2013 Indonesia, Java, Yogyakarta, Watercastle, Bird Market

We decided to take a walk down to the nearby bird market, about 20 minutes walk away, and drop off some laundry on the way. An ojek was passing as we left the laundry so we went the rest of the way on that for 10k, which was much more than it should have been, but it's hard to quibble over 20p! The ojek is the same as the rickshaws we'd encountered in Vietnam where the passengers are in the front and the driver to the rear, so you are always the first to enter the traffic. They always struck me as a bit of suicide ride in a way, especially in the ultra busy traffic in countries like this. 




Anyway we got to the bird market safely and we entered not really knowing what to expect. I was disappointed to find row after row of caged birds of all sorts. There must have been close to 80 or more different species I'd suspect and most I wouldn't recognise. I was quite distressed to see them all caged up, often in the sun with no water or shade, thrashing around in their cages trying to escape. There were lots of owlets, and in one place one was tied to the outside of the cage, and it seemed happy to have a gentle stroke on the head.

Worse was to come as we discovered cages of cats, puppies, squirrels, luwak, monkeys and other creatures that I didn't really recognise. Some were in quite poor condition and some had died, and one baby was licking around its mothers lips constantly, trying to wake her up.

It took a while to drag the kids out as they loved the puppies and rabbits, and near the exit we came across a massive python, apparently 6 metres long and probably at least 50 cm in diameter in the middle where it had swallowed a couple of whole chickens. We heard later from Dutch people we met who'd also gone to that market that two brothers had caught this python and managed to carry it here on a motorbike. It wouldn't have been easy, as I would estimate it must weight at least 150 kg if not considerably more! It would've been quite a sight to see them riding along with that draped over them and the bike.



Outside we negotiated a ride on two ojeks up to the Water Castle for 15k each. It turned out to be much further than I expected and uphill for a good part so we were suckers and gave them 25k each. We heard later that they often only did around 3 jobs a day and slept the rest so they did well out of us.
As we got off one of the drivers pointed to a small walk way indicating that was the way to get to the Water Castle. As we wandered along it an elderly man pointed the way and started to lead us to somewhere.
It turned out to be the underground mosque that Marteen had mentioned and I was glad we were being shown the way as it would be quite difficult to find otherwise.

There wasn't much to distinguish it apart from some windows in the walls and a low dome. The actual entrance was off a smaller path that led off the walkway, and you enter by going down some stairs into a large cavernous tunnel that became circular and went around a central feature that included a pond that had stairs that crossed over them and was open to the sky. It is a very unusual format for a mosque. After a look around we left to look for the water garden, not knowing that the mosque is actually a part of it. 
Back out on the walkway we asked a woman who was emerging from another set of steps that led underground. She explained they led to the 'swimming pool' which is part of the water castle as well. She also pointed to a partially ruined building opposite which is another part of it, so we walked up into that, but there wasn't a great deal of interest there, and the kids were hungry and we needed some water. 

So we exited down some steps onto a path that led toward an interesting looking busy street a short distance away. At the bottom of the path on the corner there is a cafe/restaurant called 'The Water Castle Cafe', and it looked rather nice with an artistic feel and lots of interesting pictures. It turned out to be very nice, with reasonably priced food, great fruit lassis and beer. We ended up staying there for quite some time, on big comfortable benches in a corner that was a bit like a sun room with all the windows open.

While we were there some school boys passed and stopped to talk, which usually consists of 'What's your name?' and 'Where are you from?'. But they were making more effort as they were interested in Ruby and Ellie. One of them was shouting out 'You are beautiful!' but we weren't sure if it was directed to Ruby or Ellie. I noticed another mixed European/Asian couple walk past. The woman was quite pretty and later they came back and into the cafe, sitting next to us. It turned out the guy was from France, and she was from the same area if west Java that Siti comes from. They had a little accommodation place on the coast called 'Java Lagoon' that sounds really really nice from the way they described it. They had developed the place over 4 years or so after Cedriq had bought some land there. It is in a very isolated bit of coast, about 20 mins even from the nearest village, and the beach fronts onto a well protected lagoon ringed by a reef. It was tempting to go there using some of our remaining days of holiday, and he provided various contact numbers for hiring car and driver to get there. 
They left after a while and soon a group of Dutch people turned up and asked if they could shore our large table. They seemed quite nice, and we talked for some time about our shared experience of the bird market, concurring that it was rather distressing.
We left eventually and walked down the street we'd been looking toward which is quite narrow, but not deterring hundreds of motorbikes and the odd car from using it.

On the way Eunmi found a clothes shop and we bought a few bits and pieces for her and the girls for very reasonable prices compared to Bali. I gave an old beggar who was fossicking in the rubbish 10 k as I waited outside the shop. He seemed quite happy with that and immediately stopped looking through the rubbish and shuffled off down a side street on his emaciated legs, hopefully to buy himself a good meal or something that would give some temporary relief from his daily grind of poverty. I should have given him more. 


We carried on and went down a side street that we found led to the Kraton. Some horses and trap were plying their trade along the road along with ojeks. It turned out the Kraton was closed unfortunately. We sat there contemplating what to do, the kids playing with these large, bizarre shaped fruit that grew on the large shade tree there.

