Indonesia and change o' plans

A thick, gritty cup of java. On Java.

For some reason I cannot understand, I cannot understand Indonesia. I can't figure out how to be here, how to see the place. It isn't that I need it to be Western, at all. I understand Vietnam very well. I understood Laos. I understood Cambodia. I understood Myanmar. I understood how to be there, how to see the place, how to navigate it -- even though the alphabets were not recognizable. It was something about just understanding the place in a particular way, and I can't seem to grasp Indonesia in that same way. It's peculiar and confusing, because of all the countries in SE Asia that we've visited, this one uses the same alphabet as ours, and ostensibly it's the same as other SE Asian countries: traffic is dominated by motorcycles, crossing busy streets is a bit like the old video game Frogger, restaurants and food stalls are similar. So much is similar, and yet I cannot understand it. This is terribly confusing to me, and leaves me feeling sad and disconnected from Indonesia. If only I could understand what I'm not understanding it would help.

The people we have met have been uniformly wonderful -- smiling, friendly, helpful, warm, just truly lovely. We were waved into the little batik factory with smiles. We need help and we are given help, and with kindness. There was a distinct lack of English at the hotel in Solo that caused some difficulty, but it was a language barrier, not a kindness barrier. We have been confused and made mistakes in communicating our plans and have been met with kindness. I really love the people here, as much as I love the Vietnamese and the Lao and the Cambodians.

And yet.

We've completely changed our plans here. We were going to the island of Sulawesi, to Makassar and Tana Toraja and Manado, where we planned to snorkel. The first plans were changed because the weather forecast for Manado looked pretty bad, and without snorkeling there wouldn't have been anything else to do there. Still, we planned to go to Tana Toraja even if we skipped Manado. Then last night, after a lot of agonizing, we decided to bail on Tana Toraja too, so instead of going to Sulawesi, we're spending the rest of our time on Bali. Tana Toraja was difficult, requiring an 8-10 hour cab or bus ride to get there from Makassar. That's essentially two days lost to just getting to Tana Toraja, which of course we knew when we made the plans.

Instead, we will fly to Bali in the morning and just spend the rest of our vacation there. We'll start in Ubud and perhaps we'll hop around the island, and maybe we'll hop over to a small island off Bali, we'll see. We'll snorkel and swim, eat good food, relax, and see what there is to see. Maybe I will understand Bali in a way I haven't been able to understand Java. It's a delight to be back in Yogya -- it felt like coming home, in a way. Our hotel in Solo was beautiful in some ways, but very unpleasant in others. Had there been a fire, we'd have died because we were never able to get in or out of our room without a long battle with the ancient lock and key. There were 3 other people staying there (a couple, and an older woman traveling alone), and it felt kind of strange and empty. I enjoyed my dinner last night but Marc didn't like his. It was in a nice location, with the batik neighborhood right behind it, but going anywhere else didn't seem doable for some reason.

Today we'll relax and swim and go out for dinner, maybe go see the kraton (the Sultan's palace), and then we're off to the airport at 5:45 in the morning. We'll return to Java when it's time to leave, since we fly out from Jakarta, but today is our last real day here. Maybe I'll figure out what I can't seem to figure out.

Solo

This morning after breakfast we took a cab from Yogya to Solo. Solo, like Yogya, is the cultural center of Java. Jakarta is the financial center (and capital), but Yogya and Solo are the centers for batik, wayang (the shadow puppets), and gamelan (the traditional folk music that originated here on Java). Yogya is bigger, I think, and Solo is more conservative.

The cab ride took almost 2 hours and cost $30 with tip, which is a whole lot more than the bus would've cost ($1 to maybe $3 or $4), but $30 for both of us, two hours, a driver picking us up at our hotel and delivering us to the next hotel in Solo, such a deal. The driver was sweet and friendly, like all the Javanese people we've met so far, and finding the hotel in Solo took a bit of effort as he stopped other taxi drivers to ask for directions.

Roemahkoe Bed  & Breakfast, our sweet little hotel in Solo

traditional music at dinner

We left our suitcases in Yogya and just brought backpacks for the 2 night stay in Solo; unfortunately, we forgot to bring the sunscreen and unfortunately-er it's very very hot and sunny here. And I am very very pale and easily overheated. Luckily, right behind our hotel is a sweet little neighborhood that is heavily focused on batik production. We spent some time walking down the small streets and poking our heads into doorways.

this wall looked like batik designs, and that little statue thing in the corner, hmmmm

this blue house was so beautiful, and like most homes, had a bird in the cage

beautiful door -- these shades of blue are so common

We passed what looked like a batik factory and I was too timid to walk into the courtyard to take a picture, so I got a crappy little shot through the slightly open gate. Marc was braver than me and walked in, and the workers -- who spoke no English -- smiled and waved us in, directing us to walk around as much as we wanted. IT WAS WONDERFUL. Getting photos into a post is a messy thing and they're all out of order but I don't want to take all the time it would take to redo them, so here, in random order:

this machine dyed the base fabric. it was this beautiful gold color, and
when we turned around they were doing purple.

see the smiling guy on the left? He welcomed us in. Sheets of newly-printed fabric.

this guy was folding the finished fabric

graffiti everywhere!

a random house, but typical

no idea what this machine did but it was big and kinda of cool.

pulling the newly-printed fabric up off the forms

first pass printed

so so beautiful, but I wouldn't want to work there

Seeing this little factory was such a thrill -- real people making real things. The alleys were lined with little shops selling clothing made of batik fabric, but I didn't see anything nearly as beautiful as the fabric being made here.

