The End

Well, the internet difficulties finally stopped me from getting the last day in while we were over there, add a day and a half of travelling home and now it's Monday morning back home.

Ahhhh. A hot cuppa - I missed them!

My memory is fading fast, so please if you see me, talk to me about things, otherwise they disappear! I'll try to remember Thursday arvo as best I can, I took a ton (for me anyway) of photos.

What did we do on Thursday? We went to Borabudur temple.

For a better description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur and http://www.borobudur.tv/

It'll only take you a second to glance over the wiki post and will give you a better idea of what it was like (well, that's a bit teachery isn't it - I'll set homework assignments shortly).

We had a few pamphlets before we set out on the bus. One of them said it was two and a half hours from the city, but my favorite said that it was an hour by car or half an hour by public bus. We can't work out whether it was poor translation or a clever attempt to make people take the bus. In any case I reckon it was maybe 45 mins? Our tour guide on the bus was going to take us to a silver making place on the way, but with the light levels already being low we decided to go straight to the temple. He was very talkative. He had a microphone and didn't seem to ever bother turning it off. No matter what he was saying. Sometimes he was just sort of talking to himself, or to one person. Didn't matter, must be part and parcel of that karaoke gene.

We couldn't work out whether or not the person who owned the silver place was a relative of his or if he maybe get's a cut of any sales, but boy he was insistent about it! We told him that maybe we'd go on the way back. He actually called them up and told them (while on the microphone so we could hear) that we'd be coming back later at night. They were going to stay open just for us. Of course, they live there, so it's not totally guilt wracking. Just a little bit. More on that later anyhow.

Although that morning had been quite clear (I actually got a bit of sunburn during my swim - don't cry for me too much) it clouded over as usual and we got another nice thunder and lightning spectacular. Our hosts were a little upset because it was quite wet and miserable, but we all thought it made the temple more spectacular to have occasional lightning and the odd rumble of thunder.

Anyway, here's a shot from the bottom of the temple once we got there:

Wow, the picture, like, uploaded in a second! Over there I did my blogs with the TV and/or a book while waiting for uploads. Also it's kinda chilly here this morning, not sure if I miss that or not!

These shots really don't do the place any sort of justice at all. It's really, really massive! I know what people mean about places like this now, like the Pyramids. Pictures can't convey that feeling you get in your gut when something that big is looming over the top of you (especially when there's a crackle and rumble of thunder).

As we walked up to the fence/gate to enter we were constantly followed by five to ten "salesmen" who offered everything from umbrellas to wooden models (helllllo customs) to slide whistles. They were offering them all for "discounts" there was an "it's raining" discount. A "You Australian?" discount. A "It's late afternoon" discount. You name it, they were oh so willing to do a special deal, just for you.

We were sort of on a package tour called the "sunset" tour. We didn't really have any hope of seeing a sunset, it was more a "gathering gloom" tour. Because I'm not really a traveller you'll have to put up with the camera I have, it didn't capture these brilliantly because it was pretty gloomy, but the flash was a little too powerful up close. Anyway, enough excuses, here are some of the reliefs that cover the walls:

I think the guide said that if you were to walk around every level it would be a 5km trip, that means that there are about 5km of these stone carved reliefs! The temple itself was built in the 700s or 800s. There are lots of versions of the story out there, but in my opinion (like I'd really know) if you read past all of the biased stuff I think... I strongly doubt the original construction was Buddhist but it was obviously converted to that use. It was "mysteriously" disappeared for centuries until being rediscovered. I'd be inclined to believe that an eruption probably covered it, and I don't know if you've seen how fast jungle grows back, but it'd only take a couple years before even a massive structure like this one would just look like an overgrown hill.

Regardless of the history, it's stunning now, it's been restored a few times which must take one heck of an effort. All the way along the tops of the walls there are Buddhas in various poses, each level represents getting closer to Nirvana and as such all of the guys are doing different things at each level, here's one of the bottom ones:

This shot also gives you a better idea for the complexity of the whole structure. These alcove buddhas are often missing bits, but they don't seem to mind - I guess they're just very deep in meditation. One of the Indonesian fellows comes up to the temple at least once a week so that she can meditate. In a minute I'll show you a view from the top - it is quite awe inspiring and I can see that it would be a fantastic place to meditate regardless of your religion. Tari and I found a quiet moment to do just that.

The reason the top is the place you'd want to meditate from is because as well as the peaceful Buddhas you occasionally get one of these:

After climbing up the steps there is a lot of stuff to see at the top. The first thing you notice, though, are the stupas. These are kind of Buddhas in bells.

Those of you who click on the pics to see them bigger might notice that the stupas in the foreground have diamond shaped holes, the ones in the back have square holes. All over the temple there were small details that all had meaning of some sort. In this case, squares are perfect shapes, so are right up the top. I didn't really have the heart to mention that the diamonds are really just squares from a different angle rather than being a different shape.
Inside every single one of these is a free toy:

They left that one open so that you could see inside. There was one "lucky Buddha" at the top that local folklore claimed to grant you a wish if you leant up against the stupa, reached your arm right inside and touched his foot. The guide said that it was only local folklore and that there was no guarantee that your wish would actually be granted. Just as well he made that disclaimer huh. I couldn't help thinking that the guy above actually looked like a guard in a turret:

Tell me tie fighters shouldn't be scared of that!

Here's a shot looking back down (with Jacki in the foreground).

When you're right at the top you can (obviously) see in all directions. It was pretty cloudy so sometimes we couldn't see very far, but in the haze we noticed another big building in the distance...

It's a monastery apparently. These shots also give you some idea of the landscape around. Volcanic and hilly and jungly. Sure, from the air you'd be able to see Borobudur, but from the ground you can imagine if it was overgrown, you'd not have much chance of noticing it.

The last photo joins the no trumpets sign as being open to interpretation. Although it was wet and miserable weather wise there were still a couple sighting of mosquitoes. I guess if you're a Buddhist monk deep in meditation you might be annoyed by mozzies, so maybe that's what this sign is about:

Being good tourists, we didn't.

And before you email me, yes, it is to stop graffiti people from etching their names in the stone.

It was getting very dark as we descended the structure, part of the tour was a post walk spot of afternoon tea. And FINALLY we discovered about the bananas and cheese thing. Remember on the menu at the hotel it said that you could have bananas, ice-cream etc. with grated cheese on top? Well it's a real thing! Our afternoon tea was fried bananas with grated cheese! And no, it wasn't marscapone or creamed cheese, it was pretty much just grated tasty cheese. I don't really like banana (yes, that means there IS something I don't eat) but had a go anyway. Can't really tell if I didn't like it because of the cheese or the banana bit, quite a strong flavour though.

After that came a very welcome hot drink, a buffet dinner (they never do anything small here in terms of food) and two mexican singers. Well. They might not have actually been mexicans, but if you can picture "the Three Amigos" with their hats, clothes and guitars - that was these two guys. Except that they sang Indonesian songs (and some English stuff, of an elevator music nature). I made the tiny mistake of thinking that a salad might be nice amongst all the curries. How was I supposed to know that the little green bean was a whole chilli. I think that it worked out for the best, I'm convinced that (apart from feeling like my eyes were popping out of my head) it must have dried off my wet clothes. I'm sure I felt them steaming off of me. Note to self: eating whole chillis is a stupid thing to do.

