Singapore

The next day in Yogyakarta, I went to Prambanan, a Hindu complex 17 km away. It was also built around the same time as Borobudur, and also soon abandoned after. Then there was a massive volcanic eruption from neighboring Mt. Merapi which reduced both to ruin. While Borobudur has been pretty much restored, Prambanan is only partially complete. I think only 17 temples have been reconstructed out of the 243 in the area. The ones that are rebuilt are pretty amazing. I'll post pictures soon.

Yogyakarta is one Indonesia's biggest tourist cities, but while Kuta Beach has the Western tourists, except for a few foreigners, most of the tourists in Yogya are Indonesians. They have a sultan in Yogya, and a "kraton", a palace, where he lives. I was going to visit, but my shirt didn't have any sleeves so I was refused entry. Instead, I went to the air-conditioned mall, the modern marvel of Western culture. I also ate at Pizza Hut and McDonalds, two cultural emissaries from the States. When you order pizza at an Indonesian restaurant, you're never really sure what you're going to get, and it usually doesn't compare to pizza we get in the States. I figured, if you're going to get pizza, you might as well get it from a reliable source. It's surprisingly cheap to eat at these places. I mean, it's not prohibitively expensive, and about the same as eating at a restaurant in the tourist ghettos that serves Western food. I had a Coke & vanilla ice cream float (mmMMmm) and an "America's Favorite" medium pizza for about $4.50. The pizza was smaller than a medium in the Statesl it was maybe 1.5 times the size of a personal pan pizza. I forgot that in a Muslim island like Java, most of food is likely to be "halal" (consumable by devout Muslims), so there was no pig in their pepperoni or sausage...what was that familiar aftertaste?Oh yeah, lamb. Oh well, at least it was a nice greasy piece of pan pizza. At McDonalds, I had the Chicken McD meal #1 which was two pieces of fried chicken, a la the Colonel, with a scoop of white rice, and a medium drink. The price: $1.70. Fried chicken is the most popular dish at McDonalds in Indonesia, and it's pretty good.
Also in Yogya, I ran into Mike, one of the Brits from my travels in Flores. It's amazing in a country of 240 million people, you continue to run into the same travellers.
From Yogya, I took a train to Jakarta. I bought a ticket on "bisnis kelas", which sounds nice, but really was just a step above a bus. The only thing a bisnis kelas ticket gets you is assigned seating, which is a big plus when you consider that ekonomi kelas has people crammed into standing-room-only cars with people and limbs hanging out the doors and windows, and people sitting on the roofs. No air-con for bisnis kelas, so it was a pretty hot ten-hour ride. Like on the buses, hawkers came on board selling their wares: food, snacks, fruits, meals (served on banana leaves), drinks, and "other junk". "Other junk" included safety pins, books, pens, pencils, toys, belts, slippers, back scratchers etc. They would pass buy and just leave stuff on your seat or lap, and then come by to pick the stuff up if you didn't want it. I gave up trying to keep folks from giving me stuff. Jakarta is a massive city. I've read estimates that it has over nine million inhabitants, but I heard that during the day, it goes up to 16 million. It is similar to other industrialized Asian cities I have been to: lots of traffic, lots of pollution, noisy, dusty, lots of people, tall apartment buildings for the rich, and shanty towns for the poor. I took an awesome ride on an "ojek" (scooter) through the traffic-jammed streets to the tourist ghetto. The traffic is so terrible in Jakarta that taking a bus or taxi would take forever, but on a scooter, you can squeeze between cars, go "the wrong way" on streets, go on sidewalks, cut through narrow walkways etc... It's pretty exciting, especially when you've got a backpack on.
For dinner, I went to a street a block over from the one my hotel was on, known for its "sate" or "satay" stands. It costs about 75 cents for ten sticks of grilled chicken meat on a stick with an awesome peanut sauce, served on a banana leaf. Ah, I miss Indonesia already.
I also went to visit the National Museum which housed artifacts from all over the massive country. It was very good, but there was a power-outage (not an uncommon occurence). The cost for the ticket was about 8 cents. Yes, that's right, 8 cents.
I took a bus to Kota, the Dutch colonial area, but just ended up going to a massive mall (ah, air-conditioning!) I realized that after four weeks, I have become pretty comfortable getting around speaking in broken Indonesian and not using toilet paper (for three weeks now).

Last night, I took an evening flight from Jakarta to Singapore on Emirates Airlines (and yes, it is one of the best in the world). I arrived in Singapore at 1120 at night, too late for the metro system, so I went to catch a bus. I didn't have accommodations, but I called a place from the baggage area (they had pay phones with FREE local calls -- they should have this in ALL airports). At the bus terminal, I didn't have any small bills, so I was bumming. I asked everyone to see if they had change for my bills, but no one did. I walked off pretty bummed, but then an Indian dude came up and handed me about $2 in change. I am humbled by the kindness of strangers, especially if when there is no way I can repay them. So, I ask of you...do something nice for someone without expecting something in return this week.
Singapore is so clean! Yeah, there is some litter, but not much. I'm back to hostel living for a while, but there's toilet paper and hot water in the shower! And air-conditioning everywhere! I'm here to get a visa, and maybe buy some electronic equipment -- it's supposed to be cheap here, but we'll see.