Bromo - Kalibaru

July 24

8:52am Jakarta time 

My alarm went off at 3:15am and I was out of bed by 3:17am. I had a shirt, my long sleeve running shirt and my running jacket on. I had a bandana covering my head and ears and I had long pants on. It wasn't as cold as I thought it would be when we walked out of the hotel. We loaded into the jeep and we were on our way. 

The ride up was narrow and winding. It was also very dark. Marion and I were squished in the front seat with the driver and Sinne, Camilla, Henne, and Katie were squished in the back on long seats. It was about a 45 minute drive up another mountain that was past the volcano next to Bromo. 

On the way up, Katie was telling us how she didn't really feel too well. She said, "I think the worse possible thing could be getting diarrhea on top of this mountain." I said, "There could be much worse things like getting robbed or murdered." Katie responded with, "Well, I can replace my belonging but I can't replace my modesty." It was really cute. Plus, with her British accent she makes everything sound so nice and proper. Even when she's taking about diarrhea or vomit. Gotta love it.

When we got to the top, it was around 4:10am. The sun rises around 5:30am. So we had a long time to wait. At this point, it was dark, freezing, and extremely foggy. By the end it was light, freezing, and extremely foggy. Unfortunately, we didn't see too much. However, Marion and I did end upstanding near some Indonesian students and having a long conversation with them. The highlights probably included them asking to take a million photos with us, and then them showing us a video of them doing the Harlem shake in their dorm room. It's on you tube and its hilarious. I hope I can find it. Needless to say, there was no sunrise. Just dark fog and then light fog. But, it was worth a shot! I can safely say that is the most expensive fog I have seen considering I paid $7.50 for the trip up there. Since all my sunrise trips haven't worked out, I wasn't too surprised or too disappointed. At least I can say I tried. And, I got a great photo of Marion's magnet with what we should have seen.

On the way back, we could see a great view of the larger volcano next to Bromo and we got to stop and take photos of that which was nice. Unfortunately, Katie wasn't feeling too well. She ended up dry heaving for a bit. Luckily she had not eaten anything yet so there was nothing for her to puke up. Jillienne is also not feeling great. I'll probably jinx it by saying this now and who knows if it is even true but I am convinced I now have a stomach of steel. 

On the way back, I had a scary thought. When another vehicle was coming toward us I totally thought okay go to the left. But at home, it would be the right. Not good. 

I had a warm shower (felt amazing!) and we had breakfast and then took another trip in the mini buses back down the mountain. I think the best words I can find to describe the trip is like a roller coaster ride but probably way less safe. It's a right squeeze with 2 way traffic and we definitely don't have seat belts or anything. 

At the bottom of the mountain we got into our large coach again. We are headed to Kalibaru (we will see where Java coffee is grown and harvested). Unfortunately this means we have about a 6 hour drive to get there. We do have 3 stops though so it will take longer than 6 hours total. At least I will have time to sleep since I was up so early! 

11:31am Jakarta time 

It rained pretty hard for about an hour earlier. It's really the first rain we've seen on this lag of the trip. 

I'm really going to miss looking out the window and seeing SE Asia. It's so beautiful and colorful and lively. Home is so boring. But maybe when I come home Ill find something beautiful about home too. Although I am pumped to get out of Asia because I can't stand anymore Asian food, I will definitely miss it. 4 more days on tour in Asia...

11:50am Jakarta time 

It's pretty crazy how as westerners we come over here and try to find clean food and clean water. But in reality, a lot of the people who live over here don't even have those luxuries. So many people bathe and drink from polluted water. Quite often there will be food sold on the street that you always see locals eating but we can't eat it because the ice isn't safe or the knife isn't clean. Some people don't even have running water. Scratch that, most people. This may come off sounding rude but the way people can survive here off of almost nothing (especially compared to our lives at home) is actually kind of amazing. Panji said that only about 2% of Indonesians have the money to travel outside of the country so I'm sure they just don't even know any different. It doesn't really seem fair. 

3:18pm Jakarta time 

We just arrived at our hotel in Kalibaru. And holy monkeys! This resort is amazing! It's so nice and its really beautiful too! Unfortunately, it is raining which really sucks because there are trees and plants and gorgeousness and a pool all around us. It's not just raining, it's down pouring. But, we have been very lucky so far so I can't complain too much. Hopefully it downpours today and gets it all out so we don't have rain on the rest of the Bali part of the trip or tomorrow so we can see the coffee plantation. I'm excited about going to Bali. I feel like it will be very different from the rest of Indonesia and I am ready for a change again.

We now have until 7pm to do nothing... Time to catch up on the blog I guess.

Later the next day

Well, I did some blogging but the chanting from the call to prayer for the Muslims was so loud and horrible sounding that I ended up listening to music to drown out the sounds most of the afternoon. I wonder if the Indonesians who are not Muslim ever get annoyed or if they are just used to it. In Nepal the call to prayer was just a bell. Way nicer sounding...

For dinner I had chicken steak with mushroom sauce which was chicken, not a steak. It came with veggies and fries. They call the fries fried potatoes. And, it seems to be a theme that the food here is not normally served hot. Which is actually kind of gross. I think they make it earlier in the day and just use a heat lamp or something? Either way, not the best tasting food. The chicken was okay, but not better than any mushroom sauce I would be able to get at home.

That evening I mostly hung out with Jillienne and Katie in their room. Jillienne has been having really bad stomach pains all day and luckily, she was finally able to go to the bathroom. All she ate all day was rice for dinner. 

The other highlight of the evening was supposed to be the shower. Everyone was raving about how amazing it was. It was in the bathroom but on the side of it there were plants growing (I think they were fake though). The water was actually a stream and it didn't take long to get your hair wet or wash your body. But in my opinion, it was a shower. 

This resort is the largest and nicest we will stay in on the trip, but the rest of the trip is also resorts. And beaches. And Bali! So it is now time to relax. Maybe I will snorkel. We will see how the weather and visibility and beach is.

Tour of the coffee plantation tomorrow!

Malang - Bromo

July 23

10:06am Jakarta time 

This morning Panji took us to walk around Malang for an hour. There's not too much to see her. But it was still interesting to me. Jillienne wasn't too fond of it and thought it was a waste of time. She seems really disappointed with the Indonesian part of the trip. The one thing I am a little bummed about is that we are going to Bali but not the nice part of Bali. Panji said the most beautiful areas are South Bali and we are going to North Bali. Panji is from paradise so I'm sure the Bali part will be fine, but maybe not like Koh Phangan. We shall see. 

We saw the city hall which was a big white building with a large fountain in front of it. The fountain had a bunch of lotus flowers in it. Panji said that at one point it was completely burned down because when the Dutch were trying to take over, the Indonesians didn't want them to have it. So they thought logically... If we can't have it, you can't have it either and they burnt it down. Clever ones!

Tobacco and sugar industries are the biggest in East Java. But here, they smoke a different type of cigarette with cloves in it. It smells really nice actually. 

We then went through a flower market and an animal market. The flower market was huge. Just street after street. There was every kind of plant you could ever want to find. They even have mud squares with grass growing on it for people to buy and lay out on their garden. The animal market was ridiculous. Literally cages lined the streets as far as the eye could see. They were full of every kind of bird possible, cats, dogs, these animals that are like a cat/pharrot/dog mix that make a special kind of coffee, lizards, we even saw a bat in a cage. There were little chicks that were dyed different colors so children will want to buy them! I've never seen anything like it before.

We then had half an hour to walk around the city center which really didn't have anything in it. There was a church, a mosque, a nice park, and a McDonald's. other things as well, but that was pretty much what we saw. McDonald's was a good bathroom stop. 

We now have an hour drive to lunch and then I think another hour to the village we need to leave the bus behind in. We then have 45 minutes on small mini buses to get up to our hotel in Mt Bromo. Panji said the hike is only an hour and a half and not too bad. He does it in sandals so I will just wear my shoes, not my hiking boots. Tomorrow morning I am going to take a rover to a view point at sunrise to view Mt Bromo from above. Panji said normally climbing isn't an issue but he's a little worried about it because there is a special festival now where the locals climb it and place offerings in the volcano. So that could be cool to see.

11:30am Jakarta time 

Sudanese Javanese and Madurese are the 3 different cultures on Java. Madurese and Javanese are on eastern java. The Madurese are considered more rude/open. The Javanese are mostly in Yogyakarta and the Sudanese were in Cianjur but I think mostly western java. Panji made it sound like they all have different cultures and languages but I'm not positive.

1:48pm Jakarta time 

It took us about 2 and a half hours to get to the restaurant on the side of the highway. I hadn't had rice in a few days so I ordered Nasi Cap Cay which is rice with vegetables. It's apparently Chinese. It was okay. Everyone has been raving about the Indonesian candy bar "Silver Queen" so I had to try it. I think the main ones have milk chocolate and cashews but I also saw milk chocolate and almonds. I got a dark chocolate with cashews. Tasty. 

Everyone is popping motion sickness pills for our drive up to Mt Bromo. I have never been around so many people with motion sickness before. It's like literally half the people in the group. Hopefully we make it in time to get the hike in today. We should. 

Panji said after Mt Bromo it is mostly resorts and we begin the relaxing part of our trip. Indonesia has actually been pretty laid back compared to the rest of my trip. It seems like we have a lot of down time with really not that much to do. Which I guess I really am fine with considering how exhausting I know go go going all the time is!

6:21pm Jakarta time 

We just climbed Mt Bromo. It is definitely busy ha. There were so many people around. It is the new year on their calendar here. Panji said it is mostly Hindu people. For the new year they climb Bromo and throw offerings into the  volcano. Most of the celebrations will start at midnight tonight and continue through all day tomorrow. 

