~Spring Festival: Yogyakarta ~

The next stop on our brief tour of Indonesia, Yogyakarta, was a beautiful, vibrant, culture-filled place. Andrea, Aaron, and I were picked up from the airport by P@stor and Mrs. Bey, two incredibly amiable hosts for our time in the city!

Absolutely delicious ribs, that made me feel like a cave woman while munching upon them. I was quite famished after our flight, so these hit the spot!

Andrea is good friends with Emily, P@stor and Mrs. Bey's daughter, so she figured it would work out well to visit Yogyakarta, where the two are doing WORK similar to ours in Wuhan. From the get-go, I fell in love with the couple's stories, sense of humor, and kindness. After picking us up from the airport, they took us out for some authentic local food (delicious and SPICY!) and then to Prambanan, a famous local temple.

Lots of the structure has been restored, but there were ruins off to the side...centuries old.

Enjoying the luxuriously warm weather, and entertained by a throng of middle-schoolers on a field trip (who, of course found us fascinating and wanted pictures), we entered the outer court of Prambanan Temple, a Hindu fortress constructed in the 9th century!

As always, exploring the temple (which was made up of several buildings, all with several spires) was a mixture of wonder and sadness. The architecture was very impressive, but thinking of people bowing down to anything besides our Living ONE is always disheartening. Thankfully, the place is just used as a tourist site today.

All of the bricks composing the walls had designs etched into them--really intricate work!

Prambanan was built close to Mt. Merapi, an active volcano, which is probably why w*rshippers eventually decided to make their headquarters elsewhere...and the structure most likely collapsed in the 16th century due to a massive earthquake. Archaeologists have been reconstructing the site from the early 1900s into the present.

As we walked and, naturally, took some goofy pictures, P@stor and Mrs. Bey told us lots of inspirational, and humorous stories, from their WORK in Indonesia years ago-- they had lived in the country for several years, learning the language and building relationships, but had to leave due to safety issues. Thanks to HIM, they've been able to return, and while they don't know whether it will be for one year, or twenty, they truly honor HIM in all they do in Yogyakarta.

Besides being great story-tellers, the Beys also were phenomenal tour guides...they have been teaching at the city's s*minary (not WELS, but in our f*llowship) for a few months, and knew all the "hot spots" to visit. Due to insurance reasons, they're not allowed to drive during their time in Indonesia, so they're supplied with their own personal driver and car. Paniyo was a great driver, who I think was amused by us, even though we don't share a common language, and we felt quite spoiled being chauffeured around during our time there! It was also a G*dsend from a financial point of view, as Andrea and I were already getting kind of short on cash!

Colorful fruit stands adorned most streets. Motorcycles also ran rampant, and it was pretty common to see people peddling merchandise "door-to-door" to stopped cars, or even putting on shows for cash (the most interesting act we saw involved cross-dressers).

On our second day in Yogyakarta, we headed out on an excursion to explore the area's local beaches. On our way there, we checked out a plot of land that the s*minary is considering purchasing to add onto their campus.

Our first stop on the "beach" tour wasn't really so much beach as just a dinky local fishing village, which was pretty neat to see. Due to somewhat rainy weather, no one was really fishing, but we saw some locals cleaning fish, and as we made our way around the shore, a group of primary school-aged boys playing, huddled in a cave. I asked why they wouldn't be in school at that time of day (around noon), and was told that lots of schools in smaller Indonesian towns begin class super-early, maybe around 5 or 6 a.m., and then end at twelve.

The weather warmed up nicely for the rest of our drive. We visited four or five nice beaches, each with lots of room to walk around and explore, and since it was the "off-season" of tourism, we had plenty of space to ourselves :)

Almost as fun as touring the gorgeous beaches was our drives from place-to-place; P@stor Bey speaks the local language (Bhasa) very well, so he could ask Paniyo, our faithful driver, lots of questions about the area...and it was just fascinating to look out the window at local houses, to see people going about their daily business, and to gaze at the ocean from afar.

The most memorable part of the day for me would have to be when our "family" dipped into one of the beaches for a group picture--during one take a HUGE wave snuck up on us and all of us got fiercely splashed from behind...on our behinds. Well, everyone except for Aaron, who is tall enough that he probably just felt a couple drops on his ankles :) It was pretty humorous, and Paniyo, who was our photographer, cracked up as he told us he'd captured the moment on film!

