The Lost Chapters

Well… it has definitely been WAY too long since I have updated… (so for those of you who are actually interested, I apologize). Its just gotten harder and harder to make myself sit alone in front of my computer, when every day I’m invited to go and do something. When I have to choose between going out and having all this fun, or writing a blog, of course I choose fun. So by going and doing all these things, I don’t have time to write, but at the same time, if I freed up all my time to write in here, I’d have nothing to write about. I think its like a paradox or something. Yeah… I’ve heard that word before somewhere..

Anyways, I really haven’t written in this thing for ages, so I have no idea where to start… well… to tell the truth, there are two blog entries I’ve done before and just haven’t posted, but the most recent one is about my time in bali… well… more specifically just Nyepi.. :S ok so what else…

Rocky’s Birthday:
I bought him a cake and some of his fav red label, he invited a bunch of his mates to his dad’s warung for dinner. There was prolly about 20 of us, it was heaps of fun, they all LOVED uno, surprise surprise, and there’s some pretty funny photos of Sat who passed out on a table. Oh and I got to catch up with Arie and Kadek again! They both look so different! But then I guess so do I.

The rest of Bali:

Well… I didn’t really do that much in Bali, but I didn’t go there for all the touristy things, I went to see Nyepi, n to celebrate Rock’s birthday. Still had heaps of fun, went to the beach and spent heaps of time hanging out at his friends kos. It was a pretty good kos, good sized room and kamar mandi dalam, so cheap, and seemed more like the kind of kos I wanted. Friendly people, all around the same age, just had heaps of fun hanging out there. I was already thinking about moving kos before I went to bali, but this made me want to move out even more.

Well… I think thats about all for Bali… I can’t really remember much… mainly just hung out with Rock and his mates… it sucked a bit tho cause he said he’d be finished uni at about 11 am everyday but it turned out to be around 2-3 pm… which kinda sucked at first, but after a couple of days wasn’t too bad, went to the beach or shopping, or just stayed home and played with Koko, he’s so funny. Just reminds me, his birthday is coming up.

Back in Jogja:

Kinda sad to come back, but at the same time, it felt like I had spent long enough in Bali. So back in Jogja, some friends were talking about going to KL for a weekend cause the tickets were cheap as, 600,000Rp return. I said I didn’t really wanna go cause I couldn’t afford it. But after much convincing, by Cheryl, I ended up agreeing to go along, I also realized that I’d be getting paid twice before I left. (wait a min, this KL talk was before bali! Haha… geeze Brendan! Get it right! Cause I didnt’ think I’d have enough money for both) 

Anyways, I started looking for a kos, and needed to hurry, cause if I was going to KL, I had a week to find a new place. I  didn’t tell anyone at my old kos (except Karan) that I wanted to move.. The first day I searched for about  7 hours! I was so tired, and my butt so sore from being on my bike all day. But I found a couple of good kos. There was one in particular that I liked, but I couldn’t move in until the 2nd of April (I can’t believe I’ve only been here 3 and half weeks!! Feels like I moved AGES ago) anyway, I decided it was the one I wanted, the room is big, and it has KMD and its 250,000Rp less per month. So I paid a deposit and was going to wait to move in. The only problem being that I had to be out of my old kos by the 28th of March, so I was gonna have to find somewhere to stay for a few days. The good thing about the Malaysia trip was that we were leaving on the 26th and getting back on the 30th.. So I only had to find somewhere to stay for two nights. I ended up asking Karan if I could move all my stuff to his room and camp there.

Kuala Lumpur:

The KL trip happened to fall right around exam week, bad timing… but hey, who could refuse such a cheap trip! Luckily our Percakapan lecturer is super nice and she let us do the exam a week later. The flight was actually from Solo to KL return, so we had to make our way to solo, thinking we were running late, and being as lazy as we are, we really didn’t want to bother with catching the train or a bus there, so we decided to catch a taxi there! Haha. It was the most expensive taxi ride I’ve ever taken (in Indonesia) it took about an hour, solo is around 75km from Jogja. But all up it cost us 50,000Rp each, yep a total of  $6AUD.