We transferred into a small mini bus that brought us up to the hotel. We can see Bromo from the hotel. The roads to get here were very steep and windy. Also vary narrow, unlike in the Cameron Highlands. We are at 2,500 meters above sea level now. When we got here water bottle tips exploded off and bags of cookies and chips were fully expanded with air. It was about a 40 minute ride in the mini bus. The scenery was beautiful as well. And we were driving through small towns or villages. It was pretty cool. Because of the celebration though there was a lot of traffic.

When we got to the hotel we had about 15 minutes before we began the hike to Bromo. In a spare moment we had, I asked Panji about the significance of Ramadan. On the bus earlier I was thinking how I really had no idea why Ramadan is celebrated. He said that it is a month when the Muslim god asks the people to remember the poor. So because the poor don't have much food and only eat leftovers in the morning and night, they fast all day for the month. It is also supposed to be healthy for you and make you stronger in the body, mind, and spirit. I had no idea that was the purpose behind Ramadan and I think that's actually pretty cool! It's a nice thought at least. The people here though are Hindu and do not celebrate Ramadan.

We started on our way to Bromo. We could see it right away. And I will not lie. I had no expectations for this and I had no idea what it would look like but it was stunning. Absolutely beautiful. It was so flat and the sand is darker. Then there are volcanos rising from the ground. Very very cool. There is a temple at the bottom of the volcano as well. 

We walked down a large hill to the sand. Then we walked across sand for a while, mostly flat. Then we started a climb upward. This was actually kind of difficult because of the thick sand. I felt like for every step forward I took, I slid back half a step. But, eventually we made it to the bottom of Bromo. This was exciting, except there was still 243 stairs to climb to get to the top of the volcano. No one actually told me this. I counted them myself. 

There was a steady flow of people climbing and descending the stairs. There were a lot of people climbing up with things to offer to the volcano as well. Live chickens, fruit, vegetables, live goats (although we didn't see that get thrown over), money. Pretty much anything. It was really interesting. And, there were people standing all around the top throwing things down. Then, when you look down, there were actually people in the volcano, catching things people were offering. They said they are supposed to catch them and throw them down at midnight, but Panji thought some of the people looked suspicious because they were wearing hijabs like Muslim women wear. He thinks they are going to take the stuff and resell it later.

The volcano was smoking though. There was a ton of smoke inside it and from far away you could even see the smoke rising from it. I thought I heard Panji say something about it erupting in November and they evacuate the town but I could be completely wrong. It isn't a lava volcano either.

We then descended the 243 stairs and walked across the flat, sandy landscape only to have to them climb the hill up to our hotel. It was dark at this point (even though it was only 5:45pm) and we could see the temple area being lit up with many lights. There were also fire works starting to be set off down near the temple. 

I think tonight will be a very noisy night.

Also, on the way down when we were at the base of Bromo, we had a few Indonesian students come up and want to take photos with us. Like I said, you feel so famous haha. It's like the paparazzi is following you everywhere you go. I actually still hate when we all walk together because its such a big group of white people and we draw so much attention to ourselves that way. I know it can't be avoided though.  

Funny thing. When I took my shoes and socks off, my feet were covered in the dark sand. It's really fine and definitely got through my shoes and socks! 

11:04pm Jakarta time 

For dinner I had a club sandwich. It wasn't terrible but it tasted like mayonnaise which I hate and makes me want to puke. All I could do was tell myself to suck it up because at least I wasn't eating noodles or rice. Then Jillienne and I ordered Pisang goreng (fried banana) with cheese and pineapple fritters with cheese. The fried stuff was too much for me. I had to unwrap the pineapple from the fried stuff to eat it. I just told Jill to eat the banana. 

At dinner, Panji explained to us about planeterra and the change 4 change program. This is the first time I had even heard about the change 4 change program. It's really cool! Basically all the CEOs collect travelers extra change and send it to planeterra. If its $5 a trip and about 20 tours a year that's $100 per CEO. And then, there are over 700 CEOs world wide! Very cool idea. I still would love to work for g adventures. I think it is such an amazing organization. 

I also asked Panji about hijabs and burkas. He said there are over 30 different Islamic sects and they all have different rules about them. In Indonesia it is not required but in the Middle East, it obviously is more strict. 

Tomorrow 6 of us are getting up at 3am to head to a view point for sunrise overlooking Mt Bromo. Should be interesting. Who knows if the weather will be good (not getting my hopes up based on my previous sunrise experiences) and we may or may not get stuck in traffic because of the new year. Adventures! Yey! 

I Really Hate My Uterus

July 22

8:25am Jakarta time 

Well. Today is a long travel day. About 8 hours in a bus. Yey! 

We left about an hour ago. We just stopped off at the rice fields to watch harvesting. Literally the bus pulled to the side of the road. We got to see the machine they use to separate the grain from the plant. It was cool. They don't get paid with money though at this location. They get paid in grain. They get about 1 kilo per 10 kilos harvested. 

9:21am Jakarta time 

We just crossed into Central Java. There was a banner that said have a nice trip. And another one that said welcome to Central Java. 

2:18pm 

We stopped for lunch a while ago. It was a small place on the side of the road. Not much choice. Just Indonesian food. I am seriously so sick of Asian food. The smell of it sometimes even makes me feel sick. I don't want any more noodles or rice! I didn't end up eating. My mentrual cramps are pretty bad and I wasn't hungry. I drank water and ate a banana. A few hours later I ate some pumpkin bread. More a loaf of bread with pumpkin seeds so like whole grain bread, not sweet pumpkin bread.

We will arrive at some waterfalls in about an hour. It's 84 meters high. It'll be a nice stop before Melang. Tonight will pretty much just be dinner. Tomorrow morning Panji will take us on a short walking tour of Melang (a small colonial city) before we head to Mt Bromo. 

There is a week left on this trip. Then I'm off to Australia.

4:26pm 

Such bad cramps. And I didn't catch up on my blog but I did finish reading "The Language of Flowers"! Such a good book! Can't wait to start the next one :)

Panji cancelled the waterfall trip. It's impossible to see anything because it started raining. It's not hard but its very foggy. We stopped at a fruit market instead. I wanted to buy fruit but I bought a ton of bananas yesterday that I need to eat so I restrained myself. 

5:02pm 

We arrived in Malang. Finally!

There are people on the side of the street selling sweet drinks. Panji said that when it is first time to break the fast they will have a sweet drink first and eat dinner an hour later usually.

Also, there was a university building here. Compared to our universities, it was really small. Just one building. But compared to the other buildings around it it was huge. He said in Malang, most of the university students are from East Java whereas in Jakarta, most students are from West Java. 

We tried a fruit today called ----. It was interesting. Not my favorite fruit. It was similar to a kiwi in the sense that that was how you peeled it but then there was a small, flat, black seed inside. It is a light brown color and the flesh is more yellowish.

10:41pm Jakarta time 

Jeezus Christ do I miss birth control. My cramps are so bad. It's to the point I thought I had to shit a few times today from all the pressure and discomfort radiating from the cramps in my uterus. I just popped 1000mg of extra strength Tylenol. If that doesn't help, I don't know what will. I want to rip my uterus out of my body.

After we got to the hotel we had a bit before dinner. I barely moved. 

For dinner we went to an Indonesian place. I ordered a heaping plate of fruit which unfortunately didn't taste very ripe and sate ayam (chicken sate). Maybe I'll be able to eat rice again tomorrow. Well see. Had noodles yesterday so that's off rotation for a bit at least!

The place we ate had a pretty cool atmosphere. I had a good dinner conversation with Rob, Joanne, Jillienne, and Katie. We talked a lot about super heroes. And the marvel movies that are all coming out. So good!

Honestly, I really just want a huge kale salad, or a salad. And eggs for breakfast. Indonesia just doesn't seem to do that. Although I really like Asia and the culture here (for the most part...) I think I am very ready to go to Australia in a week. Woot! Westernization. Can't wait!!!!

At dinner, there were girls performing dances and at one point they started singing. I don't know what it is about music and especially singing but I just get entranced by it. I didn't even hear the conversations going on around me. And it's not like it was anything I hadn't heard. It was Adele. People were going up to sing and Joanne told me to go because I have such a beautiful voice (from the other night in Cianjur) but I still don't think I can handle singing in front of strangers. Maybe I'll have to tackle that on my next international trip.

Marion just pointed out to me that the bathmat in our room says "pussy" like instead of "welcome". What the hell haha. Also the shower was cool. It had like a stone floor so you couldn't really slip. Love it!

Really tired now... And hope my cramps are gone tomorrow! 

Prambanan

July 21

8:13am Jakarta time 

We are on our way to Prambanan Temple which is en route to Solo, our next destination. 

Prambanan is a Hindu temple. The highest tower is 47 meters and there are 4 rooms. It is dedicated to Shiva, the main Hindu god but there are temples on either side of it as well that are dedicated to Brahma and Vishnu. These gods are the creator, the protector, and the destroyer. Each god also has a "ride" and  there is a smaller temple dedicated to their animal in front of each of the main temples. There is the eagle for brahma, the bull for shiva, and the swan for Vishnu (I think, I may have mixed up the eagle and swan). 

Also in India, Vishnu is the main god but in Indonesia, Shiva is the main god. Brahma (I think) has 4 heads which represent the 4 directions of knowledge. Panji said that with Hinduism, it is different in all the countries and it is easily adaptable to the people and cultures. The god with the elephant head rides a mouse. This is because he symbolizes wisdom and a mouse is very wise. To ride a mouse you have to be able to control your wisdom. Pretty funny an elephant rides a mouse though :)

Originally, there were 240 temples but they could only find 50% of the stones because people took them to make buildings. Even the Dutch (who colonized Indonesia) took the stones to make sugar factories.