During our travels, we stopped at a sit-down (on the floor) restaurant for FRESH seafood...shrimp, crab, and fish...all eaten with our hands--yum! As the sun began to set at our final beach of the day, we each slurped a coconut drink, and were ready to call it a day :)

Overall, our time in Yogyakarta was really laidback and relaxed. We hung out several times with the Beys at their nice hotel, swimming, sunbathing and really enjoying their company. They educated us on several things "Indonesia," including "charcoal pills," which are exactly what they sound like, and are a common, over-the-counter treatment for indigestion, hangovers, etc. Quite skeptical at first, Andrea and I ended up using both bottles of charcoal we had (one purchased, and one given to us by the Beys)...they were definitely sent by HIM, for days when the local cuisine did not agree with our tummies :)

Charcoal...breakfast of champion!

We indulged in some Western goodies while in Yogyakarta-- namely "Cheetos" (real, cheesy, Cheetos, not the beef-flavored ones that Wuhan stocks) and "Dunkin' Donuts." P@stor and Mrs. Bey took us shopping a couple times, and it was funny how often people referred to the five of us as a family, calling us P@stor and Mrs. Bey's children :)

Traditional-style home.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention "Wayang," a style of shadow puppet performances that Indonesia (and the Java province in particular, where we were) is very famous for. One night the Beys took us to a local Wayang show, which I was definitely looking forward to, always interested in soaking in more culture from a tourist destination. However, I'd have to say that these puppet shows were not my cup of tea...of course I couldn't understand anything being said, the puppets were still most of the time, and it seemed to last FOREVER (Aaron shares my sentiments...we may or may not have napped during the performance). Oops. However, Andrea absolutely loved it-- it became a running joke throughout the rest of our trip to make grunting sounds and shout like the warrior puppets did, for Aaron and I to make fun of Wayang, and for Andrea to try to convince us how awesome it truly is ;) If you want to hear more about the art or its history, I know she would love to tell you about it. Haha.

Wayang in "action." One thing I did like about the show was being able to sit on either side of the stage...for awhile we sat where we could see instrumentalists and puppets "behind the scenes," and later on we moved to the shadowy side.

Other nights, Aaron, Andrea and I were on our own at the hostel. Once, we headed out onto Malioboro (no, not Marlboro) Street, a huge tourist trap...the street was lined with tons of souvenir shops, a few restaurants and bars, and lots of people hassling any foreigner to buy their product. This was definitely not my thing...felt too much like what we experience in China. It was fun, however, when Aaron became tired of everyone assuming that Americans are rich, and started telling people he was South African. People also asked us if we were "from Down Under." They get a lot of Australian tourists in Indonesia.

Fellow passengers on a shuttle at one of the temples we visited.

Another night, in honor of Chinese New Year and all our friends celebrating back in Wuhan, Aaron and I tried to go out and find a party or something to commemorate the event...we'd seen lots of advertisements regarding the New Year, but sadly found nothing around our hostel. We settled for beers at our hostel, and toasted to the Year of the Dragon (that's MY year...and anyone else born in 1988!!!), while poor Andrea tried to get some sleep--she ended up being sick most of the night...again, much like in China, the delicious Indonesian food did not always agree with us :(

Rockin' our complimentary sarongs!

Another must-see, according to P@stor and Mrs. Bey was Borobudur, a nearby Buddhist temple. A couple weeks back, while surfing the net, I happened to see that Richard Gere recently visited the site as well...so now, I can say I walked where Mr. Gere himself walked! Well, you know, and 9th Century Buddhist monks also...

Nearby Mt. Merapi, oftentimes hidden completely by cloud and smoke.  The active volcano last erupted in 2010, causing lots of damage to nearby villages...efforts to clean-up the surrounding area were still under way; we passed many trucks hauling huge rocks, dirt, and other debris.

When we first got to Borobudur Temple, we had to enter through a special "foreigners" gate, in which we were given sarongs (wrap-style skirts, essentially) that we were nicely ordered to don during our time there. Figuring it was required for r*ligious reasons, we obeyed, but later when we ventured out into the big group, we realized we were the only people wearing them and felt quite foolish! Once we reached the foot of the actual temple, however, we spotted other silly tourists who had been tricked into wearing them along with us.

