The Rest of Java

Ok, so this is now almost a month after it happened. So I'll give you the quick run down of what happened.

Java was interesting, less touristy than my time in Bali. Yogyakarta was this sprawling metropolis of two story building with a random giant fancy hotel that stuck out from everything else. The area like the rest of Java is mostly Muslim. You could hear the call to prayer quiet frequently around the city. The one girl that work at the guest house explain that most people here are "Muslim Light" they don't eat pork (usually) and they don't drink (often) but they don't pray all the time in her words "...who has time to pray 6 times a day, Allah gets it, I'm thankful, but I'm busy." In Indonesia everyone must legally declare that they are one of the 6 religions: Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or Confucianism. The main religions of the area being Islam, Hindu or Buddhism.

On my third day of the trip I was feeling well enough that I went to go visit the Buddhist temple of Borobudur. Built between the 8th and 9th century this temple is massive and has been fairly well restored. To get there I had to ride on the back of motor bike, with my guide driving.

After about a 45 minute drive we arrived at the temple. Most of the people who come to visit it are Indonesian as most of the tourism in this area is not from foreigners. My guide warned me that there would be many people who have not seen a white person before in person, and that it would be very common for me to be asked to pose for photos or just of people taking my picture. 

The Borobudur Temple

The view of the climb up

The whole temple is carved with stories of Buddha and the teachings. 

At one point I hear chanting, I look down to see the monks in mediation. 

Finally at the top. The whole top level of the temple is covered with small stupas. Inside each of them is a Buddha statue. 

Don't let the pictures fool you, there were people everywhere. And my guide was right, everyone wanted a picture with me or of me. 

below the temple were school girls playing traditional music.

After the tour we headed back. At one point my leg got too close the exhaust pipe and got burnt. It hurt. I also feel that motor bikes should come with a warning that you need to be careful about it. But of course its Indonesia and safety is more of an optional thing. We drove back with the last 25 minute with me in extreme pain and trying to stay up right as we went back to the guest house. I didn't really do much that night other than get food and wrap my leg. 

The next day I was ready to set out for my batiking course. I was very excited to learn more about this form of art making as Batiking actually originated in Indonesia and through trading it spread to the rest of the world. 

I got the small shop, meet the woman in charge. I selected my design, began tracing, started with the first outlines of the wax. Thats when the pot of hot wax got knock over and feel onto my hand. My right hand. It was bad. I rushed to the tap but my hand under the cold water, it was bad. The skin had already started to blister and any time I took it out of the water all I could feel was blinding pain. I began to wonder what was I doing there? Why was I on this trip? So far I had had food poisoning, a burn on my leg, and now what was a rough 2nd degree burn on my hand. I was there alone and it was all getting to be too much. So I cried while my hand was under the tap in the bathroom of a Batiking school. 

The people there kept offering me oil to put on the burn, which if you know anything about first aid, oil only makes the burn go deeper and therefore makes it worse. Then I was offered tooth paste, which again first aid says that causes infections. I tried to communicate this to the people in a normal way, but it just lead to me crying again. Eventually I was taken to a doctor, who wrapped my hand and gave me some weird cream, that was actually meant for burns. However it was bovine placenta cream. Still I took a chance and figured it was better than tooth paste, it came in an official looking package. 

I went back to hotel. I had already checked out, but I slept on the couch and waited until I had to leave for my flight that night. I had some soup. Contacted the woodcarving workshop I was supposed to be doing the next day and informed them that I would not be joining. Grabbed my bag and went to the airport where I took the 40 minute flight to Bali. I was picked up by my hotel at the airport and we drove the 45 minutes inland to Ubud, where I had 2 nights booked to stay at this artist resort. At this point I was still wondering if I should be contacting JetStar airlines and seeing if I could move my flight to an earlier day.