A day in Paris

Again… What a champion!! Mas Ijo!! On Thursday night a group of Anak ACICIS went to Bandung (I think) for the long weekend. So Ijo decided to organise a trip to the beach for those of us who stayed behind in Jogja! So we all met a Circle K again… its great meeting there cause its only a 10 min walk from my kos! :D Not a lot to tell today.. But it was still heaps of fun!! Haha.

First stop was a dam, but I forget the name of it! I really should remember these things! .. Anyway.. It was pretty nice, we decided to go on a boat ride around it, with 11 Bule, plus Ijo and two drivers the boat was almost underwater.. Haha… you could reach out and touch the water, it was so close. Everyone was freaking out, thinking that we were gonna sink, especially with the dodgy sounding motor and the slight leak in the bottom of the boat, but with most of the hull submerged, what do you expect? Haha… Mitch even went as far as taking off his army boots because he thought for sure we weren’t going to make it back to land and feared not being able to swim with them. Luckily no swimming was required. The drive out of the dam was a long one tho, the road just wound and wound around the mountain, it felt like forever, locals would stop and look as we passed them, I’m not sure if they were looking at the car, or the bule inside.. One young boy even ran up to tough the bus, without realizing he could get run over.

From the dam we went to Glagah beach for lunch.. And almost didn’t make it up one of the steepest slopes, it was pretty tense hearing everyone gasp at the same time as the driver changed down a gear and the bus stopped on this massive slope. I didn’t see much of Glagah tho, was too busy eating lunch, haha.. I was starving after skipping breakfast.

About half an hour away was Pantai Parangtritis (Parangtritis Beach) or Paris. It the first time I had seen black sand on a beach. I think it was made from volcanic rock. The beach was a little dirty, and too dangerous to swim at because of rips. But it was still pretty beautiful. Especially the mist floating near where the cliff face met the water. Ijo grabbed my camera and got snap happy.. Haha.. I’m yet to look at the photos, but I’m sure they’ll come out pretty good… It probably means I’m in some of them, instead of being behind the camera! Haha… thanks Ijo! Oh yeah.. Haha.. We also saw some goats halfway up the cliff and Katie decided to go up and grab it cause it had a leach… Apparently she gave it to some homeless guy near the abandoned hotel at the top.

The drive home seemed a lot quicker than the one there, I guess cause we didn’t go via the dam again.. Haha. Most people went around to Steph’s place that night, she made mie instan with tahu tempe. Nothing too special, but still tasty! Oh yeah, then I taught her roomie and his friend how to play speed! So much fun! Haven’t played it in ages! 

Ooo… and I think it was today... I met another teman kos. He lives out the front… I can’t remember his name tho.. Seems like a pretty cool bloke.. He just randomly came into our lounge room and introduced himself… haha.. So hopefully we see a lot more of him… I mean.. Don’t get me wrong, its good here, but we basically only see one of our teman kos, but hopefully that all changes once uni starts.

Prambanan, Taman Sari and the attempted Kraton

Clare has been in Bogor doing the ACICIS Journalism option for the last few weeks, but she’s just had a break and came to Jogja for a week. I caught up with her on Thursday and met with some of her other friends. It was heaps of fun, we hired a car and went to the Kraton.. Well… actually, I caught a becak and was going to meet them there… I was waiting at the Kraton for a while, but still couldn’t see them, but they said they were at the entrance too, so I asked, and apparently there was only one entrance… Clare rang and after a while I thought I knew where they were, so I went for a walk while trying to decide what to do… anyway, turns out they were at the building in front of the Kraton.. Haha.. Can’t remember what its called.. It was really interesting tho, seeing all of the traditional royal clothing and where the sultans family and he would relax and listen to gamelan. 

Then we went to a nearby carriage museum. It was pretty interesting to see all the different styles of carriages that were used, some of them are so extravagant. Taman Sari was next on the list, it’s where the sultan used to live, with all of his wives. He had this tower he would sit in, surrounded by pools, where all his wives would swim, he would look out over them all, choose whoever he thought was looking particularly good that day and invite them up into his tower...lol.