The structure was teeming with people, but still really impressive--visitors could climb the steep stairs directly to the top, or wind their way around at 5 levels along the way, featuring thousands of relief carvings on the restored walls, and hundreds of Buddha statues. Historians guess that the temple was constructed in the 9th century, and abandoned in the 14th, when Indonesia converted to Islam.

Near the top, posing with Borobudur's characteristic spires. 

Since Borobudur is Indonesia's most-visited tourist attraction, we definitely had plenty of company (the weather was beautiful and hot, also) and lots of curious people asking us to post in photos with them.

Definitely a record-breaking day: most pictures taken with ladies wearing  Muslim headdresses in a 2-hour period.

For the most part, everyone we came into contact with was really friendly...well, except the hagglers who quite forcefully tried to peddle souvenirs to us on our walk out of the park...that may have been the most I've ever had to say no to a salesperson. They probably latched especially onto us because Mrs. Bey was really sweet to them :) 

Our "family" (Paniyo, our fearless driver, is in the middle) :)

The Beys informed us that they would be going to ch*rch pretty early on Sunday morning, but we were welcome to attend if we wanted...of course we did! Ch*rch took place right at the campus for the s*minary, and it was such a blessing to attend. Students of the small school led everything--readings, sermons, songs, and while we couldn't understand it, sharing in fellowship with b*lievers in a new place is always incredibly moving...just imagine what it will be like someday in he@ven <3

With Yunus and Phineas, two nice guys from the sem.

It was fun playing meet and greet with some of the c0ngregation members after the service... P@stor and Mrs. Bey teach the0logy and English to most of the school's students, and they had various levels of bravery in approaching us, practicing conversational English, etc. Most students there at the s*minary are living far away from home (on a different island), and rarely (if ever) have the chance to fly back to visit, since they're largely from lower-income families. They go to school for 3 years, going out to local towns and pre@ching, and then get sent out to a c0ngregation...the students are very committed, and it was so inspiring to hear some of their stories.

These pretty young ladies (in middle and high school) were so sweet and fun to talk to...their English was better than many of my students last year, and now Andrea & I are Facebook friends with them :)

During our time in Yogyakarta, we picked up a bit of the local language...basic greetings, a few foods and animals, and the word for "foreigner." Sadly, I've already forgotten what it was in Yogyakarta, but in Jakarta, the somewhat derogatory term people shouted at us was "Bulay" which literally means "albino." Thanks, guys.

At least things are phonetically written out in Indonesia, so we could occasionally fake our way through things.

Our last day in Yogyakarta was my favorite, not because we did anything touristy, but because we got a taste of real life for a great group of young men. P@stor and Mrs. Bey arranged for Andrea, Aaron, and I to visit the s*minary in the morning, to go shopping at a local market for fruit with them, and just to get to know each other. Definitely unforgettable.

The fruit that I know now is "mangosteen," but for days I only knew it as "the purple fruit Andrea tried in Columbia and we simply MUST try in Indonesia." Once we saw that she wasn't making it up ;) we tried it and it's delicious! All you produce experts out there: can this be easily found in the U.S.?

About five guys from the seminary met up with the three of us and escorted us to the fruit market: we had a mission to try some new tropical fruit, and they helped us pick out a bunch of it while we chatted and got to know each other. It was a little awkward at times, kind of like an English corner at a Chinese school, but the students were really nice and funny...they were also all twenty-somethings, so of course that was fun for Andrea and I ;)

Rambutan, a spiky-on-the-outside, sweet and juicy on the inside fruit.

Once we got back to the s*minary, we cut open a huge watermelon, and passed out lots of fruit, as more guys from the sem's dormitory came out to introduce themselves and join us. I was amazed to learn of how far away from home, their families, and native culture/dialects most of the students live...made me feel an even stronger bond with them! Their schedule is pretty busy...waking up around 5 a.m., running a d*votion every day just for themselves, and then spending all day in class...but they're positive and energetic, even requesting an additional class with P@stor Bey to further discuss different questions they have about the BOOK. The young men there don't have much--most days they just eat rice and a few vegetables, and they all share a big room in the same house--but they are enthusiastic messengers of His Love. After awhile, we made our way into the room they use as the ch*rch meeting place, and we sang songs together in English & Bhasa...I got teary-eyed during "G*d Be With You 'Til We Meet Again." One of the students could play piano amazingly, and by ear, so we also jammed out to some "Baby" by Justin Bieber...those were my two favorite songs we sang that day ;)