Prambanan was the central temple in the 9th century. There were 2 dynasties (I have no idea how to spell them but its the Hindu and the Buddhist dynasties) at war until the prince of Hinduism was married to the princess of Buddhism. The kingdoms were destroyed due to an earthquake so they moved to East Java. A new dynasty was started here in which both religions/previous dynasties were in synchrony. 

In the 16th century, the Muslims came and the Hindus then relocated to Bali. Panji said this is why Bali is the only place in Indonesia that is about 85% Hindu.

This afternoon when we get to Solo, we are taking a bike ride around the city. It should be really picturesque but well see.

Solo and Yogyakarta used to be one city but they split because of conflict. Solo had a different name, Surakarta but is better known as Solo because it was built on top of a tiny village. There is an express train that connects the 2 cities because a lot of people live in one but work in the other.

Language note:

Karta= city

Pariwisata= many travelers/tourism (its written on the front of all our buses and the backpacker street in Yogyakarta is called this as well but it is a little different. I can't remember exactly what it was.)

Candi= temple 

10:45am Jakarta time 

Prambanan is pretty cool. Some people same it is even more beautiful than Borobodur but I disagree. It was constructed in 856 AD because with the reign of a new king, Hinduism was reborn. 

In the 16th century the temple collapsed during an earthquake and restoration began in 1930. It is still being constructed today.

There are 3 temples that dominate the complex. The main temple has so many names. I don't know all of them or the story behind all of them. But, there is a legend that tells the story of why it is called Roro Jonggrang Temple. Here is the legend: 

A powerful man named Bandung Bondowoso wanted to marry a beautiful princess named Roro Jonggrang (daughter of king Prabu Boko). The princess refused him continually. Finally she said she would marry him if he could build 1000 statues in one night. A group of genies helped Bandung Bondowoso build this and there was only one statue left. The princess began to get nervous and she gathered some women to hit rice pounders and make a bonfire on the east side. This causes the eastern lights to become red. Both of these activities signaled dawn and the genies disappeared. Roro Jonggrang notified Bandung Bondowoso he had failed her request. He ended up discovering her trick and was so angry that he cursed her to be a Dewi Durga statue. This final statue completed the princesses request and brought the statue count to 1000 statues. They say she is the woman in the main temple (not shiva). Again, this is not true. 

On the temple there is also a relief of Ramayana. The engravings are found on the lower balcony of the Shiva and Brahma temple. It starts on the left side of the easy entrance of Shiva and goes clockwise. 

It is all stone so it looks very nice against the blue sky. I don't think I will ever get over how beautiful that image is. Because it is a UNESCO site, I got a student discount. I paid 85,000 instead of 171,000 ($8.50 instead of $17.10). So nice! They made a copy of my isic card again. Strange. 

The relics on the temples are very beautiful. We only had 30 minutes in the complex so it seemed rather rushed. The statues for the eagle and swan are not in the temples because they could not recover them. But, the bull for Shiva is in the temple. Each of the 3 gods are also in their temples. The main temple, the one with shiva in it, had a sign out front that said that it is a relatively stable structure and is only open to the public under the following conditions. There were 5. The best one was you are required to wear a safety helmet. Also, only 50 people are allowed in at a time and you can't spend more than 15 minutes inside. 

The helmet was a green hard hat and it was supposed to adjust to your head size but my head must be really small because no matter how much I tightened it, it still slipped off my head. Katie was with me and the sign freaked her out so she didn't come in. I went alone and took some selfies of my wonderful green hard hat. With the temple in the back, obviously. I didn't see any temple falling down on anyone, but someone did fall down the stairs. So maybe they should be more concerned about adding railings than making you wear hard hats but I am no expert.

We then got in this green long vehicle thing that transported us 800 meters away to Sewu Temple. This is a Buddhist temple built by the Hindu king. His wife was Buddhist. This complex consists of 240 small temples surrounding a main temple. The main temple is a polygon shape, has a diameter of 29 meters and rises to 30 meters. All of the structures are made of andesite. 

It is interesting because there are a number of temples that were reconstructed fully, but there is also a massive amount of stones just laying in piles around the complex. I can't even imagine how they figure out which stone goes were.

I actually thought this temple was more beautiful than Prambanan. It reminded me more of The temples in Cambodia. It was cool because it was just a whole area covered in stone or stone temples whereas Prambanana was just 8 temples. Plus, in Sewu, you could walk through hallways and in the back of the temple the stone was covered in a green moss and it was beautiful. 

The main building is symmetrical which symbolizes the form of the universe's harmony. All the buildings inside the temple have a rock fence and a dwarapala (large rock statue armed with a club). This big stomached guardian also is in the inside hall of Yogyakarta Palace.

We are now on the hour and a half bus ride to Solo. Well have lunch and then do the bike ride! 

12:34am Jakarta time 

We went straight to lunch when we arrived in solo. And everyone got their food except for me. And, it wasn't just a oh you don't have your food let me make it for you, it was a huge ordeal. Panji was practically yelling at them. He came over later and explained to me that they don't do things by looking to see that everyone has food in front of them. Instead, they put things in the system and I guess they missed it. Or thought it was a repeat possibly because Jillienne got the exact same thing (fried noodles with chicken and water). So Panji said they didn't want to make it because it wasn't in their system and he had to argue with them that it should be and that they needed to make another plate. He said it was written out clearly and it was their fault. Written out as in we have to write down our orders. They didn't speak much English. Also, when Panji told them I didn't have my food there was so much yelling in the kitchen. It was interesting. So I got my food after everyone else was done eating. We also tried these chips that were really good. I can't remember what they are called. Cascara maybe? It's the sweet potato root chip. Very good. 

After that we went directly to the bike ride. Which, was fine with me but at the same time I wasn't thrilled because I didn't realize we were going directly there and I needed to use the facilities. So I held my pee for another 3 and a half hours. Yey! 

The guy we rent the bikes from is a small business owner. He started off owning 2 bikes and now he owns 6 and he rents the rest from neighbors. By using him though, we are supporting him to grow a bigger business. It's really nice because g doesn't use large businesses for things like that and instead choose to support the locals. 

I knew the bikes wouldn't be amazing, but wow. Rowie had a bike that made the most ridiculous squeaking sounds I've ever heard. The brakes were so loud.  A lot of the bikes were rusted. Someone had a bike that was completely rusted. Like it didn't even have color to it anymore. I think it was Camilla. A lot of people only had 1 brake that worked, and my seat (along with Camilla's) was about 1/3rd the size of my ass. I have never before wished that I had more fat on my ass. After riding for 3 minutes I knew the 3 hour bike ride would be rough. I could already feel the bruises forming on my ass. At one point I told Marion I was pretty sure that my seat was so small that it only supports my asshole. It was a rather unfortunate situation. I essentially paid $12.50 to go on the most uncomfortable bike ride of my life. But, when in Indonesia... 

The first 20 minutes I was focusing so hard on the pain in my ass that I can't really tell you too much about the scenery. Luckily, I figured out that I could ride on the bike without it hurting as bad if I rode on one ass cheek. So I spent the rest of the 2 and a half hours switching between ass cheeks. 

When I did pay attention to the scenery, it was pretty. Not like biking in Vietnam, but pretty. It was really green because of the rice fields. Palm trees lined the road. We went back and forth between biking on the normal, traffic filled road and biking down small pathways sandwiched between either colorful village houses or open patty fields. 

Literally, on this trip, I have felt almost famous. Everywhere you go people are staring or taking photos or waving and smiling and yelling hello. Children run out of the houses screaming hello hello hello after us and sometimes even run after us. It's strange. 

There was one point we got to a river. Not a river you could just walk across a few stones and make it to the other side either. It was like a proper river. There was a bamboo raft that we loaded our bikes and ourselves onto to cross. It was actually pretty cool. Katie said in Peru they did the same thing but they were on one and their huge coach bus was on another. Crazy shit!!! 

When we got to the other side we had to wait a bit because we had to go across the river in 2 groups. While we were waiting for the other group we were just standing there and as always, a bunch of the people in the village were out of their houses watching us. At one point, a lady came over and approached us. She walked directly up to Katie and slapped her stomach and made a toot sound with her mouth. She backed up a few steps and just stood there. We were all like WTF?!? And were laughing because really, how could you not laugh at that? Katie was wearing a belly shirt. 

When we headed back to the end point, it was around 5pm and there were a fair amount of cars and motorbikes on the road. So that was a run game as well! 

Also, before you think I biked 3 hours, know that the trip was 3 hours but we stopped a million times. We stopped to watch them make molasses. We stopped to watch them are a gong (which was actually way cool and involved fire which is always awesome). We stopped to watch them make rice cakes/chips (?). We stopped to watch them make buffalo hyde. Which was pretty gross. We stopped to watch them make tofu which was cool but also the smells made me feel a little sick. We stopped a lot. And sometimes we stopped for an unnecessary amount of time. 

There was a hill toward the end that we all failed on. You get all the way to the top and think you're there and then you literally can't go any further. I started rolling backward and almost took out some people from the group. I was the first but everyone else did the same thing. Funny.

We got back to the hotel and had 2 hours before we met for dinner. I read my book. Yey! 

For dinner we went to a mall because Panji said it was more sanitary than anywhere else and had the most good choice. I got fungyung hay which I guess is actually Chinese and it was delicious. I loved it. It was essentially a flat omelet with vegetables in it and sweet and sour sauce on top of it. Tasty. 

