Got to Java after a long ride by Bus/ferry/train and got into Yogyakarta, Java. Cool little city and much more forward thinking (from what Ive been told and read) then other parts of Java. I met a girl staying at the same hotel the second morning I was here and she told me all about suggestions for the rest of my trip. She was coming from the north of SE Asia down through all the places Ill be going so it seems that it will help out quite a bit. She was also traveling on her own so we decided to hang out for a couple of days to see the sights. We wondered around the streets people watching while we where being watched by either local "merchants"/hawkers calling out "hey mister, where you go?" "you need transport" or "batik" (more about batik later), or by locals gawking at you like a celebrity.
Later: Batik is the art of using wax on either cotton or silk in a pattern then dieing the fabric then wax then dieing, etc until it is completed. Really cool stuff but the question is where to get it and what is authentic??? The first day I was taken to a little shop by one of the hawkers, "trusting but verifying". He said it was the last day for the exhibit and that they would give me good price, heh. So I was met with tea and showed around, I was showed the whole process of how they where made and shown around the exhibit. Very nice work, I dnidnt really feel comfortable taking anything from them cause I knew i wasnt gonna buy anything, partly cause it was only my first day there and i needed to get an idea of the scams that this particular city had going. But of course they insisted and of course they where upset when i didnt buy anything. Anyways I was walking around the next day with another traveler and we got propositioned, by another guy, to go see a galary that was also ending that day. I thought we could give a go mostly to see if it was the same place, aaaaand it was, aaaaand they insisted on tea, aaaaand they haggled us insistently, again. Well that afternoon we found out by someone working at the post office that all the "galleries" where just places they resell the Batik that is made at the art research center (not sure what they are researching but whatever) so we go there and its paintings made by students (or so they say) with much lower prices then the galleries. We got a couple and they where well worth the price. So the next day we visit some palace and i guess there is an area around the palace that for whatever reason does not pay anything for their houses or taxes, so we found yet another place selling Batiks that was cheaper then the "research center" and of course they told us the same thing, they where the ones who really make them, they just buy Batik cheap from them and sell higher priced. The one time i actually saw anybody making a Batik painting was down some alley a lady with a stack of fabric making multiple, near identical prints. Im sure if i would have stayed any longer i would have found at least one more cheaper place to buy Batik. But none the less we got some great stuff for great prices.
We visited a really cool Buddhist temple and got treated like celebraties from all the asians on holiday trying to take pics with us. We met some cool locals along the way and on the return trip. One guy took us out to eat, on his dime! And he helped us with the language barrier to organise our future travel plans. Plenty of merits to earn a spot in my much sought after facebook "Friends" list (heh, yea right).
Got pretty sick for about 3-4 days with diarrhea and nausea and all, Im sure part of it was moving so much. The spanish girl helped out and it was nice because I couldnt stray far from the toilet!
Well as soon as I got better I was ready to go go go....
To Thailand!!!
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