Yogayakarta......where the earthquake hit

After a long travel day (including nearly missing our train because of people not realizing it takes 15 mins to process one credit card when they were paying thier room bills) we finally arrived in Yogayakarta, the largest town close to where the earthquake hit. Taking our charter cars to our hotel you could only see a few building that were uder reconstruction or that were damaged. However, quite a few businesses are still closed (it's a month afterthe quake). It was important for us to come to Yoga as the people need tourist dollars. Also, because our leader, Yude, iIs Indonesian it makes it easier to have an ear to the ground , for us to get around, or for him to help out in case of any problems. TOday Caroline and I shopped in teh shopping district for t-shirts (we dropped off our laundry and we need more t-shirts anyways. and I picked up some strepsils to go with the antibiotics for my throat - it's been super sore for 4 days, i've having problems with that whole swallowing business and it's likely strep....the pharmacy on our backs comes in handy once again! After we went for a group dinner at a local place. After dinner we stopped on the street to get some Roti - here is is delicious half loaves of bread sliced with chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and sugar put in between the slices, and then fried in butter on every edge. THe result is a deliciously hot and gooey chocolate delight. Now we're at the internet (which is reasonably priced here). Soon, off to bed!

Having an Indonesian leader has been a true gift. We go to tonnes of local restaurants to eat (which are also fantastically cheap, as are most things here (try $2 for a huge dinner) and we get to meet his friends who live in each town we go to so we feel like we are getting more of the "real Indonesia".