Broadcasting live from ViaVia cafe in Jogja! We finally made it, but it was NOT easy. In fact, our celebration on the train was cut short upon arrival in Jogjakarta. Readers take note: DO NOT TRAVEL TO INDO (except maybe Bali or Papua) AFTER RAMADAN. The books somewhat fail to mention this. They mention that getting transport immediatly after Ramadan can be tough. They also mention that during Ramadan Indo is sleepy. What they DON'T say is that everyone and their pet bird travels somewhere...apparently this year's choice was here.
I tried to book a hotel on the train, armed with about 7 different numbers, but the guy who sold me my SIM card failed to mention there was about IDR 500 on it (literally, five cents US). Once we got into Jogja, at about 9pm, we went to the tourist informasi booth to try to find a place to stay. Everything was booked. I mean EVERYTHING. The boss there (if you ever need help, ask for Eric) called up every place he knew of within our budget and little over. Booked. Full. The only place he could find was about 15mls outside the city in a "village" (I would say town) near the Prambanan temple. We wanted to see the temple so we agreed. It was IDR 300,000 for a cold shower, fan, and bunk beds...this is about $30US and REALLY overpriced. I mean REALLY overpriced. In fact, every place to stay and every tourist attraction is about 200% higher than it normally is because of the holiday. Thanks for mentioning that Lonely Planet (LP is a piece of crap btw...don't use it). But we sucked it up and paid because the train station was too loud to even attempt to nap in.
After about 5 hours of sleep our neighbors decided to let all 6 of their young kids out to play outside of our room. WTF. Honestly, one of the most rude things I've ever experienced. I donno how many of them were in that room, but I saw at least 8 pairs of shoes. So, reluctantly, we arose and went to the free 'breakfast.' This consisted of half-heartedly fried rice and noodles with boiled eggs that had been sitting out for wayyyy too long. I couldn't finish it. Fortunately some toast arrived and we had a few more pieces of bread. However, we had been living off of bread and bread products for two whole days and it was the last thing we wanted to throw down the hatch.
Before we headed out to the temple we decided to take a stroll around the property. We turned the courner from our nice garden area to what we thought would be a nice, relaxing pool, but was, in fact, a full blown water park straight out of the 50s. Already stuffed to the brim with people. This, at least, explained the kids. We immediately ran away and went to the lobby to use the internet. Luckily we found a place in town to stay in that claimed to have AC and a 'western shower' (the ac was fine, and unless a western shower is a wash basin with a bucket to dump water on your head, then this was a lie). We didn't care because it had air con, a big bed, space, and wasn't filled with loud children. They need to dust the corners of the place though, but whatever. It was also cheaper than Indo Water World.
The Prambanan temple was quite impressive. I would have enjoyed it much more if I wasn't shuffeled from what I thought was the ticket line twice to the "western" ticket line. The price went from about $1USD to $18 for us whities. This REALLY bothered me. Just because I'm white does not mean I'm made of money and this was not the price any of the books or webpages had posted. They claimed it was because of Hari Raya, but still...what...the...fuck. We sucked it up and paid because it would have been a loss not to go. It was really crowded, but they let you wander around anywhere so it was easy to lose the crowds. We went up to the main entrance to the temples and immediately got accosted by a bunch of Indonesians on holiday wanting to take a picture. We thought they wanted us to take a picture of them, but in fact, they wanted their kids, elders, whomever to get in a picture with us. I found this pretty hilarious, but given what we saw by the overland route here, these people have probably never met a white person before. They were all extremely friendly and thanked us by shaking our hands and touching their hearts (this is a traditional Muslim gesture). They asked our names and asked where we were from. We returned the questions and it was actually a pretty charming exchange.
It has actually been helpful being American here. They love Obama and don't get very many of us in Java. This, combined with knowing some Indonesian has gotten us a lot of friendly, honest help that I really appreciate considering how difficult it is to get around in these parts. Aside from the room rates and posted prices I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off everwhere. Taxis use their meters and we walk just about everywhere so that may have something to do with it.
I would love to continue to write and talk about our day wandering around Jogja, but blogger has yet again bugged out on me and skips everytime I type a letter so I'm going to stop here for fear that I might get a seizure. Today we are going to stay at a CS host's house until Monday. I look forward to some local input on the place.
Eating decently well now and having a good time.