 In the end we relented and caught two ojeks, one motorised, and headed toward the Malioboro road shopping district. This is essentially a large road of continuous markets perched along the footpath outside a variety of larger stores in the buildings behind. We went into one of the larger stores, which covered three floors and had just about everything you could think of and very interesting. We ended up buying a few things there!

We then went into a warung to eat, and while we were there discovered Siti had called about an hour earlier at 5.20 pm, so Eunmi called and we arranged to meet at a bar nearer her place, arriving soon after in a taxi.

2013 Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Couchhost

A quick call to Siti confirmed it was OK to head to her place now, so we caught the B3 bus and bumped and jolted our way through the traffic to the prescribed stop where we got off after around an hour journey. 

Another call to Siti and we waited for the pickup she'd offered. After a bit of a wait Siti turned up on her motorbike with two friends so Eunmi and the girls jumped on the back and they were off, leaving me there to wait for someone to come and pick me up. Just as rain threatened, one of Siti's friends returned on his bike so with backpack on my back, the other large bag on one knee and the girls' smaller ones on the other knee. we were off down the myriad small side streets that intersect the blocks of houses in between the larger roads.

We were there in about 5 mins and stopped outside a very large house where Eunmi and the kids sat talking with Siti and friends.

Siti turned out to be a very likable person, very social and distractingly beautiful with large eyes, full lips and an extremely wide and attractive smile that seemed to be on her face most of the time. We were shown to two rooms, one for the girls and another for Eunmi and I. Nice big double mattress on the floor looked inviting after the morning excursions. After a while Siti's husband, a quiet Belgian guy called Marteen, arrived, having been busy trying to get the house ready where they were due to move to in a few days. He was still working for a Belgian company, and would draw up plans for new storm water and sewage utility pipes based on the number of houses and planned houses on the streets. They have a very cute daughter called Aurora who is blessed with the good looks of European and Asian mixed children usually have. 

Later after meeting more of Siti's friends and other American couchsurfer, we went out on the motorbikes to a large open park with a couple of large trees in the middle. This was a local hangout, especially young people and families with children. Around the park, which was now dark was a continuous processing of peddle cars festooned with flashing neon light and in various themes of animal and other shapes, with each blaring their own musical themes, quite a sight!

They were interspersed with the usual frentic mix of bikes and cars. After we had some coffee and snacks at a table on the grass, the girls bought some 'flashspinners' that are launched by rubber band power about 40 ft into the air and come down spinning and flashing lights. Eventually we succumbed to the kids pestering and hired one of the pedal contraptiens to do some circuits of the park. The kids all climbed up to seats on the top while we sat downstairs and did the pedal work. It was quite good fun bantering with other people on their peddlers and having little mind races with them.

After that we left on the bikes and headed to a nearby bar for a few beers, and headed home for a well earned rest after our early morning start.

The next morning I woke up quite early, chased out by a need for the toilet, which in Siti's house is a squat style and water scoop for cleaning up. Even at 6 am it's warm so a splash of cold water around the arse is actually pleasantly refreshing and if it was warmer in the UK we'd probably follow the same practice at home. I stood outside and watched the hens and cockerals scratching about for grubs and grit amongst the leaves in the opposite neightbour's yard, aling with some ducks and a number of cats. The cockerals were already in full song exchanging their raucous calls, while the hens gentled fussed about with quiet calls to the numerous chicks they had in toe.

After everyone else was up, Marteen took me for a ride around to have a look at their new house. It was much newer, and another impressive place, single level but covering a large area. Each bedroom had an ensuite as well, and there was nice private rear garden with around 10 ft wall to stop prying eyes, Apparently this place is situated in an area where there are a lot of expats and guest houses, so them having foreign couch surfers wouldn't attract the attention it did in the old house, and the neighbours making false accusation that drove the landlord to ask them to leave.

The new house would cost $2400 per year to rent! The old one had only been $1500. Incredible! It makes it very tempting to sell up and move there as we'd be able to live there for a good long time at that rate.

When we got back to join Siti's family in a bar after a full day's sightseeing, it ended up being a bit of a boozy evening as some of Marteen's expat friends were there and we ended up playing pool over quite a few beers. I was talking to a Norwegian guy about climbing and caving, and he was saying there was some quite good climbing nor far from Jogja.

Eventually we left, waking up the kids who all gone to sleep draped across chairs, and spread ourselves amongst the two bikes for the ride home. It reminded me of when I was about 15, riding home drunk after nights at the pub with Marcus and Steve in Nelson.

The next day was a lazy one, doing nothing in particular, apart from picking up the laundry and lazing around talking with Siti and Marteen. We found out they'd met in a restaurant where she was working at the time, normally in the kitchen, but on this particular occasion she'd come out the front and they'd had the chance to meet. They felt in love and eventually got married and started their family. It was nice see they're a happy couple and Marteen treats Siti and the children very kindly. 

Talking to them later, we decided on their recommendation and from the guide books that we could go to the city of Solo for a couple of nights the next day.

