Rainy New Year in Yogyakarta

Well, haven't we been neglecting this blog...geesh, a lot to catch you up on I suppose.

First, here are some pictures from Tretes. Remember the attraction we were at the waterfalls? Here is one of the many pictures taken:


And a look inside the local market. This is about how all the markets look throughout Indonesia, varying only in size.


We've spent the last week here in Yogya, now I just have to try and remember how we spent our time. We spent the first two days walking around the city center - most of which comprises the street called Maliboro - a long 1.5 km stretch of shopping stalls, malls, and street vendors. And the infamous becak drivers (the guys who push you in a carriage attached to their bike). They line the street solid, and every single one of them asks you if you would like a ride. We are trying so hard not to be mean to them, after all they are only trying to make a living, but after 7 days of it, it gets very hard.

The days we've hung around the city, we've alternated walking with biking and visited the various shopping specialty areas including silver production, batik production and pottery. We did buy some stuff (no pottery though) and cannot wait to get to Singapore to mail stuff off and lighten up our packs.

One of the main attractions around Yogya is the tremendous temples of Borobudur and Prambanan. We took them both in in one day, and while everyone talks more about Borobudur, we were actually more impressed with Prambanan. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. And it is indeed huge. We couldn't get it all in one picture. It is in a lovely setting as well, at the base of some mountains, surrounded by lush green forests. Very intricate carvings etched into the stone and many, many buddha (unfortunately with most their heads chopped off and stolen) sitting very peaceful-like gazing off into the horizon. We touched one of the buddha in a stupa's foot, so now we should be blessed with lots of good luck.

Here's a view of Borobudur from afar:


Borobudur from the top, looking through the stupas out to the foggy forest below:


Then we went about an hour east and walked around Prambanan which is a huge Hindu complex. I think this was more impressive to us because there were so many temples in the area. Instead of one gargantuan one, there were about 20-30 smaller, yet still huge, temples. The Prambanan temples each have four sets of stairs that take you into the middle of it where there is some sort of statue or place of offering. Very nice.

Entryway into one of the smaller Prambanan complexes:


A look at the main Prambanan complex:


Then it was New Years. We originally had planned to escape to another small mountain side town. But after hearing about and seeing the preparations for the street party planned here, we decided to stay. Plus we didn't want to be traveling on the holiday, dealing with full hotels, etc. We were of course conscious of the terrorist threats, but we felt reasonably safe as the street party is geared for locals, not tourists, and we weren't planning to go to any heavily "Westernized" places (of which there really aren't a lot here).



The street party could have been really cool if the weather had cooperated. The city shut down the main street (Maliboro) to traffic, set up 5-6 stages, and had music all night and fireworks at midnight. Except it rained the entire night. We headed out at about 8:00 and walked up and down the street a couple times, stopping at each stage for a while and snacking from the vendors. The highlight of the night was at the end of the street where the most famous pop band in Indonesia was playing. The crowd there was HUGE (and young). The band was quite good, even though we couldn't understand the lyrics. We neglected to dance at any of the stages, although we were tempted at the reggae music, but it was raining hard, and we would have created more of a spectacle than we were up for. We got pretty much soaking wet, and by 10:00 headed to a restaurant for some more food - nothing else to do, why not keep eating?? Then we went back to the hotel for a while to dry off and poked our heads out one more time in hopes of catching some fireworks, but we missed them (they fired them off too early!), then to bed. I know, we need to not be such party animals.

And of course nothing happened in terms of terrorism, although the police were out in full force. Through of the gated entryways, Keith was stopped by one of the police holding an M16 because he was carrying the camera under his coat, and the policeman noticed the suspicious bulge. Good on him for checking, we say (a little Australian lingo there). But then there were the other three policemen I saw standing along the sidewalk, staring at the stage and practically dancing to the music....hmmmm. What they may have lacked in constant attentiveness, they made up for in sheer numbers of them out there that night.

The next day, we finally braved the traffic, and rented a motorscooter and took a daytrip up to the mountain town of Kaliurang which was our original overnight destination for New Years. Kaliurang, sits at the base of Mt Merapi, the most active volcano on Java. In recent years, a visit to the mountain would be rewarded with views of lava flowing. But the lava is not hot anymore, so we didn't get to see that. Or Mt Merapi for that matter. It was covered in clouds. It had a nice national park there though, that we were able to explore for a couple hours and get some good walking in. Lots of locals there again, as it was a holiday, but we were not nearly as interesting to this crowd.

Keith did stupendously with the driving as well. It was a bit scary (more for me I think than for Keith - something about not having any control) for the first half hour, but eventually I was able to relax, and by the way home, Keith was saying, "I like driving in Indonesia! Everyone pays such close attention to what they are doing!". Well, they have to you see, because everyone is weaving in and out and passing willy nilly. You might say, wow, renting a motorscooter would be too dangerous, why not get a car? Well, when 3/4 of the population is on motorscooters, you actually feel safer being on one as well - safety in numbers, you know? We only got one dirty look the whole day, and didn't get lost. Well done, Keith! (I take no credit for either success....all I did was yell in his ear, watch out for that lady, bike, car, motorcycle, bus and STAY LEFT!!). Good fun.

Some more pictures, then I'm going to sign off.
Here's a look at that Maliboro street and those pesky becaks. Not sure where all the drivers have gone in this picture. Usually they are perched in their sits either snoozing or yelling at us.


And finally, a look at the lobby of our lovely hotel called Setia Kawan (I looked it up today and it means Loyal Companians). Notice the artwork behind Keith. This is the table where we spend many hours reading our books and playing cards.


We are leaving Indonesia tomorrow. We fly out to Jakarta early in the AM, then fly from Jakarta to Singapore. We'll be there for a couple days, round up my folks, and then off to Malaysia!

We hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years! Love to all!