-M
Broadcasting live from ViaVia cafe in Jogja! We finally made it, but it was NOT easy. In fact, our celebration on the train was cut short upon arrival in Jogjakarta. Readers take note: DO NOT TRAVEL TO INDO (except maybe Bali or Papua) AFTER RAMADAN. The books somewhat fail to mention this. They mention that getting transport immediatly after Ramadan can be tough. They also mention that during Ramadan Indo is sleepy. What they DON'T say is that everyone and their pet bird travels somewhere...apparently this year's choice was here.
I tried to book a hotel on the train, armed with about 7 different numbers, but the guy who sold me my SIM card failed to mention there was about IDR 500 on it (literally, five cents US). Once we got into Jogja, at about 9pm, we went to the tourist informasi booth to try to find a place to stay. Everything was booked. I mean EVERYTHING. The boss there (if you ever need help, ask for Eric) called up every place he knew of within our budget and little over. Booked. Full. The only place he could find was about 15mls outside the city in a "village" (I would say town) near the Prambanan temple. We wanted to see the temple so we agreed. It was IDR 300,000 for a cold shower, fan, and bunk beds...this is about $30US and REALLY overpriced. I mean REALLY overpriced. In fact, every place to stay and every tourist attraction is about 200% higher than it normally is because of the holiday. Thanks for mentioning that Lonely Planet (LP is a piece of crap btw...don't use it). But we sucked it up and paid because the train station was too loud to even attempt to nap in.
After about 5 hours of sleep our neighbors decided to let all 6 of their young kids out to play outside of our room. WTF. Honestly, one of the most rude things I've ever experienced. I donno how many of them were in that room, but I saw at least 8 pairs of shoes. So, reluctantly, we arose and went to the free 'breakfast.' This consisted of half-heartedly fried rice and noodles with boiled eggs that had been sitting out for wayyyy too long. I couldn't finish it. Fortunately some toast arrived and we had a few more pieces of bread. However, we had been living off of bread and bread products for two whole days and it was the last thing we wanted to throw down the hatch.
Before we headed out to the temple we decided to take a stroll around the property. We turned the courner from our nice garden area to what we thought would be a nice, relaxing pool, but was, in fact, a full blown water park straight out of the 50s. Already stuffed to the brim with people. This, at least, explained the kids. We immediately ran away and went to the lobby to use the internet. Luckily we found a place in town to stay in that claimed to have AC and a 'western shower' (the ac was fine, and unless a western shower is a wash basin with a bucket to dump water on your head, then this was a lie). We didn't care because it had air con, a big bed, space, and wasn't filled with loud children. They need to dust the corners of the place though, but whatever. It was also cheaper than Indo Water World.
The Prambanan temple was quite impressive. I would have enjoyed it much more if I wasn't shuffeled from what I thought was the ticket line twice to the "western" ticket line. The price went from about $1USD to $18 for us whities. This REALLY bothered me. Just because I'm white does not mean I'm made of money and this was not the price any of the books or webpages had posted. They claimed it was because of Hari Raya, but still...what...the...fuck. We sucked it up and paid because it would have been a loss not to go. It was really crowded, but they let you wander around anywhere so it was easy to lose the crowds. We went up to the main entrance to the temples and immediately got accosted by a bunch of Indonesians on holiday wanting to take a picture. We thought they wanted us to take a picture of them, but in fact, they wanted their kids, elders, whomever to get in a picture with us. I found this pretty hilarious, but given what we saw by the overland route here, these people have probably never met a white person before. They were all extremely friendly and thanked us by shaking our hands and touching their hearts (this is a traditional Muslim gesture). They asked our names and asked where we were from. We returned the questions and it was actually a pretty charming exchange.
It has actually been helpful being American here. They love Obama and don't get very many of us in Java. This, combined with knowing some Indonesian has gotten us a lot of friendly, honest help that I really appreciate considering how difficult it is to get around in these parts. Aside from the room rates and posted prices I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off everwhere. Taxis use their meters and we walk just about everywhere so that may have something to do with it.
I would love to continue to write and talk about our day wandering around Jogja, but blogger has yet again bugged out on me and skips everytime I type a letter so I'm going to stop here for fear that I might get a seizure. Today we are going to stay at a CS host's house until Monday. I look forward to some local input on the place.
Eating decently well now and having a good time.
