We haven't given up on the sailing lark, but it is going to be a shock to the system when we head off on the next passage. After our little tour of Bali, we took a plane to Yogjakarta (known as Jogja) in Java this week for some more land based tourism; we had found a secure place to park Evita here in Bali (a necessity for inland travel) and from what I can work out such places are not easily found in Java. So off we went on Air Asia, which seems to be the local equivalent of Ryanair...great up front prices, with plenty of add-ons, and unsocial flight times, but still decent value.
This means I have little to say about currents, wind patterns and nautical mishaps, so will leave it to Oskar and Raul to describe the highlights...
Jogja (Oskar)
Right now we are in the same place as the capital of Java was seventy years ago . . . Jogjakarta. We arrived here by plane by plane not by Evita, so we could go faster for once.
When we got here we were quite impressed by the amount of becaks - a form of transport that has two seats and a cyclist at the back who did an awful amount of work. When we went on one for the first time we squeezed all five of us on one of them which took us to the bird market (not just a bird market as it had bats, snakes, fish, mammals and tons of reptiles, about thirty of them crammed into a small cage or tank).
The next difference from Bali we found was the weather. Every afternoon at 1 o'clock it was pouring down with rain!!! And you could always hear the thunder rumble in the sky. This is because the rainy season has already started here but not yet in Bali.
Twice in our travels in Jogja we went to the kraton (the sultan's palace), once to watch some of the traditional dancing and once to see a not very interesting puppet show in Indonesian. So far our Indonesian is not going that well although Daddy and I are the ones making the most progress - not that it is that much.
Once when we were in a taxi, going to a museum we found out that our uncle Nick had just had a baby called Bella and I started to throw up out of the window of the taxi because I was sick (that'll be a nice thing to remember....not). Thankfully the rain was in full swing and it managed to clean the taxi.
Until next time, bye from Oskar....
Borobudur (Raul)
On Monday morning we went to a Buddhist Temple called Borobudur. It was a magnificent structure with the tall central stupa piercing the sky far above. The statues caught the light of the sun and turned a magnificent golden colour. We learnt about the interesting history and culture of the ancient belief. We learnt about the three stages of the path: To resist desire, to control your mind, and enlightenment (to reach Nirvana). The reliefs told us the story of Siddatha (Buddha) and his life including his birth from the armpit of Maya (his mother), his son Rahul, his retreat into the forest and his enlightenment. We also learnt about the hand symbols of Buddha, each of which has a meaning: Witness, Blessing, Teaching, Meditating, Protection and the Circle of life. The mountains also had their own stories like one which was supposedly the architect who retreated into the hills to sleep after building Borobudur.
After a wonderful lunch at a warung (a street restaurant) we left for our next adventure where we went to a Tofu village, Pottery village, Batik factory and coffee shop. After the long car journey we got down, and walked into a wall of smoke. We then learnt that we were outside one of the many tofu factories in the village. We entered to a smell of burnt wood and soya bean, as we looked around the room I saw great steaming vats of porridge-like, bubbling liquids, a roaring fire, a sludge slowly bubbling across the floor and a chalky white cheese-like blocks which were stacked up against the far wall. As we ventured further in we heard men grunting and liquids bubbling. We were then lectured on the process of making tofu from soya beans by a man in green overalls and black boots. In the pottery village we watched the women fashioning pots, candle holders, bowls, plates and cups out of lumps of clay and then putting them out to dry in the sun or in a fire which acted as a kiln. We were then put to use by the locals and they had us fashioning crude clay bowls and cups. The Batik (traditional art using wax and paints) factory was not unlike the other places we had seen in Bali and Yogjakarta, but we learnt the difference between printed and real batiks, and stamped and hand-painted. It would have been good if we had know this before we had all bought stylish shorts.
Our next stop was the coffee-shop where they sell the most expensive coffee in the world (lawa), which (surprisingly enough) is made from civet (cat) faeces. The cats select the best coffee beans, eat them and then poop them out. These beans, if prepared correctly, make the worlds most expensive coffee (nothing special (disgusting even), although my Mum and Dad really liked it). Dinner was a delicious goat stew at another warung.
Last but not least, we left for a spot of meditation at a Buddhist monastery. When we got there we sat down straight away; it was very boring as it was 1 hour of sitting with your legs crossed and your back straight. It was especially difficult as the incense made you sleepy and there was no sound except for the distant mosque.
Captain's report (Ian)
The crew all enjoyed the break from life on board (a holiday from a holiday?), possibly because with the exception of Raul school work was largely suspended. He diligently made good use of hotel internet facilites (much better than the boat) to check out a load of educational videos that are part of his coursework. The other two, particularly Eva who is turning into a fish, made good use of the hotel swimming facilities (as if they don't get enough opportunity to swim!), and all enjoyed the sightseeing, which stimulated some interesting debates on religion. Unsurprisingly they don't agree - after Borobudur Raul declared himself a Buddhist, and Oskar is now a Christian fundamentalist, whose holy trinity is God, Cristiano Ronaldo and Winston Churchill (a new on me!). Religious wars are breaking out!
Yogjakarta is a nice city in itself, and with the bonus of two amazing religious sites. In addition to Borobudur, there is the equally impressive Prambanan, a Hindu temple complex built at around the same time (i.e 8th/9th century). The temples were destroyed by earthquake in 1006, and lay under rubble and ash from subsequent volcanic eruptions for centuries until the 20th, when the reconstruction work was undertaken.
We are back on the boat now, and have jumped through all the hoops required to get an extra month on our Indonesian visas (three times we had to go to the immigration office), so we are just about ready to head back off to sea, for the trip up to Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo, to see the Orangutans. All that remains is to finish off the service on the engine, which I started but was unable to finish, as I could not shift any of the filters (hand tight means something else to those Aussie mechanics) so have put myself in the hands of a local expert. No loss on my part as the engine room is a hothouse in these conditions, so the least time I have to spend in there the better.
We were relieved when we got back to Bali yesterday to find that it has not yet started raining here. In Jogja there was a torrential shower every afternoon, which is bad enough when you can find shelter in the city, but something to be avoided if possible when at sea. More importantly the rains also herald a change in the wind patterns, so we are keen to make the most of the SE trades before they turn into headwinds.