Everybody loves Jogi! It's a poor country from what I can tell in the few hours I have been here. There are more motorbikes on the road than autos. Some roads are so narrow, only a couple of motorbikes can ride side by side down them. The woman looking at the fruit at the store (the same time I was) looked over and said "Hello". The man on the motorbike stopped as I was walking down the road and started a conversation. We sat for awhile on the side of the road while he looked at my map and explained how I could get to the places I want to see while here. The kids on the bikes smiled and called out "Hello". The girl at the checkout counter smiled as she gave me my change and said "Thank You". I feel like I'm home again in some of my favorite Asian countries, but I have never been in Indonesia before!

The flight from Singapore to Yogyakarta, Indonesia lasted a mere 2 1/2 hours . The small airport and friendly immigration people made me think I had decided to come to the right place. I skipped flying into the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta. It's a big, hectic, noisy city, and I decided to give it a skip this trip.

Traveling in Indonesia will be different from about any other place I have traveled so far, from what I can find out. This is off the normal route people normally backpack through and because of that, the country is not as well connected and set-up for traveling foreigners as many other countries are.

Getting around Indonesia, from what I have learned, is slow and often uncomfortable and difficult to do. The roads are terrible and the drivers are said to be 'suicidal'. This will be an adventure, I think, and I am ready for it.

Indonesia is made up of 14,000 islands. Only about 6,000 of them are inhabited, though. Java, where I have landed, is the most populated of all the islands . There are 135 million people packed onto this island that is smaller than Britain.

 Indonesia uses the Rupiah. Not to be confused with the India Rupee. For one American dollar I get 11,624 Indonesian Rupiah (IDR). My 100,000 rupiah note is worth a little less than $10. They speak Bahasa Indonesia, Javanese here. There are a number of religions, mainly Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism

I flew into Yogyakarta. It is a large city and the capital of Yogyakarta Special Region in Java, Indonesia. It's widely known as a place of classical Javanese fine art and cultural things like ballet and drama, music and poetry and shadow puppet shows! Today I went into an art display and saw the works of the university art students. I was interested in the batik art.

The man in the art gallery brought out the 'brushes' that are used to make the paintings. Another worker brought me a hot cup of tea! The 'brushes' were more like little pens . They had a point and little cup on top. Candle was from a round contrainer held the wax. When it was melted, the little cups on the pen-like tools were dipped in the wax and filled.

The artist would draw the image he wanted on the cloth. The cloth canvas was dipped in a color. For example, let's say blue. The part of the painting the artist wanted to be blue was covered with dots of the wax. Then the cloth was dipped in another color, for example yellow. The wax drops on the cloth kept the color from changing. So, where the wax was did not change to yellow. It stayed blue. Then the parts of the drawing the artist wanted to be yellow were covered in wax and the cloth dipped in the next color. You get the idea now. This went on until all the colors had been added, then the wax was stripped from the cloth canvas with hot water.

The many paintings on display were gorgeous and I really want one of some of the ancient temples . But, my backpack keeps me from buying so many things I would like to have. I wish you were here with your enormous wheeled suitcase so I could load you up with souvenirs. 
 
For taxis here they use a few different vehicles. One is the 3-wheel cart connected to a bicycle. But, what is this. Many of the bicycles are not peddled by the biker like in other countries. They have small electric motors attached! Here they call them a "becak". There are also 4-wheel carts pulled by horses. These are called "andong". These are not just tourists gimmicks, I see local people using them to get around town, to work or home.

Here I am called a "Bule" (white person). As I walk the streets the friendly Indonesian faces smile and call out 'hello'. If they are close by, often they will put their arm next to mine to compare colors. They like to have white people hold their babies for a photo, especially if there is a white woman in the group.

The next day I take my crudely made map (I think they are crudely made so you cannot follow them and use a tuk tuk or other public transport instead) and tried to find a palace I had read about .

My hostel clerk gives me a shorter way to go. I follow the directions but they don't match the map. Eventually I see an opening in a wall. This looks interesting so I decide to go through the archway and see what is on the other side. It is a one-way entrace for traffic. But, only one-way at a time. Traffic going in waits on traffic coming out and take their turn to enter and vise-versa. Sometimes the small motorbikes can go through both ways at the same time, but if there is an auto of some type then it is only large enough for one-way traffic. There is really no walkway for pedestrians but I take my place alongside the motorbikes and go through. I stay close to the tunnel wall as the motorbikes move past me very closely. 

It turns out this is the wall around the old city. You can take steps to the top and walk the wall, which I do, of course, and get a view of the surrounding area.

Where I want to go is further inside the old city, so I walk, following my map in that direction . When I come to a "T" in the road, I choose to go to the left. To the right does not look like there is a way out.

Eventually I come to something that looks interesting and go in. It is some sort of temple, I think. I walk inside and roam around the grounds, taking photos of what I do not know.

Then 3 boys, university students, appear and want to know if I will speak English with them. We talk awhile and take some photos. I ask them if this is the palace I am looking for. They say no. They tell me the name of the place where I am and I take note to look it up later.

It turns out I am in the Taman Sari Water Castle, built between 1758-1765. It covers 10 acres and has 57 buildings, rooms, bathing pool and an artificial lake. There is also a floating island where people worshipped and with a suspension bridge. There is an underground passage and small hallways to walk through .

Once I leave Taman Sari, I start to follow the map in the directions the boys told me to go to find the palace. Along the way I hear "hello" and look up to see the boys, on their motorbikes. They offer to take me to the palace.

I entered the palace but it is not the gate I wanted to enter. I wandered around for a while but the palace part I want to see is through another gate on the other side. I will have to make another visit if I want to see the part of the palace I set out to see.

A day or two later I took a tour to visit a couple of temples. One was a Buddhist Temple and the other was a Hindu Temple.

Indian pilgrims had spread Buddhist and Hindu teachings across Java, Indonesia, when these temples and many others like them were built.

The two religions got along very well and lived harmoniously together, even intermarrying and building temples that were a cross between the two religions .
 
The temples, including the two I visited today, Borobudur (Buddhist) and Prambanan (Hindu) became neglected and fell into ruins when the power shifted from Central Java to West Java around 920.

The temples are being rebuilt and millions of visitors come to see them each year.

The World's Largest Buddhist Temple!
Borobudur was built in the 9th century. The Buddhist temple has 6 square platforms topped by 3 round platforms and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels (carved etchings in the walls). There are also 504 Buddha statues and a main dome located in the center. The dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside a stupa. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple!

I watched the sunrise over the temple before doing a tour of the temple and seeing the wonderful views from the higher up sections.
 
The Prambanan Hindu Temple
 The next temple was a Hindu Temple, Prambanan. It was built in the 10th century and it is a beautiful thing to see. It stands 15 feet higher than Borobudur Temple. 
 
 NEXT: WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HIKE THE RIM OF AN ACTIVE VOLCANO