We arrived in Solo earlier than expected, because the busses and trains take much longer, and with not much to do, so we just found a place and ate while waiting til we could enter. The guy at customs or immigration or whatever really started to piss me off.. With the visas we have, we are, for the time being, technically Indonesian and therefore are supposed to fill out a local “entry / exit permit” but the guy insisted on us filling out an international one. We are indonesian enough to have to pay the 1,000,000Rp exit fee (which we are able to get waved :D ) but not Indo enough to fill out the local form. It wasn’t that much of a big deal, but the way Phil said it, it made it sound like we were going to have trouble if we filled out the wrong forms, which made me frustrated when the immigration dude wouldn’t listen. Anyways, it turned out when we got to KL that we didn’t even need an entry permit! Gah!

I think we ended up getting in at around 9 or 10 pm Wednesday night… so we just ate and slept. I basically only had three days there, cause my flight home was at 7am on Sunday. Day one we went to the Patronus towers and did a bit of shopping. The towers are pretty amazing, definitely worth seeing, especially at night when they have all the lights on, just beautiful. We were a little disappointed tho, because you can’t go all the way to the top, visitors are only allowed to the sky bridge. At the beginning you gotta watch this video which basically just says how awesome Patronus is and how they help the community and the world and all that, seems a bit ironic, considering its a fuel company, so I’m sure is somehow contributing to global warming. But yeah, the view was awesome, and its free! Which I was really surprised about. I thought the whole building would be offices or something, but in the bottom its actually a shopping centre, so we wondered around there for a bit, no idea what else we did for the day. Haha

Before we left for KL we ran into Genta at Parsley, he was excited as to hear we were going n he suggested we go to Genting highlands, he’d never been, but heard it was awesome. Its like a theme park, but its on top of a mountain! We caught the bus there, along the way I noticed a building at the top of this huge mountain n I thought it would be amazing to go there, after we kept getting higher and higher, I realized that was where we were going! Genting has the worlds longest cable car (I think), and the worlds largest hotel. The cable car was pretty awesome, nice views, but every now and then it’d be a lil freaky as you realized how high above the ground you were, only suspended by one wire. The ride takes about 10mins, so there is plenty of time to freak out along the way. But its amazing there, (I know, I keep saying everything is amazing! ) but you’re literally in the clouds! Its a bit cold there, but once you get moving around its not too bad. We bought out tickets from Central Station in KL, so its was a return bus ticket, cable car transfers and unlimited rides for something like 50 Ringgit. Great deal! (also recommended! Hahaha.. I’m starting to sound like an advocate for Malaysia! Maybe I can start my own travel program :P ) but Genting isn’t JUST rides, there’s also a heap of shops, cafe’s and restaurants there, not to mention a cinema. We spent ALL of our second day running around the place, one of the rides takes you so high you’re in the clouds, its one of the freakiest and most fun rides I’ve ever been on, suddenly you plummet back to the ground before being flung back up the tower again. Took my breath away, but sooooo much fun. By the time we got back to the hotel it was already about 8 pm and we were exhausted, so just ate and slept.

My final day, we went to the Batu Caves, I’m not really too sure what its all about, it would have been great to get a tour guide or something while we were there, all I know is it has something to do with Hindu. It was still cool to see, but it would have been heaps better with the story behind it and more information about the place. After that we headed to china town and the central markets to go oleh-oleh hunting, I felt bad after not bringing anything from bali, so I couldn’t go to KL and come back empty handed again. Though, I’ve only given them to people here… I still have some stuff to send back home… but that means I will need to find the post office in Jogja.. We decided to go and check out the revolving restaurant in KL tower that night, had to pay to get up, but the views were good, they had telescopes up there too, but they were so strong the only thing they would be good for is stalking people! Haha. The restaurant was out of our budget tho, but on our way out we noticed a cheap indian place at the base of the tower, so we ate there instead, nice place, great food and awesome service! Also highly recommended! We didn’t really wanna go home just yet, so we went for a wonder around the streets and then found Mitch some accommodation for his remaining nights. Somehow we ended up in a “reggae” bar, (I say “reggae” because in the three or so hours that we were there, they only played one reggae song). It wasn’t bad, just had a few drinks there before heading home, all the staff seemed to be waria tho, which was pretty funny. By the time we got back to the hotel it was about 2:30 am, and I figured I had to leave soon to catch the bus to the airport, so I just wouldn’t bother sleeping. Packed all my stuff, n made my way back to Jogja. And yes, when I finally got to Solo I was too lazy to catch a train, especially by myself… so I caught a taxi again, butm from Solo to Joga is more expensive, so on my own it cost me a whole $22. Still not bad considering its door to door, and its a TAXI! Haha. In Adelaide it would be about $80 for 25 kilometers!