After dinner it was back on the bus (ignoring all of the "special night time deals" that we were being offered) and to the silver factory. The guide again telling nobody in particular how the owners were staying up for us, that it was okay, they really wanted to show us some of the history and local culture (oh, and maybe, just maybe, sell us something too?).

Having picked a lot on the mercurial nature of things, we did actually end up buying some more silver stuff. You'll have to get us to show you in person though, the photos aren't working. Tari's got some nice stuff now though and I'm sure she'll happily show it off to you. Again, things were pretty cheap relatively speaking, but still have so many zeroes after them! It's hard to spend more than a MILLION on something, but also kinda cool hehe.

Apart from the trip to the temple, I can't really think of much else that we did. Lots of farewells (another breakfast of course) a last trip to the mall so that I could buy a half dozen movies (a buck fifty each, I really had to restrain myself from just getting one of everything). Oh, while at the mall I grabbed a drink "kopi soda" in a brown can, between the orange and yellow (orange and lemon?) sodas. I assumed creamy soda. Nope. Coffee soda. I guess somewhere, somebody thinks that this is a good idea. I'm not sure I could ever get used to cold, fizzy, coffee. It's as bizarre as (I'm sure you've all tried this at least once, right?) when you microwave coke to see what it's like when it's hot.

We restrained ourselves from buying lots of things that were cheap but that we'd never wear again. Indonsians look really great in their Batik clothing, but nobody else does! Tari wanted me to get something in the Posh Boy brand, but we couldn't actually be bothered enough for a once-off gag.

Oh, Tari just reminded me that at the hotel I had my first ever massage. Probably my last ever one as well! I'm sure if you're into strangers rubbing, twisting, poking, jabbing etc. your body then it's great. Too uncomfortable for me. There is now a total stranger in what used to be a very very small list of people who had touched my butt. The guy actually laughed at me a couple of times, you all know how crackly jointed I am. There were a couple of joints that made very loud cracks.

We ended up leaving the hotel (saying farewells to Alif, Istu and Santi who were fantastic - we reckon Alif will own the place next time we're back) at about midday. There was an always fun ride through traffic - it seemed especially heavy (Saturday traffic I guess). At one point a guy behind us beeped his horn a LOT and we wondered what the problem was until we noticed that he was trying to play a tune on it. Another couple of vehicles also beeped along for a little while until the traffic moved again. I think there was a three part horn harmony at one stage.

The flights were all a bit bumpy, lots of storms and stuff I guess. I didn't sleep until we got back home (first time in a long time I've got for more than 24 hours with no sleep). The coolest part of the flight for me was watching a really intense lightning storm at night from a plane. There was a mixture of proper lightning bolts and just flashes in the distance. It reminded me of war films where the horizon just lights up here and there periodically. http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1077381499&vw=g&b=0&pos=8&p=lightning+from+space+nasa&fr=yfp-t-501 will show a video from the space shuttle that shows some lightning from space.

Anyway, back home now and I guess that's about it! Kinda anti-climactic huh. Thanks for reading, and for commenting, it was great to still feel in contact while I was over there.

Make sure you have a chat to Tari too, she's got lots of stories also!

Sim.

**Edit - Borobudur isn't in a high res Google Earth map I'm afraid, but if you want to see the hotel it's at 7 deg 46 min 57.16 seconds South and 110 deg 22 min 5.72 seconds East

Happy Land

I know I said nothing interesting was going to happen, but that's before I found out about dinner last night. We were going to "Happy Land" which we all sort of assumed was just a humorous translation similar to that you get with a lot of chinese food back home.


Remember I told you a while back about a doctor that actually owns a hospital. Well, Happy Land is the name of the hospital. Yup. I thought maybe Charry should have a long hard think about that.
There is an absolutely stunning outdoor set of gazebos next to a playground that is used for meals etc. The goal being if you're going to be in a hospital you should at least be in a nice place (maybe even a happy land). Anyway, it was one of those shoes off, sit on the floor around a low table deals. Everybody was in a bit of a party mood and remember I said about the birthday that we went shopping for a present...

There's the birthday boy. You may be wondering, what's with the cake? Well I'll tell you - it's not a cake, it's a mountain of rice...

That's the traditional birthday thing here. Complete with a banana leaf top and what looks like lava erupting. Nice visual when you're just a few km from an active volcano huh. Buffet dinner with lots of yummy things. And because we're in an asian country there was the oh-so-traditional ancient art of Karaoke. Gee they really get into it! I managed to escape without trying too hard because so many others were so eager to sing! Here's Tari, Jacki and Mario doing YMCA. Mario was the first on the mike and probably the last off, I think he managed to get in on almost every song.

And just to make things perfectly clear - this all happened in the absence of alcohol. Tari thinks there's a genetic component to it. Tari had a great time, she does like to party and dance. I was happy enough eating and taking pictures, thank you very much. Afterwards she said that part of the fun comes from people from multiple countries and five different religions all getting in there and doing limbo and dancing the macarena.

One of Tari's colleages was saying that one of the big difference that they noticed was that in a serious meeting, Europeans (in this case Australians) are so serious, they take things personally and can get very intense. On the other hand a lot of these guys are so jovial and energetic that they just don't get that way often.

Anyway, I promised a very short one today, just a continuation of the ginger-bread church, it's getting close to completion now:

And on that, I'm off for a quick nap followed by a swim =)

Sim.

Blandday

Hiyas all, as predicted, not a lot happening now.


Here is my daily routine at the moment:


4ish awaken briefly to the call to prayer.


6:30ish awaken to the sounds of movement and elevator music that they turn on in the corridors (I guess to scare away loafers).


7ish head down to breakfast with Tari.


1st course fruit (lots of it - have I mentioned how good the pineapple is?) and apple juice (really nice and sweet/tart rather than the kind of bland stuff we get at home)


2nd course a spoonful of four or five dishes. On some days this means only three or four spicy dishes. Guava juice and a cup of tea.


3rd course, Tari is usually heading off to work now at about 8:30 or so. More spoonfulls of whatever I didn't have room on the plate for in the 2nd course and maybe one or two of the ones I really liked.


4th course, slowing down now, I have my book out and am reading at the table (sorry Mum). Istu or Santi refill my tea with a little "Terahmakasih" from me (thank you) and a "samu samu" from them (you're welcome). 4th course is a free-for-all. You just can't predict the wild and crazy things I'll do. Often it's fruit and a croissant. Yesterday it was minute-steak and nasi goreng.


Today was neat, three buddhist monks in the robes, shaved heads etc. sat down next to us. We bowed our heads politely (as everybody does here). Nothing overly out of the ordinary until one of them got out his mobile phone. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that just does not fit my profile of buddist monk (then again, nor does breakfasting in a five star hotel come to think of it).


Tari was amused when she asked me about one of the dishes today and I said "It's nice, a little bit mild." Since when did I start ranking my breakfast food according to its chilli content???


Anyhow, after breakfast, sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 I wander back to my room. Sometimes I nap, today I'm blogging. Basically I just wait for my food to settle.