Tons of group pics were taken, but sadly most of them remain only on the guys' phones. And of course, Aaron's height was a fun topic of discussion (the guys flanking him are standing on a bench) :)

After a couple hours, we had started running out of things to talk about and figured it was time to head "home" to the Beys' hotel, but not before taking tons of pictures together, exchanging some contact info, and heartfelt farewells. Even though the time was short, I will always treasure meeting such a special group of guys, committed to HIM, joining them in conversation and song, looking forward to the day when all of HIS people will celebrate in a similar way :) Before we knew it, the time came to head to the airport and also say goodbye to P@stor and Mrs. Bey...P@stor and Connie, if you are reading this, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness, entertaining and showing around 3 wandering foreigners, sharing your stories and laughter with us. Our experience in Yogyakarta wouldn't have been half as wonderful if not for you!

Off to BALI!!!

~Spring Festival: Jakarta Part Two ~

Well hello there, my faithful readers! I apologize on the lengthy time it's been between blogs, and will explain more fully in a future post, but now let's get back to Spring Festival!!!!

Turns out you can buy tons of carrots & bananas for a cheap cheap price. You will, however 1) get the car you're in QUITE dirty and 2) have to listen guiltily as a little boy near you begs for money so he can go to school :(

With just two days left in our Jakarta stay, Aaron, Andrea, and I embarked on an adventure: Taman Safari! I'll try to keep it brief, and let the pictures do most of the talking!

I've heard they're actually very vicious, so I'm grateful the hippos kept their distance!

After waiting and walking and making desperate phone calls, our driver for the day found us outside Jake's apartment complex (about an hour later than scheduled), and we headed to Taman Safari. As directed, we bought tons and tons of carrots & bananas on our drive into the park, because once we were there, we got to DRIVE THROUGH, FEED, PET, take pictures, and bask in the presence of tons of critters!

"Whatchu lookin' at? You lookin' at me foo?"

It was a day to remember, one I think I would have loved even more if I were ten years old, but still it awakened the child within me--I guess some might say it's not too hard to do that :) Pretty sure this kind of thing wouldn't fly in America (way too many potential lawsuits and safety violations), so it's a good thing we went to Indonesia...right mom?

They actually got a bit closer than this, but didn't storm up to the windows and stick their faces in, as did the zebras, emus, and scary oxen!

I'd say about 90% of the hour-long drive through the park was simply a blast, throwing bananas at monkeys, petting zebras on their fuzzy heads, laughing as we took pictures with elephants...but it was a little scary when an ox (is that what the animal below is?) rammed our car with his horn. I guess it wasn't so scary for personal safety reasons, moreso just hoping that Januari (our driver) wouldn't be upset with damage to his SUV :/

BAAH! I don't ever need to meet this guy again...way too aggressive when it comes to produce-toting tourists.

Basically we inched our way through the park, assisted by our faithful driver, stopping every few feet to greet the newest batch of friends/feeders.

Camel! Watch out--they spit! Thankfully, this one did not.

Andrea and I had lots of fun taking pictures of each other with the lovely creatures (or attempting to, before they shyly ducked away), and Aaron had a very humorous way of calling out to the animals. If you know him, you should probably ask him to give you a demonstration.

Animated, energetic, and carrying around a few darling babies, the monkeys earned their bananas.

Meh, maybe kind of cool if you're from Indonesia, but we've definitely seen these before.

Sadly I didn't get any good pictures of them, but you'll just have to take my word for it--towards the end of our loop through the park, we entered a section where we were commanded to close our windows and keep them that way at all times. Why, you ask? Because we got to DRIVE THROUGH an area where there were lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs! Craziness...and again, why this kind of thing would not be successful in the U.S. :p

First of its kind I've ever seen...whatever it is!

So for our last 15 minutes of the drive, we passed by wild mountain cats...lots were just "having a rest" out in the sun or perched in treetops, but a group of 4 or 5 lions passed RIGHT by our car, and proceeded to get into a little scuffle, complete with running & wrestling. I'm used to seeing that kind of thing behind the glass at a zoo, but not behind the thin glass of car windows :D

After our drive around the park, we spent the afternoon walking inside...in some ways it was similar to visiting the Milwaukee County Zoo, but we could get MUCH closer to the animals here!