Back in Jogja - Part two :P

Yaay!!! I’m home! But exhausted as! No sleep last night and barely any in the taxi cause the cabbie wanted to talk to me the whole time. Anyway, quite a few things have happened since I’ve been back, including two weddings, a few birthdays, a trip to an orphanage, kali kuning, merapi, the beach, a music studio and an international day celebration on campus, and I’m no doubt forgetting something as well.

Both of the weddings were pretty interesting, both very different, the first was a muslim wedding, the second was a christian wedding, but still in the traditional Indonesian style. Who would have thought the first weddings I went to were not only outside of Australia, but I don’t even really know the people who married. Its normal here tho, everyone rocks up to weddings, if you know someone who knows someone who knows the bride / groom, then all seems to be fine, if there’s a free feed involved, you can expect everyone to be there! Yes, including the random white people who know one knows. After the second wedding, Ijo, his friend, Indra, his girlfriend and I all went to Kaliurang, it was too cloudy to see merapi again, but at least this time it wasn’t pouring with rain. It was so nice up there. On the way down we stopped at Kali kuning, its said to be good to keep looking young ( I’ve forgotten how to speak english :S ) it was pretty amazing tho, walk down through this valley until you reach the stream, the water looks so pure, and its freezing! Well… refreshing. Haha. So nice, but it seems a bit hard to find, you could easily drive right past it without even knowing, I had three times before! 

...I just remembered what I was forgetting…. I stayed with Karan for a couple of days until the guy in my new place had moved out. Piled all my stuff in a cab and moved in.. And haven’t looked back! I love the new place! People are so friendly, around my age, they hang out in the kos, just heaps good friends. Unlike my last kos, where we knew each other, but it didn’t really feel like we were friends. Well.. Yeah… I better take some photos of my new place so you can all see it huh! Ooo and a new development, I think I might get the internet at my kos! I’m kinda excited, means I’ll be online more often, but what I’m really hoping is that it will be fast enough to do a video chat with my family and friends. My hopes aren’t too high tho, I asked about the average speed and one of the dudes said 36kbps… but I think he was refering to the speed he gets when downloading something, which if I’m in OZ is slower than the actual line speed, so I’m hoping its the same here.. Well.. We’ll see I guess, I’m gonna try it out for a month first anyway, if I dun like it.. I’ll just be back at the warnet, no dramas.

Ok… back to the list..

Birthdays: 

That would be Lyndle and Cheryl’s.. Both were just the usual, but still fun. We went out to dinner and everyone chipped in for a present. Lyndle’s was at Parsley, not a bad place, its one of the favorites among Anak ACICIS, and she got a cute pair of turtles. I didn’t know what present we were getting her, but yeah, I was a lil surprised to see turtles, so I hope she wanted a pet! But apparently she loves them.. So all is good.  I have no idea what we did after dinner. Cheryl’s was at Via-Via (another ACICIS fav.) also not bad. Both places are a lil expensive… well, not in comparison to Australian standards, but when you can get a meal, including a drink for around 50c, everything “normally” priced seems expensive. After dinner we went to Jendelo, its a nice cafe above a bookstore on the north end of Jalan Gejayan, also a wifi hotspot, but the only time I’ve used the net there it was quite slow. But anyway, we were there for coffee and cards, just in the lesehan playing tongues. Its a pretty fun game, I’ll have to show you guys when I come back. Some of the others went to big belly, so after Jendelo me and Ijo were gonna go meet them there, but as we went past, they were all getting in a taxi, so the night just ended there.

International Day:

