Into the Earthquake Zone

It was so tough to leave Pengadaran, even tougher because it meant that we needed to get back on the god awful train.  And it was god awful, as before.  Luckily, it was only 4 hours, so we survived.  Barely... lol

I can say that I was honestly a little concerned to be going to Yogyakarta -- or Jogja, as the locals call it.  If you're up on world news, you know that Yogyakarta was the nearest Indonesian metropolis to the epicentre of a 6.2 earthquake on May 27.  The quake was felt in Jogja for 57 seconds at about 5.9 on the Richter scale.  Pretty devastating for a city like Jogja.  To make matters worse, Jogja is also the closest metropolis to Mount Merapi, the world's 6th most active volcano and it seems that Merapi has been spewing more lava than usual these days, likely disturbed by the earth's amazing movement about a month ago.  The whole place is just sort of waiting for it to erupt, except that the wiseman who lives at the base of the volcano thinks it won't.  Well if the wiseman says it won't, then it won't!  I can say that it is pretty surreal to see a mountain frothing steam... and we can see it from here as it is only about 70 KM to Merapi.

Liz and I made sure to get a good photo with the buff monkey warriors.

I am slightly more nervous that usual because the fact that we are going to Jogja at all is a bit of a surprise for us because were told that the tour had been rerouted to avoid the area.  But we discovered only a few days ago that our group will be the first group to return to Jogja since the quake.  Intrepid thought that the hotel owners really needed our business and the city in general needs to get its tourists back.  So on to Jodja we go!

Volcanos and earthquakes aside, Jogja is definitely a stop worth seeing on a tour of Indonesia.  There is a lot of history in this city and it is also the home to some amazing sites, including Borobudur Temple, one of the natural wonders of the world.  Oh, and there's incredible shopping here, because most of the production of assorted clothes, jewelery and other random tourist souvenirs are made in or around Jodja, then shipped to other areas of Indo, like Bali and Jakarta, where the price is promptly raised.  So lots to see!

We arrived in mid-afternoon and as we drove through the streets of Jogja, I was fairly impressed with the reconstruction efforts.  Udie had been preparing us for some major devastation, but the city looked downright vibrant.  I mean, Jogja is no KL or Bangkok, but it is a bustling place and some crumbling buildings were not going to stop the natural energy.  We had the lovely guesthouse all to ourselves -- good thing for other people! -- which included a really nice pool that the foot injury should prevent me from trying out  :( .  It is a fairly nice hotel and rather clean... no cockroaches so far (knock wood).

We had a few hours to kill before our first Jogja group meal, so Liz and I took off for the shopping district, Malioboro Street, in the heart of Jogja.  We arrived just in-time to witness the sunset -- see photo.  I think I need to be considering a career as a photographer for National Geographic after that one.  The street was pretty chaotic ... just the way I like it!  By the end of the adventure, I had purchased a new hot pink t-shirt with Bhasan words, so I have no idea what it says.  I hope it doesn't say something like, "All Canadians are ugly".

Dinner was some truly local food.  Udie is awesome about finding hole-in-the-wall places that we would never try and then explaining everything to us so that we know how to order.  It was another hand-only meal... and by placing my left hand under my thigh, I managed not to offend anyone!  Walking back to the hotel, the smell of something fabulous caught the attention of Liz, Rachel, Rosie, Jeff and I.  We just HAD to know what it was... IT was a baked loaf of bread, which was covered on the inside with chocolate and sweetened condensed milk and then fried in butter.   An entire loaf of bread.  All for about $0.70 CDN.  Liz, Rachel and I split one and it was quite heavenly.  I also took some photos of the production so that mum can try to replicate it at home.  ;)

The next morning, we were booked for a becak tour of Jogja's major sights.  Even though it was rainy and kinda cold (that's right, COLD), Liz and I huddled tight in our shared little becak -- see pic!  Our driver was hysterical.  He sang "My Heart Will Go On" after telling us that he had seen Titanic 4 times per WEEK when it was in theatres.  He then proudly told us that he knew the film's opening line and delivered it flawlessly, if I do say so myself.   He also sang us Evita's "Don't Cry for Me Argentina".  It was beautiful.  ;)

