Jakarta: Hot, Flat, and Crowded.

We arrived in Jakarta later that night. That night, meaning the night after the train ride from our last post. We rode through some gorgeous Javanese landscapes on that ride, and were able to see how large the island truly is. We knew that Southeast Asia's largest city, but we had no idea how massive it really was. Jakarta's traffic is also the stuff of legends, and we had heard about it well in advance. We had no idea that during our week stay here we would spend at least 2 hours a day stuck in traffic. Even with the "easy" maneuvering of a motorbike. Jakarta was our last stop in Indonesia. We spent the week at our friend Halden's house, which was a diamond in the rough: fully equipped with hot showers (something we hadn't had in a long time,) a pool, and a large kitchen to cook in and also for Kara to make her ear "Jamu" (see last post.) Many people had said that Jakarta did not have much to offer for the tourist, but we thought it was important to see the largest and capital city of a nation before leaving. Jakarta is a study in contrast, much like many large cities in developing nations. We found some of the nicest, newest, richest shops, restaurants, and apartments next to some of the most squalid living conditions that we have seen in the last 7 months. Here's Jakarta in a nutshell.

Sprawling metropolis. The city stretches to the horizon in every direction, as seen from the top of the Independence Monument in the center of Jakarta. We learned that approximately 250,000 people move here every year. Many of them, domestic immigrants looking for a better life in the big city, find their new living conditions cramped and dirty, sometimes little better than the rural areas from which they came.

Jakarta is also the political and economic center of all of Indonesia. Most national companies have their headquarters here, giving the skyline modern, abstract shapes from the drafting tables of international architectural firms. Many international companies have bases here as well. This gives Jakarta a sizeable ex-pat community and a more international feel than the rest of Indonesia. Halden, our friend who we stayed with, is one of these ex-pats. A cartographer from Canada, he works for a Canadian mapping company which is mapping the entire world in 3-d, one country at a time. Max was like, WHOA.

The next day was a Sunday, so Halden graciously spent his day off as our guide in our continuing quest to fix our broken Ipod. It might sound ridiculous to spend time doing this, however, if you were traveling for hours on end on horrible transportation, fixing your ipod would be a top priority. After several dead ends, three mega malls, and an hour of Jakarta traffic (all ughs,) we decided to go see a movie. Here is a prime example of the opulent wealth that can be found in this city. This particular mall was filled with Louis Vuitton, Hermes, and other shit that we hate. We shot off paper planes from the top of this 10-storied shopopolis. Halden, pictured at right.

Mall #2: DVD buying has become an addiction. Pirated copies of any DVD can be found in all malls. This is Halden's favorite stall. The ladies were nice to us and would tell us when we picked up a bad quality DVD. They also had Christian music karaoke playing in the background. Luckily no one was singing. Halden says this is the norm for this place.

Coolest movie theater idea ever: assigned seating! We went to go see "Slumdog Millionaire." We all enjoyed it very much. We bought the pirated DVD the next day. It comes complete with Malay, Chinese, English, and Thai subtitles. We found out later that all the subtitles are grossly inaccurate.

The next day, Halden went to work, and we went exploring. Tuk-tuks, a three wheeled motorized cart with a covered roof and a bench behind the driver, are still a means of transport in Jakarta, however they are not allowed on the main highways. They have the advantage of being able to outmaneuver cars but are still a step below having your own motorbike. We took this tuk-tuk to go rent a motorbike for the week. Fun fact: tuk-tuk engines are started with a hand crank, just to complete your mental picture. You usually have to yell to the person squished next to you if you want to communicate during your ride due to the loud engine.

Segway into dirty Jakarta... We went looking for Chinatown. Along the way we found a famous market underneath an overpass somewhere near Chinatown. Looking at this picture brings back smells we wish we could forget. We learned from Halden's roommate who works with the Asia Foundation, that Jakarta has a horrible sewage problem. Only 2%, yes TWO, of Jakarta's residents have proper sewage. About 10% have septic tanks, the rest use small canals that flow into these larger ones that penetrate the city. As Jakarta is situated on the water, this sewage water eventually hits the ocean. Max is having a hard time breathing while looking at this picture.

Max, seen hanging out for a chat with the local authorities at the market.