UGM holds an international day every year, its actually held over one day and one night. Its an opportunity for students from all over the world who are studying at UGM to show a little bit of their countries culture. In the ACICIS group, there are 28 students, of those there are 25 Aussies and 3 “Dutch” (and “Dutch” because all of them are actually Asli Indonesia) anyway, cause there are so few dutch, they asked Adam and I if we would help them out. So basically, I was dutch for a day, but still helped the Aussies out a lil too. But yeah, day one is mainly all about the food, each country makes a few dishes and either sells or gives it away so everyone can get a taste for the traditional food of that country. There’s also a bit of singing too, it was a pretty good day, we all went insane in front of all the camera and were jumping in on everyones photos, it was nuts. With the “Dutch” girls we made cheese cake, some kind of bread and butter pudding and some sloppy mashed potato salad. Both the sweets were delish, the salad wasn’t too bad, but it looked horrible, so I was surprised to see it just disappear. We sold out in about 40 mins! After the day came to a close, we all piled into the ACICIS house to clean up and chill out for a bit. Ijo said he and Tess were going to a music studio to have a bit of a jam and invited me along. So not long after that we headed down to the studio where Tess was on the drums and Ijo was singing and playing guitar! Didn’t sound too bad either! I wanted to join in, but they weren’t playing from music, and Ijo was facing the other way, so I couldn’t see which chords to play. It was still fun to hang out and see them both play. Niken had a bit of a go on the drums and after a while some of Ijo’s friends rocked up too. Its pretty awesome! We should have something like that in Australia! Its just a big room with a drum kit, two electric guitars, a bass guitar, a keyboard and a few microphones. You can just go in there, pump up the speakers and have a great time making music! The following night was “International night” basically a performance night, each country puts together a traditional performance of some sort, most of them were dances. It was pretty amazing to see. But silly me forgot my camera! Haha, after the last performance Vando and I went and played some pool. (are you getting to see how things just never stop here?)

The Orphanage:

From the International day sales we made around 200,000Rp, we decided we would go to an orphanage and do a heap of shopping for them. Before we went shopping we heard that Sam was in hospital because he had put a cotton tip in his ear and needed it removed, he was ok, but we just wanted to visit him so he could see some familiar faces. He’s such a cute kid, there was another little girl there too, we were joking that she was checking him out. Even tho I think she was probably less than a year old and sam is probably not even two yet. We left together and had breakfast at a nearby warung that plays live music. After breakfast / lunch we headed off to the shops, we bought some milk, biscuits, chips, lollies along with some colouring books and crayons. When we rocked up they were just having their arvo nap tho, so we cruised around and looked at a few near by temples and had lunch at a floating restaurant. Its surrounded by water and to get there you have to pull yourself across the river on a raft / boat type thing. Great place, all the water keeps it cool, not too expensive and the food was nice too. After lunch we headed back to the orphanage, it was a little bit of a shock at first, because most of the kids there have some form of disability, both mental and physical, but it didn’t take long to get over this and just have fun with them. They mainly spend the whole time colouring the Popeye books while eating all the food we brought. Some of them were pretty funny. I started colouring with them, and wasn’t putting any effort into it.. Just colouring like I was still 4 years old, and one of the girls kept commenting on how good my colouring was, once I had finished I decided to give it to her, she looked so happy, she immediately took it and walked away with it under her arm.

This has gotta be getting boring by now.. I just keep saying how fun everything is.. Haha… but I dunno what else to say, I’m just having a great time here, there is ALWAYS something to do. Even today, as I’m here typing this, (procrastinating from all the work I should be doing) I had to blow off a trip up a mountain do to it, I already went out with my kos mates for breakfast, I was invited to play soccer this afternoon by Hee Jae the crazy Korean (he’s so funny), Niken and Ima came to collect their camera which resulted in lunch together and there are plans for dinner tonight to celebrate Yodim’s birthday. This is what my “day’s off” are like. Don’t get me wrong, I love always having something to do, but sometimes I just get so exhausted. Not to mention I have barely done any study since I’ve been here, but that hasn’t really presented a problem so far, so fingers crossed it wont in the future. 

I have no idea what I’m talking about anymore… I’ve just been out and had a haircut, the cheapest haircut EVER!!!! No really, if you can get your hair cut cheaper, I’ll give you…. 50,000 (lima puluh ribu!) and friend discounts don’t count, it has to be the full priced cut…. Ok… you ready…. Here it is… 4000Rp… yep.. Thats right… 50c Australian! Well I guess you can add haircut to the list of unplanned events today.

Woah… I’ve been writing this thing ALL day! Well… basically… its taken MUCH longer than I thought! Its 6pm already! I began this thing thinking, “I’ll just write my blog and then start all the study I have to do”… gah… wrong decision.. Here it is… already almost 4000 words and I still need to talk about the beach! If only writing essays was this easy! Mmm maybe I should put intermission breaks in this thing… turn it into a three part series… good idea.. I’ll go back and add em in… on second thought, after scrolling up and seeing that there are six pages… I think I’ll just leave it up to you for when you take your toilet / coffee breaks.

