We saw some stunning scenery en route but again also some some very poverty stricken, dirty areas. That is the problem with a lot of Indonesia, as stunning as all the sights are it is a very dirty country. You kind of get used to it after a while though and as long as I have a clean room to go to at the end of the day I don't mind it being a bit grotty whilst out and about. Although using a public toilet is possibly the worst experience of my life. They smell absolutely horrific and they rarely have toilet paper. You also have to pay for the privilege of using the toilet and that would not be an issue if they kept them clean but when you urge just walking into them you kind of begrudge paying the money. From what we have seen of Indonesia it is a bit of a shame really that it is so dirty, as the country itself is so stunning and with just a little bit of care it could be a spectacular place. I guess it is about education more than anything else and unfortunately that is something that is not readily available to everyone here.
All the Indonesians are so friendly but one thing that does upset me is that they spit constantly. Even the women! I will never understand how they think it is okay to do that- it's gross! You will just be walking down the road having a nice look at the shops and surrounding area and then some bloke will just gob out of his shop nearly on to your shoes! eurgh!!
Anyway, we stayed for 5 nights in Jogjakarta and we had a really nice time. There are slightly more tourists here in East Java, although you can still probably count the amount of white people on both hands. Our hotel was really nice and had a pool on the top of the building over looking the city which was lovely. Yes, I know some of you are thinking- 'a hotel, I thought they were traveling' but from time to time a girl has got to treat herself! It had an amazing pool and great views over the surrounding area.
The next day we had a walk around the town and brought a lovely piece of art known as Batik art. Let this be a lesson to all of you though, do not get ripped off by the 'Batik Mafia' as they are known here. I will start at the beginning. So this really friendly Balinese guy comes over and talks to us asking us where we are from etc. We get talking to him and he asks us if we have seen the art exhibition that is currently in town. We obviously say no, so he takes us to see it. En route we conveniently happen to meet one of the 'artists' that is on his lunch break so he takes us on from there. We walk into the 'exhibition' and it is all very nice and friendly with other people taking a look around. We get served Balinese tea and made to feel very welcome.We start talking to this other 'artist' who shows us how he paints, (although we should have noticed that he didn't actually paint), just briefly wafted a paintbrush around for a few seconds. Then we start to take a look around the exhibition admiring all the artwork and feeling very lucky that we have got to witness this great artwork that is only here for a few more hours! He tells us that it takes him three months to paint some of the paintings and that he travels around everywhere. I then spot this amazing piece of art on silk and fall in love with it. I think he can tell that I like it a lot so he plays it on even more, telling us that one of his paintings is going to be on show in the Rockefeller Museum in America. He also says that money is not an issue for him and that he just wants recognition for his artwork. I think at this point I even turn to James and I quote: ' We must buy this piece of art, what if he gets really famous and it is worth loads of money in years to come'. What an egg I really am.
To cut quite a long story short, we end up paying what we think is a good price for the painting as we bartered him down quite a lot on the original price and we come out with huge smiles on our faces feeling very happy with ourselves for getting a good deal on a piece of fine original Batik art. Aren't we clever! We then walk a little further and have a drink at a cafe. We again get speaking to the restaurant owner and he says have you seen any Batik art yet? He says, just be careful as there are some 'Batik mafia' that will charge you way too much for the artwork. At this point I think James slightly died inside. I panicked as I thought he meant we were now going to be attacked by the 'Mafia' and had visions of James and I having to wear balaclavas for the rest of our trip. We showed him our piece of art and and told him that we paid the equivalent of two days of our budget. He shook his head and said well you are lucky as it is an original piece of Batik art but you have just paid triple for it. I just burst out laughing although I am not so sure James thought it was that funny. I thought he was going to march back down there and demand his money back but then we noticed the small stamp on the bag that said 'no refunds'. haha I was just embarrassed at how gullible I am and the fact that we had just so easily been mugged off! I think it cut James deep though as he didn't even want the piece of art in the first place, I just kept nagging him until in the end he gave in. He had a face on him for the next 24 hours and I think it still upsets his man ego even now! We do laugh about it now though and we will not be doing anything like that again! I have learned to just keep my mouth shut. I think it is better for all concerned. We also went to a silver factory in the same day and watched how they make the silver. I also brought a nice little silver ring for about five pounds.
