Java

Pictured: Jason feeds the temple guards at Borobudur; Prambanan temple at sunset; cages in Yogyakarta's bird market; Saraswati statue at a temple in Solo

Wow, did I ever get behind. I guess my remaining posts won't have the detail some of the earlier ones did...

After Flores (which seems like an eternity ago) we headed for Java, the most populated of Indonesia's islands. It is home of the capital, Jakarta, which all of our sources said to avoid at all costs, as well as many volcanoes and historical sites. Our understanding of Java was that it was overcrowded and scam-filled, with a few interesting things to see. We almost wrote it off, but in the end decided to check out Yogyakarta and its surrounding temples, as well as the nearby city of Solo.

Our first day in Yogyakarta was a bit of a disaster. It took forever to find a good place to stay, and what we settled on was less than stellar (but OK in the long run). Then we took a small walking tour, and within an hour had been approached by no less than four 'instant friends'--seemingly kind locals who offer you all kinds of great advice, follow you around for forever to try and gain your trust, then finally feed you some lies about the 'last day' of a 'government art exhibit' at a nearby batik store. Of course, if you were to believe the lies and go, you would be massively overcharged and they would rake in a big commission. Once you say you aren't interested in batik, these friends flee the scene, but not before wasting like ten minutes of your time. It's a serious drag to be talking to someone who is seemingly friendly, then several minutes later realize it's just a scam. One of the things I like about travel is being able to leave most of my cynicism behind, so when you face these kinds of con jobs it is doubly aggravating.

Anyway, at that point we were hating Yogyakarta and already planning our escape route. We wandered the markets on the main street that night, which was kind of interesting and scam-free, took a bicycle rickshaw (becak) home, ate our first really decent meal since before Flores, and called it.

The next day we made our way to Borobudur, a large Buddhist temple from the 11th century and a world heritage site. Before leaving we had a nice breakfast with decent coffee (can't complain about the Javanese food), which was very welcome, and then we decided to take public transportation to the site.

That was an adventure. We had a hard time getting accurate information about which buses to take, went about 30 minutes in the wrong direction, then finally made it to the main bus terminal, where we caught a public bus to the temple. It was a long trip with many stops, but it saved us quite a bit of money. On the way back, our bus broke down and our driver had to flag another off the street, and that bus was filled with heavy smokers and made me want to choke, but I digress.

Borobudur, which I kept calling Brodobudur, was only mildly interesting. Sure, it's impressive for something built in the 11th century, and it was worth seeing, but overall it's basically just one big temple with a ton of bas relief. You kind of get the feel for it after about 10 minutes. It was nice to hike around there anyway and we spent about one-and-a-half hours exploring before heading home. Overall, I think we spent twice as much time getting there and away as we did in the temple itself. But as I said, it was a bit of an adventure and I'm glad we did it.

In the next entry, we visit Parangbananan (or something like that) temple on the back of a moto. Nice day.

We're Back! (Sort Of)

Well, the trip is over. We're back in Los Angeles, and although it's nice to be with friends, familiar food, and creature comforts again, it also kind of sucks. We had really gotten used to traveling. This trip was amazing, and we feel really lucky to have been able to do it.

There is one more weekend in the summerofgills--tomorrow we go to San Francisco to see the Outside Lands music festival (Radiohead!). We booked it long ago and now it's starting to seem a little ridiculous. But we're going anyway.

More blog posts immediately to follow this--where I try to catch up on the last few weeks spent in SE Asia.

You Might Have To Wait...

For a bit until my next real post. I suppose I might throw up some photos on our one day in KL (again) before we leave but I'll do the real updating when I get back and have fast, reliable internet. Then there will be a deluge...but hopefully we'll also see many of you soon to tell stories in person.

By the way, we're in Thailand right now, on the beaches in & on the Andaman Sea that we missed the first time around. How did we end up here? Like I said, you'll have to wait.

Oh, and Jonathan? We're advanced scuba certified...

Okay, Back to Flores (I'm Way Behind)

I shouldn't get so far behind on the blogging...it makes me get a little hazy on some of the details.

When we last left off in Flores, we had nice day in Bajawa including tribal villages, hot springs, and nearly ruining someone's wedding day. It is worth noting, however, that the guesthouse we spent two nights in there was "rustic" with a smell that can only be described as raw sewage periodically emanating from our bathroom. And no, that was not caused by my eating too much spicy food. Anyway, we tolerated it. Which was a must at nearly every guesthouse in Flores.

