Yogyakarta Weekend Part 1

The kids had a 4-day weekend because of Chinese New Year, so we took the opportunity to get out of town for a few days.  We booked a 1-hour flight down Java to Yogyakarta (also spelled Jogyakarta sometimes, and either way is pronounced Jo-Jakarta) but unfortunately the weather Thursday morning was terrible.  Traffic to the airport was okay but heavy rain caused hours of delays for the flights.  Lucky for us, we knew three other families from school at our gate so we had company while we waited.  One family was even staying at the same hotel so the kids played together at the pool.  When we landed in Yogya, turns out they had same nasty weather, so we didn't miss anything fun.  We went straight to our hotel and enjoyed some welcome drinks.

 

Pretty place, yucky day!

The entire reason we chose to spend our first night at Manohara was its proximity to the Borobudur temple, a gorgeous 8th century Buddhist temple that is a UNESCO world heritage sight.

Our view at afternoon tea was tantalizing, but as the temple closed in 30 minutes and the rain wasn't stopping, we decided to hold off on visiting until the following morning.

Guests at the Manohara get access to the temple at 4:30am.  I don't think everyone shared my excitement, especially because it was still raining, but the earliest sunrise peeking through cracks in the clouds was pretty encouraging.  I was really hoping I didn't drag this crew out of bed for nothing!

 
We began to get our first glimpses of the volcanoes around the temple - this is Mt. Sumbing, the tallest of the three was could see.

The rain slowly let up and the clouds made for a gorgeous sunrise.

 

We got amazing views of Mt. Merapi, Indonesia's most active volcano.  It's been erupting regularly since the 1500's!  The last major eruption was in 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the other early birds were also rewarded with fantastic views.

 

 
The temple has 8 levels - 5 square ones full of amazing carvings and stone reliefs and 3 circular ones at the top with 72 of these stupas, each one containing a statue of Buddha.  Once we'd enjoyed the sunrise, we began to explore.

The back of the temple seems to look out into nothing but forest.

The stones became so beautiful in the early morning light.

Mt. Sumbing came into better view as the clouds moved out.

 

This uncovered Buddha gets a nice view of Mt. Merbabu and Mt. Merapi every day.

 

 It's apparently good luck if you can touch a Buddha inside the stupa.  I don't really buy into that but why not give it a try?  Ben had to investigate first with his flashlight.

The clouds were amazing as they moved through!

My very favorite part of the whole morning - an rainbow on the back side of the temple!  It was perfect.

 Once we could finally tear ourselves away from the views, we explored the other levels.

The carvings were so interesting and each panel was different.

Toward the end of our visit, I pulled out the selfie stick because, hey, we're in Asia!  We now have a dozen photos like this :)

Ben just used it to get closeups of buddha booties.

Family shot!

What an incredible place!

 

On our way back down the stairs, it was easy to imagine what it would have looked like in the jungle a millennia ago.

 

We had some breakfast and naps, then the kids and I went back to the temple so Ben could get some pictures on his camera.  It was quite a different place at 9am.  Crowds, tours, and cute little schoolgirls practicing their English for homework.

It was impossible to get a picture without people in it.

Right after I got one picture of the kids, we spent the rest of the time posing with other people so they could get pictures with foreigners.  Apparently we make awesome instagram photos!  The kids got a little overwhelmed with strangers crowding them and wanting their pictures, so we called it a day.

Even though we still had lots of fun activities planned for the rest of the weekend, I felt like my trip was complete after such a memorable morning.  What an awesome experience!

Pictures

It took Alex all of two days to build his Christmas lego set!  At nearly 3,000 pieces, I expected it to take just a little longer but he plowed through it.  Thank goodness we have a big Lego Minecraft table here!

 The first few days back after Christmas were a little rough for me, but a wonderful night out with some friends sure turned my attitude around.  I am so thankful for the families we've come to know and love here!  Especially the ones that know the fun restaurants to visit on the weekends.

 

Our kitty has grown so much!  

He's still not too old to play with toys, though :)

 He has several places in the front yard to watch the world and keep an eye on his territory.

He has also grown quite fond of sleeping on the outdoor fridge.