Finally we went to Prambanan, a group of Hindu temples. There used to be over 200 of them, but since a series of earthquakes had destroyed them, only several have been rebuilt, I don’t think they will ever all stand together again, which is a little sad. But with little funding, and some of the pieces being stolen, its a near impossible dream. It was amazing none the less.

I’ve come to realize, that sometimes the tourists at the tourist attractions are part of the attraction for the locals at the tourist attractions. I should have realized this after Borobudur, but what can I say, I’m a little slow :P haha.. I was stopped for photos with people I don’t even know about four times, haha… My friends were saying I should start charging 1000Rp per photo. Not a bad idea! I reckon so far I’d have about 30,000Rp! haha

On the way out from Prambanan, there was a small stall selling souvenirs, a few of Clare’s Indonesian friends were looking at them, the lady who owned the stall was saying “lima ribu… lima ribu” (meaning 5000Rp each) … I was standing right there when she was saying it.. Then, as I came over to look she said “10,000 for you” … hahahaha… I didn’t know how to react.. I thought it was hilarious! Ah, the joys of being a bule… it does come with occasional benefits tho… All of which seem to be slipping my mind at the moment.  haha

Indonesian Time

Today there was supposed to be a dance class on at 4pm… I thought I’d check it out with some friends, but 4pm came around and we were still at a lesehan eating lunch… so I asked what time the class was on… 4pm I was told again… “but its 4 now!” …. “oh, I mean 4 Indonesian time” … haha… I’m slowly learning this concept of Indonesian time… anyway, we got to the class (after being caught in the rain yet again) half an hour late… and it hadn’t started yet.. Haha.. It turned out that they were only going dances for the girls, so I just watched for a bit and then Nikken took me over to the back room where all the gamelan are, she introduced me to a guy there and he started telling me about all the gamelan. I sat down to have a play and before long there was about 10 others all in the gamelan room suddenly we were all playing gamelan music together! It was great! We were only doing simple stuff, and some of it was still difficult! Mainly because you can’t look at what your hands are doing, you have to constantly look at the music. And also your left hand must mimic your right, but its always one step behind… I dunno if this is making sense.. Haha.. But anyway, I’m taking it as a class at UGM, so it was kind of like a test drive… and I have to say, I loved it! Can’t wait to get started in the proper lessons!

First day of uni

Today was my first day of uni.. Rocked up early to do my enrollment, but it was too confusing.. Haha.. So went to my percakapan (conversation) class, its an INCULS class, which is basically Indonesian as a Second Language ISL… anyway, got to meet a few people there, even some from Japan, so there is possibly some hope for my Japanese here! :D haha… so I enrolled after class and was gonna go home… but surprise surprise it started to rain again! Haha… it was lucky tho, that for the majority of the 3 hours spent waiting for the rain to stop, there was a group of students who wanted to practice for an upcoming performance! By the time the rain finally stopped, we were all starving, cause it was already dark! Headed over to SS for dinner, and you guessed it… it started raining again, so we had to wait before we could go home after dinner.. Ended up giving up and catching a taxi! Hahaha..and a good thing too.. Cause it rained ALL night. But even tho about 4 hours was spent just waiting today, somehow it was still fun!

Oo.. And a note on uni here.. Its so funny… only INCULS subjects have started. No one turns up for the regular subjects in the first week… even the lecturers! And apparently next Monday is a holiday, so for some reason no one is going on Tuesday or Wednesday either.. So uni starts on Thursday next week! Haha. 

Its a store

Damn shopping centers here are busy on sundays!! Maybe cause for some its the only day off? … I dunno.. Haha.. Anyway… I guess you already know what I did today :P … shopping! I have some new shirts for uni now! Ones I can actually wear to campus! They have collars! Haha. Rian took me to “its a store” (strange name for a shop huh!) Anyway, he works there, so he helped me get some shirts, and even scored me a discount!! :D thaaaanks!! Waiting for rain today, couldn’t go home for a bout half an hour, haha.. Ended up going back to Rian’s place and watching enchanted.. Not a bad movie! Even though I fell asleep halfway through… still tired from the day before I guess! haha

