It has been great having aircon & hot (fresh) water shower & some movie channels -- we watched 'The Yes Man' & the Michael Jackson movie 'This Is It' ... the Biggest Loser & other lose weight programs. Different and relaxing to have telly as we don't watch it at home (only movies)
During our time in Yogyakarta, we went to the Ramayana ballet which was in the most amazing location > the Prambanan open air theatre. To give an idea of how spectacular it is, I found this site & this pic on it:
It was really really amazing. We ate a lot at ViaVia (As recommended by Lonely Planet - THANK YOU!) as it was the MOST amazing wonderful tasty homely designer food delights!! (no, we didn't have the Nasi Goreng or the Cap Cay!! -- although I'm sure ViaVia's version would have been delicious as everything we did try was great). We met some lovely Dutch people in Mataram (at a cowboy themed bakery - yes: cowboy themed bakery) who we bumped into on our last night in Yogya > at ViaVia & had a lovely time chatting with them.We did a bit of stock hunting for Geoff's shop....bought 2 oil paintings (unusual as we don't normally buy paintings!) which we had removed from their frames & have rolled up & padded into our luggage.
3 weeks down & just under 3 to go:
Hong Kong & China.
Geoff has been reading our China guidebook & is a little concerned that we will hate it & that we will have to escape to Thailand... I am feeling quite optimistic about the time we will have there...we're just going to have to take it easy and do lots of site seeing & relaxing along the way. I am hoping that Hong Kong will be a nice buffer for the complete culture shock & foreign-ness of actual China. Not being able to speak with most people is part of the fun of going to China!!
I am feeling very happy :) It has been great to spend so much time with my Love...there is sometimes a bit of minor problem solving and decision making to be done (where to eat / where to go next / how to get there), but we have had a very happy trip & been so in sync with each other.
Jakarta is an amazing city > the guidebook warns that it is mostly a city for business with clubs, bars, restaurants & malls as the main attraction. We went to an historical building in the old town called Cafe Batavia yesterday for a drink (*everything was hideously overpriced & the place was a little tired, but had great photographs up everywhere which were amazing to look at).
We decided to walk ourselves over to the shopping centre / waterfront side & ended up getting really lost & passing through rather dodgy areas... got stuck & unable to cross a section in the road as it was flooded(!) & in taking a short-cut, I stepped into the blackest, gooeyest mud & got it all over my foot & shoe. We managed to get a taxi out of there & to a mall: I've never been more grateful for the Asian 'hole in the floor' toilet with the bum sprayer hose thing.
Cleaned up, we decided to head back to the Ibis to cool off from the mid-day sun & only re-surfaced after dark. We found a really nice local restaurant with surprisingly good Asian food. It was so full that we invited a couple from Paris to join us at our table & had a lovely chat with them. (on our way there after log-off!)
Today we went to the Kepang area & found some interesting design shops...lots of ideas!
We fly to Hong Kong tomorrow morning at 10am & then travel into China on the 3rd of September.
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