Our hotel serves afternoon tea, and after that we're heading to the kraton, which is the old sultan's palace; every city seems to have one in its center. We'll find a good spot for dinner and probably crash -- we're still kind of dealing with the 12-hour time change, so we fall asleep by 10 and wake up at 3am, ready to go.

So far, my very favorite thing about Indonesia is the Javanese people. They are so sweet and friendly. Last night at dinner, the owner of the restaurant (a French man from Lyons who moved here because his wife started the restaurant) was telling us that the people are so different, island to island, and that the Javanese people are especially sweet. One other thing I love about them: they love sweet food. My tribe.

Yogyakarta / Borobodur

Yogyakarta -- pronounced as if the Ys are Js, and the nickname is Yogya, like Joe-ja. Our first day we were tired and wired and lagged, but we got out and did a bit of wandering anyway. Relaxed at the pool. Snoozed a little. Found an OK spot for dinner. Slept, finally, after the 35+ hours of getting here. On our first real day, Monday, we hired a cab to take us to Borobudur after we had some breakfast. The hotel is fine, charming enough, but kind of dirty in the room -- cobwebs and dirt kind of dirt -- and with geckos running along the walls. Pretty big geckos, too. This is the lobby:

in the lobby of our hotel

And the restaurant is really beautiful, next to the pool.

these flowers drip from the edge of the restaurant, so gorgeous, and pollinated by gigantic bees that look like beetles

beautiful flowers

Indonesian breakfast -- noodles and chicken, YUM.

The cab ride to Borobudur took about an hour and a half, at most. Borobudur is the biggest tourist destination in Indonesia, apparently, and along with Angkor Wat (seen it!) and the plains of Bagan (saw that too), is one of the largest ancient Buddhist temples in the world.

graffiti EVERYWHERE in Yogya, it's actually kind of amazing.

lots of people going to the temple, but it rarely felt crowded

this carving made me smile -- it looked like one is whispering in the other's ear

Buddhas everywhere, of course -- and a spectacular setting around the temple

some Buddhas didn't have heads

elephants and trees in the carvings

such beautiful work

and ships -- of course, among all these islands

this was HILARIOUS. Groups of kids swarmed us and wanted their pictures taken with us.

this boy held Marc's hand during the picture, as a girl did to me. And notice the Obama t-shirt

at first we thought they'd want us to take a picture of them. but they wanted us in the shot.

these large bell-shaped structures are on the top level

the top level represents formlessness

it's a beautiful, beautiful place

and we both loved it there so much

Borobudur was really special, better than we anticipated. Some places are like that; we felt that way about Macchu Picchu, which was kind of surprising because the images of it are ubiquitous. But still, it was better than we imagined. Angkor Wat, for some reason, was disappointing. But Borobudur was really special, so beautiful, such a peaceful place. The surrounding area is a green valley, filled with palm trees and banana trees, and ringing the horizon are mountains. And then this giant, quiet temple in the middle.

The weather forecast is leading us to change our plans. Instead of going to Manado, on the tip of Sulawesi (lots of thunderstorms), we're probably going to Bali. That's a pretty sweet Plan B. :)

the details

The hotels are all arranged, the flights are arranged, and the details are finally in place. Usually there are several months to do all the planning, but for this trip there were just a couple of weeks, and it was extremely complicated because we're moving from island to island, and getting the internal flights was complicated by our inability to book with an American credit card on the airline we planned to use. But finally, it's all arranged (links to the hotels in the right sidebar):

Dusun Jogja Village Inn, Yogyakarta, JAVA

Roemahkoe, Solo, JAVA

Toraja Heritage Hotel, Tana Toraja, SULAWESI

Bahowo Lodge, Bunaken Park, N SULAWESI

Bunaken Cha Cha Nature Resort, Manado, SULAWESI

And the flights -- it's amazing how often we have to refer to the blog for these details, either for the trip we're taking or to remember an important detail from a previous trip. Big picture: blue is international, in to Jakarta out to Tokyo, and the yellow gets us around Indonesia:

The details:

And then, within Indonesia it'll be this:

With this, we will have nearly seen all of SE Asia. What's missing is the Philippines, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and are Nepal and Tibet considered SE Asia?

I am SO excited. It's always so wonderful getting to see another part of the world, and traveling together, and stepping outside our normal, easy lives. There's a little day-counting-down going on right now.