Toto, We're Not In Kansas Any More

"Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old." ~Rudyard Kipling

Southeast Asia: Indonesia

Current Location: Yogyakarta, near southern Java

Hong Kong has been left behind. It's December 17th, my mother's birthday, and I am sitting in an internet cafe attempting to update this blog in Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta). My season with Dragonfly ended December 7th. I wrapped up a six day backpacking program with the Australian International School of Singapore, unpacked my bags, repacked my bags and boarded a plane for Singapore on December 8th.

Three days in Singapore drooling over the myriad mixture of amazing food there and then we boarded another plane for Jakarta, Indonesia for about 25 days of adventure. Southeast Asian style. 

Two days in Jakarta where I relaxed and attempted to recuperate from a bad flu like cold. I discovered quickly that there is nothing worse than traveling when you are battling a cold and a fever. We were in 90 degree weather and I was freezing. When we hit air conditioned rooms, my entire body ached with the cold. A day of sleep quickly killed it and we were back at it. 

A train ride to the smaller city of Bandung, a hike up the ridge of Tangkuban Perahu, a smoking volcano where we faced the wrath of Mother Nature in the form of a lightning bolt that came a little too close for comfort. And then it was another train to Yogyakarta, traveling through some of the most beautiful countryside I have seen in some time. Terraced rice paddies, green, green, and more green. It was beautiful.
This is the real deal. No more organized mass public transit system, no more timely bus schedules, no more English tourist signs to direct you where you need to go. Where you can find a sign it is in three languages: Hindu, Arabic, Bahasa, and then maybe English if you are lucky. 

Here it is you, a clean change of clothes and your wits. The lonely planet guide book will only get you so far. Life in Indonesia flows to its own beat. When the bus is full that is when you depart for your destination. That could take twenty minutes or an hour and a half waiting for that bus to fill. Once that bus is full, it's not filled with the maximum limit of five people,instead it is more like 20 people crammed in tighter than sardines in a can. If the guide book says it takes an hour to get from Point A to Point B by public transit, expect it to be more like three hours. The roads are packed with motor bikes, scooters, tiny buses, trucks, bicycles, pedestrians all attempting to go in the same direction. You could easily just move five feet in thirty minutes. Crossing the street as a pedestrian here should take five years off your life, but it's actually quite easy. You step out into the street and weave your way through, the bikes melt around you, the cars seem to disappear around you and before you know it you are across to the other side. It's like nothing I have ever experienced.

Let's just say that seeing three white westerners ask for the local bus out of Bandung a few days past made the day of many local Indonesians. They stared at us and then they giggled until I thought they were going to wet themselves. But they eagerly escorted us to their "bus" and loaded us in. It was as much of a highlight for us as it was for them. 

Indonesian people are incredibly friendly. After three months of life in Hong Kong it is a nice change. In Hong Kong no one dared make eye contact. Here you are hailed from left and right with a: "Hi Mister! Hi Miss!! Where you going?" Granted, a white westerner also means money in their eyes, but there are also those just eager to practice their English and get their paparazzi photo of the 6ft giant of a white man that I am traveling with. People are eager to send you in the right direction if you need assistance. If you asked a local for directions in Hong Kong you often just got a lot of gestures in the far off distance that got you more lost than you already were. Here, a person will eagerly lead you to where you need to be, chatting your ear off as you walk. 

Indonesia is a country filled with the old and the new. It is a Muslim and Hindu country. The island of Java where we are located is primarily Muslim and so there is the call to prayer five times a day. 4am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, and 7:30pm. The call to prayer reaches across the entire city and is actually a beautiful thing to hear. 

This morning we woke to the 4 am call to prayer and boarded a bus at 5 am to tour two of the largest Buddhist and Hindu temples of Southeast Asia: Borobudur and Prambanan. Both sites are listed as world heritage sites and after being there I can see why. The essence of religion and the overall idea of "belief" oozed from Borobudur. I do not consider myself a religious person, but my personal faith was strong as I walked around that complex with the eyes of thousands of stone carved Buddhas looking over me. I wanted to sit, close my eyes and just listen to the hidden whispers that I was sure were there. 

My journey through Hong Kong was not really captured on this blog, little time for reflection or the energy to write. But the last three and a half months of my life have been filled with culture. The next few weeks ahead promise more. One thing I have learned since leaving the states in September and landing in Asia to work overseas, the world is vast and knowledge is wine. I may be thirty one years old and just as unsettled as I was ten years ago, but I wouldn't trade my life for any other at this point. We only have one life and there is only one world, it is in our hands to take and see, to explore. Why hold back?