Trip to Jogjakarta

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. 

The entry gate had carved panels. Rock it, Szuyin! We had to wear sarongs, to be properly respectful of the holy site. They hand them out at the gate.

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. 

And then the next morning we headed back to the airport, back to Bali, and back to Sibang, where we were half-asleep for work on monday, after running around for three days with such a busy schedule in Jogja. I'm so glad I got to see this city. It's nuts and wonderful. Everything is tasty, and the history is mind-blowing. OK, post about Jogja finally achieved! Better late than never, right!? Bye!

Incoming Photo Explosion

OK, because it looks like I'll never get a chance to write about visiting Jogja and Bromo, I'm just going to get the darn photos up, so I have some feeling of accomplishment! A warning, though. AS a group, we took over TWO THOUSAND photos just on the first day of the trip to Bromo, so there are a LOT to post here. I've tried to narrow it down. I'll break it up by event/day, and try to narrate a little. Basically, Java is really cool, and the people I get to travel with are even cooler. I'll see if I can post-date them, so they postin in order. . . . hmmm. 

Fishies are cool

 Hello all.
It's been a while since I updated, but the last three internet cafes i've gone to have had malfunctioning internet. So I'll make this quick. Since I last updated, I've done a bit of traveling. I went on an awesome trip to Malang, and will some time soon post a gargantuan update full of photos.

But, until then, please enjoy these! Last sunday I went out to east bali and went snorkeling in Padang Bay. Patricia, Szuyin, Tanti and I piled into a car and headed east for a couple of hours, and finally found our way to a little beach called Blue Lagoon. Have to admit, when we first arrived, it was kinda disappointing  It was a tiny little cove with loads of trash everywhere. Plastic was scattered over the thin beach, and floating in the waves. It was kinda gross. But we decided to suck it up and go in anyways. 

And Once we got into the water, I was pleasantly surprised! Under the floating debris was a pretty huge patch of garden coral, just covered in bright fish! I caught a few snapshots with my snazzy little waterproof camera. The pics dont do justice to just how incredibly bright the fish were. Especially the huge blue fish I was chasing for a while, who refused to pose. 

I only snapped a few pick because I spent most of my time just floating there, bobbing in the current, enjoying quietly watching the fish go about their business. This little trip served two purposes. One, to get the heck out of Denpasar and not stare at a computer for a whole day. And Two, to get excited about learning how to dive! That's right! Tomorrow I start scuba diving lessons! I'm signed up for a PADI open-water course based out of Sanur, but we should be taking several dives up and down the east coast, so I will hopefully have lots to report about that soon. Wish me luck! 

Oh, and on the way to Padang Bay is Gua Lawah, the Bat Cave Temple. We stopped by briefly to check it out. it's fairly small and simple, but there is a cave full of the most chattery bats i've ever seen. It was actually rather impressive. A little gross, too. oh, the weird things you can find here. . . . 

That's all for now folks. Hope all is well!

PS. Happy New Year! Tomorrow is Islamic New Year,  so the new moon tonight marks the beginning of year 1434 AH (al- Hijriyah). Incidentally, this corresponds with a full solar eclipse today, visible from parts of Australia! Unfortunately, I totally missed it here, but oh well. 

Malaysia, Truly Asia

KUALA LUMPUR IS AWESOME! GO THERE!

But seriously, do. It's my new favorite asian city, thanks in no small part to the lovely Pui Shen Yoong, and her parents. For some reason I didn't get a single photo of Shen while I was there (Argh), but here are her awesome parents taking me to breakfast. Basically, they just drove me from awesome food to awesome food, so they are A-okay in my book. Seriously nice people. Hi Shen's parents! You Rock! I hope I see you again! Thanks for the Roti Pisang! 

And then I went into the center of the city to "Study for the GRE" which translated to drooling all over myself as I stared at this for an afternoon:

 

BAM.  

And then I got to go all the way to the top! Obligatory awkward tourist photo alert: (complete with high altitude bird poop!)

And here we are again. I think I have a crush on the Petronus towers. 

Yeah, drool everywhere. I also saw other parts of KL, and ate lots of food, and figured out the subway system. However, I didn't take any photos of this, because the internet made me paranoid about purse snatching and pickpockets, so I rarely took my camera with me. So you're just going to have to trust me when I say that this city is wild. And full of EVERYTHING you could imagine. including, most crucially, PERSIMMONS. For those of you who don't know it, a persimmon is a small orange fruit that tastes PERFECT. It is the best fruit in the world. times a zillion. And for some reason it is impossible to find. But in the morning market with Shen's parents, I found BOXES of them. and proceeded to eat BOXES of them. mmmmm. Good bye persimmons. I will miss you. 