11:00(ish) into my bathers and down to the pool. Exchange nods and smiles with the poor guy who basically has to sit and make sure I don't drown. The first day I was there he was doing laps of the pool, sort of constantly checking me. Maybe the pasty white skin was a give-away that I don't spend a lot of time outdoors. The amusing thing to me is that the pool is only 1.6m deep so I can stand up in it with my head above the water. Anyhow, the last couple of days he hasn't been so concerned and will often just chat with one of the guards or groundsmen.


11:30-12:30 swim until the wind picks up a bit. That's my cue for exiting the pool, drying off and sitting on one of the poolside lounges while I read for half an hour or so. When the pool guy (I should learn his name) starts packing the towels up and carrying them inside that's the hint that any second now it's gonna pour.


12:30 - 13:30 have left the pool, it will now be either gently raining or absolutely thundering. I'll shower and read or watch a doco.


14:00 ish I might watch more TV. Yesterday I traipsed down to the local mall (about 20 minute walk and only a couple of scary intersections to cross). If you time it so that the rain has only just barely let up you might get a little damp (which the humidity and sweat would do anyway) and you get the bonus of not having too many other people out ('cos they're not nuts). So far I've lashed right out and bought a couple of VCDs perfectly legal ones I'm sure.


They're super high quality, like 320x240 downloaded from bit-torrent then burned to a CD. As long as you watch them small screen they're okay, Die Hard 4.0 looked average even on full screen. Fantastic 4 II looked, um, like somebody demonstrating the effects of pixellation using square centimeter pieces of coloured paper.


So why am I willing to watch bad movies at poor resolution? Well, for between $1 and $7 I figure it's like movie rental prices and the TV in our room is about that big anyhow! Plus I could go in the draw to "4 Win Units Nokia 5200" and you just can't miss an opportunity like that!


That fills in the arvo nicely. Sometimes I'll go sit down in the lobby with a nice tall chilled juice, sometimes I'll watch a movie/tv with a root beer. I've got the devastating task of finishing off two blocks of chocolate in the next four days. It's okay, they're only 200g blocks instead of 250g so I think I can make it =)


Tari get's "home" sometime between 4 and 6. She's been totally whacked so often it's just dinner then she's asleep by 8:30. Yesterday we had a trip to a Batik (the local clothing I told you about) store to buy a birthday present for one of her colleagues. Jacki (I found out there's no e) and Tari and I got a taxi (for the first time) because it was still raining (doesn't make it any cooler or less humid somehow). The taxi driver tried to scam us into going to an expensive store, and took a really round-about route. No point getting angry, the fare is still stupidly cheap and we ended up where we wanted in the end.


This store was two stories high. Ground floor was full of batik clothing for men, women and children. Upstairs had lots of, um, souvenir junk. Bad silver jewellry, sea shells, wooden carvings, cigarettes, solid brass ornaments. The whole store smelt of incense. I may not have mentioned the smoking yet, can't remember. Lots and lots of people smoke, you can buy from walking street vendors any type of cigarette you'd like and they smoke everywhere.


And I mean everywhere. Walking down the street? Check. Sitting in their cars? Check. In the side of the road food carts? Check. At the bank? Check. In restaurants? Check. In the toilets? Check. In case you were on autopilot, read that last one again. Yes, there is an ashtray fixed to the wall next to the toilet paper.


We accomplished our mission for the birthday present and braved the mall for a drink and to find a card. I say braved because there's only so much being stared at that you can handle after a while. When mothers holding babies point you out so that their other kids can stare at you it's definately time for a coke.


Jacki managed to talk a toy shop guy into a super bargain for things that she will re-sell later for a profit in Australia. As we left the guy's companions cheered him, so I figure that it was a win-win situation for everybody.


Guys with umbrellas escorted us to a taxi on our way out, again the lightning is just absolutely stunningly amazing here, as is the amount of water. You don't have a choice with the umbrella guys, they just follow you, shielding you from the rain, then you have to pay them. It's wierd handing over a 1000 for anything. You can tell the workers are getting tired, it's the first time I've seen Tari and Jacki choose a taxi rather than walking.


Back to the hotel for dinner (room service tonight so Tari can have a break from people). I caved in and had my first "western" meal. For the princely sum of 200,000 I had a massive Australian steak with chips, salad (with chilli flakes of course) bread rolls, lemon drink and yummy gravy. Worth every 1000. Absolutely yummy, cooked perfectly.


With that it was TV on to learn more about the never ceasing struggle between hippopotamus, lion and crocodile. When will they ever learn.


Anyway, that's pretty much the program for the last few days and the next few days. If we do anything else interesting I'll let you know. And Dean, I'll see if I can find some chicken essence for you =) We noticed it mentioned on another television show so it must be pretty common here. I think probably like Yakult or something.


Sim.

Quick pre-brekky post

Just a quick one-liner, had to share this one!


On TV last night there was an ad...


Two young good looking competitors in the Asian Greatest Race hit a challenge that looks impossible. They do one of those pondering faces, then obviously have a winning idea. They cruise on past the challenge and win the competition. Yay! Next we see them next to a refrigerator sculling something that looks like one of those little yoghurt containers. The voice-over: (paraphrased) Keep your mind and body in winning condition, drink essence of chicken.


Yes. Essence of chicken.


Throw away the Berocca!

Sunday - Sultan's Palace

Sunday was very busy, hence yesterday's very late post! I don't know when you get to read these, but I did post one for Saturday, just late in the afternoon, so your evening, so check out below if you want to learn about silversmithing.


Just got back from another hard morning of long breakfast, nap and swim. It's about 1pm and had to leave the pool 'cos it looks like more rain. Surprise surprise. No water shortages here, just as well, with the humidity we're having multiple daily showers.


Sunday morning ruined my normal routine (life is just sooooo hard for me). Instead of breakfasting until 10, I had to be ready to leave by 9. *sigh* Fauziah and Diah and their husbands (and a couple of daughters) took us to the Sultan's palace. I've been slowly trying to gather information about the history of the place. This is quite fun, given that a lot of the literature we have is less than reliable in translation.


The basics are that the Dutch took over after centuries of other guys. Accurate summation huh? One of the reasons that a visit to the palace was interesting for us is that he is so beloved by the people. Yogyakarta is very clean, very friendly and all of the religions (of which there are many) get along really well here. It's so cool to see just how well they all mix. Anyhow, the reason for this is basically that they all love and respect the Sultan. What he says goes. So when he says to keep the city clean, the city is kept clean.


The Sultan is about sixty(ish) and has five daughters and no sons and one wife. This is a bit of a dilemma at the moment, one of his relatives will have to take over as it can only be passed down by male family members. His kids all went to normal public schools (as a matter of fact, one of Diah's daughters was in class with one of the Sultan's daughters).


The palace is about a kilometer long and was recently renovated in 1928. A lot of what we saw was older than our country's white history, which is quite humbling. Yogyakarta traces its history as a city back to the 700s.



Most of what we saw had to do with the current Sultan's father (and grandfather). Above is the crest of his father. All of the seals have several elements. A crown, earrings (symbolising wisdom) and the number of feathers on the wings tells you the number of the Sultancy (in this one it's eight I think). The symbol in the middle is the number 8 in sanskrit. I think.