Ok… the beach… (I’ll try to make this quick) I can never remember the name of which beach I went to… I thought it was Udiombo… but that might be a mountain,,, I have no idea.. It sounds kinda like that anyway… haha.. I sound like such a foreigner! Anyway, the beach! (trying to keep on track!) we decided to leave at 1pm by motorbike, so it would be cheaper for everyone, and being the usual Indo crew, we were 2 hours late and didn’t leave til 3pm, I’m not trying to be nasty, but well… I’m pretty sure Jam Karet is an Indonesian creation.. (damn it! It was less than 2 lines ago that I said I was keeping on track!) Anyways… we left, got there at 7pm!! My butt was so sore, haha… but we weren’t driving the whole time, we had to wait for the police (someone’s bike wasn’t up to scratch), went to the mosque for prayer, waited for the rain and then finally arrived. 

The following day we spent on the beach, so much fun, taking heaps of photos, walking along the beach, we came across a rocky area which seemed to block the huge waves, it looked pretty clear and relatively calm in comparison to the actual beach. We swam there for a few hours, the waves kept getting bigger and bigger until we were being dragged around and pushed into rocks, it became to dangerous to swim.. But before I got out I managed to get slammed into the rocks too, not that badly tho, just small cuts all over my feet and only one deep one on my toe. (btw I’ve just been told the beach is Wediombo). Met some of Vando’s friends when we were there, pretty cool people, except one of their motorbikes broke down so only two of them could come.. 

We didn’t really do much at the beach, just relaxed.. The place we stayed in was just a huge open pendopo, it was great, at night it was even a little cold, and there were NO mosquitoes! So surprised. On the way back there was a couple of accidents…. Three people fell from their bikes because the roads were either all up hill or down and really curvy, but they’re all ok… just in a bit of shock at the time. On the way back we stopped at a warung on the side of the mountain, great views of jogja. Wow… that actually was relatively quick… 

well… its now 6:15 pm… and I haven’t studied at all today, supposed to be going somewhere for Yodims birthday at 9…. Maybe I’ll just go to a warnet and upload this instead of studying today… 

Nyepi

I was thinking about it anyway, but when I got an sms from Rock saying I should come to bali for Nyepi, I was pretty much certain I would go. I went to the travel agent and it was only 590.000Rp return, so no probs there. Nyepi was the 7th, the day of silence, so I had to be there on the 6th to see the celebrations, I booked my flight for the 5th, then its Rocky’s birthday on the 14th of March, so I thought I would skip a week of uni and stay to celebrate with him.

Clare’s birthday was on Wednesday, the day I left for bali. (sorry about all the tense changes in this, I’ve obviously written it days after all this happened.. Haha) anyway, so she was gonna have dinner at 6:30, then go to big belly after that. But my flight was at 9pm, so I had to leave at about 7:30.. I didn’t leave much time.. I just ordered and ate and then left basically.. Haha… I got a message later from clare saying thanks for coming and for the present… We all chipped in and got her membership to a gym here.. I cut it pretty close, I stayed at her dinner til 7:30, but forgot I had to go home to grab my bags and stuff first AND go to the atm, so it was 7:45 before I actually left….. Only 15mins to get to the airport!!! 

I was 15mins late.. . But my flight was delayed.. Haha.. So there was no probs.. (sorry this is such a dodgy blog… I don’t even know if its making sense… )

So I got to Rocky’s house at about midnight, just ended up crashing, the next day we went to see the parade of ogoh-ogoh it was pretty amazing. They are these huge statues, they represent all of the evil and badness in people, they are paraded on the streets and then burned, the following day, nyepi, everyone is supposed to stay inside, not making much noise, or using electricity, thinking about their mistakes of the past year so they are not repeated in the new year. According to the Hindu calender, it is now the year 1930. We weren’t exactly “good hindu’s” on nyepi tho… we used blankets and covered the windows, so even during the day it was dark inside, then Rocky and his friend played playstation and computer all night, haha… and we didn’t fast… it was kinda fun tho… trying to make sure we weren’t found out… it reminded me of the bog-bog comic Rocky showed me in alice springs, there was a guy hiding in the basement watching tv… so it must be pretty common… haha..

