It's been a whirlwind of islands and temples and touring. We've been in Indonesia for about a week, both in Bali and in Java. The tourist-being part of our trip has come into full force in this last week. Hopefully it will subside a bit now that we've pretty much seen all the 'main attractions' on both islands.
Our first three days in Indonesia we spent in Bali, about 20 minutes from the major city of Denpasar in a small suburb on the beach called Legian.
Those three days we spent at the beach (which was an absolutely disgusting experience for me), going on a temple tour, and doing some shopping.
The beach was so gross the first day we went to it. I have never experienced that much trash in one place (and I lived in India). It was as if someone put a beach smack dab in the middle of Amritsar. Yuk!
The next day at the temples was very lovely, however. These temples are super beautiful; thatched roofs on carved stone on rocky cliffs, overlooking breathtaking, breaking white water waves. We got to see a fire dance performance in the last temple we visited. It was in this small stadium that was made of stone bleachers. It was kind of a mix between the Parthenon in Greece and a high school baseball diamond.
We sat there in bleachers peppered by purple sarongs, with people from all over the world, and watched the Ramayana as about thirty shirtless men chanted (Chaka Chaka) around the dancers performance.
The last day in Bali was one of my favorite to date (not only because I got new shoes, a shirt, and a bag) but also because it was just so chill. My mom and I left my bro (who was sick) and dad at this mall we went to, (that sucked) to find a glasses place. We pretty much just walked around a market and sat on the beach and chatted. I also got to whip out my expert India bargaining skills.
The next day we had to wake up at an ungodly hour to fly to Java. It was a short flight, to the most populated Indonesian island. We checked into our hotel and my bro and I passed out for a few hours before dinner, while our parents walked to the sultans palace. That night we walked around the night market on the Main Street in Yogyakarta or Jogja as the locals call it.
During our time in Java we came up with this joke. Since my dad has a really funny habit of comparing new places to places he's already visited (one of the main ones being Oregon), any time he would compare something, someone would butt in with 'no actually it's like Oregon'. For example, 'oh hey this temple is kinda like the ones in Burma'. 'Actually papa, I think it is more like Oregon'. Anyways, you get the point...
So our second day, we did a tour of local temples in Jogja, the main one being Prambanan and then two other little ones plus some old palace ruins. These were up on a hill and overlooked the whole city. It was quite beautiful. We also drove up to the volcano base. This is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. It erupted in Nov. of 2011 and killed like 4,000 people.
On our way back from the volcano we stopped at a coffee roasters (cuz when in Java!) this was a special one where they process their coffee beans by feeding them to little weasel type animals called Civet Cats (who are related to raccoons). These guys can't digest the beans so they ferment in the belly and they poop them out whole. The factory than dries them and peels them and processes them into ready to go coffee. It's like really rare or something (but between you and me it was not much different than regular coffee).
The next day it was time to move hotels for the 58,000th time. After our visit to the water and sultans palaces (like real, legit, Arabian nights sultan), we moved to a town outside of Borobudur so we could get to the temple easily the next morning. On the way we stopped at two more small Buddhist temples. At this point I was just about templed out and we had not even seen the main attraction yet.
By the next morning I was becoming a pro at getting up at the butt-crack of dawn. We wanted to get to Borobudur before the crowds swarmed it. We were relatively successful. Got there at 6am and took a really excellent tour of the building, which is the largest (en mass) singular Buddhist monument in the world. It has 10 levels, 5 of which are intricately carved. After our tour we took our own romp around, circling each level once, clockwise. At this point we thought we would only spend like 4 hours in the grounds and instead took a train and took some naps and ate some ice cream until it was 8 hours later. That night we failed, yet again, at finding an acceptable restaurant for vegetarians and ended up eating at the hotel.
Our last day in Java we headed back to Jogja for a day of massages and yummy, proper vegetarian dinners. It was a chill day that was very needed post 'tour de temple: legend of the million stairs'.
We're back in Bali now and just did a recap of my mom and my shopping day. We were trying to recreate it because it was so nice, but it just doesn't work when the boys tag along, or maybe it's just the more people you add the less chill it gets.
We did end up passing the place I bought my purse on the first shopping day. My mom got a new purse this time (after I tantrumed over her getting the same one as me, she got a slightly better one, which is fine). We also passed the lady who now owns my old shoes and the store where my current sandals were purchased.
After I had bought them, we were walking down the street and this lady in a shop stopped me and asked if my old ones were broken (since I immediately put the new ones on as the other's sole was literally hanging by a thread). I said yeah, and showed her. The response? 'No problem, I fix'. She preceded to put them on, right then and there. Let's keep in mind I have tiny feet (I even bought these sandals in the kids section), but they fit her perfectly! When we walked by her store the second time she was sitting there wearing them. It made me really happy that I could pay it forward like that!
Retracing our steps eventually led to the glasses shop where my mom picked up her glasses (that are super stylish). Now we are resting before we head out to dinner (and I am obviously taking advantage of the internet to blog).