OK, will post more about the things I saw in KL soon. Also, I owe you all a post about visiting Jogja. I have spent a lot of time on planes, recently, hopping all over, and feel very much part of the jet set. Next week, we're off to visit Bromo, too. So more adventures to come!   Goodnight!

OK, so I just finished a monster updating marathon. I've split things into several posts, so you dont have to read everything at once. They are nowhere near chronological, so enjoy as you please. Thanks for your patience, and thans for still reading! Enjoy!

Love,
Arianna

Perfect Postcard Bali

Postcard Bali

On one more weekend of exploring more of Bali, Yustiana and her friend Inda invited Szuyin and me to come with them to eastern Bali, in the area just past Candidasa. And there, marked by a little hand-painted blue sign and down a long dirt road with a slope that would be illegally steep in the states, we found THIS:

Now THIS is what im talking about.  Apparently this is what Seminyak was like 5-10 years ago. There were definitely tourists, and definitely tourist oriented warungs, but there wasn’t the mad rush and crush of people. Just a couple dozen swimmers, and a few fishermen, chilling.

Also, I FINALLY got to drink out of a coconut.  I will now post pictures of food. I apologize, but I mean, look! THIS IS WHAT I’m TALKING ABOUT! Awwww yeah.  Basically, if I weren’t so sunburn-prone, I would stay here forever. Right here, on this chair. 

So, after a full day or doing absolutely nothing, and loving it, we stopped in Inda's city (again forgetting the name) and went to a night market! This was awesome. Tons of people out with lots of littel stalls selling everything from brooms to CDs to underwear food. Lots and lots of food.  So, naturally, we ate. 

And what we ate: This is not grilled chicken. This is, straight up, "a chicken: grilled."  I will henceforth call this "Flattened Chicken." It looks like some medieval torture threat, ..... but, my goodness, it is TASTY. 

And with that delectable image, I leave you. My internet cafe has got tired of me and is closing up shop. Good night everybody. Hope you are all well. 

Bamboo Harvesting

So the other time I ventured north was to watch how bamboo is harvested. We followed one of the PTBP employees who selects bamboo, and went an hour by bike to the area of Bangli.

We then met a group of raggle-taggle local logger dudes and jumped into a truck. (for those of you on  Dartmouth Woodsmen's Team or Crew, this is the Balinese equivalent of Pup Blodgget and Steaky the Truck, and friends.)

Hi ho, hi ho....

 We headed along an bone-jarringly potholed road for a bit, and along a path for another few minutes.  And then we went down. Straight down. We did not realize that the bamboo would be at the bottom of a freaking RAVINE. Poor Szuyin had on flip-flops!  Eventually we climbed/slid down to the bottom, and set off along/in the stream to find the bamboo.  Once we had located the bamboo, tested its density, and selected the one we wanted, the logger dudes took over.  I just stood there, transfixed.  I was absolutely sure that I was about to see a man get crushed to death by giant bamboo. I’m still not sure how that didn’t happen. Again, for those of you with Dartmouth woodsmen, they proceeded to break every rule of chain saw safety you every told me.  Literally every one. Every one. And continued smoking through it all.

This is my scared face!

The greatest mystery of all is, other than “how are you still alaive with all your limbs” of course, how the heck do you get the giant mutant grass out fo the giant ravine? Unfortunately this will remain a mystery, as they said they would leave the Ptung culm there to dry out a bit before hauling it out by some alternate rout. Presumably by magic. So we just scrambled back up the clif, and hoped back in the Balinese Steaky, and headed farther north. Here we found a pile of drying felled Ptung that was ready to be loaded onto the truck. Bamboo is light, but still, I was amazed to see these men each lift a 4-meter section of giant bamboo onto a shoulder and calmly toss it into the back of the truck.  After they had loaded everything, they perched on top, we climbed back in the cab, and headed homeward.

After this experience, I spent about there days trying to design things with only the absolute minimum number of columns, cause I now have a whole new respect for how much effort it takes to harvest each one of the dozens of bamboo stalks that come into the work-yard every day.  Eventually, I realized you cant build a bamboo house with only 3 pieces of bamboo, but still…. Just wow.

Also, bamboo is freakishly big. This is a species of GRASS. Like the little things in your front yard. It’s just giant, mutant grass.  When I think too hard about this, things get weird.