 He made his first vet visit to get fixed and get vaccinated, but the following week he was obviously very sick.  We went back to the vet (a different one this time because Kitty got out of his carrier and ran like a maniac through the first office, even on the roof, then bit someone, so I'm too embarrassed to return) and found out he'd contracted distemper, which can be fatal and has no cure.  It was heartbreaking to watch him suffer and one night I told him goodbye because I wasn't sure he'd be around the next morning, but this tough little kitty pulled through and is doing much better.

 

In other exciting news, we experienced our first earthquake!  It was a 6.1, so it was strong enough to give us a good shake but not so bad in Jakarta that there was local damage.  The kids now know the earthquake procedure at school and I know that when the whole pool rocks, it's not someone playing a trick on me. Matt was happy that he happened to be at a first floor meeting at the time and not in his 10th floor office.

Our little Buddy is full-grown and starting to get some beautiful colors on his wings.  When he's done with his first molt, he'll have red shoulders and several colors underneath.

Ben had great science homework last week - watch the lunar eclipse.  We had perfect views of the super-blue-blood moon from the baseball park and our living room and were extra lucky that it was the first clear night in a week. February is peak rainy season and the rain is unpredictable, but afternoons and evenings are most likely.

It's so nice having kids who are old enough to get annoyed at loose teeth and pull them!  That's two in one week.

Baseball Season

Without real seasons, the kids can play sports any time of year here!  Baseball starts in January and runs through May.  We were pretty excited to get the kids back on the fields and see what it would be like in Jakarta.

 

Ben is playing on the Washington Nationals with 5th and 6th graders.  He was pretty bummed that you can't lead off to steal bases here but the pitching is still wild enough that kids get ample opportunity to steal.

 

 He got a beautiful hit into the outfield at his first game so I was thrilled to see him playing with confidence.  His league has 4 teams, one with mostly JIS kids and 3 local teams.

We are so fortunate to have just arrived this year because these huge stands apparently took two years to complete so parents have been sitting in the outfield.  The stands are so nice and even have ceiling fans.

Alex is a Diamondback this year but also plays for the A's occasionally.  There were 18 kids from JIS that wanted to play, so not quite enough for two teams but too many for just one.  The coaches decided to split into two teams but have kids rotate filling in for the other team to make 12.  It's been great because Alex is getting so much playing time.

He's had a great bat so far this season and loves playing kid pitch for the first time.  His team is 3rd and 4th graders and has several kids new to baseball.

It's been so much fun doing something as familiar as heading to the ballpark for games, but also different because most of the time the opposing team is speaking another language or the ump yells "ball" when he signals a strike. And it's always entertaining watching a cat wander through the outfield (click to zoom).

Overall, it's been a great experience so far.  The teams are more relaxed but the coaching is excellent and both kids are learning a lot.  We see many of our friends several times a week and we're making new friends on both teams.  Even though Alex misses having fields to run around and play in and Ben misses the concession stand, we're getting used to our new normal with new friends, wifi, and food delivery motorbikes.

Bogor Mountain Biking

I had a wonderful day out of Jakarta with several other adventurous women who were excited to try a morning of mountain biking.  We drove over an hour south to Bogor, on the slopes of Mt. Salak, and started our morning at Pura Saraswati temple, one of the biggest Hindu temples on Java.

 

It was a lovely place and our tour was very interesting despite some rain.

 

Our tour guide was a hoot and reminded us several times that guides can be tipped :)

We learned quite a bit, paid our respects (in more ways than one!), and were ready to hit the trail.

 

The bike company provided all the gear for us and 3 guides.  Since we were at quite an elevation, the first step was to check our brakes.  I did not get many pictures because it seems we were either flying down hills or chugging up them...no free hands for the camera!

This was the first time for any of us to mountain bike in Indonesia, so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  We were mostly on well-used trails and paths, many downhill, but a few very steep climbs.  Sometimes in thick jungle...

 

...and many times in local villages.  The views were pretty fascinating and we were quite entertaining to a lot of local people.

During the heat of the day, we stopped for some delicious freshly cut local pineapple.

 By this point, we were several hours into our ride and the pineapple was just what I needed to keep going!

 

 This stop was interesting.  I wasn't sure what was growing until we smelled it.

 

Lemongrass fields as far as we could see!

 We also went through many rice paddies and I enjoyed seeing the farmers raking the drying rice.

Overall, it was a great experience.  It's always nice to leave the city for a while, try something new, enjoy some fresh air, and still get home before the kids get off the bus.