We made it to Chinatown. We found a vegetarian restaurant there, which was really exciting. We were pleased to have already eaten before venturing out to the rest of the area. The alleyways lining the main street are filled with produce stalls, Chinese medicinal shops, and pretty much the standard Chinatown product selection.

Then there were frogs. Going back deeper into the alleyways, we discovered the live and not so live animal market. Just to be clear, here are some skinned frogs lying in the foreground on a banana leaf. We did not have the pleasure of watching them skin the frogs. Apparently this happens in one swift motion, in order to leave the skins intact. It was difficult for Kara to take these pictures.

It was even more difficult for her to take this picture. Here are some turtles, supposedly lucky and auspicious beings in Chinese culture. It is surprising, then, that they are also eaten.

Produce/trash collection in Chinatown at the end of the day.

Other waste gets thrown into the canals. This water was bubbling. We are not sure why. Seriously, we are getting nauseous looking at this picture. We wish you could smell this to know why.

On a lighter note, we were following Hillary through Indonesia. Here she is with SBY, the president of Indonesia. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is his full name. You can understand why everyone, not just foreigners, call him SBY.

Another day in Jakarta. Kara wears super protective helmet and is loving it even though it made her even more sweaty than usual. She took this picture of herself while Maximilian deftly navigated through the bowels of Jakarta's deepest traffic. "Oh man," Max says.

The Independence Monument. It's really huge, we're not exactly sure how tall it is, wait, Max is googling to get the figures....ok, its 137 meters tall. On the bottom level is a very well put together exhibit, consisting over over 40 dioramas that chronicle the nation's history. However they skip Suharto's dictatorship. Max wanted to write presidency. He says, Suharto was the president of Indonesia. He doesn't know what Kara has against that. Suharto was a dictator, she says. We can't live in fear, she says, of not saying what he was. He was a dictator. Technically, he was the president. They also don't cover the succession of East Timor.

You can take an elevator up to the top of the Independence Monument, which has a 360 degree observation deck just below the monument's gold flame.

Back on the ground, Max drives through the traffic along with tuk-tuks, buses, SUVS, motorbikes, semi-trucks, and taxis.

While looking for the historic port of Jakarta, we couldn't help but stumble onto the MASSIVE area of slums near the waterfront. We had read that there was heavy flooding in the weeks before we came and we imagined that the pools of water like this one were leftover from that. Here children play in the water, their backyards. We were about to try and navigate this giant puddle when some friendly residents of this area motioned for us to go "that way," down an alley that led to an awkward 30-minute tour of the shanty town on motorbike. There are no pictures of this because Kara felt that it was weird enough that we were driving through these people's living rooms. To have taken pictures, she felt, would have been supremely disrepectful. Everyone was really nice to us, and could clearly tell we were trying to get out. It didn't help that the motorbike that we had rented was extremely EXTREMELY loud, sputting a long line of exhaust into the faces of all we passed. Oh man. We'll tell you the full story when we get back. Oh man.

Like we said, Jakarta, a city of extreme contrast. Not a 20 minute drive from the area above. SUVs, modern skyscrapers, shiny fountains.

The malls in Jakarta take the strategy of a Las Vegas casino, trying to confuse the shopper as much as possible so they wander, lost, amongst the buying opportunities. Here, Max is seen, slightly frustrated with the nonsensical floor plan. Why are there three ground floors? What the hell is 3a? Where did floor 7 go? Floor 6-9, What does that mean??? We came to this mall to find one of the vegetarian restaurants we had researched. It took over a half hour to find it. Its address was something to the effect of "6A, 32-10."

We found the veggie restaurant. It was good. Max was less unhappy with the system after eating.

The last day in Jakarta, we decided to watch the sunset from the romantic spot of "overpass near Mangga Dua Shopping Center." We had a video to show the madness of the traffic, but it won't load. There are food and beverage vendors who walk through the gridlock, selling everything from bottled water to inflatable football helmets.

We are sad to say we didn't take the boat to our next destination, Malaysia. We chose the healthier, cleaner, faster option. Here Kara can be seen clearly as a foreigner.

Our adventure as foreigners continue in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Thank you Indonesia. We loved every minute of you. All three months. We hope to be back sooner than later, thats for damn sure.

