Let me get caught up as I wait for my appointment. I rode on the back of Susilo's motor bike to his village yesterday morning. Who knew Yogyakarta was such a huge city - most tourists only see the very center, but I was lucky enough to see the real Yogyakarta. It actually reminded me off exactly what it used to be like when I grew up in Beijing - dusty narrow streets, family stores, children running around the alleys, motor bikes everywhere. Made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. This also made me realize why it's never really culture shock for me when I go to third world countries - I lived it for the first half of my life! Seeing it actually makes me miss the simple happiness it brings.
Susilo and I had fun jamming out on the gamelan. Apparently the word "gamelan" means "play together", and he taught me the names and basics of every instrument that is a part of it. I loved the "saron" (phonetic spelling) the most. Turns out, Susilo is a part of a very musical family tree. His gamelan is a family heirloom passed down from at least 300 years ago, and his uncle, Surino, was a puppet master and the minister of music and dance for the sultan of Yogyakarta (yes they still have sultans!). He showed me many photos from decades ago, if dances, sultans, and family gatherings.
Out of respect I didn't take many pictures in his house. I took lots of gamelan jam sesh though! Here are a couple photos, last includes his legendary uncle:
Susilo also took me to see some lesser known sites around his house, including the first sultan's palace! Loved everything about this. He told me to invite all my friends over and we can gamelan. So maybe we'll all go back to see him one day!
After I got back to the hostel, I made a couple new friends who decided to join me to go see the sunset at the Hindu temple Prambanan, as well as the traditional Ramayana ballet at that temple after dark. They also trusted me when I said "let's take the bus! The locals told me about it and it's only 20 cents!"
So we left at 4:30 for the sunset.
And didn't get there until 7:30, luckily right on time for the ballet show.
I won't get into details about how many times we had to transfer or how long we waited each time. Apparently it was because of Eid, like everything else. But the temple at night was eerily beautiful:
I'll keep my geek rant to a minimum - you would (or I did) think that, with only the gamelan as accompaniment, there wouldn't be much musical variation (it's all percussion instruments). But I was so wrong. The music was incredibly captivating, and the dancers moved with an awkward grace I have never seen before. Hard to explain, and I couldn't take videos because it cost 50,000 extra rupiahs to do that.
After taxiing back post-ballet, I slept 3 short hours and got right back up for sunrise at the Borobudur temples. We got there around 4:30, and they handed us torches for the walk up. There just is something really eerie about temples at night. I definitely got goosebumps:
It was a beautiful experience, except it was really cloudy and there were too many tourists. Like wayy too many
This is what it looked like irl:
This is what it looked like irl:
This is what patience and careful angling looked like:
I have decided that from now on, I will see sunrises because I think it'll be an unforgettable experience, not because a brochure told me (and 3 million other people) to do it
So that was pretty much the end of my Yogyakarta episode. I stayed for 5 days, and will be taking an 11-hour bus to Cemoro Lawang tomorrow morning - to hike Mt. Bromo! So exciting :)
I'm actually quite sad to be leaving here... just at dinner at my "regular spot" with the nice ladies who chat with me every time. I sat there long after I had finished my meal and did not want to leave... guess 5 days is enough to form a connection.
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