541km : solo river is the longest river in East Java.

Good day! 

Batik

July 20 

Today I did probably one of the coolest things on my trip (in a different way than eating a scorpion or paragliding). And I fell in love with another kind of art. 

We got up and I tried to stomach the Indonesian breakfast- rice, noodles, spicy grilled veggies and chicken wings... Wasn't happening. I had 2 pieces of toast. I still have a really difficult time trying to eat that food in the morning. 

Then, Marion, Marie, Jillienne, Katie, Rowie and I headed out to find Via Via, the travel agency where Panji had booked the Batik for us. We had to go here and pay before we could go to the Batik class. The class cost 130,000 rupiah ($13) and after taking the class I can't believe it didn't cost more. That included all of our supplies, them helping us, etc. that would never happen in the states. I would have had to pay so much for that class. 

When we were at Via Via paying, we were given a business card of the batik place and sent on our way. Marion had the card and did not do the best job ever leading us. We went down the correct street and then came back and walked way past it and ended up finally asking someone and had to go all the way back. I didn't have the card or even see it so I can't say if she led us poorly or not. I was kind of annoyed, not at her, but just in general, that we didn't know where to go or how to get there. 

Then, we found more signs that pointed down the road for a batik place. The neighborhood we had turned off into was very nice, clean, and cute. It was an area with more money as well. The signage for how to get to the batik place was not strategically placed. Luckily, someone showed us where to go. The lady was waiting outside for us. 

The whole process of batik was actually very confusing. We had no idea what we were doing and it was really never explained to us. They laid out a bunch of designs for us to trace or said we could draw our own. I had an idea in my head that I wanted to do a human eye with a blue sky and white fluffy cloud background with the pupil of the eye containing a lotus flower. I felt like that represented my trip rather well. The lady didn't think it was a good idea to do this my first time. I didn't understand why so she took me outside and started having me try the wax process. This was really difficult. You can only go from left to right so you have to constantly turn the canvas for drawing the lines. For circles you have to make and join 2 half circles. You also have to make sure you press down enough so the wax bleeds through to the back but you also don't want to drop wax out of the little tool which has an open top. And, on top of all of that, if you want something to be white, it has to be covered in wax. That meant a lot of my canvas would be white and at that point I understood what she meant. I conceded and decided for my first batik painting to just trace an already made design. 

After I traced the design, I went to the wax station and covered all the lines in wax. You want all the lines to be closed so that when you add the paint it stays in the area you want it to be in without running into another part. It takes a long time. You have to draw like 3 lines and then get new wax. Once I got the hang of it I started adding my own designs and little touches to the original traced drawing.

For my name I tried to do a heart with RT in it and the wax ran. So, I ended up writing RLT along the outside of the heart. I asked if they could remove the letters from the heart and they took the r off but not the t. Oh well. After we did the wax they removed the parts where out wax dropped or ran. I don't know exactly how they did this either.

Then, after they made sure the wax could be seen on both sides and that all the lines were joined, I was able to paint. It was like watercolor paint so it spread out when you touched it to the fabric. We didn't use paint brushes (except Katie because it was only 3 colors) but q-tips. And if you wanted it even lighter colored, you put water on the cloth before you added the paint. I painted me painting (all but the background) and then I had to let it dry in the sun. 

After it was dry, I had to cover all the parts with color in wax. I literally just painted over it. It has to be thick so you really do a few strokes and then dip it in the wax again. 

After I painted it with wax, they covered it in parafin for me. This is a clear gel. (Or maybe this was before I painted it with wax... I can't remember). Then it dried. 

Once it was dry, they gave me some powder to sprinkle over the background and it was orange and red. This would sort of tye dye the background. So I sprinkled the colors on and then they used a liquid blue and poured it over it. That then changed the background that wasn't already covered in the powder to blue. It was pretty cool. The background came out a lot different than I thought it would. I wanted it to be more red and it was more blue, but it still looks good.

There were multiple times throughout the process where they washed the painting. Washed wax off, parafin off, other things off. I don't know. They also boiled it to remove all the wax from the cloth. 

I really, really, really loved doing this. It was so cool and such a different type of art than I am used to. I hope I can figure out how to do it at home. I don't think it will be easy or cheap though so we shall see. Dad said it was originally invented in Japan so maybe when I go to Japan one say I can do a longer period of time for batik making.

True batiks are 2 sided. If it is only 1 sided it is just a print. 

Literally, it was a do what you want but I'm only going to tell you what you're doing when it is time to do it. So don't get your hopes up about me being able to create any of this at home. I can't even tell you everything I used or did to create the one I made!

It was a rather exhausting process. We worked on our batiks from 9:30am to 3pm! And that was only a small one. Some take 4 days or a month to create! There also isn't much room for mistakes which normally I would hate because im such a perfectionist, but for this I kind of liked it. 

We all ha very different but equally interesting batiks at the end. And, we all went through completely different processes to get our final painting. I can't even imagine how many different techniques and things there are in batik. It is very complicated. Probably why I'm drawn to it... Naturally.

We all got done at different times and we met at Easy Goin' for lunch. I had a chicken and cheese quesadilla and 2 bottles of water. I was so thirsty. I felt like an ass though because when the waiter brought my water he asked if I was thirsty and I told him very! Then he said, "Me too, I'm fasting." I was like ok, well now I feel like an ass. But actually I shouldn't since its his choice to work in a restaurant during Ramadan. 

Ramadan has actually been frustrating in Yogyakarta. We wanted to do a cooking class but the night we could the staff wasn't available (but they were other days so maybe that wasn't because of Ramadan). We wanted to do a silver jewelry making class but we couldn't do that because it was only offered at 9am or 5pm and the 5pm class was cancelled because of Ramadan. We couldn't do 9am because that's when the Batik class was. They would do one at 1pm but not 2pm. Although its good we didn't do either since we were at batik until 3pm!

Yogyakarta doesn't have too much to do. That's why I was bummed we could do the classes. I am glad we did the batik one though because that was very different from my other activities so far on this trip and also was very unique to Indonesia I think. There is a royal palace and water palace but I looked them up online and they didn't seem too amazing. Nadya went and said it wasn't great.

That afternoon Katie and Marion got massages at a spa and Jillienne and I chilled out at the hotel. 

Around 7pm a bunch of people went to dinner. Jillienne and I decided to stay back because we needed a break from everyone. We ended up going out for Italian again. When you find good western food you gotta capitalize on that shit haha. David and Marie ate there all 3 days! This time I got a pesto pizza with chicken and garlic. Yum yum! 

Good news. My card arrived in Bali so ill get that for sure when we arrive. I was up late though because I was trying to get the bank to allow dad to take out money to pay for my school tuition from my account. Banks are annoying. There's too much you have to fax this or allow this and it's too many rules and too hard to deal with while abroad. Although, Charles schwab has been pretty amazing with my debit card situation so I can't complain too loudly.

Jellyfish Sting

July 26

* Australia doesn't like free Internet. It also doesn't have Internet in the Outback, so I am sorry I haven't posted these but I haven't had Internet... And then I had to pay $15 for it just now... It will hopefully last me the rest of the week here though! 

I also am posting posts from the end of June and the beginning of July called:

Flight of the Gibbons

Koh Phangan

Koh Samui

On to the post...

This was only 5 days ago but it seems like ages ago. 

We had to get up pretty early this morning for breakfast (which was amazing- best breakfast in Indonesia). 

The snorkeling company we were going with was actually just at the end of the road from our resort. It is owned by the same guy who owns the resort. Kubuku! If I didn't already mention it, he is actually a CEO as well.

At the office we were fitted for snorkel masks, flippers, and received a snorkel. I hate trying to figure out what size snorkel mask I need. It's so hard to figure it out. They always say if you can breathe in and it sticks to your face that it fits. I absolutely always have a hard time snorkeling because I can never find a mask that actually fits. My head is too small. They gave me 2 options in the office. One was a kids mask but even though it fit my face, the eye part cut off the last third of my eye which was uncomfortable and a strange way to view the world.

We then got in 2 vans and were carted out to a large hut. Rob described it well. "So it will be us and 200 of our best friends going snorkeling today." Luckily, it was pretty much just us, plus one older lady from Tasmania on the boat. It was similar to being on the boat in Cambodia but this boat was actually nicer I think.

The surrounding area is beautiful. I can see why it's a national park. It was a lot of green, grassy islands covered in beautiful green trees. And again, the blue sky made it even that more beautiful. The water was very clear and 3 different amazing shades of blue. Dark blue, turquoise, and a light sea green color (I think that's the crayon name?). When we were in more shallow areas you could totally see right through to whatever was in the water. And that was a lot. 

After our first boat ride we arrived on an island where we attached to more boats that were attached to the dock. You're not allowed to use an anchor in the park.

As we were walking off the dock we saw a huge blue starfish right off the bat! I tried to take a photo of it but through the water it just looks very distorted. Later on in the same area there were angel fish. 

I was surprised that we actually started on a beach instead of having to just jump over the side of the boat. Marion cut her toe before we even got in the water. The beach had a lot of sharp rocks and dead washed up corals on it. Also a ton of huge shells. 

Putting on the flippers and walking into the water was tough to say the least. There are huge areas of sharp rocks you have to walk on to get past the shallow water to snorkel. It's not deep enough to swim either. With the flippers on you have to walk backward (way easier to walk so you're not catching the front of your flippers in the sand) into the ocean. Although the flippers sucked for walking, I couldn't believe how much less tired I was at the end of the day while using them. Usually after snorkeling I am drained. I wasn't as tired today and I think it's because of the fins. They move you really well through the water. 