K and M

Pronounced "Joge-ja-car-ta"

Yogyakarta, our first stop after Bali. Yogyakarta, or "Jogja" as it is commonly called is a young city with an ancient history. It has been the capital of many Javanese kingdoms, both Hindu and Muslim, and was even the capital of Indonesia for a short period of time. Most of Java's Universities are located here, giving it a large population of young students from all over Indonesia. We planned to meet up with our couchsurfing friend, Sandi here, thinking we would stay a week at the very most. However his enthusiasm, hospitality, friendship, and awesome yoga classes made it easy to extend our stay to 11 days. Sandi and his mom made us feel like we were a part of their family for the time we stayed there. Sandi is a really amazing person and we enjoyed all the time we spent with him. He brought us to his yoga classes (he teaches at a Yoga studio in Yogya,) patiently and thoughtfully answered our endless questions about Java, and took us to Borobodur on his only day off of work. He's also a vegetarian and is into indie movies, so you can imagine the fun we had. We could write an "ode to Sandi" here but instead we will just bring you the pictures from Yogya and our time with our new Indonesian friend. We miss you Sandi! You rock!

First day in Yogya after overnight bus ride. Welcome to Yogya.

The first day we arrived, Max was sick and throwing up and Kara had a bad migraine. Between the two of us, we were a little bit of a mess. Not pictured is Max being sick. Pictured here is Sandi's Mom's Javanese home remedy being performed on Kara. It is called "crocking" (sp?). It can be very painful but effective. A small bit of oil is applied to the body, and using a large coin, the "crocker" scrapes the oiled skin. Sandi's mother had a set of pre-independence Dutch coins saved from her childhood that she used for this process. Apparently they are "softer" than the new ones. Kara can't imagine the harder version.

Batik lesson 101. We fell for a classic Asian tourist trap scheme. While standing on the street a man approached us and asked where we were from. After a short conversation he told us we should check out this "temporary batik art exhibit" that would be leaving town the next day. When we arrived at the "exhibit," it was clearly a store and not very temporary looking. But the work was good, and we fell in love with one of the pieces anyway. The man told us it was his original work, it had taken three weeks to make, yada yada yada. A couple of days later we were shown a very similar piece by another person also claiming to be the artist "Opera." We knew it was a scam, but we really loved it and bought it anyway. You can find it, this fall, in Kara and Max's new fabulous NYC apartment.

Contemporary Jilbab (headscarf) store in the mall.

The Sultan Area is one of Yogya's main attractions. It is located in the center of the city and its "ancient" walls house somewhere between 6,000-20,000 residents, depending on who you ask. It was built in the 18th century and is still the official residence of the current sultan, Sultan #10. The residents who live in the Sultan area live tax free, and from what we understand, they also do not pay rent.

Walls of the Sultan area.

While exploring the Sultan area, a man volunteered himself to be our tour guide. He showed us a beautiful pavilion and a few other buildings that were not included on the official tour of the area. He works for the Sultan. After insisting several times that he did not want any money, he then expected us to pay him "what we wished" when we decided we were done exploring. This underhanded tactic made us feel angry and uncomfortable and we then began to doubt the validity of the information he had given us. Either way, he showed some beautiful buildings.

Wayung Kulit, or a Shadow Puppet Workshop in the Sultan Area. Shadow Puppets were invented on Java as an entertaining way to disseminate popular religious stories such as the Hindu Ramayana.

Public newspaper display in the Sultan Area. Front page shows Hillary Clinton's first visit to Indonesia as the Secretary of State, which took place during the week we were in Yogya. It was the first time people greeted our answer of "we are from America" with "Clinton!" instead of "Obama!"

Our very ineffective tour guide at the Sultan Palace. Though we learned he believed that the Indonesian government is corrupsi (corrupt), and that Indonesia is going through a crisis, we did not learn much about the Sultan Palace. He was a big fan of Sultan #9 though, like many Javanese we spoke with. We learned Sultan #9 had "supernatural powers." Kara asked our tour guide "what kind of supernatural powers?" The tour guide explained that Sultan #9's supernatural powers helped him defeat the Dutch in several battles.
Taman Sari, the water palace. It was a giant bathing area for the Sultan and his harem. There are three pools, two are seen here and are slightly connected to one another. One of these two pools was for the Sultan's children, the other for the harem. Separated by a massive wall to the right, lies the Sultan's private pool. Certain women of the harem were chosen to join him there.

