Yogya

I forgot how much time it takes to work! Luckily, I am still enjoying my job, but I just haven’t found time in the last week to blog. Not like me at all.

Recently, Matt and I went to Yogyakarta (pronounced Jokjakarta), which is on central Java in Indonesia. Matt had been there before, and it was my first time. We went to check out Borobudor, which is a super old temple, similar to the ones in Cambodia. It’s Buddhist with 505 Buddhas total. Quite a lot. The structure was so big and overwhelming. Other than the sunburn I got at the temple, I loved it. My favorite part of it is that Sir Stamford Raffles discovered the temple in the 1820s or something close to that. It was apparently buried, which means that there was a HUGE hill over it. I can’t quite imagine how a structure that big gets buried (though I am sure a lot of it had fallen down, but STILL!). I just picture someone walking in a village or in the woods and coming across a huge Buddha head. Pretty cool.

We also went to a temple called Prambadan, which is nearby. It is actually a Hindu temple with a similar style, but built even higher. There is another temple on the same site, called Sewu – and this one is Buddhist also. Such multi-faith co-existence. I love it.

One of my favorite parts of Yogya, as the call it, was our hotel – the Phoenix Hotel, which was an old colonial building that is so beautifully and perfectly kept up. Quite a treat. We also had lots of good food.

One weird experience was my second time in a man-powered (only) vehicle, since I was a child in a buggy, obviously. We rode on a bicycle powered two seater - where you sit in front of the biking dude. It was really uncomfortable for me. I felt horrible the whole time. US$2, and we were supposed to get biked home. The guy went to the wrong place, and we felt bad enough that we paid him 150% the agreed price, AND we still had a half an hour walk home. Not for me.

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend AND the bonus was that I got to see Matt. During my first week of work, he came home really late, and I hadn’t even told him how everything was going (sympathy, please), but we got to catch up on the weekend.

Another interesting story to relate:
I had two shirts that go under a suit. One shirt has lost its shape, it has stains in three places, including the front bottom. It’s a light blue sweater tanktop, and the stains are brown. I took it to be dry cleaned, and when I was giving it to the lady on Monday, I realized it was too gross to survive. I came back to the office and threw it out. It’s not even a nice thing to give away. Just gross.

That’s what I thought.

Today I was going to the bathroom, and I saw my shirt sitting on a chair in one of the pantries! Someone thought they should rescue it. I can’t believe it. I will donate everything from now on. Maybe someone will want it. Actually I was thinking that I will just take everything I don’t want at home to work and put it next to the trash can.