This snorkel sight was amazing. Definitely the best snorkel sight on this trip, I can't remember how other snorkel sights on previous trips would compare. But literally, this was so cool. Now I remember why I used to want to do Marine Biology. Ocean life is incredible. There aren't even words to describe it.

Before getting too far out there was a lion fish resting in some coral. There were the typical sea urchins all over. Then the arrays of coral and other fish were spectacular. I couldn't remember all of the names but I recognized brain coral and fan coral. There was also a coral that looked like a clam and literally looked like it was breathing in and out if you watched it long enough. There were long silver pike fish, bright colorful rainbow fish, huge parrot fish, I swam through some small schools of minnows. Just everything. I didn't see any sea cucumbers though. But there was so much to look at and you could see everything so well. And, it reminded me of Finding Nemo because there was even a drop off. There wasn't too much past the drop off but you could see a bunch of life all the way down the drop off. Very cool.

This whole experience was also combined with me semi dying every once in a while because I got water in my mask. I had already switched into a smaller mask while I was closer to shore. I had to keep floating on my back to fix it because I didn't want to stand on or accidentally kick the coral. 

I contemplated taking my camera into the water and putting it on its underwater setting but I didn't want to risk the screen breaking like Courtneys did so I decided not to. It would have made for some really amazing photos though. So much cool stuff! 

At this place we had about an hour break to rest after snorkeling and eat our food. I had ordered a chicken sandwich and holy monkeys was it amazing! So good. It was real chicken and there were some veggies and cheese on it. Delectable. It came with a juicy slice of watermelon as well. 

We still had a while after lunch before we were getting back on the boat to head to a second snorkeling spot. There was a beach area that we could walk up and down. There were a ton of shells so I used shells to write Bali 2013 for a photo. I could read it well. Marion notified me a lot of people had a difficult time reading it when she showed them the photo. I liked it. I also wrote one in sand with a few shells around it.

At the second snorkeling sight, we did just have to jump ship to get into the water. The snorkeling was still good, you could see a lot, but the first sight was way better. This area was also really choppy which made it more difficult to snorkel and I ended up drinking a lot of sea water. Yummm. Not. I probably spent 15 minutes coughing. 

I did see a fish take a shit. I had never seen that before. It was swimming along and little drops of darker colored stuff just came out from it. In both snorkeling areas there was that stinging sensation. It doesn't feel very good. It happened in Koh Phangan as well and Brett said something about little plankton or fish or something that produce that sensation on your skin. But, at one point I was talking to Katie and all of a sudden let out a yelp. Something had touched my elbow and it hurt really bad! When I got out of the water there was a mark on my arm that was red and raised. Rob said it looked like an old scar. It wasn't. It was a jellyfish sting. Little bugger hurt! I didn't even see it. I can't imagine getting stung by a larger one. We joked about peeing on each other because other people had been stung as well but we didn't. I did see maybe a 1 or 1 and a half inch jelly fish at one point and swam away so fast, ha. 

That was pretty much the highlights of snorkeling. Anne, the lady from Tasmania lost her flip flops in the under part of the boat so we were lifting up various wooden boards to try to find them. We found one right away, the other took a bit to find. 

When we got back to the resort I took a pit stop in the bathroom and headed to the pool. It was around 3:30pm. I caught up with Jill to see how her day was. Her, Sinte, Camilla, Marie, and David didn't come snorkeling with us. 

After about an hour relaxing and chatting in the pool, Jill and I pulled ourselves out and walked down to the beach. It was about 700m away. It was okay. Pretty for some pictures and not too busy. It was black sand which was different. It wasn't anything amazing though. 

After that we tried to eat because we were starving but we were supposed to eat dinner at 7 because they were performing traditional dancing for us at 8. We did get free afternoon tea though which was actually very good. It was served with some type of bean pastry thing covered in coconut? Whatever it was, it tasted amazing.

Finally, it was dinner time and I had chili prawns. It was good but I still think the prawns at home taste better. They also come without heads... 

The dancing was really nice. It was similar to most of the other dancing I've seen out here. Although, I think the Bali dancing was probably my least favorite and the one that was not as interesting. It wasn't as complicated and intricate. It was still nice though. All the performers were young girls so maybe that was part of the reason. The costumes were similar and on par with all the other Asian dance costumes I've seen. The music was nice as well. It seemed very repetitive. After 1 minute of a dance I felt like I lost interest a bit. 

I then spent about an hour trying to buy my books. It was annoying. I really hate that. And, grad school books are so expensive! Not good. I think I'm spending about $550 on books this semester. Fun! 

After being exhausted from buying my books... Don't laugh, it's hard work! Comparing prices, trying to figure out if its the correct book and edition. Oy!... I went and crashed.

We peace out for Sanur around 8am tomorrow. 

Also, I remembered at about 11pm that I hadn't taken my malarone pill for the day. So that's a little annoying. I took it about 3 or 4 hours after eating and you're supposed to take it with food. It was fine though. Didn't puke anything up! I also think I missed one another day because I thought I was supposed to finish on the 4th but I have enough pills for the 5th. However, I didn't really get mosquito bites so I'm not too worried about malaria.

Borobodur

July 19

Random fact: Yogya is the only province in Indonesia with a sultan still in power/a king as governor. And, all the carvings of the sultan depict him with large ears. This is because the sultan has to be a good listener to listent to all the people. Interesting!

This morning we met at 9am to go to Borobodur. Borobodur is the largest Buddhist monument in the world. To get to the top you have to climb 150 steps. As our local guide said, "Climbing to Nirvana is not easy!" It definitely wasn't. The stairs were large, although not as steep as they were at Angkor Wat.

Before we got to go inside, we had to have a sarong tied around our waists. Panji said that in Buddhism and Hinduism, the lower part of the body is considered the area of desire. Therefore, it is required to put a sarong around your waist before entering these sites. We have to do it for Prambanan too when we go there. I got a student discount with my isic card here too. It was great. I think it was 95,000 rupiah instead of 190,000! Win!

The temple was built in the 8th century by a Buddhist king. There were 2 dynasties at this time who were fighting. One, the Buddhist dynasty, built this temple and the Hindu dynasty built Prambanan (we will go here on our way to Solo in a few days). This temple is more like a monument. You can't actually go inside any rooms in the temple. For the Buddhists, it is more of a place to concentrate energy of the earth, an area sort of like Mecca for Muslims, a place of pilgrimage.

It was built in 800 AD and was carved from a huge pile of stones (individual blocks). It was built out of lava stone because it is strong and easy to carve. Borobodur is also near the most active volcano in Indonesia, Merapi. It is 2900m above sea level. The temple was originally built with 500 Buddha statues with different meanings. Many of the statues have the head missing. This is because there was a point when it was something a number of people were stealing. It was too hard to take the whole statue, body and all, so they just cut the head off and sold that for money. Here are the main 6 Buddha statue meanings the guide taught us. I'm sure there are more. I definitely can't remember all of the hand signs and what they look like so if you're curious you'll have to look them up. They are: 

1. Meditation

2. Touching the ground as a witness 

3. Giving blessing

4. Teaching

5. Reincarnation

6. No fear

In Nirvana, at the top of the temple, there are 32 stupas and there is a Buddha in each stupa. However, in the middle/top of the temple, there is a very large stupa. This stupa is empty and is supposed to represent empty life. Even the stupa and the way that was constructed has a meaning. The large "rope" or circle at the bottom is Buddhas life, the "lotus flower" represents Buddhas first steps (since a lotus flower bloomed under his feet), the "bowl of rice" represents the circle of life which is where the actual Buddha statue is kept, and the "stick" is pointing to nirvana.

At this point, she was also talking about 108 temptations, but I don't really know what she was referring to or what the significance of it is.

Borobodur was found in 1814 by an English man (the same one who built Singapore). When it was found, it was covered in ash, sand, and trees. The Dutch (who controlled Indonesia at the time) opened it in 1835. In 1907 the first restoration project was done by the Dutch. In 1973-1983, UNESCO helped restore the temple because it had been sinking due to an earthquake. They spent about 25 million USD. In 2010 Mt Merapi erupted and they had to close down the temple because there was about a 10cm thick layer of ash covering everything.

There are 10 levels to the top of the temple. It takes 7 levels to get to nirvana, but some of the levels are repeats of the 7 just to have more space to illustrate different things such as the life of Buddha, or ignorance and desire which is the first of the main 3 levels. She explained to us that the temple is separated into 3 main levels. The first is ignorance and desire which is when you do not know the wisdom of Buddha which means you will have punishment in your next life. On this part of the wall there were carvings of many different things. A few of the ones she pointed out to us were murders, a family with many children and not enough money to support and feed all of them, and gambling (which showed people with sad faces because they never win). This covered a couple levels I think. The next division, which also covered a number of levels, had carvings depicting Buddhas life from birth to death, as well as carvings of the lives of more people after knowing about Buddha and his teachings. Then I think there was a level that was just there to separate the second from the third level which is Nirvana. Nirvana had many stupas with buddhas in them. So essentially, from bottom to top it progressed as a monument describing Buddhist hell, then Buddhist life on earth, and finally Buddhist heaven, or nirvana.

So, I've heard, and possibly even recounted Buddhas life story a number of times on this trip. However, I hadn't heard this part before: 

His mother had a dream about white elephants (I think 7) flying around her three times. They visited a priest and he said it meant they would have a child who would either be a holy man or powerful but only if he was protected from knowing about sorrow. Otherwise, he would become the king of suffering. 

