Joe-gjah AKA Yogyajakarta

We left the flooded and soggy Solo by a quick and easy train ride to Yogya (pronounced Joe-gjah). Upon our arrival into this bustling art and culture metropolis we walked around and saw the big sites first. We visited the Kraton, the Sultans palace and walled city compound, which was largely like the Kings palace in Solo but a bit grander - 'same same but different' as they say. Both the sultans and the kings of these provinces are just figureheads; icons of a past era but with no political power. After the Kraton we headed for the nearby Bird Market which is exactly what it sounds like: hundreds of small birds for sale in beautiful bamboo and wooden cages for sale. Indonesians love having birds around their homes, restaurants and guesthouses as decoration and good luck. Exhausted from a morning of wandering, we took a Becek (small pedi-cab, very cheap and everyone uses 'em) back for beers and cards. The rain and heat here are a deadly duo that really zap your energy in the late afternoon but make a perfect excuse for and early and leisurely cocktail hour. I'll remind you that 'cocktail' is somewhat of a misnomer here - liquor is rarely on menus and is VERY expensive i.e. we saw a bottle of Carlo Rossi wine for 40 USD in solo.
For our cultural evening, we went to an traditional Javanese puppet show, the kind behind a screen with a full gamelon orchestra and a single puppeteer who does the voices and characters. We arrived early and had a tour of the puppets with the artist - an enthusiastic guy in sweatpants and a few dreadlocks and a similar number of teeth. The puppets are quite beautiful and amazingly ornate.
We sat down, the only audience members, and waited for the show to begin. The music was warming up, the puppets leaned against the screen and the sound system was being tweaked. Twenty minutes later we realized that the show indeed had begun on time and we were watching it already. A Japanese tour group came in and were actually more entertaining I'm afraid to say. We left after giving it a good 45 minutes. The city of Yogya could do with a reassessment of it's only museum's representation of this traditional Javanese art. I'd like to give a shout-out to my dad right here; Dad, your shadow puppets really trump those shown at the museum in Yogya, Java. Thought you should know that.
After leaving the show, we strolled through the annual carnival going on outside the nearby Kraton. Ah carnivals are oh so universal: fried food, popcorn, awkward teenagers on dates and glowing ferris wheels, there was even cotton candy.

The following day was our journey to Borobodor which is a giant Buddhist stone temple just outside town. We savvy travelers decided to take the public bus as it's so much cheaper. With only one bus change, we figured no problem. And really, it wasn't too much of a problem because the pick-pocket dropped my wallet when he was grabbing it out of Kyle's fanny pack (yes - we purchased a fanny pack, no we have no shame at all). Kyle grabbed the wallet and we deboarded at a strange station in order to catch our second bus. Both of us clearly shaken but thanking our stars he didn't succeed, we got on the next bus where we were likely charged at least 3 times the usual cost of the bus because we are tourists - or maybe just because we are tourists who carry fanny packs. Arriving a Borobodor we just decided to take a deep breath and enjoy the rare rainy-season sunshine we were being blessed with for our temple viewing day. Borobodor was indeed an incredible sight and the grounds were beautifully green and well maintained.

I'd like to take a minute now to discuss being American in Indonesia. Here is a conversation that takes place nearly hourly here:
"Where you from?"
"America"
"Ah OBAMA!!"
"Yeah - Yay Obama!!"
"Obama - he's my friend" (or some other reference to the fact that our president spent a number of years on Java as a kid.)

It's also not uncommon for people to start talking to us to practice English. In fact many teenagers proclaim this when stopping us on the street "I am going to talk to you to practice my English. What is your name? Where are you from? Do you like Yogya?". Most often, it's really endearing and brave so we try to be as encouraging as possible.