So, Widhi got surprise married. As in, he mentioned that he was getting married about 3 weeks before the actual date. It's weird, by american standards, but here it seems to be a pretty normal length for an engagement. He got married to the lovely Dia, Who he's been dating for 8 years since college. They are adorable together.
They got married in Jogja! So a whole feet of people form the office headed over to southern Java for along weekend. Before the wedding, we trooped around some of the coolest historical ruins in all of Indonesia Plus, Jogja is an amazing, busy, hip, artistic city, and we had a blast. Here are about 30 of the better photos form the trip. This seems like a lot, but it is a small sampling of the millions of photos we took.
First up: Prambanan. A 9th-century Hindu temple, the largest in Indonesia, and covered in amazing relief sculptures. The central temple to Shiva is over 47 meters tall. How you do this in 850 c.e. I have no idea. Weirdly, the temple was basically abandoned 100 years after it was built. Since then it crumbled under volcanic eruptions earthquakes, and looters But in the last century, restoration efforts have rebuilt the central platform. Now the central temples stand, huge, heavy and imposing, surrounded by acres of rubble, sorted in to neat piles, and awaiting re-assembly like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
Check it out:
The central platform. Once this was surrounded by over 200 other temples. Now justt the central 8 remain. Still impressive.
The bas relief is incredibly detailed, incredibly deep, and incredibly extensive:
Each temple is home to a specific life-sized statue fo it's particular god. Not actually sure who this is, but he's very majestic.
So. Much. Rubble.
We also went to the nearby Ratu Boko, Which is a ruined palace from the 9th century. Very little of it is left except for a lot of steps and a couple of very cool tripple gates. This is where I got madly sunburned. We also chatted with an old guy in a cave who reads people's future. Totally normal, no biggie.
Later we hung out in one of the city squares in Jogja. These places are hopping at night, full of cheap, fast, delicious food served at low tables and mats on the floor. We had some tasty unidentifiable fried stuff, and watched these crazy gocarts go round in circles. These are push-pedal operated bicycle/car things, covered in all sorts of crazy lights and designs. A group of friends will rent it for a few thousand rupia and then just do slow laps of the green. There are dozens of them, and it's super crowded and noisy and awesome. Everything from Doraemon to Angry Birds to swans to this guy, all in bright neon, and blasting music:
At the center of the green stand two giant trees. Legen has it that if you can walk from one side of the green blindfolded and make your way to either the male or female tree, you will be granted a wish. This is actually really hard, but after watching Putra and Szuyin do it a few times, I tried it out. You get three tries, and I manage to do it! You are probably supposed to pray or meditate or clear your mind and let the spirits guide you, or something but with a cunning use of aural cues form the river of traffic, I got all the way to the door in the fence of the female tree! Not just once, but twice! And I attracted quite a crowd of onlookers, wondering what this crazy Bule was up to. Some guy even asked if he could take a vido of my attempt, so now im in some rando's vacation movie. Odd, but ok.
Day Two! Borobudur! Another giant mountain of stone built in the 9th century. This time by Buddhists. Seriously, huge stone mountains were all the rage in the 800s.
Then there were a lot of steps to climb. 
And lots of headless Buddha Statues. Odd, but cool.
At the top are all these awesome Bell-like enclosures.
And each one has another life-size buddha meditating inside.
The While crew, valiantly descending the crazy stairs. This was not a climb for the fain of heart... or knee.
And, the, we headed off to the wedding, since that was technically the reason we got to go galavanting around Jogja in the first place.
Awwwwwwwwww:
I wont post a lto about the wedding here, since that's their business, not mine, but suffice to say it was lovely, funny and a lot of fun. They are christian, so it was a much more familiar affair than many full on Hindu or Muslim weddings, but still, i saw some awesome fashion. Those are the two mothers-of in the foreground, rocking matching purple lace. Awesome. Then the happy couple had to pose with approximately a gazzillion photos with everyone in the universe. There was much wonderful food. Aaaaaawwwwww.
The next day, we headed out to do some serious shopping. This is a major traditional market in Jogja. Its mostly enclosed. And very very very busy.
You can get everything from complicated and brocade-heavy Muslim Indonesian wedding dresses ...
.... to CROCs galore....
And a million tipes of tasty foodstuffs I have no names for.
Like this coconut-and-syrup-and-Agar-and-other-stuff-over-ice drink mix which looks super weird and tastes AMAZING.
I even became some kids' homework! They had to ask a foreigner some questions to practice their english for class. So, I chatted with a bunch of 15 year old boys about my favorite food, and where I had been to in Java and stuff. It is weird having people write down everything you say, but they were really funny and nice about it.
We also went in to a large shop were we got to watch a lady make batik right there in front of us!
And we got to try out Luwak, the cat-poo coffee, too! It's actually quite tasty!
Later that night we went to this other random Palace in the city, for which I have no explanation. It was weird and beautiful. The museum was closed, when we got there, but a guy we met led us around back and up onto his family's roof to peer into one of the back courtyards. It was such a strange style, and very enchanting under the rising full moon.
Nearby was a shop selling tons of Batik, and I fell in love with this little beauty. So may colors, SO vibrant ( in person, sorry for the dim photo). So much detail. Sigh.
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