well in the two weeks between illnesses. Galei and I shared a room in Mrs. Sittie's house since there was not enough space in the one above and it was there I got sick. I'll spare everyone the gritty details but the vomiting was more frequent and more intense than the last round but it didn't last as long (only 5 hours!). I spent most of the night (after not sleeping in almost 24 hours thanks to the 330 am wake up) tucked onto a squat toilet under the stairs. Not pleasant and it was the only time I've been sick that my stomach was in actual pain. Galei stayed with me for most of the night and slept on the floor in another room. I can't say enough about how helpful Galei was. I was much more intelligent this time about how I managed things and I didn't really get dehydrated so by the afternoon of the next day I was more or less in business again. I ate some rice oatmeal which settled pretty well. Since this bout of sickness I've felt much better than anytime in weeks. I hope this cleared everything out.

The people across the street were having a wedding on sunday and as part of the preparations they hung Pepsodent signs. I don't know why but they are serious about oral hygiene. Even the poor farmers grow plants that they chew to protect their teeth. Surprisingly it seems to work. People have pretty good teeth.

This is another terraced rice field. Pretty standard for a good sized village in Pacitan.
This was sad. After interviewing some local agricultural managers we stopped at a scenic overlook to check out this new coal plant that is being built on a remote beach. Andrea had no electricity for several days so the people need the power. Its hard to tell them not to build a coal plant when the area has no solar potential due to the rainy season and little in the way of wind resources and they have no refrigerators, air conditioners or other amenities. Public health and the environment are not priorities here like they are in richer countries so the soot from the plant will probably just be released. I've had several people tell me that they get sick frequently and if this coal plant helps refrigerate some food and buy some pumps to help purify water, its probably worth it.
This was another beach near a small town we stopped at after a meeting. The local agricultural managers straight up told me false rains are not a problem in Pacitan because the farmers are "very tough". They thought perhaps a place like Indramayu might need something like that. Funny, they told me in Indramayu that the farmers in Pacitan might be interested in a forecast as it wasn't a problem in Indramayu. Funny how well everything is working on everyones watches. However, this particular group of local managers were pretty helpful overall.
This is one of the few shots that really came out that show the jungle hills, steamy humid fog and villages tucked into the valleys. This kind of thing dots the district everywhere.
On our way out of Pacitan we visited one of the largest caves in southeast Asia. Very cool but extremely hot and humid. I thought being underground was supposed to be cool but this is not the case. Everyone came out drenched in sweat, even the locals.
The morning before leaving we interviewed some farmers from a remote village. We drove about 45 min to an hour on a road like this through the forest and cultivated fields passing through villages on the way. This road is basically a permanent rumble strip.
This is me with some of the farmers and the team from IPB. One of the farmers kindly showed me all the crops he is planting on his hilly property. Spinach, sweet potatoes, cassava, mangos, papaya, coconut, ginger, peanuts, rice, eggplant and a ton of other stuff I forgot. He has quite the operation going and its all rain fed. The farm also has a brilliant view. I was also able to tour a traditional house that some members of the family still live in. This was extremely educational and useful to my studies. I got clear, straight answers and I got more information out of 2 hours with these guys than I had in the last 10 days combined. It just shows you need to go directly to the source. These farmers really know their land, climate and crops, so its hugely useful to interview them.
I'm with some of the farmers here. They were doing something with a bin of black beans here. They let me mash some cassava in that mashing trough on the left. Extremely helpful and friendly people who were happy to show their farm to me. I tried some raw cassava. Not bad, but very starchy. They also made us lunch, a noodle soup if I recall that was outstanding.
A farmer in a nearby cassava field. I got him to wave.
After this, we were driven to Yogyakarta for a weekend of R&R and sightseeing at the temples so that will be the next post. Overall, Pacitan is an outstanding place. Beautiful terrain, extraordinarily friendly people, even by high indonesian standards, great beaches and a pleasant temperature. I liked Indramayu, but Pacitan was better. It was more rural and rugged which suits my tastes. I was able to watch the US world cup games thans to a tv in the local store. They packed 15 people in a room around a small tv. It wasn't a big screen, but I don't mind watching games like that. It feels authentic. Pacitan has so much potential, but it is still hard to get to, due to the poor quality of roads and lack of infrastructure.

Back to Bogor

Rode the train today from Indramayu to Jakarta, then switched there to go to Bogor. Nothing is in english so it was slightly difficult, but whenever I looked lost, people always rushed to help, eager to use their english. A helpful young lady showed me where to buy tickets to Bogor but not before parading me by her friends who were working at a different gate. Small pleasures and just one of the things you can pick up if you relax and just go with the flow and not worry about your ticket or anything.

Later a woman and her son sat down next to me to wait for the Bogor train. I she was a doctor and didn't speak english but her 15 year old son had pretty good english. I think they sat there because mom wanted junior to practice his english. We chatted for awhile and I felt comfortable enough to leave my stuff with them while I went to get some food. I'm not sure I would have known which train to get on without them. It was pleasant and made the time go faster. The kid was pretty mature, or then again maybe mom was feeding him questions. In any case, I had fun and I gave the kid my email if he wants to continue conversing with me. As with most indonesians, english is his third language.

Traffic was packed in Bogor but I found the minibus that took me back to my room. I think I'm starting to figure out the routes so I can finally go places beyond walking distance. I'm finally starting to feel comfortable. I know what to say most of the time and mostly what people are asking as I go on normal business during the day. It was nice to travel around alone a bit, it really raises your confidence.

Pics upload

I made a run by the office tonight so I could upload some pics. In random order.

Various crops near the mountain.

A Bat. A big one.

Walking down to the waterfall on the mountain.

The mountain.

This dragon carriage carried the king and was pulled by oxen. I guess it had gears so that the wings flapped and the tongue moved.

View from the pad in Indramayu.

The apartment.

Pretty standard view of people on the street.

Sheep. Everywhere. This was on the local agriculture office's lawn.

A fairly clean irrigation canal.

Farmers milling about after the meeting. (pun intended)

One of these trishaw bicycle things that seem to be popular.

I finally caught one on camera. These things come out at night and are everywhere. This in my room.

Looking one way down my street in Bogor.

Other way in bogor.

Meeting with reps from local farmers groups.

Conversation with head of agriculture in Indramayu.

Picture time with white guy.

None of my pics of the waterfall were any good, but hopefully jess has a few good ones when I get her pics.

No more pictures for a week but hopefully I can find a cafe to keep in touch.