The following day we moved on to Moni, the last stop on our Flores tour. It was a long drive, and along the way we stopped in the port town of Ende to run some errands (failing to find working internet) and eat lunch.

Unfortunately, lunch = bad. No, really. Bad in the 'food poisoning' kind of way, not in the 'doesn't taste great' kind of way. Alison and Laurent ate shrimp that we later assumed must have been frozen and re-frozen a dozen times (there were power outages every day). It turned on Alison first--we didn't even make it to Moni before we were stopping the car a couple of times so she could, um, more closely examine the flora & fauna.

Although I had eaten a couple of pieces, I thankfully survived the incident without trauma, allowing me to nurse Alison for the next day or so. We planned two days in Moni, which worked out in our favor, since there was only about one day's worth of stuff to see there and both Alison and Laurent ended up laid up for a full day (with another day of sightseeing and shaky recovery). Our guesthouse was really cheap, and also new, and also had mosquito nets, which is like a trifecta, but unfortunately there was another wedding happening just across the street from our place and it was SUPER loud. That raged til after midnight, then there were roosters at 3am. Then a dog freaking out. Then the mosque's call to prayer at 4am. Not peaceful by any means but we made it through the first night and after that it wasn't so bad.

Moni is a very small mountain village with great views (yawn) and nothing to do. It was also coldish and rainy almost the entire time. I found it relaxing and it really was a good place for recovery. The main reason to stop there is to see Mt. Kelimutu, billed in the Lonely Planet as 'without a doubt the most impressive sight in [the surrounding island group]'. Mt. Kelimutu has three crater lakes, which from time to time actually change color for some reason no one is entirely sure of. We made the trip for sunrise (no more sunrises, please) and were lucky--we had good views of the crater lakes. It was very beautiful, and worth the trip. A picture of two of the lakes is in a previous post. One is sort of turquoise blue, the other brown.

We spent the rest of the time in Moni hiking about and visiting a small village that had a neat traditional ceremony house. Other than that, there wasn't much to do, so we drank tea and sat in a restaurant and played 'Old Maid' and poker with the family for hours.

After two days we drove to Maumere, home of the nearest airport, to depart for the next leg of our trip (Java). We had to say sad goodbyes to the family, who were headed for Sulawesi (the land of the buffalo sacrifice). Flores was truly fantasic and we have lots of great memories. But we were also really glad to be headed to a place with better food and accommodation...

Next up: Yogyakarta sucks, then sort of almost wins us over.

KL is a Dangerous Town

Minding my own business, enjoying the sites and smells on the streets of Chinatown, WHAM! shoved backwards by 50 year old asian woman. I wish I would say I responded with grace and civility, but I returned the favor with a punch in the arm. Now let's clarify that my punches are rather girly and I knew I wasn't really hurting her, but I wanted her to know I wasn't having any of her nonsense. She had it coming frankly. She was either crazy or mistook me for someone else. Her son probably ran off with some gorgeous western woman and she naturally took me for the culprit. I could've taken her though...

International Incident!

I'm not finished with my Flores posts yet (nor have I gotten to our time in Yogyakarta & Solo), but this story requires immediate posting.

IN THE RED CORNER...

Alison "Fightin' Irish" Flynn
Age: 34
Height: 5'8"
Weight: I'm not that stupid
Record: 0-0

IN THE BLUE CORNER...


Random "Grandma" Onthestreet
Age: 55+
Height: 5'2" tops
Weight: maybe 100
Record: ????

LLLLLET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLLLLLLLE!

So, as I may have mentioned, we're in Kuala Lumpur right now. And earlier today we were just minding our own business, walking down the street in Chinatown, when out of nowhere this older Chinese woman (at least I think she was Chinese) comes up to us, yelling at Alison, and shoves Alison backward.

Now, we should have known KL was a dangerous place. After all, there are ninjas everywhere.


But I digress. What would you do if some old lady shoved you backward without provocation? Well, I'll tell you what Alison would do. She punched her.

You heard me, punched. Okay, it was more of a "slug bug!", soft-spot in the shoulder, I'm-just-frustrated-and-trying-to-tell-you-not-to-push-me-around kind of a punch, but still it was a punch. And the old lady punched back. Only harder and with more anger. But also in the shoulder.

It was at this point that I woke from my shock and decided to step in. I separated the two bulldogs and we went on our way before the police could haul Alison off to Malaysian prison (a man behind us helped the old woman to calm down).

