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Front Seat Horrors
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So I left Jakarta the day I wrote my last e-mail, and took a train to Bogor, which was a short but airconditioned and spacious ride. I found a really sweet guesthouse right on the river with a beautiful little courtyard and plants everywhere, and a pet rabbit (all white and loved being rubbed) who was free to run around who belonged to one of the little girls of the family, and was fittingly named Milky. I stayed there for two nights, slept very well and am feeling pretty normal today. I went to the Botanical Gardens, which really were beautiful minus the garbage, and have decided that I am going to build an orchid house one day..and live in it. There were tons of little trails off of the main road leading to fountains with benches to sit on, little archways...a nice escape from the city. There's also a palace that you pass on the way to the gardens that was once the summer palace for a Dutch governor, and on the perfectly groomed acres of lawn out back, are hundreds of white spotted deer. It seems that there are not very many tourists around..and when I say that I mean I have met one western tourist so far. I did meet an older indonesian man who is a police officer from Kalimantan who was visiting Bogor, who didn't speak any enlgish, but somehow we managed to have a conversation that lasted for more than an hour. He took a picture of me and the next day after I came home from the Gardens, he had printed out the photo somewhere and placed a copy for me on my door before he left, with his address where he and his wife live in Kalimantan. People are friendly and are more than willing to be my friend, but when I met Tomas from Belgium yesterday, it was as if I hadn't spoken for years. I had invited myself to eat with him within the first sentence...it was nice to hang out with someone for a few hours whom I could talk with about my plans and not have to do sign language with. On that note, I am going to look at Indonesian language classes today, because people here should not have to appologize for not speaking english better, it is me who should be getting better at my Indonesian. I am in Yogyacarta as of this morning, and what a trip. I left last night at 5:30 pm, and got here this morning at 6:30am. First mistake I made was taking a van, and not a big bus or the train. Next mistake although it was not my choice, was puting me up with the driver in the front seat. Very bad idea. Driving in Indonesia is like many other places in the world: terrifying, and anyone who has been lucky enough to have me as a passenger, may know that I have a slight case of backseat driving, but last night..I turned backseat driving into an extreme sport. And my gasps and hands flying up to my face, prooved to be a great amusement to all of the men and the driver in the van. I tried to sleep, but like a moth with a lightbulb, I could not take my eyes off the road. I don't know how we did it, but we did make it here without a head on collision, or even a scratch on the bumper. I have to hand it to drivers here, it is almost like an art to watch the maneuvering it takes to get from one place to another. I decided that while I may not pray five times a day with the call to prayer, being woken up by it every morning at 4:45, must count for something. So today I am going to wander around and go to the Kraton, a small city within a city where the sultans once lived, and I plan on taking myself to a performance tonight..either a puppet show or a traditional dance. Not sure where I'll be off to next, but will keep all posted. xoxoxox Daphne
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