Clubs temples and fire mountains

First, I wanna say thanks to Ijo! If there is anything at all you’re uncertain of, or need help with, Ijo is the one to see. Such an awesome bloke! He basically organised everything for last Saturday. A group of us hired a car and a driver for the day, and with Ijo’s help we were able to see the largest Buddhist temples in the world. It was amazing! We went early (530am) to avoid large crowds and the heat. When we got there was already heaps of other students there, from all over Indonesia, most of whom wanted to practice their English for an upcoming presentation or report they had to give at school. It was a little strange at times, it seemed like us bule were more interesting than this ancient temple. Haha. On the way there, Ijo was telling me that for years Borobudur had been completely covered by land, and had been rediscovered and uncovered many years later. There is still debate over when the temple was built, but it was somewhere around the eighth or ninth century. Not only this, but there are many other things that are mysterious about Borobudur, like the meanings of some of the many stone carvings that tell the stories of Buddha. 

By this stage we were starving, so it was time for breakfast before heading up to a nearby volcano. Can’t remember where we had breakfast or the name of the volcano!! Haha.. But both were great. Getting higher and higher above sea level on the way to the volcano cooled things down sooo much. But by the time we got near the top and parked the mini bus, clouds were already rolling in. Its amazing how fast they can appear out of no where here.. In Australia, if its going to rain, you get HOURS notice, sometimes even days, the clouds linger before a downpour. But here, it can be blue skies one minute and poring the next. Well anyway, I decided to rent an umbrella from a small stall, but at this point it was only drizzling.. 10 meters away, however, it was pouring. Most were being drenched! It was still fun to climb up this slippery volcano, half in the clouds, with water bucketing down everywhere, as I jokingly sang “umbrella”... Of course we didn’t keep climbing for long, haha, but retreated to a shelter near the base. Sinta invited everyone around to her mum’s house to meet her family, get warm with some hot tea, try some local produce and steal her brothers shirts for those who were wet… haha. The rain didn’t look like it was going anywhere any time soon, so we called it a day. Well… for traveling that is.

The next day was Mitch’s birthday, but we decided to celebrate on Saturday. He took us all to this really nice vegetarian place called Milas. One of the only vego places we’ve seen here. They usually get stuck eating white rice with tofu or tempe. Anyways, Milas has a great menu, HEAPS to choose from, even us non-vegos thought it was great! After dinner we all headed over to a cafe called Tropis. Seemed more like a quiet, open plan club to me, but anyway. Haha. We all sat down and had a look at the drinks list and chose what we wanted. We were all thinking they were expensive.. About 50,000Rp for one drink ($6AUD isn’t much back home.. But it could feed you for a week here.. Haha) but when the staff came out with these jugs half filled with our cocktails… woah! They must have thought we were insane! Ordering so much alcohol! But we thought we were only getting a glass :S haha. So yeah, we just hung out at Tropis, a heap of the pendampings came, so it was good to catch up with Aji (my pendamping), Jimmy and Rian again! Some people were going to caesar, but after waking up at 4:30am… I think 2am was late enough.. Haha, yes, it was a long day.. But a great one as well!

A week of craziness

Wow! What a hectic week! I’ve been insanely busy! And the madness continues… But at a slightly slower pace… For now anyway.

Bali was great! So happy to see Rocky and Arie again. Only had 2 night there tho, so not a lot of time to do much, but the main reason for staying there was to see them both again anyway. Spent most of my time there just hanging out, made a new friend Satria and played WOW, (really badly I might add… The game has changed a lot since I played it last) but it was fun all the same. Seeing Rocky and Arie after one year was awesome, and getting to stay at both their houses and see their families again.. And how fast Aries little sister is growing up. I wish I could have stayed there longer, but the visa conditions made it impossible... I was gone before I knew it.

I arrived in Jogja on Thursday.. Had no idea what I was doing, who I’d meet or what to expect. After arriving at Wisma Gadjah mada (the university guest house) nothing was much clearer. Haha… the following four days held a few not so interesting seminars, form filing for the police and immigration and kos (boarding house) hu

nting (more about that later) o

h, and also meeting all the amazing Anak ACICIS!! Its such a great group this year, I’ve heard of previous years where none of the group really clicked. But this year we’re all around the same age, and well, even the older students are great to hang out with. There are so many people from all over Australia! Its great to see, but at the same time, it was a strange feeling being in a room with so many other people interested in learning Indonesian… My Indo class has never been more than about 10 people.

