2 Months... Already?

Alas, as the 54^th and 55^th days in Indonesia come to be we must begin to say good bye to the enchanting Archipelago we have called home for 2 months. Accordingly, this will be our last blog entry from Indonesia. Once we return home we will find a number of different ways to share a more in-depth account of our travels. Look for a web gallery of all the good ones to come soon! We’ll keep you up to date.

Speaking of up-to-date, here’s our latest! Since arriving in Yogyakarta (jogja) we have been keeping a feverish pace as we attempt to experience Java’s cultural capitol. We spent our first afternoon and evening acclimating ourselves to our surroundings. Jogja at first glance seems much like any other mid-sized Indonesian city that we’ve visited so far but as we got comfortable in our new surroundings we discovered a city with a lot of spirit and charm. It is considerably cleaner here, people seem to make a real effort to keep garbage off the streets and keep their city beautiful. Yogyakarta also happens to be the location of Java’s last remaining Sultanship. Here, Javanese arts are as alive as anywhere else in Java. Puppet shows recount Javanese myth while local artisans spend up to 1 week or more creating paintings or apparel using the traditional Batik method of dyeing. The area surrounding Yogya is covered in rice terraces but is also rich in history and adventure. These sights include Borobudur, the world’s largest Buddhist (now a minority in Indonesia) monument; Prambanan, a brilliant Hindu temple (also a minority on Muslim Java); and an active volcano, Merapi.

Our first morning in Yogyakarta, we awoke to the hymns rising from a Church next door. We spent our breakfast consisting of coffee, pancake, fresh fruit and malaria pills pouring over maps and our lonely planet book and charting our adventure for the next few days. Our first stop: Borobudur! Borobudur is the awe-inspiring Buddhist temple erected during the Buddhist dynasty in Java in the 8^th century A.D. It had since been buried in a pile of angry ruble by Merapi and had undergone 2 renovations in the 20^th century. We explored its 10 terraces and wandered among its 200+ Stupas (the bell shapes found around the architecture). Our guide explained the symbolism of level and guided us around the terraces, telling us the story told by the reliefs sculpted around the walls. The bottom level of Borobudur is decorated with scenes from normal life, filled with desire and illusion of transient beings. The levels 2-6 are in process and the story is of a young prince named Siddartha who is on a spiritual path and eventually reaches enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. This is the story of the Bhudda. The 7th through 10th terraces represent heaven or Nirvana, a state of perpetual enlightenment achieved through meditation and the removal of desire. Here we hiked around with Buddha sculptures and enjoyed the amazing views of Merapi and the the beautiful countryside. A glimpse of heaven... literally, ha.

On our way out of the Borobudor area we decided to stop at a few other smaller Buddhist temples which were interesting on a smaller scale, but what really intrigued us was the Mendut Buddhist monastary attached to one of the temples. Here amongst the clean architecture and pristine grounds of the monastary we happened upon a robbed man sitting alone in a dark hall. His legs were crossed flat on the ground, his back straight and attentive, his rob flowing down around his body to the floor, with his shaved head looking calmy ahead away from us he looked much like a stupa sitting there silently. Eventually, he slowly rose and turned around to see us there watching in interested silence. He had a genuine smile and we were able to spend a good solid hour learning about Buddhism, his branch of Buddhism, what it is like to be Buddhist in Indonesia, and the functions of the Monastary. It turns out that our friend had been at the monastary for about 2 months. He was studying to become a monk (like a pastor in the Christian tradition) and before his time at the monastary he was working in the computer industry. We have no doubt that he will make an excellent teacher as we were able to learn so much from him.

Still on our way home, after stretching our minds with new knowledge and new ideas we stretched our bodies with a game of volley ball with some locals at their village court. I would call it sand volley ball, but these tough guys played on more of a dust/dirt court. Village volley ball might sound pretty relaxed, but thats not whats going through your mind when a man substantially shorter than you effortlessy springs feet off the ground and stuffs a volleyball over the net right past or through you, which ever happens to be case.

The next morning we jumped on our motorbikes and headed to the Kraton. The Kraton is the palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. The 10th Sultan still rules as king over his own small compound. Additionally his highness holds real legitimate political sway as governor of Yogya. The 9th sultan played a large role in the formation of the Republic of Indonesia and even served as Vice President for a time. He introduced Boy Scouting to Indonesia and was a leader for youth sports. Moving on from the palace we took a walk to the Bird Market. Here exotic birds and exotic animals could be found from the entire Archipelago of Indonesia, which we must say is pretty... exotic. Huge bats, iguanas, puppies, snakes, baby monkeys, crickets, roosters, birds from the jungle, and cute little bunnies could all be found in this black market bazaar. Next we were able to walk through an underground mosque from past use of the Sultans and here we ran into a famous band having a photo shoot (at least they said they were famous... around Yogya). Next we went to see the Water Palace which was mostly destroyed by an earthquake a few years back. This water palace served as a Harem for past Sultans. Returning to our Hotel the evening our day was really just beginning. It was time for our next adventure!

At 10pm we hopped into a van and headed for our next target: Genung Merapi! The famous steep volcano looming at Yogya's horizon. The same volcano whose stones were quarried to construct the timeless Borobudur monument. The same volcano that would later erupt and cover that timeless monument. The same volcano that still flows lava down its face from time to time. Merapi! After some tea we started our hike at 1 am from the village of Selo. We hiked for hours through town, farms, forest and onto a platuea in complete darkness. We pushed on for another 45 minutes up a steep face of loose boulders made of porous volcanic stone and warmed our hands next to venting gases against the cold morning air. We summitted far above the clouds and waited for the sun to join us at the top of Merapi. As the sun broke the horizon we could see the tops of other mountains peak through the whispy landscape of white below us. Anders and I made good time on the way down jumping, jogging and sliding our way down to the village. Back in Yogya we took a 2 hour power nap and jumped back onto our motorbikes and headed for Prambanan! Prambanan is a complex of many amazing Hindu temples. Seeing Hindu temples is rare in Java as most of Indonesias Hindu devotees reside in Bali. We ran about and enjoyed the magic of the place and then made it to a large stage before night fall. We spent the next two hours enjoying the Hindu epic of Ramayana as a traditional Ballet. It was an awesome story complete with love, jealousy, battle, mystical monkeys, magic birds, arrows flying, and of course a huge fire on stage.

Today we slept in to the ripe old time of 8 am and made our way to witness the Batik process of creating beautiful artwork at an art center. Then we had lunch. Now, we have had the pleasure of eating some pretty interesting cuisine on this trip, but we think our meal today might take the prize for "rare delicacy." Cobra is a surprisingly tasty meat, a little chewy and full of nutrition. It makes a great curry and also goes down well fried. It is a very social meal as it takes some effort to pull the meat from all those tiny rib bones so we shared it with our friend Charles from the Czech Republic. It was a large family style meal and it filled us to the brim! What a way to say goodbye to the island of Java.

Tonight we fly to Bali and spend tonight there and have tomorrow to surf and really sure up our Indonesian tan before jumping across the puddle back to the good ole United States. We really look forward to seeing you all soon! Thank you for checking in on our blog and as I mentioned we will be sure to keep you up to date with more photos and stories when we return home. Bye!