An underground passage way of unknown purpose.

View of residential Sultan area. Newer brick houses and metal roofs stand right beside the historic Sultan buildings.

Towards the Southern end of the Sultan area, stand these two trees in the middle of a large lawn. When we first saw this lawn, it looked rather unremarkable. However Sandi told us that these two trees and the space between them have some supernatural qualities. It is reportedly impossible to walk in a straight line in between them.

We didn't realize that attempting to walk between the trees was such a popular night time activity in Yogya. Hundreds of people crowd this space at night, creating a fairground atmosphere complete with food stalls, mini rides, and chachki vendors. Blindfolded hopefuls guarded by friends crowd the area around the trees, some of them straying rather far afield. Max made two attempts, unsuccessfully running into the tree on the right both times. Kara tried once and made a large semi circle into the grass. Sandi smiled the whole time and cleared the way for us.

A couple of days later on his day off, Sandi took us out to Borobodur, the largest Buddhist temple in Southeast Asia, and one of the largest monuments in the world. We woke up super early to avoid the heat and the crowds, but were still trampled by both. It is thought to have been built between the end of the 7th and 8th century and was incredibly well preserved. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 reliefs and 504 Buddhas. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupas. We circumambulated each level before proceeding to the next. This is the path walked by Buddhist pilgrims, which many interpret to symbolize the path to enlightenment.

Max and Sandi stand with their Foreign and Indonesian entrance tickets, respectively. Our tickets cost $12 USD, Sandi's approximately $1.50.

A crumbling bas relief reveals a Buddha looking out towards the valley.

These are just 6 of the thousands of students, yes, thousands, who were also visiting Borobudur that day. Many of them, from small towns throughout Java seemed very excited to talk to us and take pictures with us. Many of them were assigned by their teachers to practice their English with foreign tourists. We went through the same five question conversations about 15-20 times. We felt bad denying cute and nice school kids the opportunity to develop their language skills, however, we had to start refusing after we reached the fourth level of the monument. The students were required not only to speak with us, but also had to obtain our email addresses and sometimes, photos, as proof that they had met us. We foolishly gave them our real email addresses and are now being solicited to visit many rural areas of Java by our new "friends." Many of them, initially too shy to ask us if they could speak with us, used Sandi as the middleman. Thank you, Sandi, for your patience.

Sandi and Max hanging out, taking a break from the sun.

Max being Buddha like. Thank you, Max, says Kara for entertaining cheesy photos such as this.

This is the view from the top platform. Behind is the giant central stupa. Seen here are some of the 72 stupas that house the Buddhas. They can be seen through the squares on the stupas. Many of the Buddhas have been stolen or disfigured, but even decapitated Buddhas retain their serenity. Max was very proud of this picture which Kara thought was her own.

Clearly this is Kara practicing yoga on top of the platform.

The crew. We came, we saw, we Borobodured.

Mushroom restaurant! After our long day at Borobodur, Sandi brought us to this restaurant that only serves mushroom dishes. We didn't want to tell Sandi that Kara hates mushrooms because he was excited to take us here as he knew there would be good vegetarian options. Kara is glad she didn't say anything because she actually really enjoyed her mushroom meal. Really!

As we mentioned, Yogya is a place full of artists and young people. This makes for lots of great public art, including some awesome graffiti. We learned there's even a collective that documents the best murals in the area called "Love Hate Love." It has more graffiti than any city we have ever seen, here or in the States. Below are some of our favorites.

Max loves this gorilla.

Under the bridge near the train tracks. All of these support columns are covered in giant, elaborate, beautiful murals inspired by traditional art work.

Much of the graffiti is politically and socially motivated. "Waspada" means "beware."

This wall of murals was dedicated to education. Education past 6th grade is prohibitively expensive for the majority of Indonesia's population.

Here is one mural that is pretty self-explanatory.

Really impressive wall on train tracks.

This is Kara's favorite. She went back to photograph this wall again and the same lady was sitting there, just like this.

Within the city limits there are pockets of farmland that stand in sharp contrast to the urban sprawl.