Needless to say it's been a point of discussion for the remainder of the day. What was on that woman's mind? Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

I have to say, I am proud of Alison for standing up for herself...even if it does make me a bit nervous to take her to my Grandma's for Christmas. What if she's unhappy with the cheesy potatoes?

Bonus Photos! (Ubud Cremation Style)

The two of us looking like tools in Made & his wife's clothes they lent us for the cremation (with his daughter Made); the huge crowds at the cremation; the bull the king was cremated in and one of the towers; the dragon effigy; Uluwatu cliffs

Flores Photos Part II and Crossing Flores Part III

Mountain views in Flores; the Bajawa pasar (market); local kids goof for the camera; Mt. Kelimutu (next post); the wedding party.


The day we spent in Bajawa was a memorable one, and definitely one of the best so far.

We started the day with a tour of surrounding villages & sights (we went with the family). We had hired a guide the night before (whose name escapes me at the moment), and he was soft-spoken and knowledgeable.

The traditional villages we visited were fascinating. There's a picture on the previous post of what they looked like: straw & bamboo huts surrounding a community area. In the middle of the community area were 'male and female' totems, representing the deceased ancestors from the various different clans inhabiting the village. These villages were largely Christian, but like in Toraja they held on to their animist roots. During special celebrations they make sacrifices at these totems to appease their ancestors and bring blessings upon the village. We did not witness such sacrifice, but I think the 25 buffalo we saw slain in Toraja was plenty.

After visiting three villages (all located in the mountains with nearby amazing views), we ate lunch at our guide's home, then went to the local hot springs. The hot springs were FANTASTIC! We hadn't had a hot shower in Flores, and these springs were jacuzzi-like, and even included a waterfall. It felt great to finally get in a decent bath. Several of us hadn't really showered in a while, since it was cold in the mountains and room-temperature water promised a chill to the bone.

While at the hot springs, Laurent took off his glasses and set them on a rock while he washed up. The next thing he knew...whoops! They were washed away by the swift current and disappeared under the blast of the waterfall. It was mini-crisis time. He hadn't brought a second pair, and he's blind as a bat. The family searched for a while, but the swift currents and thundering water basically made it a hopeless cause.

I had already left the water and was drying off on the shore, but I saw that Laurent was distressed and the family had given up hope, so I figured I should at least give it the ol' college try. I waded around in the churning, waist-deep water near the falls for a while, feeling around the rocks on the ground with my feet for anything unusual. It really did seem hopeless, but my toes sensed something that felt slightly different, so I pinched something with my feet and brought up...Laurent's glasses! It was truly a one-in-a-million shot, and that combined with the fresh shower put us all in a great mood.

But the day wasn't over. The evening before, the family had been wandering near the Bajawa market and had seen preparations for a wedding reception--then were subsequently invited to attend! The wedding was taking place while we were at the hot springs, and we got back in time for the reception.

It was pretty wild. Over 300 people were there, and of course we were the only Westerners. It was not unlike a Western wedding reception, however. White wedding dress, a receiving line, dinner, some crazy uncle on the mic cracking everyone up, & dancing. We wished the bride & groom our best (selamat burbahaggia!), dropped an envelope in the basket, and then had a seat to watch the remainder of the guests arrive. We were pretty nervous, so we had slipped a few Bintang beers into my backpack for the reception. While we sat, we covertly sipped at our Bintangs, worrying about committing too much of a faux pas. After a while, however, the Bintangs and the situation got the best of us, and we were cracking jokes with each other and having a few laughs. When you aren't supposed to be laughing, that's always when things seem funniest.

Maria suggested we should rob the envelope basket, and I made a subtle motion indicating that I was raising a gun in the air, and the next thing we knew we were laughing so hard we were nearly falling off of our chairs. Needless to say, it drew a few glances in our direction. Oops. International incident?

Not to worry. After a bit we settled down, ate a fantastic meal (the best in Flores), and then danced with the wedding party. It was great fun and the guests seemed thrilled we were there and joining in. We left shortly after midnight, but the party raved 'til dawn...a great day all around.

Next up: revenge of the udang.

We're In KL and There's Fast Internet So Here Are Some Photos!

The first in a set of photos from our trip across Flores.
The view of the bay at Labuanbajo; Spider rice fields; us with the family and our driver; a traditional village.

Some Modes of Transportation Used On This Journey