Hello Java!!

This weekend has been full of fun activities.  On Friday some friends and I went to see what we thought was going to be a music festival in Ubud.  It turns out that we showed up a day early, so we wandered around for a little bit and then ran across a good cover band in a restaurant, so we decided to hang around for a little bit.  They played everything from Guns N’ Roses to Enrique Iglesias, and did a wonderful job at all of it, so it made for a pretty good night. 

Saturday was definitely the highlight of it all.  A few of us headed out at about 10 in the morning for a day full of activities and site-seeing.  Our first stop was a monkey forest about 45 minutes away from Bedulu.  The monkey forest was a temple constructed in a place where a large group of monkeys naturally live, and now it is mostly used as a tourist attraction.  We got to feed them and let them climb all over us.  We even saw some monkey cannonballs in the monkey pool!  It was really funny, and we got a lot of good pictures.  This is me with a monkey hat:

Next up was Taman Ayu Temple, better known to visitors as the Floating Temple.   They call it that because it’s surrounded by a moat with beautiful lotus flowers, as seen here:

Kinda gloomy, but really pretty in person.  There was quite a bit to explore, but a while into our wanderings it started to rain pretty hard, so we darted for cover and eventually made our way back to the car.  From there we traveled to a Kupu Kupu (Butterfly) Garden.  Apparently butterflies naturally sleep when it is cloudy outside, and since it was pouring when we arrived we sadly did not get to see them. 

From there we set out for our final destination and my favorite part of the day, Tanalot.  Tanalot is a temple built on/into a sort of rock island about a hundred yards or so away from the rest of the coast.  It’s a fairly famous tourist attraction because of its gorgeous sunsets, but still remains a functional place of worship for Bali’s Hindu population.  We were there on another holiday, so there were quite the religious festi vities which we were lucky enough to witness.  Unlike the other ceremonies we had seen, all of the men were dressed in white from head to toe, while the women wore light clothes with hues of peach and green sprinkled throughout.  They would pray sitting in the sand and then line up to make their way to the top of the temple rock.  It was hard to tell exactly what they were doing up there, but I imagine it was something similar to what we experienced on Kuningan.  It was all really fun to watch.  We did the usual tourist thing and took a ton of pictures and did a tremendous job of perfecting our (east) Asian photo poses J (Sorry Yi and Haibei!)  We had shown up about 3 hours before the sun was supposed to set, so we explored the coast and various angles of Tanalot for a while and then made camp for the evening in one of the Cliffside restaurants.   There was one called “Sunset Bagus,” or “Good Sunset,” which I thought was really funny.  Bagus is just kind of a funny word to say anyway.  Since it had been raining all day it was still cloudy when we sat down, and when the sun set, but it was still a wonderful time.  Everything about that place was beautiful, or indah.

Amazing, right? That was our view of Tanalot most of the evening (this was taken just before we left.) I am actually sort of glad that it was cloudy because it made the weather a lot nicer.  We enjoyed a nice breeze up on the cliff as we ate our meal into the twilight of the day.   I had a banana milkshake with banana and pineapple pancakes.  It was a lot of bananas (which probably means I am just missing Katie Birnie,) but it was enak!  There are a few things I always really appreciate about Indonesia, despite the capias amounts of rice we consume on a daily basis.  One is that their drinks are all fantastic!  There are so many juices, coffees, and teas, and they are all splendid.  Another thing is their extensive use of bendy straws.  We go out to eat quite a bit during the weekend and such, and whenever you get a drink it always comes with a straw.  I have only gotten one that wasn’t a bendy straw, and that was with street food so I didn’t have high expectations to begin with, but it was still good!

Anyway, back on track.  Yesterday we took a plane ride in the afternoon to Yogyakarta, a city on Java, Indonesia’s most populous island (and Bali’s neighbor) to the east.  Yogyakarta’s name is something I still don’t understand.  They pronounce it almost like “Georgia,” and sometimes it’s spelled Jogjakarta, but I’m not sure which one is more correct.  In any case, I am extremely excited to be here.  Java has a large Muslim population (Bali is almost completely Hindu), and I am anxious to see how life is different here.  In a couple of days we get to stay with another host family, all in various villages in the area, so we get the chance to experience it firsthand.  Right now we are staying in a hotel, which is a big blessing.  Last night I slept on a comfy bed with a comforter, and it was amazing!  Most people don’t sleep with them (although sometimes they use a very light blanket or sheet) because it is always hot.  But we had air conditioning for the first time, so it was definitely welcome.  I also had my first hot mandi, or bucket bath, this morning.  Balinese (and I guess most Indonesians?) have what are called wet bathrooms.  It consists of a toilet (western about half the time), a faucet, and a large basin or buckets that hold water.  Whenever you bathe, or mandi, you use a small bucket to scoop water out of the basin or larger buckets to wash water over yourself while you perform your various hygienic actions.  It’s usually pretty cold, but you get used to it by the time you finish.  I didn’t have to this morning though, and it was awesome!

Right now we are at the University of Gadjah Mada, Indonesia’s oldest university.  It’s huge! Our lecturer this morning said that 55,000 students are enrolled here! After the welcome speech we took a tour of campus, and it’s pretty big.  I don’t know if it is as big as TU, but the buildings are all larger.  Later on we will have a chance to meet and hang out with some of the philosophy students here who speak English, which should be a lot of fun! 

Last week I decided to take the chance with some Indonesian music which isn’t traditional Balinese gamelan. I bought two cd’s, one Christian and one that I had no idea what it was, but the cover looked cool.  The first was a compilation of several artists. The second one was a band, or maybe just one guy, which is called Dialog Dini Hari.  The album I got is Beranda Taman Hati, and it is sooo good!  I don’t know quite how to describe it, maybe like Jack Johnson (although I actually don’t know him well enough to say for sure) with a jazzy twist, but it’s very chill.  I don't know what they're saying, but I'm sure the lyrics are great too.  If you get a chance you should check it out!

Maaf for this being such a long post!  I just had a good weekend J If you haven’t sent me address, you definitely should, because I’m sending out a bunch of postcards this week.  I would love for you all to have a little piece of Indonesia!

 Sampai nanti!