a travelogue for a solo cross-country motorcycle road trip from Tampa, Florida to San Diego, California in 2008 and an overland attempt from Singapore to Morocco from November 2004 to August 2006
Friday, March 18, 2005
Yogyakarta at night. Jl Maliboro (Marlborough St.) is filled with hawkers selling trinkets and food to Indonesian tourists. Most of the tourists were from Jakarta. Indonesia is a country with large natural resources, a few wealthy people, and heaps of poor people. Java is by far the most developed and richest island, followed by Bali (because of tourism). Something like 80% of the people live in Jakarta.
Yogyakarta
I made it back to Kuta Beach on Monday, but instead of leaving after one night, I ended up staying for four. That pretty much sums up a lot of the trip planning I've been doing; plans go out the window, and I've been going with the flow. I caught up with a couple of Brits that I had met on my first day in Bali three weeks ago (they were on the same flight from Auckland), and I also met a cool Canadian couple, and we all hung out in the evenings. Good company.
We took a day tour around Bali, which satisfied me enough to know that hanging around poolside in Kuta was not so bad. We saw Mt. Batur, one of many volcanos on the island. And we spent a couple hours at Monkey Forest in Ubud, the other big tourist town in Bali. Ubud is known for its artsy-fartsy boutiques, while Kuta is known for its surf, beach, and nightlife. The macaques (monkeys) at Monkey Forest were very entertaining, jumping on each other in their little pond; very human behavior. But, returning to the pool at the hotel in Kuta Beach was the best. After the trip through Nusa Tenggara, I really can appreciate Kuta, much more than when I first arrived a couple weeks ago.
I was going to go to Mt. Bromo on Java a few days ago, but I really didn't feel up for a 12-hour overnight bus trip. Today I flew to Yogyakarta for a little more than the price for a 16-hour bus ticket. I should be here for a couple days, but then again, you never know.
Today I went to Borobudur, a 9th century Buddhist step pyramid. It is massive and amazing. I've never seen anything like it. In Taiwan, the Buddhist temples are rather garish in colors, but the dark gray stone of Borobudur seemed just right. I was careful to walk around each of the levels clockwise before ascending a level through the East gate. To walk counter-clockwise is to speak with the spirits of the dead. But other the tourists didn't seem to care; they're mostly Muslim in Java.
I took the public bus system to get to Borobudur, which meant taking changing buses, and then taking a tricycle-rickshaw type of thing to the temple. On the way back, the guys on the bus tried to overcharge me, but I didn't even budge. I paid the same price I paid for getting up there. I was feeling pretty ornery from the heat and the early morning flight. Then, as I was getting into town, I think a couple of guys tried to steal from me. One guy kept distracting me by saying this was my stop, constantly tapping me urgently for about a minute, meanwhile his co-conspirator got up to squeeze by me in the aisle. I realized then, that my backpack had mysteriously opened up. I quickly zipped it closed after an inventory and got away from them. I was warned by the taxi driver to be careful in Jogja.
Tomorrow I will try to get to the Hindu temple Prambanan at dawn. Or not. I had to wake up at 0400 this morning to catch my 0600 flight.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
Village kids dancing and watching the "Morgan Show". The Canadian was great entertainment for all the locals across Flores. Definitely a good attitude for meeting people. Some people are disarmed with the persistent staring, but Morgan would talk to people and touch them. If you needed to find him, you just needed to look for a circle of Indonesians.