The 5000 Project

Jogja us the university capital of indonesia, wealthy families pay for their kids to be sent to this city – as such the bus transport system is excellent, traffic is still insane however everyone gives way to the public bus – makes for an extremely cheap (30c a trip, no matter how many bus transfers you make) and smooth ride.

The first two nights I stayed with a couchsurfer who is a friend of a housemate back in perth, he lives in a student sharehouse in a pretty ghetto suburb, considering the lower-than-upper class (hard to tell at times) area the rent is very cheap (well, from my perspective), his room in a four bedroom sharehouse costs ~$130/yr, electricity is $1.50/month each. Unfortunately I contacted him during a busy assignment period for uni, I could see that he was a bit stressed but he still offered everything and helped with directions, offered pickups etc. I tried to stay independent and out of the house for as long as possible.

During the last two days I explored two ancient hindu and buddhist temples, first one being Prambanan, which was just a 20min bus ride from his house:

Prambanan is the largest hindu temple in indonesia, it was built during a similar era (9th century) as the Ankor Wats (9th->12th century) and I could see the similarity – it is very impressive, just as good as any of the temples at the ankor site.

The next day I traveled 1.5hrs to a much larger site site, and one of the 7 wonders of the world, the great borobodur temple:

This massive temple is too large to capture on photo, really need an aerial shot, better off google image searching. So yeah “The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues” (thanks wikipedia!).
Oh here’s something interesting: “Evidence suggests Borobudur was abandoned following the 14th-century decline of Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms in Java, and the Javanese conversion to Islam”
Who needs to pay for a tour guide when you can just wikipedia it afterwards ;) (Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobodur)

To be honest though, since seeing the ankor wats, every ancient temple looks similar, still very awesome, but the initial indiana jones feeling has faded just a tad.

I decided to move on and let the couchsurfer study for exams, I finally replied to the malang family’s constant barrage of text messages asking me to stay with their friend, in a more upper class suburb. After using google maps on my phone with GPS, I managed to take 2 busses and walk to the house (quite impressed ;D). Last night for dinner I tried chicken intestine on a stick, as well as many other things which I have no idea what they were – and it was all free! also free entertainment, some guy playing a traditional harp and a perth based indian music group rocked up on a tour – I’m still not sure why it was all free, there was mention of it being a social club, and sometimes they just make it all free to the public. I like this place.

Today is museum and water castle (?) day.

cya!