The current Sultan's father had five wives, fifteen sons and a swathe of daughters. He was a boy scout, a scholar, a footballer, a general... Didn't waste much time. Everybody seemed to like him too. Official pictures show him very seriously, but all the photos seem to be of him laughing and joking and getting along very well with the "common people".


When we were looking at the past royal carriages we were amazed at just how old some of them were. 250 year old carriages with lots of little ornate bits, each one with a meaning. I took some pictures of these for Charry - there were lots of different types of dragons, all symbolising power.

The Sultan's palace is huge, and there are sort of four main areas in a T-shape. The first is the entrance bit with a variety of entertaining areas etc. and a coronation platform (pic below). The small seat on the left is for the son of the Sultan to sit at when the Sultan is "crowned". They don't actually wear a crown, but a special broach if we understood correctly. For the current Sultan's coronation this seat was empty. Interestingly the ear decorations that they wear make the Sultan look like a Vulcan from Star Trek, they also symbolise wisdom. Co-incidence? I'll let you decide (I did just finish watching a doco on the loch ness monster). What was even funnier is that the guide we had, who must have been the second oldest person in the county, made the same observation!

I say second oldest because we met the oldest. He is 100 years and 10 months old. He was a funny, spry old man who was quite a laugh. Couldn't understand him at all, but at the same time we could! He took a photo off the wall showing him in 1937 as a thirty year old man. Quite a guy! Most of the guides and workers here are volunteers, it is considered to be the greatest honour and privelege to work for the Sultan.

Anyway, back to the palace, the two sides of the T are for the sons and daughters who aren't married. One entire side is empty at the moment, with no sons, and that is the part that you can wander around. Below is a picture of the Sultan's house. Apparently he was home that day, but the door stayed shut. Oh, something else of interest - he loves cats. And therefore quite a few people here love cats too! Diah has 10. No typo there.

Some of the palace still showed evidence of the recent earthquake. Unfortunately, I think, the modern renovations take away from the overall look. As do all the bits the Dutch added. Below is a section of railing that had something to do with the calendar, which is so confusing that we just kind of nodded and smiled as it was explained to us. I'm sure some of the words were just mis-translated.

Happy looking face huh. Marriage ceremonies are interesting too. One of his daughters was married just a couple years ago. Ooh, lots of thunder, about to have a doozy of a storm I think. Last night we had so much lightning, it was spectacular! Anyway, back to being wed. One of their customs here has to do with touching the ground. You're not meant to let your child touch the ground until a certain age, this means mothers have to hold on to their kids for ages, no chance to eat snails and stuff I guess. Well, when the Sultan's daughter is to be wed she is carried to the place in one of these:

And then the groom has to carry her from the carriage to the ceremonial spot. Fortunately for future wives of Sultan's sons it doesn't work for the opposite gender. Speaking of the ladies, we watched about half an hour of a who knows just how long it goes for local dance thingy. Talk about slow. I mean, really, really, really slow. It took ten minutes just to do an intro, this included the Sultan's full name, which is really, really, really long. Then the dancers walk up, really, really, really slowly. They must have absolutely amazing leg muscles because every movement is super slow and really well controlled. It's kind of like watching tai-chi. Underwater. In slow motion. With a 256k modem. It's really that slow. I'm sure it's also beautiful or something.

There was lots of other stuff, but the lightning is getting intense and the power goes off periodically so I'll wrap it up quickly. Below is a picture of the Sultan's temple. Each roof is for a different religion, all under one roof in harmony. Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam I think.

Christians are also welcome here (pretty small population of them though). Dad asked about Christmas. We heard ...

Sorry about that interruption, one absolutely collosal bolt of lightning went off just overhead, enough to shake the room, cut the power and make car alarms go off all over the place. Fortunately this blog auto-saves. I went down to the nice little atrium with my book and had a lemon juice (sweetened with syrup of course) until the storm blew over.

No idea what I was saying. Oh yeah, there is a church (christian) just here that was pumping out hymns that were recognizable by tune if not by lyric. There are christmas signs around too, although it's not really a holiday as such it is a public holiday day off sort of thing. They're currently putting together a ginormous ginger bread church down where I just had my juice.

Cool huh!

Anyhow, I've pretty much lost track of what I was going to say! Maybe I'll recall it later. Might not blog tomorrow, the days will be more boring now with Tari working so much. I think we're going to one of the big temples on Thursday night and we've been invited (threatened) to attend a traditional ballet performance at some stage too. I might do one more before we leave, but if you don't hear from me until then I'll see you all when we get home (some time on Sunday, but who really knows!)

Oh, before I forget I should put on public record that the people Tari's attending this conference with are (so far) wonderfully amazing people. They've all given of their time, money and jobs to essentially help out the less priveleged. Some of them are amazing characters, and for me it was really cool to sit at a table with people from all parts of the world, different cultures and religions etc. and there they were, bagging each other off Oz style =) I hope to get to know a few of them a bit better before we go, I'll be gate crashing some of the dinners, but it's pretty obvious why Tari enjoys doing all these overseas trips, there is genuine affection between them all.

If any of you have any questions please speak now and I'll try to find out before we go!

My apologies to Biggles for missing our routine Sunday appointment. I'll make up for it sometime.

Sim.

Saturday

Well, I know that this is a bit of a late publish, but we've had a very, very busy day!


Tari had a hideous day yesterday, from 8am until 2pm without a break in a small room where the AC had broken down. She was sooooo wrecked by the end of the day that it just wasn't funny. Our lovely hosts had decided to take us to see some local silver-smithing and they're just such lovely people that we went along even though I think Tari could have slept for several weeks.


I'm actually writing this on Sunday afternoon, but I'll still do Sunday's blog tomorrow morning, otherwise this one would be too big, and I'm kinda tired too! We just got back from a very brisk walk to the mall again (more about that tomorrow) but I can't hold back telling you about the music in the Safeway equivalent. Elevator music? Nope. Elton John? Nope. Hard core death metal? Yup. Very highly amusing to hear yelling and screeching where we would get something by Frente.


I finally saw some animals, there don't seem to be many around, more about that tomorrow though. Couple of cats, some chickens and, most amusingly, we were passed by a motorcycle with a birdcage containing a dozenish small baby chickens, each one was a different fluoro colour. Don't know what that was about, wasn't gonna ask, just kinda watched it go by. Bizarre.


Should say that we were in Fauziah's husband's car for this story. Fauziah reminds me a lot of you, Mum, and her husband is a lot like Dad! There were all the same car arguments, I mean, discussions, that we get. Where he should turn, why didn't he turn back there, oh yes, that's right, this next turn is the right one. Watch out for that car. Watch out for that bike. How fast are you going? etc. The most amusing thing for me was that he was a very sedate driver - hardly ever overtook a car into oncoming traffic.


We drove past a soccer (football) field on our way and could hear "real" bike noises. Turns out that the local lads use the massive car park as their own motorcycle race-track. They had tyres and stuff to mark out the track, a couple of sharp corners and chicanes and one nice straight stretch. Must be nice for them to actually drive fast, on the roads nobody gets near 40kph.


