Journal - September 8, 2008

(written on September 9) - Monday was a busy day. We left Salatiga around 8:30 am and headed to Borobudur, an ancient Buddhists Monument. It's a manmade mountain of volcanic rock carved and shaped into 100's of Buddhas covered with bell shaped domes. Also carved into the walls of each level of this "mountain" are sculpted reliefs depicting portions of a story. Kind of like ancient comic strips carved into the side of the walls.
From the parking lot to Borobudur and from Borobudur back to the car was miserable. Peddlers and beggars more than you could count, each one trying to sell something or just beg for money. It was hard not to feel sorry for the beggars.
Leaving Borobudur, we headed to Yogyakarta. One of the funniest signs was saw I'm sure lost something in the translation. Several of the auto repair shops advertised "Cat Oven" but I'm sure it's not what it sounds like.
We shopped a little at the main shopping area in Yogyakarta called Malioboro. Sidewalk merchants set up outside of store fronts, each selling something they thought we should take home as oleh-oleh (souvenirs).
At the end of the shopping district is a department store (Mirota Batik). The prices here were competitive with the sidewalk merchants.
We ate lunch at Pizza Hut which had normal Pizza Hut food and a wide variety of other food. It was more like a blending of Pizza Hut and Big Boy.
For dinner we at a dinner theatre serving Javanese food (rice, sate, etc) and then showed a production of the Ramayana - the story about the White Monkey King. This production had live actors instead of shadow puppets. The cast included a child that was no older than 3 or 4.
That night we stayed at a little out-of-the-way hotel that looked pretty run-down from the outside. When you walked through the front door, you were in a hotel that was 4 or 5 star and could have been promoted as a honeymoon spot. Two waterfalls framed an open air restaurant. One waterfall fed a coy pond just off the lobby, and the other waterfall fed a small swimming pool. The pool was the centerpiece of an open courtyard surrounded by two stories of hotel bungalows. A very nice place.


You can find more trip pictures at my Facebook Page (http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504321719).

They are also posted at my Flickr.com Page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisferrell/)

Thanks for reading!