7/26/10

Flower tiles and a preparing gamelan orchestra
Chao in our 60s bungalow-type homestay lobby

Prambanan's Shiva temple
Public artness
Endless transportation
Gamelan on display
A certain photographer at Prambanan
The Sultan's daughters
Restored pleasure palace of the 18th century Sultan
Deco train station

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YOGJAKARTA

This is the culture center of Java, and it's fairly obvious.  Marred a bit by unchecked, rip off tourism, it's still a lovely, small city arranged around the kraton, or Sultan's palace, who still officially runs the show.  Lots of old converted Dutch buildings intermingled with intricate Javanese wooden porches, endless crappy batik sellers with that ubiquitous call of "hello mister!"  A lot less heavy traffic, with becak bicycle rickshaws and horse drawn carriages for tourists.

Today we leave for Borobudur, which is possibly the largest Buddhist temple in the world, built over a thousand years ago.

1 comment:

Silvia Elena said...

Sounds amazing, ross! Please take full advantage of the sun and heat and humidity and foooood! Love youuuuu