Today, the day after nyepi, we had planned to go out and jalan-jalan… but this morning they decided to rebuild the driveway, haha… so it doesn’t seem like we will be going anywhere anytime soon.. Haha.. So im just writing this blog, stuck in this room with rocky and his mate still playing games.. Haha.. With music blaring… so loud, haha.. Maybe the idea of the day after nyepi is to make as much noise as possible?

Well… this blog isn’t anywhere near as good as I wanted it to be… but I really can’t be bothered writing it.. The only reason I started is cause I didn’t wanna forget what’s been happening. So sorry for the shitty writing, wrong tenses and badly told stories..

Sinta's Birthday

I found out somehow or other that Sinta’s birthday was coming up. EVERYONE wanted to do something for her, maybe go out to dinner somewhere, but we weren’t sure where yet, so we arranged a meeting to organise it. The meeting was at 12, so Riri and I went shopping for a cake before hand and requested the cake shop write a birthday message for Sinta. At the meeting we decided on bebaquaran, we’d been there before, and it was nice, and not too far. Some dodgy story was created to get sinta there without arising too much suspicion, it seemed to work, she was so surprised to see everyone there. It was such a great night just talking and eating together. When we brought out the cake she started crying, it was great to see her so happy. She really deserves it, she does so much for us, she’s always happy and ready to do anything for you in an instant, the least we could do is make sure she had a good 25th birthday. I found out that night that she hadn’t celebrated her birthday since she was 17.. It just made it all that much more special. After dinner there was a concert on that a few of us wanted to go to, but Sinta just wanted to go home and see her family (she lives in Kaliurang).

The concert was at a high school, so I’m guessing it was mainly young people there, I didn’t end up going in, it was cheap to get in, but I didn’t wanna leave Ijo by himself, so we went to a cafe next door. It was really nice there actually, and we could still hear the music from there anyway. A few others decided to come first, before going in, and then everyone joined us after it finished. We stayed there talking for a few hours. It was kinda freaky how much Mara and I have in common, haha. I found out that the place we were at “big belly” is where Clare is going to have her party on Wednesday. Its a nice place so should be good.  

The decapitated brides

Sinta arranged for a bunch of people to meet at the inculs drinks room, from there we were going to go watch a ceremony that was being held in memory of the first sultan of Jogja (I think) We all met up at 10:30 am, but for some reason (I blame jam karet) we didn’t end up leaving until 12:30… and just as we were leaving it started pouring! Haha, we could have left two hours earlier when it was still fine… anyway, I was a little worried, cause Ijo said his performance was on at 5:30, so it didn’t leave much time to get to where we had to be and watch this ceremony…

There was a parade down one of the streets with hundreds of people both in the parade and lining the streets to watch it, some playing instruments, some dressed as warriors, some carrying oggoh oggoh, and just my luck, my camera went dead after taking just one photo! … I should have checked it before I left… all this time it was still raining, so I was getting a lille wet. We moved on to another area where the actual ceremony was going to take place. We were told if we weren’t paying attention then we would be possessed by old spirits… lil spooky… and that as a part of the ceremony two brides would be decapitated… don’t ask the reasoning behind this, I have no idea… of course I immediately asked… and REAL people are no longer used for the ceremony, but they use dolls instead. We were waiting outside this fenced off area, but then for some reason we were allowed to enter (apparently because we’re bule… white people.. Haha) so we went in, they just told us to be careful cause at the end of the ceremony they throw fruit out to the crowd, who will go nuts for it… they weren’t wrong.. Haha… everyone was scrambling everywhere trying to get some of the fruit, adam was lucky enough to have one basically thrown right to him… haha… intentionally or not, I dunno.  Wait, I skipped a bit… the decapitation.. How could I forget.. Yeah… they used dolls, except they still had blood in them :S … so they cut the throats of these two bride dolls, and all this blood started pouring out over the alter. It was definitely interesting tho, even if a little strange.

By this time it was already 5:30 .. Seeing Ijo dance didn’t look promising… on the way out we were stopped by a couple of young Indo guys who wanted to interview us about what we thought of the ceremony… I managed to avoid the camera, so Adam got stuck doing the whole interview.. It was pretty funny.. They were asking him questions in Indonesian.. And I dunno if he realized or not.. But he was answering them all in english.. Haha.. The strangest interview ever.. I dunno if they had any idea what he was talking about.