When Buddha was born (Siddhartha was the real name), right off the back he took 7 steps so they knew he was a holy man. His father built 3 palaces that were all full of joy so the boy would know of no sorrow or suffering. It was a miracle that after he was born he could walk right away. Plus, with every step he took, a lotus flower sprouted from under his steps (7 lotus flowers). This all happened in Lumbini in 560 BC. They also say his mother gave birth to him while standing (which is a miracle in itself) and that she died 7 days after his birth. Therefore, Buddha was then raised by his aunt. His last name came from his aunt. 

Buddha actually lived a fairly normal life. He had to compete to marry the princess, who became his wife. They got married and had 12 happy years with his wife. They also had a son together. His name was Raoul.

After this was when the whole moving palaces thing happened and he was shocked to find out about the old, sick, and dying people. He cut his hair (not sure of the significance of this) and left his family. For 7 years he walked around to see human suffering. He wanted to escape palace life and go to the jungle to meditate. In Hinduism, to live in the forest is to live far away from the world without eating, drinking, or taking care of yourself. He didn't find the answer and basically he gave up. He then meditated under a bodi tree for 7 years and came to the conclusion that life is full of suffering. We suffer because of desire. He came up with 8 holy ways to stop it. He then taught this to people.

Buddhists celebrate Buddhas birth, Buddhas enlightenment, and Buddhas death. He died on the full moon of May under a Bodi tree. Buddhism is a way of life... A philosophy. Buddha taught that everyone can be like him if they follow his teachings. (Not like a god figure). 

Borobodur is beautiful. From the top level looking out especially. The landscape is so green and nice with mountains in the backdrop. Definitely a great panoramic view. We had about 20 minutes to walk around and take photos. I have continued to let people take photos of me and not correct them on how the photo should look. But, some of these photos could have been so much cooler if I would have told them where I wanted my body to be in relation to the stupas and the background. Oh well. At least I can prove I was there.

From the top, you could also see a Buddhist temple in the distance. This was built for Buddhists to pray since they can't pray at Borobodur since it is not a temple. The temple reminded me of Nepal though. It had the prayer flags coming from the top of the temple in all different directions with the golden pole on top. It still looks just as cool to me.

The temple/monument is a dark stone color and looks beautiful against the blue and white sky and clouds. As you climb, you can circle each level which had carvings in it to tell some type of story. The carvings are pretty detailed and impressive. The form of the temple is supposed to resemble a lotus flower. 

Borobodur is probably one of my favorite things in Indonesia so far. (Now that I'm writing this later I also really enjoyed Prambanan and Mt Bromo). There really doesn't seem to be too much to do in Indonesia actually. I have still enjoyed the trip though. We still get to see the people and learn about the history and culture and daily life here.

We got back around 4pm. Jillienne, Marion, and I went to find a mini mart to buy Jillienne some bug spray, me some body soap, and Marion some shampoo and body soap. We didn't have to go too far to find a mini mart. Unlike most of our other hotels though there wasn't a mini mart or 7-eleven right next door. 

We waited around in the hotel room until 6:30pm when we had to meet in the lobby to collect our laundry. For all my clothes except the cleanest ones I was wearing, it was 15,000 rupiah ($1.50)! It was about 1.5 kilos. I was happy with this. And super excited to have clean clothes, you don't even understand. 

After we settled our laundry debt, Rowie, Jillienne, Katie, Henny, Marion and I went to the street market. It was like any other street market. Rows and rows of shops and tables, all selling the same thing. Which was fine with Marion and I. No one else seemed to enjoy it though. Marion and I were all about it though. I got some more gifts for people. So yup. Always good.

We took a taxi there which was about 23,000 rupiah. We split it 3 ways (Henny, Rowie, and I). When we got in the taxi at the hotel, the taxi drivers were really adamant to talk to Panji. Panji told us they were nervous we would think they were jipping us off and they wanted him to tell us that gas prices have been raised and the base rate for taxi meters haven't yet so they would add 10,000 rupiah to whatever the meter showed. It's probably good Panji told us this because I'm sure we would have thought we were getting screwed. On the way back, we went directly to the backpackers road and the driver didn't even use the meter. He said 20,000 rupiah and we figured it was fine since we paid more than that on the way there. Jillienne, Katie, and Marion paid 18,000 for theirs and their cab driver had added only 5,000 instead of 10,000 for gas. Maybe they had different gas types. The first cab was really nice and the ones we hailed were pretty run down looking. 

We all met up at this Italian restaurant that David and Marie had tried the previous night. It was highly recommended. And wow, it met expectations! It was like real Italian food. So good. It was an amazing break from rice and noodles. No more Nasi Goreng! We split bruschetta and garlic bread appetizers... Of course there were 6 of us and they brought out 5 on each plate. We problem solved and cut them in half and people ate what they wanted. We were all starving. Marion got pasta and the rest of us got pizza. Mine was 4 cheese with garlic and mushroom and it was AMAZING! 5 stars. Took that business card. If anyone goes to Yogyakarta, I will be recommending that place (aglioos, or something like that). Even the crust was great. As Katie would say, it was like proper Italian pizza! 

Batik tomorrow! So pumped!

Kalibaru - Bali!!!!

July 25

9:22am Jakarta time 

We are finally on our way to Bali! We have a 2 hour drive to get to the ferry and then the ferry will be about an hour. Pumped! 

This morning we woke up to more rain. I was really bummed because I really wanted to be able to do the tour of the coffee plantation. The rain kinda held up and stopped for a bit so that was really nice. We did the tour anyway. 

The plantation seems pretty small but maybe we only saw a small part of it. It was funny to me as well because even though we only were in one small area of the plantation, we saw so much stuff. We saw vanilla plants, pepper plants, chili plants, cacao plants, coconut trees, coffee plants, nutmeg plants, and cinnamon trees. It's actually really cool.

There are 2 types of coffee in Java. Robusta (spelling?) and Arabica. Robusta can be bought at all the stores and it grows at 400 meters. Arabica is not as easy to find because it only grows at 800 meters. I don't remember which is which but one of them is larger beans and one is smaller beans. When the coffee beans are ripe, they turn red. There are some with 2 beans inside (they call them women) and others with only 1 bean inside (they call them men). The beans grow in a rounded case and starts out green. The coffee bean plants were about the same height as me. Also Panji said that Robusta coffee is more for athletic/running type of people and that Arabica is more for yoga/reading type of people. 

There is also a coffee called Civetcat coffee. This is what I mentioned earlier. There are these weird cat animals that eat only the best coffee beans and then they poop them out. While they are in their system, the beans get a really nice flavor to them. It is also more decaffenated. It comes out of the cat still as a full bean and then they are processed and cleaned. This is supposed to be a really good type of coffee bean. One of the best.

We saw them making palm sugar from the palm trees. We actually saw a man climb up the palm tree, which was extremely impressive because he did it with such ease and so quickly, and cut the flowers of the coconut to let the juice leak out of them. This is what is collected in the jugs that he then brings down and is further processed into palm sugar. I won't lie, the sap or juice or whatever it is from the flower looks like semen, consistency and all. And then, smelling it, well, I am sure I would have mistaken it for semen in another environment. Ew. We did get to try the processed palm sugar which is very nice. It is processed into short and squat cylindrical blocks. It tastes sugary but also a little bitter to me.

The chili peppers grow on a short little plant. The cinnamon sticks are actually taken from the trunk of the tree. He carved a piece out of it and let us small it. It was cinnamon alright! It was so strong, it surprised me. We saw a white coffee bean plant as well. The vanilla grows on a vine and comes off in long brown strips that you can then open up to extract the vanilla. The cacao was literally growing off a trunk on a smaller tree. It tasted a lot better than the other cacao seeds we ate in Cianjur. And, the insides of it was a lot more purple. We also got to eat cocoa beans which you have to peel the outside of the bean and then you can eat the whole inside. It's kinda like eating dark chocolate. It's very good. A little bitter though. I liked it. The nutmeg also grew on a tree. It came in a round ball that was larger but maybe about what could fit in your fist. If it is cracked open, there is a thick outer layer and then a large round seed in the middle. When it is ripe the seed turns red and it is mashed up and sold as nutmeg. 

Also, I asked Panji earlier how many dialects there are in Indonesia and he said they actually don't have dialects they just have different languages. There are over 300 different languages here! How crazy is that!?! Everyone speaks Indonesian. Then, there is a language for West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Bali. Then Lumborg (sp?) speaks another language. And then there are small tribes/villages with their own language. Panji said that Indonesian is similar to Malaysian but some words are drastically different. For example, the word for child in Malay is life in Indonesian. 

10:41pm Bali time 

We jumped an hour ahead of Java time. 

We drove through a cute little town before getting on the ferry to Bali. All the people were out doing something and the buildings were bright colors and there were many rice fields. 

We drove onto the ferry in the bus, and of it in the bus. Henne seems really sick. She has a fever (100.4) and is freezing even when it's hot and her entire body aches. Jillienne thinks she may have dengue because of all the mosquito bites on her legs but we won't know for a few days until the blood results come back. For now they're just treating it like the flu. She ended up going to a doctor when we made it to Pembuteran. 

Taking the ferry across from Java to Bali was nice. The water was so blue. Almost a turquoise color at some points and at other points it was a deep blue. It was beautiful. As we were leaving Java, when you looked back to the shore you could see a bunch of rain clouds. And when you looked toward Bali, it was beautiful clear blue skies. 

It amazed me how close in proximity the 2 islands were. There was only a small part where there was a gap of ocean between the islands. When we got closer to Bali, we could see a tall, white Buddha statue. The hands were in the "no fear" position. The island looked so pristine and welcoming from the ferry.