-M
Broadcasting live from ViaVia cafe in Jogja! We finally made it, but it was NOT easy. In fact, our celebration on the train was cut short upon arrival in Jogjakarta. Readers take note: DO NOT TRAVEL TO INDO (except maybe Bali or Papua) AFTER RAMADAN. The books somewhat fail to mention this. They mention that getting transport immediatly after Ramadan can be tough. They also mention that during Ramadan Indo is sleepy. What they DON'T say is that everyone and their pet bird travels somewhere...apparently this year's choice was here.
I tried to book a hotel on the train, armed with about 7 different numbers, but the guy who sold me my SIM card failed to mention there was about IDR 500 on it (literally, five cents US). Once we got into Jogja, at about 9pm, we went to the tourist informasi booth to try to find a place to stay. Everything was booked. I mean EVERYTHING. The boss there (if you ever need help, ask for Eric) called up every place he knew of within our budget and little over. Booked. Full. The only place he could find was about 15mls outside the city in a "village" (I would say town) near the Prambanan temple. We wanted to see the temple so we agreed. It was IDR 300,000 for a cold shower, fan, and bunk beds...this is about $30US and REALLY overpriced. I mean REALLY overpriced. In fact, every place to stay and every tourist attraction is about 200% higher than it normally is because of the holiday. Thanks for mentioning that Lonely Planet (LP is a piece of crap btw...don't use it). But we sucked it up and paid because the train station was too loud to even attempt to nap in.
After about 5 hours of sleep our neighbors decided to let all 6 of their young kids out to play outside of our room. WTF. Honestly, one of the most rude things I've ever experienced. I donno how many of them were in that room, but I saw at least 8 pairs of shoes. So, reluctantly, we arose and went to the free 'breakfast.' This consisted of half-heartedly fried rice and noodles with boiled eggs that had been sitting out for wayyyy too long. I couldn't finish it. Fortunately some toast arrived and we had a few more pieces of bread. However, we had been living off of bread and bread products for two whole days and it was the last thing we wanted to throw down the hatch.
Before we headed out to the temple we decided to take a stroll around the property. We turned the courner from our nice garden area to what we thought would be a nice, relaxing pool, but was, in fact, a full blown water park straight out of the 50s. Already stuffed to the brim with people. This, at least, explained the kids. We immediately ran away and went to the lobby to use the internet. Luckily we found a place in town to stay in that claimed to have AC and a 'western shower' (the ac was fine, and unless a western shower is a wash basin with a bucket to dump water on your head, then this was a lie). We didn't care because it had air con, a big bed, space, and wasn't filled with loud children. They need to dust the corners of the place though, but whatever. It was also cheaper than Indo Water World.
The Prambanan temple was quite impressive. I would have enjoyed it much more if I wasn't shuffeled from what I thought was the ticket line twice to the "western" ticket line. The price went from about $1USD to $18 for us whities. This REALLY bothered me. Just because I'm white does not mean I'm made of money and this was not the price any of the books or webpages had posted. They claimed it was because of Hari Raya, but still...what...the...fuck. We sucked it up and paid because it would have been a loss not to go. It was really crowded, but they let you wander around anywhere so it was easy to lose the crowds. We went up to the main entrance to the temples and immediately got accosted by a bunch of Indonesians on holiday wanting to take a picture. We thought they wanted us to take a picture of them, but in fact, they wanted their kids, elders, whomever to get in a picture with us. I found this pretty hilarious, but given what we saw by the overland route here, these people have probably never met a white person before. They were all extremely friendly and thanked us by shaking our hands and touching their hearts (this is a traditional Muslim gesture). They asked our names and asked where we were from. We returned the questions and it was actually a pretty charming exchange.
It has actually been helpful being American here. They love Obama and don't get very many of us in Java. This, combined with knowing some Indonesian has gotten us a lot of friendly, honest help that I really appreciate considering how difficult it is to get around in these parts. Aside from the room rates and posted prices I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off everwhere. Taxis use their meters and we walk just about everywhere so that may have something to do with it.
I would love to continue to write and talk about our day wandering around Jogja, but blogger has yet again bugged out on me and skips everytime I type a letter so I'm going to stop here for fear that I might get a seizure. Today we are going to stay at a CS host's house until Monday. I look forward to some local input on the place.
Eating decently well now and having a good time.