Anyway we went to two silver manufacturers and felt obliged to buy something since Fauziah and her husband had so kindly driven us there. I'll show you a pic of what we got in a minute. It's absolutely incredible the process that they go through. First up they melt down the silver with some copper or bronze for strength. They do this in a little crucible with a gas flame that is foot-pump powered. See pic:
They then either turn the silver into sheets or into wires. The things they do with this is amazing, I mean I guess I've probably seen it before, but without knowing just how hard it is to do I haven't really had an appreciation before. For starters you'd better get rid of any of your occupational health and safety regulations!


The filigree work in particular was so fine that I couldn't really see how they managed to do it. The picture above I took without a flash and it is actually that dark there. People were bending, twisting and what-not these tiny little detailed things and it was hard to see anything. Of course they did the same thing day in, day out so I guess they were used to it. I was going to go nuts with the photos, but was too absorbed in how it was all put together.


At first the people doing the work seemed a little put out to be interrupted, but I think they saw that we were genuinely interested in what they were doing and they ended up taking us through some of the steps that they used to make different objects. Below is a photo of a temple made out of silver:

The photo doesn't really do it justice, it was behind glass and really finely detailed. Polished so that sometimes it looked like crystal until you realised it was just reflecting other silver bits. To polish it to such a shine they use a local fruit. Below is a picture of the little fruits, the ring that is now lodged on my heat-swollen finger (won't be coming off until we're back home I think) and a pendant that Tari got, the red is polished, coloured coral. They use the fruit by stripping back a bit of the bark (really pungent odour) and when you get a toothbrush onto it and a bit of water it froths right up and really cleans up the silver, super polish. We're not gonna try getting them through customs, so make the most of the picture =)

On the way back I took some photos of the traffic, they're not great shots, but might give you some small idea:

And this one shows the bikes all lined up at a crossing.

Last shot for today is of my dinner. This is Soto Ayam (chicken soup). Slighly more in depth than Continental Cup-a-soup version. The soup itself is just fantastic by itself, very rich chicken broth with all the asian herbs and spices that you'd expect. Around it are some Ketsap Manis (yummy sort of soy/bbq sauce, that's a bad description though), limes, chili, corn chips and rice. This allows you to flavour the soup exactly how you want. I went with lots of lime and a tiny bit of chili.

I started off with a half teaspoon of chili and Tari said "less" went for a quarter teaspoon "less" a tiny bit on the end of the teaspoon "sure". Boy, that stuff must be used to power rockets. That tiny little bit went in the massive amount of soup and still made me sweat!


I'll have more for you tomorrow, but we're getting close to the end of the interesting stuff. I think Tari's pretty flat out from dawn to after dinner now so there might be one more touristy thing, but that'll be about it.

More than halfway there now, tomorrow you can find out about our trip to the Sultan's Palace!

Sim.

Results Day

Well for me this was a great start to my Saturday morning. Got my results from my most recent uni subject and got an HD from one of the hardest markers in the course! Yay! I have a big list of things from yesterday so if you really want to read on you might want to grab a drink.


Speaking of drinks, lime ice tea is really really good!


Anyhow, I'll try to be relatively coherent. For me anyway. Hope that drink you got contains caffeine. Segue time... Tari got back fairly early yesterday because it's their day to go to Church so pretty much everybody only works for the morning. With a whole afternoon free we decided to walk to another of the shopping malls in the area.


Because it's so hot and humid and transport is so cheap ($200 for a motorcycle if my divide by 7 skills are working and I had the signage correct as we drove past the other day) nobody walks here. There are a bazillion guys with rickshaws that "kindly offer" a lift somewhere. Either they're persistent or they just don't believe that we're actually walking any distance.


It's another 20-30 minute walk to the mall, did I mention the heat and humidity yet? We went about an hour or two before the afternoon rains so we get a nice breeze which makes things much more bearable. Also, there is pavement to walk on, which Tari says is definitely not the case in all places.


Things to squeeze past include:
Rickshaws with people willing to take passengers.
Rickshaws with their "drivers" having a nap in the back.
Rickshaws that are just parked.
Bikes (powered and unpowered)
Food stalls.
Stampi shops (still haven't worked out what the stamps are for).
People doing just a little shy of nothing.
People making repairs on pavement/bikes/insert just about anything here.
Oh, saw a store with computers in it. They looked very similar to our old original PC 086.
Anyway, it's hard enough to work out what is going on when you have to really look at your feet and duck regularly (awnings are not designed for tall people).


For those of you who watched Australian Idol I have two interesting stories for you. Firstly, a street sign that shows that they didn't want Carl to win:
Tell me that sign doesn't say "no trumpets". Our best guess is that it's no horns, but it was stuck to as well as we stick to our cautionary road signs back home.


Second Idol related news was when we got to the mall and went down to the foodcourt (always on the bottom level next to the supermarket) there was a stage set up and a couple of young things were having a sing. The songs were recognisable, but we couldn't quite work out whether they were singing in English or not. Sometimes you'd get an English word or phrase but then you couldn't tell whether they were singing in Indonesian or the sort of English that reminds Tari of how I try to prounounce French when I've only seen it written down. ie. Badly. Anyhow, between two songs there was a big long excited speech in Indonesian and we heard the words Indonesian Idol spring out clearly a few times. Still don't know whether the people we saw were members of that illustrious group or what. As one of my favourite Futurama quotes goes (after hearing another tragic pop song mangled) "You watched it.... You can't unwatch it."


Other things we saw in the mall? Well Tari suggests that people steer clear of green apple ice-cream. Actually her words were "it's just not necessary". I had a lick of it. I concur. The Coke I had was good and syrupy. Bit disappointed with the supermarket, no root beer in this one. There were "top quality" VCDs for sale. Barney the Dinosaur was the most expensive. Just thought you'd like to know.


Other stores were, again, oh-so-normal. There was a Body Shop and all sorts of normal named stores selling normal clothes. I thought that they could at least change the names of the stores to something more exotic! There was a little stall selling PC games, didn't stop for long, but noticed a few games, like Guitar Hero III, that apparently are now PC games. Hmm. Or not. I'm sure it's all perfectly legal =) A few copies of Windows XP - Photocopied case edition.


We stayed in the store for a while, mainly just to catch our breath before facing the humidity again. The stores all have a surplus of labour, often there would be two young ladies on either side of the doors who seemed to have the sole role of dipping their heads and saying "Halo" as you walk past. Perhaps I've misread the situation and they're actually well trained petite security kung-fu guards?


There were only two major intersections on our way to and from the mall. One of them was a relatively easy one, not too much fear of death. Of great interest (and something I've found useful for making a dash for the other side of the road) are wherever there are traffic lights there is a big digital timer that counts down until the light goes green. It's really useful for us pedestrians as you can see if you have 30 seconds in which to avoid half as much traffic as usual or 5 seconds.


At the larger of the two intersections, a massive crossroad with turning bits and stuff happening everywhere we were lucky because a local was about to make his crossing. We just kind of blinkered out the rest of the world and shadowed him. Three steps forward, pause, wait for motorcycles to whiz past in front and behind you. Two steps forward. Pause. Avoid van and several cars. Pretend the breeze is a pleasant ocean one, not the side mirror passing inches from your nose. etc. We all three made it across and I was very tempted to tip the guy and ask him to follow us to every intersection.



