Indonesia... Lagi

It's pouring rain outside, and I'm holed up in a little internet cafe in the south part of the city of Yogyakarta. It's only noon, but it feels more like five or six in the evening, because I've been up since 4am. I went out to see Borobudur this morning, with a lovely couple from Switzerland/India, who also happen to live in KL. When the found out I'd just spent the last four months learning the history of Southeast Asia, I became their informal tour guide. Was a good test of what I've learned so far.

My trip to Borobudur today was the first real touristy thing I've done here. I've been in libraries with my nose in books and journals since arriving last Monday. THis trip is mainly about thesis research, including figuring out exactly what it is I'm researching. Though the general area is decided, as usual, narrowing it is proving difficult, as there are so many directions I would like to go with it. I'm feeling like I need to get some exercise, as I haven't had access to a gym for awhile and it's been raining too much to swim, so I've been getting up every morning, walking a few miles (in my 75 cent garage sale flip flops...), and playing dodge the "beca" drivers as I make my way down the main drag of Jogja. In addition to the beca drivers, there are also countless school children screaming, "HELLO MISTER!!!", very aggressive batik sales people, and bored young men sitting around with nothing better to do than yell things like "I love you'" and other less nice things in bahasa as I walk by. You see, there aren't a lot of tourists around these days. Not of the glow in the dark white skin, look like a big dollar sign to locals type anyway. So, much like when I was living in Vietnam, I'm getting lots of attention. I find it amusing, sometimes sad, and at the same time frustrating. I know these people are just eeking out a living, and they rely on people like me for that, and at the same time, you can't help but feel irritated after the 300th person yells "HELLO MISTER!!!" or some other thing... The most charming thing I find here, is ducking into a cafe and talking with the women. They're much less aggressive, and seem to always have the time to sit down and talk and tell you a bit about their lives.

Oh, yeah, Borobudur... Was beautiful. We were lucky to get there early enough to beat the busloads of school children, who came about an hour after we got there. I'll post pics as soon as I get home, but it's an enormous structure that dates back to the Buddhist Saliendras of the 8th century. No one is absolutely certain of where they went, but they were driven off of the island of Java sometime around the 8th or 9th century by the Hindu Vaishnivites and Sivaites, but left behind this impressive structure. It was restored in the colonial days of the Dutch, but was badly damaged again in 1985 by a bombing by fundamentalists angry with the Suharto regime. It has mostly been restored again since then, though many of the bodhisattvas are missing their heads. The view from the top is unparalelled. When you look to the east you see Mt.Merapi, which this morning had smoke pouring from it's top (or possibly it was steam... This is still an active volcano...). And all around the temple, the jungle, the rice paddies, and the mountains were shrouded in mist.

Peace and quiet was shattered (but made more interesting :-)) by about 200 school children, who all thought it'd be fun to run up and take my picture... (Now I know what it must feel like to be followed by the papparazzi! Except I'd imagine there is less giggling involved when it's the papparazzi... but maybe not, who knows...). Then there was an army of children who were there for the sole purpose of handing out brochures to promote their city... Was a really strange thing to watch... I think they were also practiticing their english, as their leader (or teacher), gave them all of their instructions in English, which is pretty rare in this part of Indonesia.

This trip is decidedly different than my trip to Bali and Lombok. Just like Bali and Lombok are different from each other, Java is different again. The Javanese have their own culture and language, that is quite unique. It is Indonesian, but it isn't. The Javanese are known for being intellectual and mystic in their thinking. They have retained the hindu traditions that pre-dated the coming of Islam to the region, but at the same time, absorbed Islam and made it their own. It is quite a different version of Islam than you will find in Malaysia, or even Sumatra... Though you'll be surprised to hear it, Islam in Indonesia (with the exception of Sumatra) is far more relaxed than it is in Malaysia (for the masses, but the fundamentalists obviously still exist). It is certainly undergoing a revival, but to my eye, there are less outward signs of the religion, particularly in terms of traditional muslim attire, which has become the norm in Malaysia. Here, I rarely see a baju kurang or men in their traditional dress, even on Fridays, whereas in Malaysia it is the norm.

Well anyway, there were a bunch of other things that I kept thinking, I must remember to write about... But, at the moment, they've slipped my mind, so will save them for another time. For now, it's off play dodge the beca drivers again for awhile!