Past Jakarta, and on to Jagja.... no not in Bali! lol

Well, as our millions of supporters out there know by now, we have left the sunny pastures of Thailand, and moved on to Indonesia. We have been here about a week by now, and things are going swimmingly(without actually swimming yet.) We spent a grand total of 5 nights in Jakarta, and managed to get Jin a Singpaore visa in the process.
Overall, Indonesia is another world from Thailand. There are MUCH fewer tourists, and the college break, gap year crowd has all but disappeared. The scene here is much more subdued and entirely non rowdy. The vibe of Ramadan was much more serious in Jakarta than Yogyakarta, which is nice... but still very quiet.
Jakarta was a huge city, spread out over miles and miles. There is a business district, a shopping area, an edge of town shopping area, and an old town(kota) area that we went to.
In our five days in Jakarta, we went to the embassy/edge of town shopping area 3 times to visit the Singapore embassy and get Jin her visa. We explored around the JL Jaksa backpacker area, tried lots of street food, and also managed to make it to the Kota and check out the colonial, old town ghetto while we were at it.... Plus we sat around in our AC room a couple days and relaxed after our hectic exit from Thailand.

Kota was by far the most interesting part of Jakarta. The old town center is now very rundown and old, but has much more character than the shopping mall business district. We saw a Van Gogh-esque 300 year old dutch drawbridge, went to the famous cafe Batavia, saw the train station, old mansions, canals, etc on our last day. Probably the highlight of the day was an epicly strong cup of Java from Batavia, relaxing in the AC and surrounded by original art deco stylings. Later on in the day, on our way home, we hopped off at the central Gambir train station and went to the largest mosque in town to scope it out. It turned out to be quit interesting. More than just the largest in town, the mosque we went to is the most impressive in SE asia and holds over 200,000 people on the busiest days of the year. We got a free tour by an english speaking guide. It was quite interesting to see such a large mosque, especially since it was the first mosque i've ever been to.

We left Jakarta three days ago, taking a nine hour train to Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta is a much more low key city, and much more touristy, although that includes Indonesian tourists, so it is still a far cry from Thailand. We did a dual temple day yesterday, heading to the awesome Borabadur and Prombanan one after the other. Today, we walked down the main tourist street, Malioboro, ending at the Sultans palace. Yogyakarta, while being much more of a tourist destination than Jakarta, is still lacking in many ways that would entertain the western mind(and apparently the Eastern mind too!) The food here is much better, and cheaper though, and that goes a long way! The main thing here is Batiks. Batik is everywhere, especially on Malioboro, and so predominant that even beginning to look at them is mind numbing!

By far the highlight of Yogya has been our trip to Borabadur. The site is compact, yet mightily impressive, with carvings rivaling those we've seen at Angkor and with a prominence and air of importance and mystery that goes along with any other impressive temple or site i've been to anywhere in the world. The stonework, design, and execution are awesome, along with the ideas and design. The thought of walking through a life sized mandala, climbing your way up the steps towards nirvana is really cool, and the carvings really bring you there. I loved seeing the buddhas perched inside the bell shaped stonework... Making it even more special was the fabulous Garung Merapi volcano looming in the distance! pictures to come soon! The stupa/3d mandala/temple was awesome, and it would be impossible to say that it was better or worse than anywhere else we've been, all I can say is that it is up there with Chichen Itza, Angkor, and Cahokia(north america.)
Ok, our Wifi bar is closing... Its ramadan, and nothing is going on here...... at all! we are off to bed. sweeet dreams out there in the abyss!