After lunch, we walked (through the rain) to basically the complete opposite side of the park. It was about 20 minutes, which would have been fine, but it was uphill, and my flip-flops (which I was so excited to bust out) were hopelessly slippery on the wet pavement. So, I was happy when we finally reached our destination :)

Once we arrived, we waited outside the entrance to the "Taman Safari Cowboy Show." Honestly, I was not excited about this. I've seen plenty of shows designed for tourists in China, and with a couple exceptions...it's nothing to write home about. Though I probably have ;) But anyway, Jake's friend Helena (our host and expert on the area) raved about the show and said we MUST go see it! And I'm very glad we did.

True, we got lots of stares while waiting with the large crowd outside, and true, we couldn't understand the language used in their performance, but it wasn't really necessary. Horses, cowboys, damsels in distress, good guys vs. bad guys, lots of slapstick...it's a tried & true formula, and we were very entertained!

It was fun to sit so close to the action, laugh as the locals absolutely freaked out over the prospect of water getting splashed on them, and "oooh" and "aaaahhh" at explosions and stunts. Andrea and I agreed that the show was entertaining and good on its own merit, not simply because "it's something we saw in Indonesia."

Making friends with the show's clown, and one of the brave heroes!

After the show, we stuck around for a bit, taking pictures with the cast, as well as curious people in the crowd. The family below was very friendly, sharing some food with us, and full of smiles. Of course it's not true in every case, but we observed that people in Indonesia were generally much more friendly than those we met in Wuhan.

Making our way back outside, we stopped cold when we saw that the concession stand next to us sold HOT DOGS! Yum. We each got one, and though they were topped with a questionable white sauce (mayonnaise?) along with the ketchup, they were still absolutely delicious!

Paradise?

We whiled away most of the afternoon hiking to a waterfall, and then checking out different exhibits...some screaming monkeys, creepy-looking birds, komodo dragons, etc. But at the end came what I'd been looking forward to the most: baby animals! Awwww...

Cuddly critter #1

As we'd seen advertised, we did indeed get to take pictures while "holding" (sitting next to) baby tigers and a baby lion! There was an orangutan also, but having already paid for the other 3 animals, and having had our share of cuteness, we passed.

Cuddly critter #2

Precious as the little buggers looked, it was a bit scary also! In each individual pen, there were warning signs which read "These animals can bite! Please use caution and listen to the trainer." So, I really did heed the advice and instructions of the trainer with me in the pen :) They'd wave a stick around trying to get the beast to look in the direction of the camera for the best photo op. Sometimes it worked really well--sometimes they'd be a little restless and I'd start getting paranoid about their sharp claws and teeth...so I wasn't too picky about how the pics turned out. It was a fun experience and something to cross off the ol' bucket list :D

Cuddly critter #3

After our cuddle sessions, we walked around a bit more and then headed back to our fearless driver, who took us back home for the night!

Some of our FoC friends went to India...we just went to Taman Safari, but still got that much sought-after "Taj Mahal" shot :)

Our last day in Jakarta was nice, but not terribly eventful. Andrea, Aaron, and I visited a nearby hotel pool...and possibly we might have claimed to be staying there so we could swim in the gorgeous and largely deserted pool...oops! We enjoyed some tanning and relaxation, and at night a couple of Jake's friends drove us to an awesome restaurant. Colorful, friendly, and serving delicious food...and maybe most memorable: Indonesia has amazing fresh fruit juices. I think I had one watermelon juice and one guava...absolutely scrumptious...so fresh & refreshing!

Shoes off, sitting on the floor, Indonesian-style. We also ate our meal Indonesian-style, meaning with no utensils! After feasting on lots of veggies, shrimp & rice, we walked through a torrential downpour to our lovely taxi which took us home.

That just about wraps up our lovely stay in Jakarta, so there's nothing left to do besides post a few random pictures and call this blog complete :)

While in a local supermarket (Hypermarket), Andrea and I found a storybook with Bible Stories and illustrations! Can you guess which story this is from? :)

Spotted at the city square. I just think it's pretty :)

With Islam as the country's very prominent r*ligion, we saw women in headdresses and burkas everywhere. I made it my trip's mission to capture it in photos...and I don't know if I succeeded. But here's one at least.

Ending on a nice, cheery note, we came across a shop in our travels that sold these helmets! I definitely would say they have potential to scare passerby.