Yogyakarta, Indonesia, island of Java, Southeast Asia

What a day. My legs are so very happy to be resting on the bed right now. It’s 4:42pm on a Wednesday. My walking app says I’ve taken 12,014 steps so far today. I can feel it.

Today we woke up but stayed in bed until 7am when the loud meditation type of music started out in the hallway. This place is so vibrant and busy and different. They don’t really believe in traffic lights here, there are not many. Just people paying attention in a coordinated chaos that seems to somehow work.

We thought maybe we could see where the gate to the Sultan’s property started but crossing the street was the first challenge. The second challenge was the new sidewalks being put in. The third challenge was the heat. The last part of the challenge is that when we finally arrived where we thought we should be, we couldn’t see any palace. Man. We have being saying no to tuktuk/becak drivers with their three wheeled cabs dozens of times since turning off of our street. Then a guy stops his becak kind of in the middle of the street and dodges traffic to walk over to us. He offers to drive us all day for $20,000 Rupiah. I think my eyes bulged out of my head, that’s  $1.41 in USD. Crazy. We jumped in. It was a tight squeeze. I was laughing for the first five minutes. We were wedged in there, and it was funny. We could hear the weed-whacker/lawnmower kind of engine behind us. We had a breeze! And traffic here is nuts.

It’s hard to make sense of it because we are on the wrong side of the road, and it almost feels like flying with my hair being pushed back by the wind. Yet we are one of the slowest things on the road, so everyone else is passing us up. It’s totaling amazing the way they all maneuver around in a system that makes little sense to me. It makes me feel free. Because there is no point being scared. I want to be scared, but everyone does this, so it must be safe. These things look pretty old and worn down, too. There is that kind of moment where I literally have to throw all my fears into the wind and believe I will be ok. And I am ok, flying through the colorful, confusing, crowded streets of Jogyakarta in Indonesia. The feeling grows. As I gave up on all my fears: I added on every single one of them for those first five minutes. I let it all blow away in the wind and I just laughed at the lighter feeling.

We never did go to the Sultan’s palace. The first place he took us to was a place where they do silversmithing. The things they made were mind-blowingly beautiful and intricate. We watched ten people at their stations, right up close as they each made different things, at different parts of the processes. Ron bought me 2 pairs of earrings: very shiny big seahorses and medium sized hearts.

Then we went to a small rickety place where they make puppets. The puppets were cool but over- priced, and our luggage space is really restricted. They had masks and silk paintings. Everyone and their dog spot has silk paintings, all done by their daughter, sister, or someone. And they are all remarkably similar in style and design. It’s Day 3 and we already getting tired of people asking us to come see their gallery and buy their art. Especially since we already did that twice to support local artists.

We say: no more places to buy stuff, or see how it’s made, please. So we go to a different 300 year old Sultan palace. It was pretty amazing. It’s the odd things that catch my imagination. The guide pointed out something that looked like a larger vase. She said it was the water mirror. There was no water in it now, but she explained that it was filled up so people could come and see their reflection. I started to think about that. I live in a world full of mirrors and cameras in the portable phones. There are some people who have lived and never seen their own reflection. What would that even be like? As a farmer living in a forest in the 1700’s, or something along those lines. You would assess your looks based on what other people told you. Maybe you could look in a puddle once in a while, I guess, if the lighting was just right. It is the kind of story that reminds me that there are all kinds of lives to lead. That I should be more thankful for many things. I’m not one of the Sultans numerous concubines who had their own pool to swim in. Waiting for him to throw down a flower to me, so I could cross over and swim with him in the other pool.

After this fairy tale walk through a place long deserted to no one but paying tourists, I was completely over-heated. The way the building was abandoned to history, the wonder that it must have been once, it all kept me going in the heat. We went back to the room to cool off and rehydrate. I was wiped out, and it was only 2pm. Nothing a shower and some water can’t fix. 

Three highlights of the 2 hour Wander are: finding a place in the mall that sold special and expensive coffee. Famous because the coffee beans have been pooped out by a mongoose. What is wrong with this world? I hear that one tiny bag (looks good for maybe 3-4 cups of coffee) was $20. Then we were on the second story of a shop, sitting at a balcony counter watching the anarchy flow of traffic go by.

Can I take a moment to thank my Momma for her wise advice to carry around a little hand fan? And thank her for lending me one when I couldn’t find one right before we left for the trip. I have used it frequently, and it has saved me daily.

Then we found a less busy road. Almost creepy quiet. We were looking for a place to buy a converter so we can charge electronics. We stood on the sidewalk and I could hear singing. Some moments make you wonder about your sanity. Then about 30 military looking men were jogging and singing together down the street, in the traffic. Guess I’m sane after all. Sane and serenaded. There was one more highlight. Meeting a man named Hong who was at one of the innumerable miniature restaurants. Most people who ask us where we are from here just want to take us to their gallery, or give us a quote on a tour. This man wanted to talk about how he had been to London, and he knew a bit of Spanish too. We stood and had a long talk until it started to sprinkle again. I dragged myself back to the hotel, arriving with great relief.

Two other strange things about this place. One is that I have seen a few women on the back of a moped riding sideways/sidesaddle. One of them was carrying a baby. It blew my mind. How do they stay in place? And why?

The other thing is the key rings I saw. There are some cool ones. Plenty for sale all up and down the main sidewalk full of stalls and stores. Then I looked a little closer and saw that some of them were fingertips. Like what I would expect at a Halloween store. A bit later and I saw some fingertips with some ears. Is it close to Halloween here? As I walk along there are a hundred million things to distract my eyes, and then I saw some more keychains. Fingertips. Ears. And a third thing. Penis tips. Now I really really need to know why?? There are some things I will never understand. Who would make these things? Who would try to sell these things? Who is the consumer for these things?

Just walking out the door of the hotel and going to the main street is an adventure. The road in narrow and has no lines on it. Both sides have cars parked and portable food stalls set up. We have to walk single file and hold our elbows in as we walk. Crossing streets is worse than playing that old arcade game called Frogger. And apparently we are lucky, because it’s Ramadan, which means that a lot of people are staying out of public.

I just want say that it has taken me a long time to write this. I finally figured out how to truly live in the moment. To make moments so big that I was so busy living each one, that I didn't even have time to write about them. I went out, got hot, did amazing things, and then all the down moments were spent just processing it all. And getting re-hydrated! And planning the next amazing day. Because right now I'm already in Kuala Lumpur. The capital of Malaysia. I must try harder to write more.
I will do pictures in my next post. Running out the door to do a double decker bus tour of the gigantic modern city of Kuala Lumpur. I'm busy creating my reality!