Another day trip we took was to Prambanan, one the largest Hindu temple complexes in Southeast Asia. There are 5 other temples surrounding the main complex, one of which was a Buddhist temple that pre-dates Prambanan. The main complex consists of three main temples that are dedicated to Hindu trinity: Siva, Brahma, Vishnu. Three smaller temples sit in front of each, dedicated to the vehicles of each god. "Vehicle" which is a rough translation. Vehicles of the gods serve not only as literal mounts, but also as companions, sages, and plenepotentiaries.

There they are, in all their glory.

The temples of Prambanan were badly damaged by an earthquake that shook Java in 1996. It was caused by an erruption of Mt. Merapi, an active volcano which is about a 30 minute drive outside of Yogya. The earthquake caused much damage to the surrounding area killing over 4,500 people, and leveling around 14,00 homes.

The entrance is on the other side of this temple. We didn't want to walk.

After Kara explained some "rules of photography" and how she felt it was very amateur to tilt your camera upwards to get the top of tall objects in your shot, Max scales this tripod of unknown purpose to get an "un-tilted" photo of the temples.

Later we went to a Ramayana Ballet performance. It was not a ballet, but a traditional Javanese dance performance depicting the ancient Indian classical epic, the Ramayana. The Ramayana is depicted on the bas-reliefs of Prambanan and is represented in many forms of artwork we have seen throughout Southeast Asia.

The Monument to Yogyakarta's Heros is a rough translation of the memorial's Indonesian name:Yogyakarta Kembali. The monument was established to commemorate the re-establishment of Yogyakarta as the capital of Republic of Indonesia on July 6th, 1966 (the capital was later moved to Jakarta). The thirty-one meters high monument lies on an axis running from the Sultan’s Palace to the north through the Tugu monument at the end of Jalan Malioboro to Yogya Kembali, ending at the top of Mt. Merapi. Pretty cool huh? Inside are many informative dioramas and an inner sanctuary that seems to have been designed as an echo chamber.

We saw a lot of stickers and trendy Islamic paraphenalia in Yogya.

Smiling with Jamu! Max is shown here with his "male vitality" jamu. What is jamu you might ask? Jamu is the name for a broad array of herbal infusions made from medicinal plants that address an astonishing variety of ailments. From hemroids to cancer, from lack of confidence to heartbreaks, there's a jamu for you. We stopped at this jamu farm en route to a visit to Mt. Merapi. You can buy pre-packaged jamus or you can get a custom made jamu, it all depends on your condition.

This is red ginger, used in many digestive jamus. It was also used in Kara's special ear jamu.

Visiting Imogiri-- Imogiri is the official cemetery of the royal descendants from Yogyakarta and Surakarta. The royal graveyard is located on a hilltop about 17 km from the city center. 345 stone steps lead up to the main tombs.

The tombs were closed to visitors when we arrived, so we just hung out. Nice view uptop and a good energy. You can see the ocean from here.

The Affandi Museum, Yogya. Affandi is Indonesia's most celebrated artist. A prolific painter and sculptur, Affandi is best known for his impressionist paintings, whose brushstrokes have been compared to Van Gogh-though their styles developed completely indepentently. This museum houses a retrospective of Affandi's work, chosen by the artist himself before his death in 1990. Affandi and his wife's grave are located in between two of the galleries. The site was designed by Affandi himself as a gallery and residence and has been honored by many architects world wide.

A quirky staircase inside the museum.

Inside the Carrrefour parking lot. We came here to pick up some groceries to prepare a "traditional American" meal for Sandi, his mom, and some friends. We had never seen so many motorbikes in one enclosed area.

An Italian-Jew and a Slovak-Jew cook Mexican food. A truly American meal.

Here's the meal. From left: Sandi, Maya (from San Fransico), Kara, Max, and Sohee (from Seoul.)

We seriously considered finding jobs in Yogya. We really loved it here, and would like to come back sooner than later. Sandi and his mom had a lot to do with this. They gave us a window into a loving Javanese family and helped us so much in every way they could. They are wonderful people and we feel really lucky to have a true friend in Indonesia now. Sandi, please come to visit us!!

Sandi and his mom took us to the train station around 6:30 am. Sandi's mom prepared to go breakfasts for us. Thank you Ibu!

Not leaving until the train left the station, Sandi's mom reminded Kara of her grandmother, Mama. She treated us like one of her own.

Oh yeah, we were going to Jakarta. See you there.

-K and M