This next picture is of the river that winds its way through the city. I'll try to get another shot at some stage, I don't think this one really captured it properly. For starters, we're standing on a bridge quite a ways above it. The banks are really, really steep. It's kind of a nice Yarra coloured river. You can see how the houses use every bit of space they can get. Some of them are really really stilted to cope with the slope.

On the way back we stopped at a bank to top up on funds. The banks here are massive, ornate structures with guards at the entrances etc. We walked until we found one that had the mastercard sign on it. The guard let us through and as we walked towards the front doors we saw an ATM sign pointing around the side of the building. We followed the sign and walked around the entire building. At the back there was a small parking lot with a long rectangular building. Inside were a row of maybe 10 ATMs (I thought taking a picture of this might not be the best idea: smile with your PIN!) The building was just barely big enough for them and basically was just there to provide air conditioning while you withdrew your cash.


The ATMs on the right were all full, with people in line behind them, and yet there were three on the left hand side with nobody at them. Wierd. Anyway, we went to one of the vacant ones and withdrew the princely sum of 500,000 Rp (about $70 Oz). The machine spit out the money in lots of 20,000 Rp. That's when we worked out that the ATM has a little sticker on it that says 20,000. The others had stickers on them that said 50,000 or 100,000. I guess that's why they were busier. My poor wallet had to try and hold this many bank notes in it:


On the plus side, I'm a multi-millionaire and here's the picture to prove it:

And people complain about part-time Victorian teacher's salaries. Pshaw!

For dinner tonight we ditched Alif (we'll make it up to him tonight) and went down the road to Pizza Hut just to see what they had to offer. After being quite the test taster for the trip so far (I had some sort of beef stew, mie goreng and lime stewed fish for breakfast today) I thought I would just go for a traditional for dinner. I had a super supreme cheesy crust. It was almost just like normal, except as I munched on it I thought, hmm. It's not quite normal. No pig products. Just what is this stuff that's meant to look like shredded ham? Best not to ask. Tasted fine, just slightly wierd.

That was nothing compared to what Tari had. She had "Shrimp kress" pizza. As near as we can guess it was deep fried prawns, mayonnaise and... um... other orange, beige and white things. I think I won out in that one.

When we got back to the hotel it was, maybe, 8, 8:30 and, being a Friday, Tari wanted more chocolate so she room serviced a chocolate mousse. I heard half of the phonecall:

"Halo, could I please get a chocolate mousse room service?"

"Yes. Mousse."

"Chocolate, yes."

"Chocolate Mousse, please, yes."

"Thank you!"

About ten minutes later she's sipping on a chocolate milk shake.

Close enough?

I'll let you decide.

Well, that's about it for yesterday. Just to wrap up, yes Dad, they do BBQ over here:

I'm not sure what the BBQ question had to do with volcanoes and I'm not sure I want to know! There's an active volcano just out of town (it's advised that we don't climb it - yeah, that was on my top ten list of things to do). It causes problems from time to time. It's a geologically active area. There was an earthquake last year that did a bit of damage. Part of the joy of the national geographic channel is that there is at least once a day "The world's deadliest volcanoes" or "The worlds most devastating earthquakes" or "The Earth strikes back" etc. All of which start with peaceful shots of people going about their ordinary lives and a commentary... "The day started peacefully, quietly, a normal day with people going about their lives... not knowing that the terror was about to begin!"

Changing subject abruptly...

We'll probably be visiting a silver jewellry making place this afternoon. Not sure yet, today is Saturday and they're working pretty much all day so it will depend how they feel in the arvo I'm guessing. The 35 odd members (trust me, they're pretty odd) of the "fellowship" (hehe) start arriving today for the conference next week. It's been great having Tari getting afternoons off this week, next week they'll be full on days (she won't have had a day off until we get back home).

Apologies to the naming I attemped yesterday too, I made Tari tell me how to spell their names, I think they are:

Ale and Panca for the translators.

Fauziah and Diah for the fellows.

As always, it's now time for my post enormous breakfast mid-morning nap with some uplifting doco in the background, lemme see, it's "India's secret plague" today. After that I'll probably go for a wander if I can find another traffic human shield to use =)

Sim.

Thursday

I just noticed how inventive I've been with the blog titles. Creativity to the max!

Not feeling very well this morning, sinuses and asthma combining to make life awkward. Didn't stop me from having my now traditional two hour long breakfast mind you=)

No photos today, as I said yesterday, not much happened.

When TJ got home she rushed in and said: "Do you want to see how they make Batik?" That's the traditional clothing. Of course most parts of my brain said "I can't believe she's bothered to ask that question - what could be more fun than watching clothing being made." However, the other little bit of my brain won by saying: "I've got to get out of this room!" So away we went.

The workshop was owned and run by the family of one of the fellows whom Tari has worked with before named... oooh boy, I remembered this morning! Honest! I think it is Fahasia (no idea on the real spelling) and the other is named Dia (again, I have to make sincere apologies for mangling these). They are two lovely ladies. In any case, Fahasia drove us there in a black 4WD and can I just say that you could have put her into one of those car rallys that you see on TV and she would have blitzed the track (even beating the Peugot's sorry Tari).

When you get in the car, the first thing you do is breathe (the AC was on), then you reach for a non-existant seat belt. Then you just kind of try to stop your eyes from popping out. I mentioned what the traffic was like yesterday. It's the same when you're driving apparently. You just go and assume that everything will flow around you. My favorite moment was when a ute pulled out with a guy who was smoking and obviously in no rush. The road at that point was four lanes. You assume two for one direction and two for the other. In any case, most people drive somewhere near the middle of their two lanes because of the rickshaw's etc along the curb. Fahasia was a magnificent driver, felt like we were in a car chase scene, especially when she pulled out and overtook the ute, driving towards two lanes of oncoming traffic. Of course, it's pretty common for all there, so everything just sort of flowed around. Totally bizarre.

There is some horn honking, but mostly they sound like muffled ducks (from overuse Tari thinks) and they are generally used just to warn people that you're going to move suddenly or overtake them or because it's 3.27 in the afternoon or something.

When we got to the store/workshop it was in the middle of one of the afternoon rain sessions and a couple of guys actually brought out umbrellas for the two steps it took to get under cover. They were probably cousins or something, everybody in that place seemed to be related somehow. There was a tour group (maybe Japanese) that were just finishing up and we were given a special tour by the family members themselves who were so, so nice that I felt like telling them that I was really just a nobody! It's quite guilt-inducing being treated so well.

Well, we had seen lots of Batik clothing for sale and boy do I have a new appreciation for it now. The hand made stuff is such a long, laborious process in hot conditions, it's really quite amazing. This particular place was quite expensive and obviously very good - they get orders to make silk kimonos. Apparently a Japanese gentleman will bring over a pattern and a 15m long roll of silk. They will then spend (in some cases more than a month) the time to create the pattern and then a kimono specialist does the cutting. They're very clever, the pattern just looks like dots and lines and stuff until it's cut and worn and then it makes a picture, like an oriental village or mountain scenery etc.