As we were driving through Bali to Pemuteran, Panji told us a lot of information. Jawa (java) dewa means rice island. Bali dewa means offering island. In Bali, most of the population is Hindu and they believe in offering something to the spirits at least once a day. Also, in 2002, there was a Bali bomb because some java terrorists decided to transport a bomb in a car to Bali to hurt Australians (a bunch were here) who at the time were supporting the US in the war against Iraq at the time. Because of it, it is difficult for an Indonesian to get into Bali. Bali is about 2 times the size of Singapore, so it's a small island. From east to west it is about 140 km and from north to south it is about 90 km. 

While we were driving, we drove through a national park. The West Bali National Park. It was like driving through a rain forest. Some people saw monkeys but I didn't see any. There were also really beautiful mountains in the background as well. The national park covers 90,000 acres and 3,000 of it is under water. We can go snorkeling there tomorrow.

Panji explained that there are a lot of statues at the houses in Bali. Also, a lot of dragon statues. The dragon symbolizes water, soil, and air. In Bali the people believe that there is both a physical and spiritual dimension to the world and that you need to respect both in order to live in harmony. There were indeed a number of statues and shrines in front of the houses. It's very picturesque actually.

The resort we are staying in is very nice. It's smaller and there is an Infiniti style pool. The rooms are also nice with mosquito nets over the beds and the bathroom is just amazing. It literally has an outdoor shower. There is the bathroom which is enclosed and the shower is completely open on top looking up to the sky. There are plants growing on either side of it. It's cool. The people workin here are very nice as well. 

I got my debit card! Delivered to my door! A g adventures CEO actually owns this resort so it was a good place to have the card sent. 

The second we dropped our bags off, Marion and Katie, as well as a few other people already had their swim suits on and were ready to hit the beach. I stayed back because I wanted to get laundry in ($5 for 2 kilos), shave, change, and eat lunch. Jillienne stayed back with me. We never ended up going to the beach. The pool was really nice though. 

Apparently the beach is more black sand. I may or may not have time to check it out tomorrow, but I know there will be beaches in Sanur as well and I really just needed to chill. When everyone came back, they told us a story of how Sienne and Rob rescued 2 Indonesian kids from drowning! Crazy right. Sienne is actually a trained life guard. Robs just, Rob. 

For lunch I ate Tempe with rice in sweet and sour sauce with garlic and a few other things. It was so good. I might get it again tomorrow. I'll see. We had such a late lunch that I didn't really need to eat dinner. 

I've been feeling pretty down today. I feel like I'm ready to come home. I am very sick of Asia now and I think I am starting to get sick of the people in my group. I hope that Australia will be a good change and that the change in people will help as well. Dad is surprised that it took me this long to be ready to come home. I also feel like I rarely get alone time and I have really wanted that lately. It's not really a homesick feeling. It's just an I'm kinda exhausted feeling. But, I think going to a new country where the culture and food is different will gear me up again. Well see though. 

Koh Phangan

July 3

We got off the sleeper train at 5am. It was only 30 minutes late based on the expected arrival time. Every time there is a chance for our trains to be late so we can get more sleep and don't have to get off at 4 or 5am, it never happens. But, I guess at this point I'm used to it.

We got off the train in suratthani and immediately a million Thai people are in your face with signs that have transportation prices to all the islands listed and trying to see if you need a taxi. A lady came up and asked us how many people were in our group and Erin told her we already had a person, but then Brett started talking to that same lady a few minutes later so that was pretty funny. We followed the lady to a little breakfast place. I couldn't eat anything. It was so early and I wasn't hungry. I used the toilet though. It was an Asian toilet. People freak out over them and never want to use them. I think it's silly. Pop a squat and piss!

We grabbed our bags and took them to the vans that were transporting us to the ferry. Brett came over to help me with mine because I was still trying to text mom and dad about the bank situation. He went to pick up my bag and I tried to tell him it was heavy but he already had picked it up by that point. He let out an "oh my god! How can such a little girl carry such a big bag!" It was pretty funny.

We drove in a van which took us to the ferry. When we got there, we got out of the van and put our bags on our backs and walked onto the ferry. The ferry wasn't glorious. But, this was really the first place I talked to Jillianne a lot. I found out about her life and we realized we had a lot in common. It was also the first place I really got to know Katie as well. I think we were on the ferry for an hour at least. It was beautiful with the Thai islands poking up from the water. Blue skies. Lovely. 

When we arrived on Koh Phangan we had to wait about half an hour or so for the tsung taos to get us and take us across the island. Luckily, we were staying on the more secluded part of the island which sounded amazing- and it was. The other part of the island is where all the full moon parties happen. Fortunately or unfortunately, we weren't there during full moon. But based on the signs at the hostel it sounded crazy. They drop you off on the other side of the island that night and pick you up again the next morning at 6am. That is one long ass night! 

Anyway, the tsong tao ride to our resort was ridiculous. And by that I mean there were 7 of us crammed into the back of this tsong tao and it was kind of like off roading. Very crazy and really only those drivers in those vans could get us there safely (according to Brett although from what we saw it was most likely true). There were twists and bends and the road was all over the place. We went through bush even. It was very bumpy too, not as bad as Nepal, but maybe close.

After an hour of what everyone found to be a torturous tsong tao ride, we arrived on this amazing secluded beach. White sand, incredible blue water, cliffs of mountains on either side of our stretch of beach. It was glorious. I can see why people hire a boat to take them to this side of the island for the day now! 

When we got there it was lunch time so we all ate. I don't remember what I ordered but whatever it was I know was amazing. The food here was incredible. Sooo good. I knew I wanted a massage as well so I booked that with Jillienne and Katie after lunch. All 3 of us booked it together for the same time and same type of massage: Thai. I was hoping the lady I got would use more pressure than the last lady who gave me a Thai massage used. The massage was 350 or 400 baht. I can't remember exactly how much now but I think around $13. 

After that I jumped into the water. It was so nice. I think I was in it for maybe 2 hours or so. I was definitely prune-ified! I chatted with a lot of other people from the group in the water. Rob and Joanne were telling me about their European adventure. They had gone with g to Europe before stopping in Cambodia for a few days and then heading to Bangkok. They went a lot of places in Europe! We also played frisbee although I think Rob got sick of it once David left because us girls weren't as amazing at it.

After swimming I migrated to a hammock and relaxed there blogging for a bit. I must have been catching up on other things because I definitely wasn't blogging about this considering it is now August 4 and I am trying to fill in these days! 

On the way back to the room I was looking at my arms and didn't think I had really gotten too much color. I was disappointed since I had been in the sun all day. Then, I got in the shower and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. The tan lines I had were CRAZY! It was like black and white. Guess I'm not a good judge of that... Ha.

Since I had been in the sun all day I was exhausted. Physically and mentally. I laid down on the bed to read and ended up just falling asleep. I think I slept for 2 hours and then Marion woke me up for dinner. I was still exhausted.

Again, I don't remember what I had for dinner but whatever it was was amazing. I cannot express enough how great the food was there. The only thing I was disappointed about was the grilled cheese toast. It wasn't like the grilled cheese toast in Nepal. It was open faced. But, it was still cheese which I miss soo soo much, so it served its purpose.

A bunch of the group stayed up playing King's Cup, a drinking game, but I had to go to sleep. Nadya was talking to me and I couldn't even process what she was saying to me I was so tired. I think being out in the sun all day literally just wiped me out. Apparently tanning is hard work! 

I may have written about this earlier for the 4th, but when we got up the next day, Marion and a few other people were talking about red tide. Apparently around 1am the plankton in the water was glowing all around them. Missed out on that for sure but there's no way I would have even been able to stay awake that long anyway. I wanted to try to see it the next night but I don't even think I would have been able to. Brett said he's been here so many times and been awake late and that was the first time he had ever seen it.

Yogyakarta

July 18

I just posted the Bkk post which is showing up in June.

Yogyakarta pronunciation: Jogjakarta (Jo as in joy)

4:24am Jakarta time 

Well I've been up for about an hour now. Alarm went off at 3:30, ate some toast with butter and boarded the bus. 

Unlike India, there are almost absolutely no people on the streets right now. There are some shops either opening or closing. I'm not totally sure. I know for Ramadan it's about the time when they can't eat anymore until this evening. Other than that, it's completely dark so I can't see too much.

This morning Jillienne pointed out how we only have 10 more days on this trip. That means total I only have 23 days left. Not sure how I feel about that. I am at this point realizing Australia is going to e freezing and I'm not totally prepared for that weather yet. My wardrobe isn't really either. My travel agent said its usually 50-60 degrees but from what I've heard other people say it sounds like it will be much colder. I really hope not. August is the end of their winter so hopefully it'll be pretty mild. It will also be really interesting to get on a scale again. I haven't had a scale the entire trip, except for in Hanoi but I don't know how accurate it was. I definitely am not noticeably thinner, at least for me, but I do feel like I have maybe lost a little bit of weight. 

We have a 2 hour drive to where we are going to take the train to Yogya. The train is about 7 hours! Our itinerary says it is scenic. Hopefully!

6:39am Jakarta time 

We boarded the train. The station kinda surprised me. It's really posh and nice looking. In between each train track there was green grass and plants. Then instead of concrete on the ground of the station, there are actual tiles. It's also super clean. Definitely not anything like India. Ha. But I think the station is even nicer than the stations in Thailand and Vietnam. The train is pretty nice as well. The seats are large and cushiony and they recline. There are plugs on the train too (although the only train we didn't have outlets was the last sleeper train in Thailand. But here there is an outlet for each person which it hasn't been like that on any of the other trains. Yey 7 hours of being on a train! 

