After almost growing roots in Ubud we decided to move on and our next stop was Jogjakarta on the island of Java. What a difference! Jogja, as it is commonly referred to as, is a hustling and bustling metropolis. It was once a larger kingdom with its rival city “Solo”, an hour away by train. The King’s two sons bickered and split the kingdom apart, each becoming the first Sultan of their respective cities.

The present day Jogja Sultan is number 10 (the 10th descendent from the first) and still lives in the Sultan’s Palace. He is also the ‘Governor General’ of the city. The Palace is known as the Kraton and is open to the public along with a museum dedicated to the present Sultan's father and also depicting the history of the 10 Sultans. (There are family trees for each, and one of them had 85 children!). All of his servants, guards, musicians, advisors, etc. live in a walled city and pay no taxes. These are two of his men.

Every day at the Sultan’s Palace there is a concert at 10:00am. The day we went it was the traditional gamelan music, Jogja style (which differs from Bali and Solo). Some of the instruments are said to be hundreds of years old, dating back to the first sultan.

The first Sultan of Jogja was an artist, warrior, businessman and architect. He lived in what is called the Water Palace with his many wives.

He had three swimming pools: one for the children, one for the wives and one for his private use with the ‘winning’ wife. Rather than choose who got to swim and stay with him on a particular day he threw flower petals in to the pool with the wives and the one who collected the most got to be with him that day!

He also built this “stairway to heaven” in the middle of a Mosque in the underground tunnels of the water palace. There are four sets of stairs each representing the four religions of Jogja at that time: Buddhism, Hinduism, Muslim and Christianity. Each staircase leads to a central platform where people of ALL the faiths end up before they go on the SAME stairway to heaven. We think that Sultan #1 was way ahead of his time!

The Bird Market is a favorite area in Jogja. It is place where exotic and common birds are bought and sold. In order to prove the facility of a particular set of pigeons to stay together (known as love birds, they only choose one mate for life) the following demonstration is carried out.

Step1 - Two female pigeons are kept and held at the market. The two accompanying males are carried up on top of the wall of the original old Palace. They are then released.

Step 2 - The two females are held up high in the market and the 2 males fly directly to them. Very cool.

Near the bird market is also a local produce market. We were told that these insects a lot of good protein. Bugs anyone?

The market is a real family affair, both for vendors and buyers alike. This little guy kept himself entertained by these limes for quite a while (he also kept Rick and his camera pretty busy).

After a while the lad tired of the limes and ventured out of his Mom’s stall and onto her motorcycle. When we asked for if we could take a picture (by sign language) the Mom gladly agreed and requested that Janet join in for the fun.

A little further down we ran into this Mom or Grandma with her kids. When we asked if we could take their photo they also willingly partook. When Rick started clowning around with the kids this was the response!

In and around Jogja, the most common form of transport (with the motorcycle of course) is the “Becak” (pronounced Bechack). They share the roads with the motorcycles, cars, trucks etc. The drivers cover you if it rains and usually stop cycling and get out and push if they lose too much momentum when they are going up a hill. The drivers are all male and range from young to old.

Java is known for its Batik making, especially Solo. We visited many stores & manufacturers. The quality ranged quite a lot. The demonstration we had helped us understand why. First it depends in the type of cotton or silk that you start with. Next it depends on whether the waxing is hand-painted, stamped or a combination. It also depends on the number of colours and complexity of design.

Here is a woman hand-painting the wax in quite a detailed motif. The wax covers the part of the pattern that you don’t want dyed. You dye from the lightest to the darkest colours; yellow first, black last. We did mange to buy a selection of shirts and ties of differing qualities.

There are two large temples near Jogja. The first that we visited was Borabodour, a Buddhist temple that was built in the 10th Century and is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was shaken and destroyed by the great volcanic eruption in the 11th century and forgotten as it was covered in lava and ashes.

After the Dutch colonized Indonesia, curiosity was raised and restoration begun. In the last 40 years UNESCO has taken over the project and invested millions into it.

There are 72 of these towers or Stupas, each with a Buddha statue in it. The first levels have diamond shapes cut out. The highest has squares. We where told as this represented heaven, where one reached stability, as the squares depict.

The next visit was the impressive large Hindu Temple at Prambanan. It too was destroyed, covered in volcanic ruin and forgotten. The Indonesian Government is now slowing restoring the over 280 temples. The 20 main ones are complete and each represents a different character. Each has a statue inside depicting the character.

When we visited Prambanan there were many school children visiting as well. They were as interested in us as they were of the Temples - maybe more so! They asked us to take a picture with them and we willingly agreed and had our camera ready as well!

The other tourist with us is Majit from Victoria, BC who is starting a business selling Indonesian furniture & crafts - good luck, Maj!!

This is a common street scene with all vehicles traveling at their own pace yet moving in harmony.

Well, here we are on our last day in Indonesia. We are off to Bangkok, Thailand tomorrow (taking three flights over 12 hours!). See y'all soon!!!