Why does the process take so long I hear you ask? Well if I had to go through it, you should to, it's only fair. Just count yourselves lucky that you're sitting where you can breathe. I'll just give you the basic gist of it. Basically they use a wax and colouring process. They cover parts that they don't want coloured in wax, then they colour it, then they remove some of the wax, and cover the coloured bits with more wax, then colour it a different colour etc. Hmm. That makes it sound too easy.

For applying the wax they use what look like corn-cob smoking pipes, with the bowl made of copper and a tiny little tube sticking out from the bowl parallel to the handle. They put the molten wax in the bowl and it dribbles down the little tube. They can then make little wax dots where they need them to go. That's for the fine detail anyway, for large scale patterns they have metal stamps, ooh, hang on there are some here for decorations, I'll just go take a quick pic.

These are also made from copper, the first picture is a close-up, the second is what the entire stamp looks like. They are about 15-20cm square

The guy that we saw using these stamps was so fast and precise. There's a big kettle of hot wax behind him, he dips in the stamp, shakes it off, then places it on the cloth. As he does each one he has to make sure he's got it perfectly lined up with the previous one as some of the patterns are repetitious.


I think I've managed to cut a short story long, but just before they're finised there's a guy who stands next to a cauldron of boiling water who gets the fun job of essentially making sure that all of the wax is gone by the end. He dips in the cloth and swirls it around, then pulls it out with a couple of wooden paddles to scrape and twist etc. this is done multiple times, then the cloth is hung out to dry and cut to fit whatever is being made. There were shirts, skirts, table cloths, bags, hats, all sorts of stuff. Some cotton, some silk. Because this was a bit of a tourist version everything was pretty expensive, but you can see why after you've seen the whole process. We didn't buy anything, which is sort of a pity, but I just can't go past all the extra zeroes things have on them. I can't pay 1,000,000 anythings!


What else happened yesterday... Oh, I met Tari and Jackie's translators. Pancha (male) and d'oh, can't remember at the moment. Ali or Aley or something I think (female). Anyway, they both learned how to speak English primarily from their studies at ANU. We were enlightened as to one of the several reasons that Australians aren't the most favorite of all tourists. (And no, Dad, it has nothing to do with Kevin 07) The Universities over the last 5-10 years have really been cutting back on how well they treat their overseas fee paying students due to government cutbacks. As a result the courses just aren't teaching what they used to in terms of international economics etc. This is obviously disappointing given our previous history of excellence.


Dinner was excellent as always, one of the waiters reminds me somewhat of the character Michael J Fox played in "The Concierge". He's a real friendly showman named Alif and has already learned our names and recommends what we should eat, tells us what the different bits are and what they're for etc. He remembers what we have had previously and noted that I was working my way through the (cheap) options at the top of the menu. Last night I splurged out on fish.


It was really, really good. The presentation of the food is fantastic and most of the dishes have a main, central bit (like a soup, or noodles, or rice, or meat) and then several bits around the outside to mix in, one hot, one salty, one sour and one sweet. Sometimes it's liquid, sometimes it's fruits, always something unique.


Anyhow, the fish appeared in front of me as a whole fish, but the middle bit had been scooped out and so it was just a head, fins, tail and one side of it (against the plate). On top where the rest of the fish should have been was fish bits that had been crumbed or something mixed with a sweet and sour sauce and some onion (with rice on the side of course). If I'm clever I'll remember to take a camera to show you next time!


Oh, and Tari kept reminding me to tell you about the fruit juice. Whenever you order a juice you get a nice tall class, with a piece of the fruit on the rim and next to it you get a tiny jug of sugar syrup. Sometimes you don't need the syrup (guava juice) but sometimes it's really great. Yesterday when we got back from the Batik place we had lemon juice, you could add the syrup until you had a perfect blend of sweet and sour. Very nice stuff.


Well, can't think of anything else at the moment, lots of medical type stories that I'll let Tari tell herself when we get back. Thanks Dean for the translation of the call to prayer! Time for my mid-morning nap =)

Sim.

Wednesday

Well, it's Thursday morning here, about 9AM, so I guess that's 1PM your time. Thank you all for your comments on the previous blogs, it's really really nice to still feel sort of in touch with home - you all know how much I hate travelling!


Don't think I mentioned it yesterday, but we are woken at five-ish every morning by the call to prayer. I know that some people think it's a creepy sound of Islamic evil or something. I think it's really nice, I do wish that I understood the words, but it's easy enough to find yourself adding your own little prayers or thoughts for the day as it's quite a pleasant (to me) sounding drone. Tari was saying that you can also get automatic SMS and mobile calls with the call to prayer on it for when you're indoors/busy etc. Ahhh good old technology!


Just finished a very leisurely breakfast including (but not the totality) fish and chips, fruit of every description, beef bacon (can't get enough of that), guava juice (very sweet), apple juice (kinda nicely sour), nasi goreng (rice dish), sausages, croissant... there was other stuff, but you get the idea.


Feeling much better today head-wise. Those flights really do my head in, sinuses implode then explode and leave me feeling pretty ordinary for a couple of days, but today just a dull ache rather than stabbing pain. It turns out that researchers have shown* that 30% of people suffer such pain when flying. For those of you that don't I have a small experiment that you can do for a demonstration. Firstly you need to be on a nice long flight. Secondly you'll need a plastic water bottle, easily purchased before boarding in the pre-flight lounge for a discounted price of 142 times higher than normal. Thirdly, once you're in the air and watching your movie, open the bottle of water, drink half to 3/4 of it and seal it back up nice and tight. Now put the bottle aside and finish your flight. If you've done it right, by the time you've landed and other people are getting off the plane you should look into your seat-pouch at the bottle which should have been sucked inwards as though it had drank lemonade without sugar. That's what happens to your head. It's science.


So... I suppose you are interested in more than just my meals. Well, I'll give you a break from food discussions then. Today I'm showing you random pictures of the place we're staying in. Firstly, here's one of the many large carvings adorning the walls:

It's a bit hard to make it out, but there's a pheonix in the middle, I saw them all over the place and commented to Tari who, without actually saying "well duh" because she loves me so much reminded me that this place is also called Hotel Pheonix. I guess that would explain things. I then felt honour bound to explain all about Pheonix mythology. You can imagine the interest this held for people. Moving right along then...

There are quite a few of these massive flower pots around. If you look closely there's a pheonix on this one...

So anyway, Tari worked until about 2ish yesterday (from 7:30 with no break) so was pretty tired. She will have to tell you all the great stories, but here are two that I remember:

When conducting interviews at one hospital with a nurse she asked "Is (insert hospital name here) your hospital?" There was apparently some confusion via her responses and the translators so they asked the questions in a couple of different ways finally working out that yes, she did work at that hospital, but it wasn't hers, it was (insert doctor's name here). That caused a little more confusion, the short of it being that the hospital that they were talking about was actually owned by this doctor. It was quite literally HIS hospital. They all realised that from then on they should probably be careful about saying that Monash was their university etc.