I’m at home writing this.. I’ll upload later.. Maybe tomorrow… I’m in my new home.. My kos.. I can hear the groan of motorbikes in the distance and a pedagang kaki lima.. He’s hitting a bowl with a spoon, while pushing his cart, to let everyone know he’s coming, so if you’re a bit hungry, just go out side and grab a feed! My kos is great, its in a good location, Pogung Baru, and there are some really nice people here, even though I’ve only met 3 of them so far. The others are on holiday, but should be back soon… so there might be a little more activity around later.

The hunt for a kos was an interesting one. It started way out past the ring road, in some remote back streets, but soon changed to a more urban area after I explained to my pendamping that I need to walk to uni for at least a month. I liked the idea of the Karang area, abundant with local students, yet still good kos. But after asking around, most places seemed to be full already. There was one however, it didn’t look promising from the outside, and at only 200.000Rp per month ($30AUD) I didn’t expect much, there was a bed, a broken chair and a hole in the ceiling. It was a good starting place, but it wasn’t for me. Moving on, there was an ok kos, but af

ter taking a tour, we found it was for muslims only.. With no luck in the Karang area, we decided to go to the Pogung area, there were 2 kos yang cocok, both owned by th

e same person. I ended up choosing the first, its a nice kos with 6 rooms upstairs and 4 rooms downstairs. Mine is on ground level, a huge room, nice bed, 2 cupboards, a desk, and a shared  bathroom. Its all I really want in a kos, so I don’t think I’ll be moving anytime soon.

Woah! Its almost 7pm… I’ve gotta go meet a friend for dinner… Gonna be late.. I’ll finish this later…

….. Ok… I’m back… miss me? Its just after 10… just had dinner for about 40 cents.. Can you believe it?!

So where was I? …. Oh.. And sorry for this being HUGE… you’ll get over it… or not read it.. Either way :P oh yeah… about my kos… guess what?!?! Kufron left!!! He was our pembantu… and he’s gone… I was talking to him this morning, and he never said anything… apparently Ibu Kos wasn’t paying him properly… and just before I left for dinner… I found out he’s just left! :(  yeah.. It really sux… maybe I’ll see him around…

I met Ajeng a couple of days ago for dinner, she was holidaying in Jogja with her family, just for 2 days. But its a bit strange, cause she will be in australia for this year, and I will be here, but then.. When I finish my year here, she will move back.. Haha.. We’re just temporarily swapping countries.

Today was a big day for me.. Its the first day I’ve had all day to do whatever I wanted.. And after going shopping and realizing I hadn’t bought barely any

thing… I went again today.. Met up with Jimmy and set off for Amplas .. It stands for something.. But  can’t remember what.. Lol.. Its just a huge shopping centre. At 8:30AM we found out the h

ard way that it didn’t open till 10AM. So we wondered the streets and got excited about buying motorbikes.. They’re about 7 million second hand, and between 10 - 13 million new.. I’m thinking about getting a new one.. Its a lot of money, but I’ll be able to sell it at the end of the year anyway.. So maybe all in all it will cost me about 5 million. Haha.. Thats if I can get my licence here!

Ok.. So.. .shopping with Jimmy..bought some new Indo CD’s and DVD’s! :D … they weren’t on the list.. But I also got a towel, door mat and some sheets! Popeye sheets! Yes, you read correctly! Popeye! (and YES Jimmy, they ARE awesome!!! You’re just jealous) kinda strange how happy sheets can make you… I think its cause it made the room look different, so now its like its actually mine… not just a room I’m staying in.

Well.. This really is a huge blog… ok.. I better hurry up…

In other news, Brendan and Jimmy got a tour of an abandoned hotel, saw a car that looks similar to the bat mobile, they also forgot to buy fans for their rooms, so are now hot. Brendan then got lost and stuck in the rain with Karan on the way to dinner, but eventually managed to find everyone. Brendan is still under investigation and more information will be posted regarding his whereabouts as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention.

Ps... I forgot to upload my pics to my computer.. maybe later.. haha