A few kms and thousands of people away, we got  back to out bikes, It was now already 6 pm, everyone wanted to go for dinner, but I wanted to go watch Ijo dance (if it was anything like his rehearsal, then he wouldn’t start til about 6:30 anyway) but the thing was.. I had no idea where I was, or how to get to the dance place from there. So I just had to follow with the others. It wasn’t so bad, we went and ate at a warung, (oh, all this time it had been raining too, so I was cold and wet by this stage), Yodim looked like he was gonna get sick, we all ordered hot tea to get warm. After dinner it was definitely way too late to go see Ijo… So I missed it :( .. But he said he has another performance coming up… so maybe I can watch him then. Then there was the drive home…. Also in the rain… you know, I never thought I would be cold in Indonesia… but on a motorbike at night, its always cold, add rain to the mix and its freezing! The ice cold mandi in the morning isn’t something I look forward to either...lol… a hot afternoon on the other hand, just never want to stop pouring the water!

Knowing where to go

While I’m hear I want to learn about the culture as well as the language… So I’m taking a class in Gamelan at UGM, its a traditional Indonesian orchestra, anyway, I’m also interested in learning Javanese dance, so I mentioned it to Ijo, and he said I can probably start in the upcoming semester (out side of uni, so there’s not long to wait) he’s been learning for about a year and has a performance coming up, he invited me to come and watch him rehearse. We met at gramedia, and I just followed him there on my bike.. I think I’ve realized, the hardest thing about riding a motorbike (well… its really a scooter.. But here they say “automatic motorbike” haha) anyway… the hardest part is knowing where to go, so its lucky I had someone to follow.

There were a few other dancers practicing when we got there, it all looked really nice, I was looking forward to the actual performance. Ijo went on and did his thing, I took a bunch of photos and filmed a little, when I showed it to him he was so happy. He had never seen himself dance, he thought he was worse that he actually is.. Haha.. But it was good cause he could watch what he had just done and then see the areas he thought needed improvement. I hope I can dance as well as him after one year! 

(oh.. And sorry for all the delays with EVERYTHING! Haha… late posts.. Barely any photos… etc etc… well.. I’ve uploaded a heap of photos to my facebook, so If you’ve got it, go check em out there!! … but yeah, hopefully I will get around to uploading some soon…)

The other Anak ACICIS went out to some pizza place which was awesome apparently, but by the time we finished up at the dance place it was too late to meet them. So Ijo took me back to his place, which happens to be the same kos as Indra! So I had a quick chat to him before we went out for dinner at a near by warung. It had the nicest food, and the sambal! Gee was it hot! Haha.. You should have see Ijo! It was so funny, he finished off his sambal, sweating, sniffing and crying from the heat.. And then wanted mine! Haha.. Crazy… tho, after eating there, food in other places didn’t seem so hot anymore.

The journey home was also an interesting one. Ijo pointed me in the direction of Amplaz, and I should have been able to find my way home from there… but some how I missed the turn off, and ended up on the ring road, not only that, but it was night, and raining… aku kehujanan! I had no idea where I was going, so I stopped on the side of the road to ask a parkir.. I eventually found my way home, but it took about twice as long as it should have… see the hardest part really is knowing where to go.

I'm Vario.... How about you?

After getting home and telling my kos mate that I went looking for a bike, he got excited and wanted to take me again today. But first I had a soccer match to go to. Hee Jae, an inculs student from Korea, had booked lapangan pancasila (the UGM sports oval) and arranged for everyone to meet there for a game. I wasn’t feeling too good, so I just wore thongs to make sure I couldn’t get roped into playing.. Haha… but hopefully he runs another one so I can have a kick next time. It was still great to watch tho, some of the players are SOOO freaking good! But I guess they must have been playing since they were little. I hung around for a bit afterwards and met a bunch of people… its crazy how many people I’ve met since I’ve been here! There are just too many… I can’t remember them all… and I feel horrible when someone comes up to me, knows my name, and starts having a convo… and I’m just thinking “where the hell do I know this person from”… feels horrible, but its just so hard when you’re meeting between 5 and 15 people every day..

