Smiles in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Well, this is my third attempt to update the blog...fingers crossed it'll work!  I've also figured out how to change the orientation of the pictures...no more sore necks for you readers! 

Catherine, Marc, Guillaume and I flew back to Kuala Lumpur from Bali last night.  What an amazing time we had in Indonesia!  We can hardly believe that leg of our journey is over, and we're into the month of February...where is the time going?! 

We started our trip to Indonesia about two weeks ago, flying from KL to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joe-gee-ah-car-ta), which is on the island of Java in Indonesia.  Mike and Shannon had an extra long weekend, so they were also able to join us for that part of our trip. 

My trusty Lonely Planet book, which has had many pages ripped out to make our bags lighter, says that Yogyakarta is a 'hotbed of Javanese intellectual and political thought, and boasts an incredibly rich artistic and cultural heritage.'  It has a population of about 700,000 people, and from what I can tell, has a large population of Muslims (from the numerous mosques we saw and all the calls to prayer we heard throughout the day).  Did you know that Indonesia is the largest Islamic nation in the world, with over 220 million Muslims (88% of the total population in the country)?...according to Lonely Planet, once again.  

We kept quite busy while in Yogya! Our first stop...Taman Sari (Water Palace)!  

Built between 1758 and 1765, the Water Palace was built for the sultan by a Portuguese architect who was supposedly killed afterwards to keep his hidden pleasure rooms a secret!  The Water Palace consists of numerous canals, pools and palaces which have been destroyed over the years by war and earthquakes.  The part that we visited has been restored for tourists.  Above picture: two adjoining pools (one to the right of the picture) with an overlooking viewing room for the sultan.  Our tour guide said that the sultan would throw flowers out the window to his many wives swimming in the pool below.  The one to catch them the fastest was granted private swimming time with the sultan in his own personal pool.  It was an interesting place to visit!

If I remember correctly, there is a contest each year where artists from around the area compete for first place; the lucky winner is allowed to sell his artwork within the Water Palace complex.  Pictured above: last year's winner.  This type of artwork can take hundreds of hours to complete.  It's dried cow hide (I think) that is then chiseled away at, piece by piece, then hand painted to create the above masterpiece.  It's beautiful when hung in a window so light can shine through the intricate design.  I had a hard time deciding whether or not to buy it...the price and figuring out how to get it home finally helped turn me away.  

On our way to visit Borobudur and Prambanan, we took a drive then hiked up a small mountain to see the sun rise.  Unfortunately, the clouds and fog stopped us from seeing the sun actually rise, but it was still beautiful nonetheless! 

A great picture of Catherine and Guillaume!

The Beauce Family!  L to R: Mike, Shannon, Marc, Catherine, myself and Guillaume

Borobudur ranks among the greatest Southeast Asian monuments.  This huge Buddhist Temple was built sometime in the early 9th century AD, was then covered for hundreds of years by volcanic ash, to finally be rediscovered in 1814.  There are nearly 1500 panels like the picture above that illustrate Buddhist stories. 

Beautiful flowers everywhere! 

Guillaume walking one of the many levels of the temple before finally reaching the top. 

Even though we arrived early in the morning (around 6:30 am), we were still caught by the crowds of tourists wanting to take pictures with or of us!  We all lost count of how many times we were asked to (and willingly!) took pictures with Indonesian visitors.  There were a few different approaches to taking pictures: 1) directly asking to take a picture with us, 2) trying to sneak pictures from a distance without us noticing, or 3) obviously wanting to take a picture with us, but being to shy to ask, not getting the picture in the end.  We were told by a tour guide from the first group of school children on a field trip that many of them had never seen a white person before, hence the reason they were so excited and giddy!!  

Our next stop before noon: Prambanan.  Among Hindu temples in Java, this is the grandest of them all!  There are around 50 individual temples within the main complex; unfortunately, many of them suffered extensive damage in the 2006 earthquake.  Although it'll take many years, they're slowly, but surely, working to restore the temples. 

Deciding between a cooking course or a batik course, Shannon, Catherine and I decided to learn batik!!  Batik is a traditional art form found in different countries throughout the world, but most notably in Indonesia.  There are tons of batik shops all over Yogya (which is known especially for it`s batik). After finally choosing a pattern, one of our teachers (a brother and a sister that own the Batik Kalik shop) redrew by free-hand the framed batik I chose. 

Using wax and traditional dyes, an original batik can take hours to complete!  Above: tracing the pencilled pattern with wax (the longest step for us - about two hours).  It's important to go slowly and press firmly to ensure the wax shows on both the front and back.  Once completed, a great batik should look flawless on both sides.

The final product...not bad for my first time!  Can't wait to frame it once we're back home (and have a home)!  :)

Here we are again!

Getting around Yogyakarta can be a fun and interesting experience on a becak!  Talk about being in shape!  I can't imagine driving bike around...pushing two adults....for 30 minutes or longer.  Banguy (the man above with Marc and Catherine whose name I've spelled incorrectly) is in his 50s and has been driving a becak for around 17 years, I think.  What a nice guy!  Another man that drove Mike and Guillaume around has been at it for 40 years!   

Suzie, our batik teacher, told us about a bird competition that her son was competing in with his bird. So, after our class (which lasted much longer than we expected...7 hours!), we rounded up the guys and headed across town to the bird market.  When we arrived, we were in for quite the surprise!  Who knew that people in Yogya were so into birds?!  There are many different categories that range from small to large birds; judges take about 4-5 minutes to judge the birds on the quality of their singing voice.

 Hanging out with Suzie's niece.  We were definitely the only tourists around.

There's also a pet store at the bird market, with dogs, cats, insects, rodents (and probably more!) for sale.  This definitely wasn't listed in my Lonely Planet book...

Our three night, four day trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia was a blast!  We had a great time travelling with everyone, and will always remember our trip to Indonesia together.  

After saying our goodbyes to Mike and Shannon, Marc, Catherine, Guillaume and I headed east to the island of Bali (still in Indonesia) for an eight day visit to the town of Ubud!  What an amazing trip....!  Stay tuned for the next blog post highlighting our adventures with jellyfish, aggressive monkeys, docile elephants, Ketut Liyer (the now-famous medicine man from 'Eat, Pray, Love') and more!