Sahid Kusuma Hotel Solo

... another batik shop which had great prices on batiks but I just couldn't convince myself to buy anything which of course I know regret as I haven't seen the same pieces since!!! Always happens!!

I organized my ride to Malang for the following day. I did it through an agency recommended by Lonely Planet and the fellow was very nice (should I be concerned!!!) and helpful and I paid 130,000 for a seat in a 12 seat bus leaving at 10am ...

From Bromo we combined a bus and train to get to the city of Solo and what a nice change of pace the train was! We opted to upgrade ourselves to "executive class" which essentially means that you ride in an air-conditioned 2 by 2 car and are served a small snack. At $12 a piece for a 4-hour ride with no stopping to pick up people flagging the bus down along the ...

... mountains. (I had a guide all to myself, which was pretty cool, because I could decide when to stop and take photos). I enjoyed it not for the temples though, but for the incredible countryside scenery. The photos just can't do justice, and for the most part I didn't bother to take out my camera, and just enjoyed the crazy ride through the hills. The temples were nothing special in themselves, it was all about the location in ...

... groups of various sex and ages settle themselves on the pavements with large mats and share food, play tunes and all sing along. There is also a large open air venue where ...

... could flush. After spending way too much time shopping, we tried to visit the two palaces. There is a king's palace and a prince's palace. We may have or may not have found the king's palace. I think we found the mosque that nonmuslims were not allowed to walk into. Although, all the people we asked assured us that we were at the palace, I am not convinced. Leaving the first palace, we realized that we should probably take a taxi to ...

... just about any of the words. My only vocab consists of terimah-kasih (thank you), and Sampay jumpa (see you later), and Selamat Datang (welcome), and parasiwata (tourist), and a few other phrases that I mostly forget when I need them. Anyway, over lunch I meet these 20-somethings that are just intrigued with who I might be...they join me and we have a chat that works out pretty well. It's funny...sometimes here you feel like a movie star. I see ...

... old but certainly unique pieces of art), although we are sadly limited by what we carry in our backpacks. We both love the style of the crafts and furniture here and hope to re-visit again in the future, and from what we have sampled so far, the food is pretty good too (lots of sate with spicy peanut sauce!) Today we take a bus to Yogyakarta (about 2 hours south of Solo).

... and ceremony for much of Javan history and is set in an amazing location on a hillside. After stopping to look at a local waterfall, we head down to our guides sister's roadside canteen to have lunch and tea, surrounded by a tea plantation. After lunch, we head up to the temple Candi Sukuh. A contemporary of Candi Ceto, the temple has more in common with Mayan temples than any other Javan temple. It is the subject of much research for this reason and is vastly different to Ceto ...

Einst war das touristische Zenter der indonesischen Hauptinsel Java die Stadt Yogyakarta. Doch nach dem schweren Erdbeben im Mai dieses Jahres ist der Tourismus zum Erliegen gekommen. Und das, obwohl die Infrastruktur bereits wieder vorhanden waere. Wir besuchten Borobudur, den groessten buddhistischen Tempel ueberhaupt. Der Parkplatz davor hat ein Ausmass, wie man dies von Amerika gewohnt ist, inklusive etwa 100 allerdings meist ...