After soccer I went home and my kos mate took me out to look for a bike again… I actually really wanted to go with Ijo, because he knows a lot about this kind of thing, and also his english is MILES better, so it would have just made everything so much easier. Anyway, I ended up buying a motorbike from a Honda dealer… and I’m really happy with it… but there was a few difficulties with buying it, because it was new. So, to buy a new bike in Jogja, you need to be a local resident of Jogja… you gotta have a KTP (basically a Jogja ID) which I don’t have.. I was going to borrow my friends, but my kos mate was saying, you know, if I use his KTP then it will be in his name, and we didn’t know what kind of person he was etc etc… which I thought “fair enough… I’m gonna have to really trust whoever I borrow the KTP from” … and then five mins later, he’s telling me that I should just use the KTP of the guy who works at the store :S …  I really didn’t know what to do.. I ended up feeling a little pressured into buying it… anyway, I spoke to Ijo about it later and he said it wasn’t such a good move… and that I could have used HIS KTP!!!! …. Damn it! Why couldn’t I just go with Ijo?!?! He kind of freaked me out actually… he was saying unless I get the STNK after one month, the BPKB after three months and then a photo copy of this guys KTP… then basically the bike belongs to him! … its strange here tho… in australia, we can change the name of the owner of the vehicle, here, it costs too much money, so the buyer is always the owner, but when they decide to sell, they just hand over the STNK, BPKB and a copy of their KTP… once you have all of those, the bike is basically yours, its just in someone else’s name… yeah… it was really confusing at first… but thats why I wanted Ijo there… gah!

Anyway, Ijo said not to worry about it too much… and I should just wait and see if I get all the paperwork… so hopefully this guy is decent and I get all the papers / copy of his KTP… cause it will be hard to sell without them... but if im trying to be positive, at least I have a motorbike now…

Bikes, bola and babies

Woah… Long time no update! Heaps has been happening.. Well.. It feels like it anyway. So there’s gonna be about five different posts.. Haha.. I just finished lunch and it started pouring with rain… but luckily I brought my laptop, and now I have something to do! :P

Ok… so however long ago it was, we got an email from Phil saying that a bunch of expats from Jakarta were coming to Jogja to play a game of AFL and show the locals about an Australian sport… I didn’t plan on going, but after asking Ijo if he could help me to go searching for a motorbike and he wanted to meet at Lapangan Pancasila (where the game was)… I kinda had to go. It wasn’t so bad, I ended up just watching and taking photos. Although I’m an Aussie, I’m not a big fan of AFL… there were a few Indo kids who rocked up, except hearing “football” they thought they were turning up to a soccer match and were a little surprised to find people playing with an odd shaped ball.

Anyway, after the football match, Ijo told me that he actually had a few other plans, which was a little strange, cause I thought he must have been free.. But anyway, after the game, we went back to the acicis house and phil wanted us to do some shopping for him before the expats came back to his place. Its fun hanging out with Ijo anyway, so I didn’t mind at all. Ok… so the shopping was done.. Now he was free… for a while.. Haha.. He took me to a 2nd hand bike shop, there was an ok bike there, 2 years old, only done 5000km, but it was still 11.8 million rupiah… brand new that model is only 13.3 million… so it was then that I was pretty much set on buying new. Ijo took it for a test drive and we said we’d think about it and come back later. Ijo said he had to take some people somewhere, and so we were off again, when we got there I saw that it was a bunch of other ACICIS students. He said they were going to an orphanage to celebrate a little girls 5th birthday! So, of course, I went along too! 

We arrived at the orphanage, and as soon as we walked through to the play area, a little boy came up to me and started hugging my legs. I looked down at him, he was only just taller than my knees, and he reached up to me. He was so cute! I picked him up and he just started hugging me.. Then I realized why he wanted me to pick him up. Because I’m much taller than him, after I picked him up he could reach the tree in the middle of the play area, and could play with the leafs. I don’t know why, but all of the kids there seemed to love playing with leafs. They were all so young, I think the oldest was probably 6 or 7, but the majority were probably 4 and under. We spent so long there, just playing and spending time with the kids, all of whom loved to “main foto” … and if you let them at your camera, I hope you didn’t want it back, haha… it was kinda funny tho.. I found out about the trip to the orphanage at the last min, so I had nothing to do with it, but the others had organised a cake and some presents for the girl (I’ve forgotten her name… I tend to do that a lot with indonesian names :S ) she seemed so happy, so did all of the kids.. I had mixed feelings there tho, I was happy to be spending time with these kids, and it was great to see them all so happy, but at the same time, it was so sad to think they they had lost their parents or been abandoned.. I can’t describe it, being really happy, but so sad at the same time… it was still a really good experience, and one I definitely want to have again.