9:26am Jakarta time

The train is really cold. It's really good Panji told us to grab jackets for our day packs because I definitely need it. 

It is definitely a scenic train trip. There are constant rice fields and or green forest to look at. We keep going in and out of towns and the houses are very colorful and bright. It's really beautiful. Well see if it continues but Indonesia may beat out Laos for me on the front of being surprised by how beautiful it is. 10 more days before I can make that call though.

We waited for a long time for the train to move out of the station. We also had to stop at one point. Marion said there was a guy with a hammer walking around looking at the train, so maybe something was wrong with it? 

While we were stopped, a man was walking along the outside of the train with a sign that said post cards and had a bunch of them on the sign. He was looking for people to wave at him or make some indication that they wanted to buy a post card. The people in my group thought it was the funniest thing. David said, "a whole new way of advertising!" I don't know if I've written about it before but I wanted to because it has happened in some of the other countries as well. 

So it's rainy season and low season in Thailand, but in Indonesia it is dry season and also high season. So at least I don't have to worry about rain as much as I thought I was going to have to. 

I haven't slept yet since we got up in Cianjur. I know Panji said that tonight we will have an early dinner and an early night since we've gotten up so early. I'm not sure if well do anything when we get there or if it will just be chill time. We have 3 days in Yogyakarta. There is a temple there and some jewelry, cooking, and batik classes we can take. We can only take 2 of the classes which bums me out since I would like to take all of them. I'm hoping someone will take the cooking class and will be willing to share the recipes with me. I have already done cooking classes so I want to do something new, even though I absolutely love Indonesian food thus far. We're also going to be able to see a traditional dance performance.

I'm assuming at some point I will sleep on the train. We still have a while to go and Panji said he usually adds at least 30 minutes to the arrival time on the ticket. Well see though since every time I've been told our train is normally late, it's been on time. 

1:26 pm Jakarta time

Oh my gosh! I'm so wrestles! I slept for an hour or so I think already. Hopefully we haven't stopped too much and we still still arrive in Yogyakarta by 2:30 or 3pm!

4:08pm Jakarta time 

Yogyakarta is such a cute little town! There is so much traffic though! Apparently 25,000 people live here and it really seems small. So... Yeah. 

We only arrived 15 minutes late by the train so that wasn't too bad. I am so glad to be off of that though. Oy! 

We also got to put laundry in so thank god for that! Finally! The last time we got to do laundry was Cameron Highlands and that was BEFORE the trek so we couldn't wash those clothes we wore on the trek. It's only 10,000 rupiah per kilo so that's good. About $1 per kilo. Even if it were expensive I don't think I would have cared at this point. I'm so excited to have clean clothes. Luckily, my clothes don't smell horrible but when you only have 4 shirts and 2 pants... Well, enough said.

We have this afternoon to relax and we are meeting for dinner at 6pm. Panji is going to take us to the backpacker street so that should be cool. And cheap. 

I counted today and in the past 4 days I went from having 1.9 million to 1.3 million. I think that means I've only spent about $60. I started with about $200. But, I know I will spend a lot of money in Yogyakarta because there are a lot of activities here. I'll spend about $100 on activities alone. But I don't care. Indonesia is pretty cheap otherwise so it's not a big deal. 

After dinner were going to go to a dance performance so that should be cool.

11:28pm Jakarta time 

Well. Dinner was great. Dance performance, not so much. For dinner I had Nasi Bakar which is chicken in coconut milk with rice wrapped in a banana leaf. It has so much flavor, it was really tasty! It also came with morning glory which I love, as well as tofu and these soy bean cake things... Tempe I think is what they're called. I enjoyed all of it. And, I had carmalaized pineapple with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert as well as a chocolate banana milkshake which wasn't as good as the shake at jomas which ultimately led to disappointment. I got all this for 75,000 rupiah ($7.50)! 

Panji asked me if I was sick of rice yet. Sometimes I am, sometimes I'm not. Honestly, I never choose to eat rice and I don't think I will have rice for a while when I get home. But I guess we'll see...

We finished dinner around 7:45pm and we had to jump into the local rickshaws (I don't remember the name) and be carted to the dance performance. It is called the Ramayana Ballet. It is a beautiful love story. 

Here is the sheet they gave us about the story. I tried to summarize it but I can't concentrate enough to be able to figure out all the differences of the names and people. It's long but it is the story and then I don't have to worry about keeping the paper.

In Krendayana forest, the King of Alengka, Rahwana, asks Kalamaricha, one of his soldiers to change himself into a Golden Deer and has him go seduce Rama, Sinta, and Laksmana.

In the other part if the same forest, Rama, Sinta, and Laksmana are enjoying the freshness of the bright weather by gathering flowers and watching beautiful animals living in the forest. Suddenly an animal with golden fur appears. Sinta is attracted and she wants to possess the animal. Rama, Sinta, Laksmana try to catch it but the beautiful animal is very difficult to touch, then the Golden Deer runs away.

After Rama leaves his wife, Sinta as if hears the sound of an injured man, she asks Laksmana to look for his brother but he refuses because he knows it is not Rama's voice but the Golden Deer's that imitates the voice of Rama.

Since her order is disobeyed, Sinta accuses Laksmana of wishing her after the death of Rama. Hearing this, Laksmana becomes very sad, he swears that he will not marry any woman in his whole life.

As a sign of his oath he cuts off his genital. Sinta is astonished and very sorry. Finally Laksmana goes to meet Rama. Before he leaves his sister-in-law alone, Laksmana makes a magical circle surrounding Sinta, nobody can go into the circle and he also tells her not to get out if the circle until the arrival of Rama and Laksmana.

Unexpectedly, Rahwana comes down from the sky. He is very glad to notice Sinta without any guard. He wants to kidnap her as soon as possible and takes her to Alengka Kingdom.

Unfortunately, he cannot approach her because of the magical circle although he has exerted all of his super natural power. Then Rahwana changes his appearance into a very old man who looks very thirsty and comes near Sinta.

On seeing this Sinta cannot stand helping the poor old man. Without realizing the danger, she stretches one of her arms out of the circle in order to give the old man something to drink. The old man who actually is Rahwana takes Sinta's hand out of the circle quickly and takes her away.

In the sky, they meet Jatayu, the king of birds, who wants to save the Princess but Jatayu is defeated and falls onto the ground. Before Jatayu dies, he tells Rama that Sinta is kidnapped by Rahwana.

On the way to Alengka, Rama and Laksmana bump across with the white monkey, Hanoman, who is ordered by Sugriwa to find someone to help him to fight Subali in order to get Goa Kiskenda back.

Rama does not mind and succeeds in killing Subali, and then he is crowned to be the king of monkey in Pancawati Kingdom. As a king, Rama orders Hanoman to go to Alengka to see the condition of Sinta. 

In Alengka, after giving Rama's ring to Sinta, and as an answer Sinta sends her hairpin ornament to Rama, Hanoman wants to know the strength of Rahwana's Kingdom, soon afterwards he destroys the Arga-Coka garden. 

Knowing this, Rahwana becomes very angry and commands his men to burn the white creature but Hanoman does not die because of his super natural power. He takes with him some burning wood and flies in the sky and drops them throughout the buildings. 

When the battle between Rama's monkey soldiers and Rahwana's giant soldiers takes place, Hindrajit asks Kimbakarna for help but he cannot win the fight even is defeated by Rama. Hindrajit wants to support his uncle unfortunately Laksmana is able to finish the fight. Hindrajit runs away reporting the situation to King Rahwana in the palace.

Rahwana goes to fight Rama but at last he is defeated and killed.

Hanoman fetches Queen Sinta who is very happy to meet her beloved husband. However, Rama rejects her for he suspects about his wife's purity and asks Sinta to hav a holy bath by jumping into the burning fire.

Sinta calmly jumps into the holy fire since in her mind she feels that she is totally pure. 

The god of fire, Brahma, comes down from the heaven and puts the fire out. He tells Rama that Sinta is really pure. Both Sinta and Rama pay attribute with their hands folded before their foreheads to Brahma. Lastly they return to Pancawati Kingdom happily.

Some of this is probably written strangely or sounds strange but I basically copied it from the sheet and just didn't know how to fix some of it.

It was cool at first. It was just too long to sit there. Unlike in Cambodia where it's a bunch of small dance performances, it was kind of like a ballet. It was an hour and a half long, no breaks. The dancing wasn't super exciting either. It was a lot more acting and controlled movements than actual dancing. 

It is a love story in the Hindu culture and there are about 30 dancers as well as a musician playing gamelan traditional orchestra. The dancers were singing at points and I didn't realize for a while that it was them and not the people sitting in the same area with the band. The singing was also more prayer sounding to me than actual singing.

The costumes were still intense and well done. Both the girls and guys were covered in gems and glittery stones and gold pieces and brightly colored fabrics. When I was bored I just kept thinking about how ridiculous the movements are they do. They must be so strong to be able to make all those precise movements and they make them so slowly. It's crazy. 

It was definitely too long though. And, of course, my camera died 15 minutes before the end. But that's okay. I still got good video and photos from the first hour and 15 minutes. There was a really little kid on stage in costume and everything but he couldn't do everything and looked lost a lot. He kinda just ran around and he was so cute. There were a lot of animals (humans in costumes) in the dance performance and there was singing and live music being played. Again, it was cool but it woul have been awesome if it wouldn't have been as long. 

Upon arrival we got a free drink called Wedang Secang. It was kind of like gluwine, but not as strong and mostly cinnamon flavoring. Our ticket with the drink and ride to and from the theater cost 250,000 rupiah ($25). Not bad!

That was the day. Sleep time!