Yogyakarta

July 10-11th, 2010 - Jakarta to Yogyakarta

Leaving Jakarta proved to be a little bit of a mix-up as, despite my brother's repeated warnings, we ended up at the wrong airport terminal (international instead of domestic). I had my first pangs of traveler's stress. Alice nipped that stress in the bud right away by putting some noodles in my food hole and I felt way better. We got to our terminal with plenty of time to spare, and the plane was an hour late taking off anyway so noodles, no noodles, no problem.

Upon arrival in Yogyakarta, the cultural centre of Java according to the all mighty Lonely Planet Indonesia, we made friends with two dutch girls and asked if we could share a cab to whatever hotel they were going to. To our dismay the hotel that they had booked could not accommodate us as this weekend is a holiday weekend in Indonesia to celebrate the Prophet Muhammad. Alice and I figured "no problem" and trekked out in search of a bed. Of all the 15 hotels on the block the only one with a room was the luxurious Eclipse Hotel which was asking more than double what we were willing to pay. We respectfully told them where to go (kidding), and moved on. Just as we gave up hope and Alice resorted to praying (thanks Cedar's Christian School), a woman on the street took pity on us and called her brother who happened to own the hotel she was sitting in front of. Bambang, the hotel keep, in an act of mercy, offered us the floor of his personal meditation room! What amazing luck! It turned out to be way better than anything we could have asked for.

Bambang is a Reiki master and over breakfast the topic of 'energy' came up and I showed him two piece of polished hematite (magnetic stones which may be sued in meditation) that I purchased on Granville Island prior to my departure. He was amazed and said he had never before actually seen magnets. Seeing his excitement I offered them to him in thanks for taking us in. He called them "a gift from God" and ran to show them to his wife. He returned with with two pieces of wood that he gathered from the forest and carved. He gave one piece to both Alice and I and said that the wood "has powerful protective spiritual energy" and "not to use it to hit anyone because your power will be too strong". It was a beautiful exchange.

This morning we hired a man named Simo who drove us all around Jogja. Simo had trained at university in Fine Arts, specializing in batik making, but because of the competition in the market has opted to provide tourists with transportation. Simo first took us to the Kraton Palace which was unfortunately closed due to special ceremony, so we went to see artists make the famous leather shadow puppets which are meticulously made using a mallet and chisels made from recycled motorcycle spokes.

We then went to the Water Castle which served as the living quarters for the sultan's wives, concubines, and daughter, followed by a visit to a silver shop.

I've been working at learning Indonesian and Javanese which has been very well received by locals and has been a lot of fun.

Alice is making plans for our next few days which should include temples, mountain hikes, bike rides, mango eating...enlightenment...the usual.

Hugs and kisses,
Dave and Alice

P.S. Alice saw another dead rat :) haha