Chris' Travels

yogajakarta and the horses effect

Continued..............

I'll try and write this post better than I wrote the last.

Woke to a stunning view of mt Bromo. Took some photos and had a good western breakfast still sneezing and waited for my bus. Bus arrived and dashed down the mountain. I'm not sure how many feet we descended but it was enough more my water bottle to be crushed by the change. Got chatting to some German and English people and swapped some notes as we we're heading in opposite directions. The driver was mental. we careered down the small mountain round at a fearsome speed.
Reached the bottom. Continued chatting and the sneezing stopped immediately. Pop to a super market and bought some snacks and nearly missed my minibus. It was a brand spanking new bus and there were only 5 people travelling which meant I had the entire back seat to myself. Lay down slept, chatted, read, chatted some more. joked, laughed and generally felt a million times happier than a short 24 hours before.
It was an all day event, but it was a happy journey. I've never had so much space on a long journey before. rolled into Jogjakarta (not to be confused with Jakarta) at 8 pm, found a room. ate. wandered around a bit with my new English pals.
Slept like a baby.
The next day visited the sultans palace here. nice enough but we found WE were the tourist attraction for alot of the Indonesian people visiting. posed for photos and generally were politely harassed and ogled. Also visited the pet market here which sells, well everything the outstanding items sadly being monkeys, snakes, lizards, bats and owls. Sad but interesting to see. Then hope in a rickshaw to go and have a tradition Indonesian lunch at McDonald's. Cheeseburgers never tasted so good. and yes cheeseburgers.
Decided to go and visit a silver smith village outside of town. Jumped in a horse and cart and it happened. again. we managed to go about 1 mile before I was Dying much to the amusement of my friends but I was seriously having an allergic reaction. Sneezing, red eyes and this time I could hardly breath. washed eyes with bottle of water (friends now realising the seriousness of my discomfort) sneezed choked wheezed and generally realised this time for sure all horses should be shot.
Finished the day wandering and the crazy markets here and picked up a souvenir or two. Had dinner at a street side restaurant where you sit on the pavement next to low tables. it was good. had a laugh with the people next to us we tried to order. I ended up with goat satay and a kind of fried rice. As a joke we also ordered the two cheapest items on the menu. one never arrived. One arrived looked horrible (and so i wouldn't touch it) but did bet my friend a beer if he could. he enjoyed it until the whole restaurant was laughing. They then told him it was, and I quote "chicken, erm, what di you call: poo poo". The boy received a beer and a whipping in the local Indonesian pool hall. 4 games to 2. I was on fire.
Wandered the markets some more at night time and I ended staying up way too late talking the to the owner of the hotel over a candle lit table as all the electricity had failed.

TODAY!!!!! after a combination of taxi, bus and rickshaw got to the temple of Borobudur. As were on the bus got mixed in in a procession of motorbikes with passengers all waving flags for a particular political party. It's election time here and there are flags for one party or another EVERYWHERE. there were 2000 motorbikes, quite possibly alot more and made the journey interesting.
Got to the temple. scoffed some very cheap very good chicken noodle soup and headed on up the temple. it's multi tiered and beautiful. got to the top sat down to rest. posed for 30+ photos for Indonesian people (I kid you not) and generally acted like movie stars and it was fun!! why do they complain about paparazzi?? return journey as above but minus motorbikes plus thunder storm.
Now I'm back in my hotel trying to write this as quickly as possible to then go pack my bag rest and generally get ready for an over night train to Jakarta leaving at 11.30 tonight. It's been a busy few days. but I think me and my new Friends have had fun, laughing at each other and generally finding new and inventive way to avoid hawkers, horses and sales people of all types.

Tomorrow the evil that must be faced. Jakarta is the only place I'm heading to I don't particularly want to go to. I'm pretty sure it will turn out to be as safe as Bangkok but I'm taking precautions including sewing my wallet inside my short pockets to avoid pick pockets etc.

Laters.
C.

posted by Chris @ 10:59 am