Kalyana Resort Yogyakarta

... your mind wander as the music and sound effects absorbed you.




We managed to get from Prambanan guesthouse to the Prambanan temple, 18km outside Yogyakarta using public buses (we even had to change bus). We were ridiculously pleased with ourselves, having spent just 3,000 rupiah each where the 'tours' from the city cost 60,000rph per person. Prambanan is an ancient Hindu temple complex - obvious visual ...

... the palace anyway.

Our bicycle guide waited for us while we looked around, and then took us to an art gallery. Now, this place was only open Saturday’s and Sunday’s as the curator was the art teacher at a local school. He was one of a few that spoke good English. At first we had no interest in buying anything, that’s not why we came to Yogy, and we have already stretched our budget way beyond our means (too much nice food and too many nice rooms). The ...

... then got back in the minibus and were soon on a rather scenic route back to the party capital of Probolinggo.

We stopped at the bus station, and the driver told me that another minibus was leaving for Yogya in about half an hour. I waited around, and eventually it arrived. The journey was rather uneventful, save for a few choice incidents. To begin with, the driver didn't stop until we'd been travelling for about five hours. I was absolutely dying to pee, as ...

... an American name. I’m American,” but the guy kept asking and saying stuff like, “No, it’s a special name. What kind of name is it?” Finally Hanan got the guy off his back by saying that it was a made up name that his parents chose. What’s also interesting is that, when we say USA, most people immediately ask if we are from California. Is this because most American people just say California, to get people to stop asking questions? Or do ...

... after an hour and a half sat on the
concrete we were beginning to numb up a little. At the end we darted
outside to get that all important snap and just as we were lining up
the shot, they turned the lights out!! It would have been a nice shot
but not worth trying to find the fella with the key to the lights. We
moved on.
The
next day we got a tour bus to Borobudur for sunset. We'd heard that
this was ...

... lads wondered around the local area finding things to do?

[Tom: The rest of us had quite a chilled day - catching up on some internet after the time spent in Malioboro mall (man, the female shop staff in Indonesia wear a hell of a lot of make-up!). After dinner, we went for a walk across the railway line up to the nearby Tugu monument (I found out later that it is apparently tradition to hug and kiss the monument after finishing uni - opportunity missed!) then ...

... days were spent mostly just wandering around the city, getting lured into a million Batik art galleries along the way. I thought that Batik was so cool before coming here, but this town has totally turned me off from batik. Everyone on the street will start a conversation with tourists, and eventually tell them that they are an artist and that they have an exhibit just today and we must go check it out right now because it is going to close in an hour. and then they take you to ...

... the crowds a little you could HEAR it roaring out of the earth. it really was an amazing experience and made me feel very small and insignificant. geology tends to do that to me.....that and astrophysics. I would just like to take this time to say thanks to all the people who wrote me with their condolences concerning my mom. It has been a really difficult time obviously but more so since I am so far removed from my family at the moment. I suppose i always knew in ...

... And I didn't even see Jakarta or the conditions of its infamous sweatshops. I learned from my cab driver that despite the current government's highly successful education and health care related initiatives, there are frequent power outages, there are poor schools and there are many that have to pay for basic healthcare. I also learned that, contrary to what I had been told, there is a flat 25% federal income tax ...

... in steamy jungle until (re)discovered by Sir Stamford Raffles, it was certainly worth seeing although we were all melting out there on the exposed masonry. The district is supposed to be menaced by some big volcanoes like Gunung Merapi which is always threatening to erupt - but the heat haze and humidity blotted out any such views for us. Our guide at the Buddhist temple was a young man who trilled his script in heavily accented american english so fast that ...