-M
Broadcasting live from ViaVia cafe in Jogja! We finally made it, but it was NOT easy. In fact, our celebration on the train was cut short upon arrival in Jogjakarta. Readers take note: DO NOT TRAVEL TO INDO (except maybe Bali or Papua) AFTER RAMADAN. The books somewhat fail to mention this. They mention that getting transport immediatly after Ramadan can be tough. They also mention that during Ramadan Indo is sleepy. What they DON'T say is that everyone and their pet bird travels somewhere...apparently this year's choice was here.
I tried to book a hotel on the train, armed with about 7 different numbers, but the guy who sold me my SIM card failed to mention there was about IDR 500 on it (literally, five cents US). Once we got into Jogja, at about 9pm, we went to the tourist informasi booth to try to find a place to stay. Everything was booked. I mean EVERYTHING. The boss there (if you ever need help, ask for Eric) called up every place he knew of within our budget and little over. Booked. Full. The only place he could find was about 15mls outside the city in a "village" (I would say town) near the Prambanan temple. We wanted to see the temple so we agreed. It was IDR 300,000 for a cold shower, fan, and bunk beds...this is about $30US and REALLY overpriced. I mean REALLY overpriced. In fact, every place to stay and every tourist attraction is about 200% higher than it normally is because of the holiday. Thanks for mentioning that Lonely Planet (LP is a piece of crap btw...don't use it). But we sucked it up and paid because the train station was too loud to even attempt to nap in.
After about 5 hours of sleep our neighbors decided to let all 6 of their young kids out to play outside of our room. WTF. Honestly, one of the most rude things I've ever experienced. I donno how many of them were in that room, but I saw at least 8 pairs of shoes. So, reluctantly, we arose and went to the free 'breakfast.' This consisted of half-heartedly fried rice and noodles with boiled eggs that had been sitting out for wayyyy too long. I couldn't finish it. Fortunately some toast arrived and we had a few more pieces of bread. However, we had been living off of bread and bread products for two whole days and it was the last thing we wanted to throw down the hatch.
Before we headed out to the temple we decided to take a stroll around the property. We turned the courner from our nice garden area to what we thought would be a nice, relaxing pool, but was, in fact, a full blown water park straight out of the 50s. Already stuffed to the brim with people. This, at least, explained the kids. We immediately ran away and went to the lobby to use the internet. Luckily we found a place in town to stay in that claimed to have AC and a 'western shower' (the ac was fine, and unless a western shower is a wash basin with a bucket to dump water on your head, then this was a lie). We didn't care because it had air con, a big bed, space, and wasn't filled with loud children. They need to dust the corners of the place though, but whatever. It was also cheaper than Indo Water World.
The Prambanan temple was quite impressive. I would have enjoyed it much more if I wasn't shuffeled from what I thought was the ticket line twice to the "western" ticket line. The price went from about $1USD to $18 for us whities. This REALLY bothered me. Just because I'm white does not mean I'm made of money and this was not the price any of the books or webpages had posted. They claimed it was because of Hari Raya, but still...what...the...fuck. We sucked it up and paid because it would have been a loss not to go. It was really crowded, but they let you wander around anywhere so it was easy to lose the crowds. We went up to the main entrance to the temples and immediately got accosted by a bunch of Indonesians on holiday wanting to take a picture. We thought they wanted us to take a picture of them, but in fact, they wanted their kids, elders, whomever to get in a picture with us. I found this pretty hilarious, but given what we saw by the overland route here, these people have probably never met a white person before. They were all extremely friendly and thanked us by shaking our hands and touching their hearts (this is a traditional Muslim gesture). They asked our names and asked where we were from. We returned the questions and it was actually a pretty charming exchange.
It has actually been helpful being American here. They love Obama and don't get very many of us in Java. This, combined with knowing some Indonesian has gotten us a lot of friendly, honest help that I really appreciate considering how difficult it is to get around in these parts. Aside from the room rates and posted prices I don't feel like I'm getting ripped off everwhere. Taxis use their meters and we walk just about everywhere so that may have something to do with it.
I would love to continue to write and talk about our day wandering around Jogja, but blogger has yet again bugged out on me and skips everytime I type a letter so I'm going to stop here for fear that I might get a seizure. Today we are going to stay at a CS host's house until Monday. I look forward to some local input on the place.
Eating decently well now and having a good time.
-M
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