Second story... For lunch (at 2:30) they were taken to a nice little place where people put out dish after dish after dish in front of them. A little taken aback they had it explained to them that they just ate what they wanted and you get charged just for what you eat, like your own personal buffet. Anyhow, one of the dishes looked particularly unappealing and they were told that it was lung. mmmm lung. They didn't really want to offend so they asked their "keeper" about the dish. She looked at it with disgust and said that they could eat it if they wanted to, but that she never touches the stuff.


Tari got back about 3:30 or so and, though very tired, wanted to go out for a bit of a walk. There's a shopping strip down the road from where we're staying so out we went. I think I was plastered with sweat before we'd exited the hotel grounds! It was very simple to get to the place, quite literally only one turn and then straight on until Maccas.



We had to cross two roads and one railway. The road crossing seems to go like this:
Stand at side of road. Watch several hundred motorcycles go by in an endless stream. Watch other pedestrians. Follow their method. You wait until you feel like you're not going to be hit instantly then just walk across the road at an even pace. If you've seen those cartoons where the sleepwalker goes across the highway somehow avoiding being hit then you'll know exactly what it was like. It's a bizarre system, but it works, bikes are maneuverable I guess.



The train-line is barricaded by wooden fence pieces on wheels. When the train comes, some guy in a uniform (didn't see a gun this time) pushes them into place to block pedestrian and bicycle traffic until the train meanders past. Then he just wheels them back and across you go.



Took maybe 15 minutes or so to walk to the top of the shopping district and then another 15 until we reached an air-conditioned mall with a maccas. In that first 15 minutes we saw numerous stalls selling stamps. Wooden ones. Stampi stalls. No idea why yet, will try to find out. I'd stop and ask, but at the moment my lungs are working full time just to suck oxygen from the water logged air.



Met a nice shop-keeper who has a sister living in Melton. He offered to take us to a special government funded art exhibition put together by poor local people. Tari read about this, it's a total scam to make white "rich" people buy art for which the guide gets a cut. We were offered the same thing three times, it was really hard not to laugh at it eventually. Of course, it would have backfired on them anyhow. They didn't realise that for me an art exhibition is something you get dragged to and certainly not something you ever spend money at!



I don't know how often I've been offered Rolex watches either. My watch on my belt clip escapes notice and apparently it's very important that I have a Rolex on my wrist. I should buy a T-shirt that says "Less rich than you think, don't need a watch, not really interested in art."

Anyhow, on to Maccas, good old rice soup, crispy chicken, less than crispy chicken, totally not crispy chicken and did I mention the soup? The air conditioning was bliss, I could breathe again! Had a coke, before you pick on me it was my first for days! Did a circuit of the mall, had to buy Tari some band-aids for her blistered feet.


We were trying to work out who got to complain more, me with my one bad foot or her with two blistered feet. They need to invent some sort of scale to settle such arguments. I wanted to buy some pants, only have a normal pair of slacks plus my jeans, can't wear shorts here (culturally unacceptable) so was a bit short on the clothing department. The mall had a Myer's type place there so in we went. Imagine Myers with all of the aisles full of those "discount" tables. There was sort of just enough room to slide around in. Add to that the most densely staffed store you can possibly dream of. As Tari said later if you stood still and extended your arms you could touch at least two shopping attendants. Helps with the unemployment I guess. Anyhow got some cotton pants which are much more comfortable than the jeans.



Most amusing moment for me was watching Tari walk past an itty bitty gorgeous Indonesian girl. The kid's mouth was totally gaping open and her eyes were as big as saucers as she swiveled her head to watch this gargantuan white woman walk past. If she'd been holding an ice-cream, the ice-cream would have fallen off the cone - it was that kind of moment.

Downstairs was a supermarket at which we purchased some munchables. Didn't get much 'cos we had another half hour walk back to the hotel in front of us. One liter water bottles for about 17 cents. Should have used THAT on the plane for the experiment! Got a couple different brands of root beer to try out, they have A&W but I wanted to try something new. Also picked up some cadbury chocolate (slightly cheaper than at home) and miscellaneous lollies.



Most of the people around seem genuinely nice. It seems just common for them to dip their head, smile and say "halo" or another equivalent. They're a very smiley lot. It's very different to the Ozzie "g'day owareya" which can be said by the checkout dude without eye contact or facial expression or recognition of response. You find yourself kinda cheering up because it's hard to be miserable with people smiling at you and you have to smile back and dip your head as well.


The walk back was uneventful, the afternoon thunderstorm was rolling in so it was even more humid (which I hadn't thought possible) and getting back to the air conditioned hotel was like lifting a pillow off your head in the morning. Hmm. Might have to work on that metaphor.

Some more shots of the hotel... This is an ornate wooden door. It doesn't go anywhere. I tried.

And the hotel pool, looks very nice, waiting to see someone else actually in it before I give it a go, don't want to offend anybody with the wrong dress code.

Didn't take any photos on our walk for similar reasons given yesterday. 1. It was in the bottom of my satchel. 2. I didn't want to look even more like an idiot tourist than I already do. 3. Couldn't really be bothered. Really must be missing a gene I think.

A round of showers and then it was dinner time. Haven't convinced Tari to try the cheesy banana yet Paul, sorry. I had Gudeg Komplit Yogya. What is that you ask? Hmm. Good question. It was yummy. A plate with four types of brown on it. I think there was chicken in there and various curry sauces and condiments. Oh, and rice. The drinks are interesting. Tari's work pays for her stuff so she's been lashing out and having drinks. Her iced coffee cost as much as my entire main meal. Some fruit juices (the ones I have) don't cost much, but most other drinks are quite expensive (relatively speaking). My meal cost 38,000 Rp (same amount for that iced coffee) and the exchange rate is (very roughly) about 7,000 Rp to the Oz dollar.

Tell you what, my divide by seven in my head maths is so far coping well, but geez, couldn't it have been, like, 5 or something? Still, it makes me feel really rich, opening my wallet and pulling out a note with 100,000 on it (also a picture of a guy with a machete).

The waiters and waitresses are fabulous. Very well trained. They serve the ladies first, no matter how we are seated. I'm trying to learn how to say please and thank-you but I'm not

doing very well so far. I'm always amazed at how so many people here speak English, some quite fluently. So far they've been quite amused by our efforts to reciprocate their English with our Indonesian. Tari does quite well, I'm not quite so good. I'm also disgusted by some tourists who sort of expect it and get a bit grumpy when they can't be understood properly. Like it's the rest of the world's job to learn English. Sigh.

Not much else to report at this stage I don't think. If I remember anything else I'll make amendments. Tari has a shorter day today and should be back by 2ish, which is about four or so hours for me to, um, do stuff. Like drink my root beer. Read more Tom Clancy (I'm sure something will happen soon, it just has to). Play some more Nintendo (thank's Paul for the lend of the games). Watch some more National Geographic and Discovery channel - always something half worth half listening to. I imagine we'll go for another walk in a different direction today when TJ gets back.

Next week we'll be doing some touristy things so maybe it'll be more interesting then. Until then I'm enjoying doing as close to nothing as possible. Oooh, coming up next on the Discovery channel is something about Nefertiti. Always wanted to know more about her. Aaaaaah holidays.

Sim.

* This research was painstakingly carried out and you can find it in all the best medical journals. I just happened to see it on the back of a toilet stall door, but I'm sure it's also in the BMJ.