The first stop on the tour was a Batik Art Studio.  The point of the stop was to se how Batik art is created, but the tour part of the stop lasted about 3 minutes, and the shopping part of the trip lasted about 2 hours.  Seriously.  We all went NUTS exploring the reams and reams of paintings on the shop floor.  Within a few minutes we were all calling to each other, "Come look at this one!", "This one's GORGEOUS!", "I need to have that one!"  Batik is an interesting style of art whereby dyed candle wax is applied to a cloth material to make designs on any sort of textiles.  We were particularly interested in the paintings, but because they are just on ordinary cloth, they can be folded and manipulated, even washed!  It's really a pretty cool concept.  Wez showed me his favourite painting at one point and I absolutely fell in love with it.  Now, I don't know much about art.... pretty much nothing.  But I LOVED this painting.  Unfortunately, it was also HUGE... not ordinary huge, but absolutely GINORMOUS, to the order of 5 feet by 3.5 feet.  But I bought it anyway.  It is so fantastically beautiful and I just fell in love with it.  My first real painting I ever bought and it is a monster of one, too!  The best part: it folds to the size of my purse and when I get home, I just iron it smooth again.  Genius!  Then, I'll probably need to spend $500 or so to frame it... better not to think about it.  I'm really glad I bought it and it only cost $70 CDN, so I was pretty pleased with my deal, as well.

Feeling quite a bit poorer -- all of us purchased something, with the most being 10 paintings for one person! -- we huddled back into the becaks, which promptly drove us to the Sultan's Palace.  Now, after seeing Palaces in Thailand, I was expecting a PALACE, but this was ... well.... a humble palace.  Right.  We had a guided tour through the "Palace", but there wasn't too much to see and we quickly became very bored.  The high point in the tour was when a bunch of Indonesian school kids arrived, also to experience the riveting tour.  Within minutes, heaps of school girls were attacking Wez, taking pictures with him and talking to him.  He was just brimming.  We then had a good time pretending that he was some sort of Australian rock star or something.  It was pretty funny.  The school boys were not impressed at all with Wez monopolizing their girls either and they gave him death stares wherever he went.

Boredom on the tour also led us to chat up some foreign-looking dudes who turned out to be Americans finishing up a volunteering stint in Sumatra.  We exchanged some pleasantries and said good-bye to them when the tour was finally finished.

Next stop was the Water Palace.  The Water Palace is basically described as an extravagant water park playground built for one of the Javanese Sultans a really long time ago.  The "Palace" is thus not really a palace, but a big garden with gigantic pools built for the sole purpose of the Sultan's entertainment.  Our guide explained that the Sultan had a few harem (groups of mistresses), that he would bring to the pool.  He would then stand and gaze over the pool and select a woman from the harem to come visit him in his private pool.  The Queen would then approve the girl and if approved, the girl and the Sultan would retreat to another area.  We got quite the thorough tour.  Very interesting....

As this was our last stop, we were transported back to the Delta and after bidding a fond farewell to our crazy becak driver, Wez, Sara, Liz and I hit up a local restaurant for lunch.  It was a peaceful and quiet afternoon, which also included a well-needed nap and laundry pick-up.  We smell SO GOOD... I made everyone smell me, I smelled just that good.

Smelling good was especially important this night because we were off to the Ramanaya Open-Air Ballet for the evening.   I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, but over dinner, we discussed the famous Hindu story of Rama and Shinta.  During the ballet, this story would be acted out wordlessly through song and dance.  The scene was especially breathtaking because the stage is built in front of the Pengaran Temple ruins.  The pictures really don't do it justice.  We arrived in time for dusk to hit the temple and it was an amazing sight.  Unfortunately, the earthquake caused too much damage to the temple and they have not yet been able to open it to the public, so we could only look from outside.

Waiting for the big show, we feasted on a lovely buffet dinner, then, just before the show, our guide got us the opportunity to go back-stage and see the dancers preparing to go on.  We met most of the main characters and watched while they applied their layers of make-up.  It was extremely special.

We found our seats just as the show was about to start.  The music was played mostly through bells, gongs and bongo drums, creating a mesmerizing sound.  The dance was not so much ballet, but rhythmic movements, jumping and hand waving.  With the aid of a powerpoint projector, we were easily able to follow the story.  Not only was the show beautiful, what with the rich costuming, hypnotic dancing and delicious music, but the scenery possibly outstripped it all.  Soon after the show began, the moon made its slow ascent into the air, illuminating the ancient temple ruins, casting a white light over the shadows.  Despite the nearly full moon, the sky was full of stars and the evening night was cool.  It was better than Jack Johnson playing the Molson Amphitheater -- really.

At intermission, Liz, Wez and I once again ran into the dogooder Americans from the Sultan's Palace earlier that day.   Unlike our cheap seats, they had opted for the VIP section and one of the guys invited us to join them, since the theatre was about 1/4 full.  How could we say no to front-row seats and cushioned chairs?  The VIP seats just made the night that much sweeter.  After the show, we had a chance to climb on stage and take photos with the dancers.  Liz and I made sure to get a good photo with the buff monkey warriors.  ;)

The night just could not be improved upon after that, so we attacked the Internet before finally crashing in bed far too late!