We made a fairly leisurely start, and caught a bus to closeby the Maliboro area as the station is at the top of that main road. One the way we were feeling hungry and diverted into the Matahari shopping centre, and weakened enough to go and buy some KFC. It cost 106 k (£5.35) for 6 bits of chicken and a large sprite.
We made a point to the girls not to waste anything, because guiltily we realised that 106k was around 1/4 of the monthly salary of one of Siti's friends we met there.
She worked for some wealthy Chinese man to act as servant to his daughter, essentially having to be on call at short notice at all hours, including when she was at school during the exams, and had no time off to speak of - what her future will be is hard to imagine, but hopefully she'll find a way to escape the situation.

2013 Indonesia, Java, Yogyakarta, Prambanan Temple

Once on the plane from Bali to Yogyakarta, we all managed to catch a little extra sleep, but Eunmi woke me just as we approch Jogja, to see an alsolutely stunning sunrise over the series of volcanoes that surround the area. Mt Merapi, the largest, loomed above the others that were a bit more distant and all were surrounded by very pretty cloud formations backlit by the sun. It must be one of the most beautiful views I'd seen,but Mt Merapi had a recent years had lethal eruptions so is very much on active volcanoes, deserving of respect. 

Soon we were over very lush hills dotted with small villages and an lovely lake set in low part of a plateau area. It had an unusual shape looking a bit like an airplane in flight due to the myriad valleys and spurs surrounding it, and the strong reflection from its surface. 

We exited Jogja airport which is quite tiny really and has a very relaxed feel to it, partly due to the very relaxed looking people everwhere. After grabbing something to eat and dropping our bags at a left-luggage place, we found the bus sation and headed for the Prambanan temple.

Our couch host Siti had recomended this as the temple is close to the airport, and would save us going all the way out there again later.

The bus stops on Jogja are funny little hut like structures that are raised about 1 m. You enter one door from the end by a ticket, which is a plastic card, and you put the ticket into a turnstyle to allow you to enter.

There are two doors on one side, one is for people to leave the bus, and the other to enter it, with the bus being quite small, for around 20-25 people or so. This is a metro-bus so only stops at assigned stops, which seem to be quite a long distance apart, perhaps 3-4 km or more, so we were at the temple stop quite quickly.

From there it's about 10-15 mins walk to the entrance of the temple gardens which are very pretty in their own right. We bought tickets, which are quite expensive in order to help maintain the huge temple area, donned the sarongs supplied, and wandered off towards the first temple complex.

A great variety of pretty butterflies fluttered about the flowering hedges but always seemed too elusive to capture on photo.
The temple actually consisted of many temples each dedicated to main characters of the Hindu story, with Siva being the largest, strange to us as he is the god of destruction, vs Bramha the creator.
We had chosen not to take a guide, but as we approached the temple two young female students asked if they could guide us, so we accepted and they led us around each temple building and explained very well the meaning of each god and the stories detailed in the elaborately carved stone.

Even though it was still only around 7.30 am it was already very warm, as we sat for a while on a bench to have some water. It wasn't long before we had people approach us for photos, which seems to happen a lot, so we happily obliged.


Restored a bit by some waer and snacks we moved on toward the next temple, Sewa which is Buddhist. We managed a really nice shot back towards the temple we'd just left with it beautifully lit in the early morning light and contrasting green of surrounding trees and bamboo. It was about 1/2 km walk to the next temple, which is actually a series of three increasingly larger ones in a line, with only the larger one having been restored after the 2006 earthquake.

Ellie wasn't too happy as it was already pretty hot despite being mostly under tree cover.

We finally reached the big Buddhist temple which is partially restored but as with the previous one there was a massive pole of jigsaw stones surrounding it that may never be put back into place compeletely.

Unfortunately virtually every Buddha figure was headless, a legacy of vandalism, trophy hunting by the colonials or earthquake damage. But it is still an impressive temple nonetheless.
So Ruby and I made our way round the main parts of it while Eunmi and Ellie relaxed near the entrance, finding it a bit too hot to make the effort.

We decided to start heading back to the airport to pick up our bags, but by about half way back through the temple grounds the heat reached that point where the clouds can no longer hole the rain and was released in the typically heavy rain of the tropics.
Just before it rained we had a look around the new museum which showed how the stone carving was done. There were some impressive pieces of worked gold, and pictures from the late 1800s which were interesting as the local people appeared to be largely naked, in contrast to their modern conservative and modest mode of dress. There was also a massive fossilised skull of some sort of bovine creature, perhaps a buffalo, with the horn based being a good 6 inches in diameter at the base. The signs weren't in English so I couldn't be sure what it was. There was also a full gamelan orchestra set there which was interesting to see close up.

The rain really started coming down as we came out, so we had to quickly run to a nearby restaurant for some chicken noodle soup etc. until the rain let up a bit.

Ruby and Ellie discovered a pen full of deer just next door we found there was also cassowary in there marching around in their purposed way with large glaring eyes and the comical bony bit on their head, which gives them a very prehistoric look.

We soon reached the airport and retrieved our bags.