Buddah statue at Borobudur Temple

"And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.' "

Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Making kue with my ibu

My new host family!

Me and my host sister

On Sept. 11^th, I moved to my new house. Further removed from the main road, it is quieter and a more comfortable location. I live with Bu and Pak Sukarno. All of their children have either already moved out or are in a boarding school, so there are 5 students who board with them. Four of the kids attend the school where I teach and 3 of them are my students. While they all have their individual lives, they function as a family, eating and praying together and taking care of each other. Diana goes to a middle school down the road. Marpuah is a senior at my high school and she is quickly becoming a close friend. The boys are Andik, Adit and Sujianto, three of my 10^th grade students. From the day I moved in, I knew this was a perfect fit. The family is easy going and well connected in the community. There is a musollah, small mosque, outside the house that is run by my host father, making it easy to meet people from the neighborhood. This is also where I hold my LES (tutoring) for the neighborhood kids.

The boys of the house

From Jogja with love.

Mt. Merapi Jeep Tour

The easiest way to travel in Indonesia is by bus. The way these buses are run are nothing like in America. Let's just say it is not very comfortable and there is little concern for safety. The seats are tiny and as long as there is room on the bus, people will continue to pile in until they are hanging out the door. It gets tight in there. It doesn't help that people are allowed to smoke on non-air conditioned buses and dust is flying around from the roads. Traveling can be stressful and uncomfortable, but the idea of going on an adventure to somewhere new more than makes up for it.

Parangtritis Beach

For my first vacation in Indonesia, Terrence and I went to Jogjakarta for 5 days. We took a bus from our villages to Ngawi, then transferred at the Ngawi terminal for a bus to Jogja. In total, the trip took about 6 hours. We arrived at our hotel around 1pm on Saturday and having not planned anything for our travel day, we settled into the hotel then ventured out to explore. We made our way to Malioboro St. which was about 15-20 minutes from the hotel and explore the main road full of vendors, shops and restaurants. That evening as we wandered around, we lost ourselves in the heart of the city. Not really sure how to get back to the hotel, we jumped on a becak and enjoyed the city streets from the tightly squeezed seat of the pedicab.

Pak Imam

For our first full day in Jogja, T and I planned to go to Borobudur temple, Mt. Merapi and if there was time, go to the beach. To get this all done in one day with little stress and confusion, we rented a car and driver. All of these locations are about an hour outside the city, so driving was the easiest way to get around. Our driver's name was Pak Imam. He is a soft spoken, knowledgeable father who can speak not only Indonesian, Javanese and English, but also a little French and Japanese as well. It was a wonderful day. Incredible beauty, delicious food and some adventure. I will let the pictures attest to this.

T and Marie-Paule at Ratu Boko Temple

Statue at Plaosan Temple

On the second day of vacation my true love gave to me...more temples! To get the the Hindu temples of Jogja, T and I took local transportation. The city bus system was much better than the buses we took to Jogja. The were clean, well organized and efficient. The Prambanan temples were only about 30-40 minutes by bus, then T and I joined with a tourist traveling alone from Brussels named Marie-Paule and took a dokar, horse drawn carriage, to to visit five Hindu temples in the area. They are all still being renovated but are beautiful in their partially ruined state. Ratu Boko, Ploasan and Prambanan were the three big ones. After Marie Paul kindly treated us to lunch, we parted ways and T and I returned to the hotel for a well deserved rest. After a quick swim in the late afternoon, we headed back to Malioboro St. for dinner and drinks.

T looking at batik art work

Underground Temple

The last full day in Jogja was our city day. We slept in a little and had a late breakfast before taking a taxi to the Sultan's Palace, which was a little disappointing. There wasn't much to see an the tour guide speed through the tour. We then saw the water castle, which was ruined by a bomb during WWII, and the underground mosque which was pretty cool. Our tour guide then took us to some batik factories to show us how batik is made and sell us some artwork. It was hard to resist buying everything I saw, but I was able to stick to 2 pieces I really enjoyed (which are currently on their way to the US). From the palace area, we took a becak to see more batik factories and then to the Prawirotaman neighborhood for some Mexican food and good coffee. Even though he was tired, T joined me to check off the last item on my list: The Affandi Museum. Definitely worth the visit. That night, we were focused on buying oleh-oleh (souvenirs) for our friends and family back in our villages.

Its was a wonderful few days getting to hang out with T and see the sights, but I am happy to be back in Payaman village. It really felt like I was coming home.

Batik factory

Traditional puppets made out of leather