The next day we were up at 4am to see the sunrise over the Borobudur Temple and the mountains in the back ground. One of the mountains you could see was Mt Merapi which is still an active volcano and actually erupted in 2010 killing a number of people.
The view was amazing with spectacular scenery although James and I forgot our bug spray so we got bitten to death. After we had seen the volcano from afar, we then went up it to see the devastation it caused in 2010. The village on the side of the volcano was covered in cold lava and was really quite eery. There was even a village 20km away that was devastated by the volcano which we also drove through.
I really wanted to see active Lava on the volcano and if you are really lucky you can see the lava pouring down the side of the mountain in the dark. I did feel kind of inconsiderate though wishing for molten lava to pour down the mountain and I am sure the locals do not see it as a tourist attraction when it erupts. I didn't end up seeing any red lava but I guess that is kind of a good thing really.
After we had visited the volcano we then went to visit the two most famous temples in Indonesia. The first was Borobudur Temple, the one we had watched the sunrise over in the morning. This is a Buddhist temple and was built in the 8th and 9th century. Considering it was built all that time ago it truly was one of the most amazing things I have seen. The stone was so intricately carved and really was a great thing to visit. When you visit the temple you have to circle it three times and enter and exit in a certain way to respect the temple. Obviously James and I did this but I couldn't believe that some people weren't doing it. I just thought it was a bit rude and disrespectful to such a grand building. We had great fun at the top of the temple again as there were a lot of Indonesian school children there who just wanted to talk to us and have their picture taken with us. At one stage we were all even dancing together. They were asking us what our national dance was and when I said we didn't really have one they asked how I would dance if there was a celebration back at home. I choose to demonstrate a step clap routine that I think I would have done when I was about 10. I thought it would be a little disrespectful to the school children and the temple itself to start dancing like I was in a club back home! I think they would have been horrified! Thank goodness all of us girls were not there!
We then went on to Prambanan Temple which was also an incredible temple to see. Unfortunately the camera ran out of battery and we only have the photos on my phone which you cannot upload to the blog!This was a Hindu temple built in the 9th Century and was well worth a visit. The Temples really are incredible sights to see considering they were built so long ago. Obviously, they have all been restored back to their original glory as they spent many centuries undiscovered buried underground.
The next day we had the same driver take us to an area called The Dieng Plateau. The drive was around 4 hours there and 4 hours back but cost us hardly anything. This was the first day I tried Nasi Goreng which is Indonesia's national dish. It is fried rice with chicken and vegetables and it is really, really good. We stopped in a small local restaurant that the driver knew and had a really nice local lunch. It always helps when you have someone who can translate the menu for you, otherwise you have no idea what you are eating!
The Dieng Plateau is a tourist stop for many different reasons. It is miles up in the hills and therefore we had some amazing views whilst we were on our way. We also saw a lot of crop fields on the steepest of slopes which amazes me as to how they even plant them there in the first place let alone tend to them.
The Plateau itself has temples, craters, lakes and caves to see. The 4 small Hindu Temples here were built around 750 CE and are the oldest standing known structures in Java. The people believe that there would have been around 400 of these temples but sadly only 4 remain. They weren't quite as detailed and impressive as the other temples we had visited the day before but then these 4 temples were a lot older than the others.
We visited the crater which was funny as we had visited one when we were in New Zealand. In New Zealand there were barriers and lots of signs saying 'please keep on the path'. You could only get a certain distance from the crater as well due to health and safety. Well here it was totally different. You walked onto the actual smoking crater itself which was slightly scary and then you could almost step into the smoking pool of lava, smoke and mud. James and I thought it was hilarious that NZ was so strict and yet here they practically encouraged you to actually walk onto the crater! We then went on the see the sulphur lakes and the caves that used to be used for praying.
All in all we had a great time in Jogjakarta and saw some amazing things, even if parts of it were a bit of a learning curve!
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