A week in Java

We landed in Java in the port city of Surbaya at 6am. Much to Lindsay and Chris' dismay us Gohmann's have a habit for booking flights that leave no later than sunrise. From Surbaya we experienced our first bus travel of the trip down to the quaint college town of Malang. The three hour trip was remarkably smooth, and we were fortunate enough to even have entertainment during the trip (Indonesian karaoke blaring the whole way).

Malang was our base camp for Volcano #2 of our trip, Mt. Bromo. It turned out to be a great little city and our first glimpse at a less touristy and more authentic Indonesia life. While severely lacking sleep throughout our stay in Malang we managed to explore much of the city including the pandemonium of the local bird market (see photo of Chris to the right), and sample some fantastic foods including soto ayam (chicken noodle soup) and bakso (a delicious soup with meatballs).

Mt. Bromo. In order to get to Mt. Bromo for sunrise we left from Malang at 1am, arriving at 4am to begin our accent. We decided to be a bit spartan and do the hike up to the volcano summit sans guide. This soon proved to be a bit disastrous, as within a few minutes of our hike we were stumbling through the the darkness of the volcanic lunar landscape in temperatures barely above freezing. Fortunately our wandering became slightly less aimless as the sun began to peak its first rays over the crater rim and out of seemingly nowhere a band of touts began to offer us horse rides to volcano. We spent the remainder of the day soaking up the sun's warmth and the breathtaking views (see below).

Yogykarta
Aka Yogya (pronounced Johg-Ja)- bustling city of about three million people all governed by a sultan who lives in a big walled palace in the middle of the city. Something we may not have mentioned before is that is is Ramadan here and as you may or may not know, Indonesia is majority Muslim. Translation for us-we are not supposed to eat/drink on the street and a bunch of places are closed for lunch, or you eat behind a curtain, so people on the street don't have to watch you eat. Otherwise, we have been told that Yogya is normally filled with much more traffic-which has been nice to miss, since we felt it was already pretty busy. In addition, we hear the call to prayer throughout the night, esp 3am-5am as it is projected over a loud speaker from all mosques. After asking around though, we have been told that this happens all year round, not just during Ramadan.

Back to Yogya. On the first day, Sarah tripped on the uneven sidewalks of the city and awkwardly landed on her foot, causing it to bruise and swell up. Fearful that she had broken something, she and Chris headed to the hospital the next morning, while Mark and I went to visit the sultan's palace. Fully expecting Sarah and Chris to be at the ER all day-we found them relaxing at our lovely hotel (which had both a pool and a gym) upon on return. Turns out it was one of the nicest hospitals they had ever been to and they received the royal treatment-in and out in one hour and no broken foot! Great news. An aside-please see photo below of us trying to work off some Nasi Goreng (fried rice) and Mie Goreng (fried noodles) at the old school hotel gym. We have been eating a lot of both.

The walled palace was cool-Mark and I saw some traditionally dressed women, ritualistically bringing the sultan his lunch under an umbrella. We also did a walking tour of the city with a great guide named Alice, who kinda just acted as our friend while we walked around the city for five hours.

Mark trying his hand at making a traditional leather puppet....



One of the many sweet graffiti clad walls in Yogya...



We also took two day trips from Yogyakarta two see two large temples-Prambanan and Borobudur. Prambanan is a Hindu temple built in the 9th century and consists of three central temples dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma and many smaller shrines around it. The central temple is about 60 meters tall and all three temples were an incredible sight to see. It reminded me of being at Macchu Picchu since all of the stones have no mortar between them and are carved to perfectly fit together. On the evening of our visit to Prambanan we watched a traditional dance performance on an outdoor stage with the temples glowing behind. Another aside-before the dance performance began, an earthquake struck. It was nothing major-but enough to feel everything shaking a bit for about one minute. Sarah and Chris are used to this having lived in LA, but it was my first earthquake and it totally weirded me out. I kept thinking I was feeling aftershocks for a couple days after.

Interesting wall carving at Prambanan, though I forgot this bearded dudes name...



The gang in front of Prambanan...






Borobudur was also an incredible sight. It is a Buddhist temple, with ten levels forming a pyramid. The trip to the top represents the path to nirvana-with the bottom level full of stone carvings that depict people enjoying life's vices and the apex of the structure symbolizing nirvana. The carvings were incredibly well preserved (the structure was not "rediscovered" until about 1814) under volcanic ash from the three volcanoes nearby. The top of the monument was void of decoration, carvings or buddha statues (of which there were hundreds on the monument) symbolizing the nothingness and serenity of nirvana. It was pretty impressive.

Lindsay Trying to reach inside the wall and rub the Buddha's foot for good luck...


Us in front of the mighty Borobudur....


Taking a break on our journey towards enlightenment....


Random aside-on the way back from Borobudur we stopped to pick up a loaf of grilled bread called Roti. It was made hot, right in front of us at a street food cart. There were an infinity of possible fillings to put inside the bread including nuts, jams, butter, chocolate, fruit, but we really went all out and asked for chocolate and cheese! We watched as the chef slathered the bread with butter, condensed milk, chocolate, and cheese and grilled every side of the loaf to perfection. Needless to say it was one of the most glorious things i have ever eaten. We made it back to our lovely hotel in Yogya and though we were sad to go, we left in the morning to head to the airport for a quick one night stop in Singapore to renew our Indonesian visas.

Achieving Nirvana.....