A Trip to Yogyakarta

I haven't been to Java in a few years. Actually, I haven't been off the island for a few years – and that sounds amazing as I write it because it's the longest time that I've ever spent on Bali without at the least going to another island – so I was ready to go. My daughters would call it refreshing, meaning that the trip will refresh me. It's a curious Indonesian phrasing using English.

As usual when I take trips, I get anxious worrying about missing a flight, the hotel not having a reservation, suddenly getting ill and the like. I am definitely not a good tourist despite all the international travel that I've done over the past 25 years. On the one hand, I do miss traveling around the world, on the other hand it can be such a hassle.

One of the downsides to living in the north of Bali is the distance to the airport. Now if the flight leaves late in the morning or early in the evening that's ok because I can leave here at a decent hour. But, on flights like the one we'll be taking on Sunday, the 07:00 departure time means check-in at 06:00 and therefore leaving home around 03:00. That's always been the problem during the years that the family and I were living in Papua. We'd have to get the kids up around 2 to get them dressed and do last minute packing of the car. When they were little, there were always tears being woken up in the middle of the night, but once they got to the airport, they'd be excited about the trip. They loved traveling.

Yogyakarta is one of Indonesia's favorite tourist destinations. Located in Central Java, it is considered to be the center of Javanese culture and is known for its batik, puppets, dance and music. Additionally, the city was once the capital of the Indonesian Republic during the revolution against Dutch colonial rule. Yogyakarta's uniqueness also extends to its status as a Special Administrative Region and has the Sultan Hamengkubuwono X as its ruler. He is also the area's governor. And to add to all this, Yogyakarta is a relatively short distance to Borobudur and Prambanan. Oh, I almost forgot. Yogya is one of Indonesia educational centers as well with many universities, colleges and other institutes of higher education. My eldest daughter is in a nursing college, and my second daughter is considering going to school there as well.

So, Jogya is a cool place to visit. On my previous two visits to the city, I did some of the required sight-seeing like Borobudur, Prmabanan, batik factories and puppet-making workshops. However, I never got around to visiting the Kraton, the Sultan's palace. This trip my main plan, other than to see Mercedes and check on a school for Rebecca, was to visit the Kraton.

I arrived early and wasn't able to check in to my homestay until afternoon, so I wandered down the street and had breakfast at an interesting little restaurant. After I finished, I took a becek to the Kraton. Despite it being an early Sunday morning, there were streams of people flooding into the Kraton – many of them were students and there were a fair amount of foreigners as well. I spend a pleasant morning talking with one group of students after another – they were all studying English and they loved the opportunity to practice with a retired teacher who speaks Indonesian. It was a morning well spent.

It poured for most of the time that I was in Yogyakarta so I only managed to do a few of the things that I had planned on. All in all, it was a good trip, especially spending some time with my daughter. Yogyakarta is definitely worth a visit – a few days isn't enough time to really explore the city and the surrounding area, but I have a feeling I'll be back again a few more times.

Back to Sanur

Finally, I had an excuse to get out of town and start the new year off with a road trip. For some reason, I find it quite difficult to leave the house for road trips these days. There always seems to be some home improvement project that I feel I should get done before I go out for a day or two on the motorcycle. So when my old friend, Stephen, arrived on the island for his December break, I knew I had a good excuse to get out on the road again.

Another drive, then, back to Sanur which I last visited in August. Trips around the island are always something of a risk during the rainy season. And, just as I was about to leave the house the other day, it started to rain. By the time I had made it back up to the third floor to wait out the rain, it had stopped. I decided to drive as far as Bedugal and see what the weather looked like on the other side of the mountain. A slight drizzle kept me damp, but when I hit Bedugal, the sun came out and it was sunny skies all the way down to Sanur. And even better, there have been a number of improvements made to the main road so the drive was quite enjoyable with not having to dodge potholes.

One of the things about driving my motorcycle – the popular Yamaha V-Ixion – is the protection and maneuverability that its speed gives you. While it's only 150cc, it's a lightweight bike with lots of torque at low speeds. This is advantageous when you get stuck in a long line of vehicles and you need to pass up trucks and buses. You can quickly shoot up past them and leapfrog along the line. The power out of first and second gear also allows you to quickly get out of sticky situations, such as when you have some bozo in front who is weaving from side to side – quite often texting while driving. You can just shoot past them and you're free.

Bali is continually changing. The south of the island seems to be one large construction zone. I made a quick stop at the Ace Hardware on Jalan Gatot Subroto to see if they had any polyurethane – they did. It's interesting that with all the wood used in housing here and the widespread use of Bale Bengong that polyurethane, or something like it, wouldn't be available here. But, I did the rounds of eight building supply stores in Singaraja and couldn't find one that knew anything about polyurethane or something like it. So, one more reason to have Ace here, even if I rarely get down there.

On my way down to Sanur, not far from Ace on Gatot Subroto, I noticed a new 24 hour McDonald's. Plenty of them down south, yet not one up here in Singaraja yet -for better or worse. Actually, if they had a McDonald's here, we'd probably get dinner there occasionally when no one wanted to cook. I imagine that one will get built up here eventually.

So, I checked into my favorite guesthouse/restaurant in Sanur and took a long walk along the nice beachside sidewalk that runs for a long way down the beach – I walked for a half hour and the sidewalk still went on. Lots of tourists, both foreign and domestic, were also enjoying the sidewalk, the little market and the many restaurants along the beach. After a long lovely walk, I took a shower, read a little from a book that I'm reviewing and then had a nap until my friend, Stephen, was due to meet me for dinner at the restaurant in front of my room.

As usual, we had a great conversation. It seems like years since we were working together in Sumbawa. Well, actually it has been years, so maybe it seems like decades. We caught up on family stuff and work and former colleagues. Plus, we made plans for a trip to Sumbawa in June which both of us loved. It's unfortunate that the island hasn't been able to benefit more from the huge tourist numbers that are Bali. But maybe with the expected increase of tourists this year to 3 million, Sumbawa will get some of the runoff. We'll be there anyway. And now for a trip to Ubud next month.