The latest chapter of epic summer adventures has arrived, and with it I find myself now writing from a comfortable internet cafe enjoying the late night tropical heat of Jogjakarta, Indonesia.  In reply to a question commonly asked by the locals, yes, it is my first time to visit Indonesia.  Yes, I like it.  The people, at least those not involving in parting tourists from their money, are wonderful and friendly.  It just goes to show that Muslim countries are not some scary place full of people waiting to come get you.  Exposure does wonders for those sorts of ideas.  At any rate, I have a week’s worth of time here and it has been dribbling away with a delightful malaise, a byproduct of the heat and my own happiness at taking it slow.

Arriving was arduous, a night of fitful rest at the Kuala Lumpur airport food court (third time now…) before a long day of bus rides and bus stations that finally deposited me in the mountain town of Cemoro Lawang.  More than 2000 meters up over see level, it is a fantastic landscape of steep hillsides bathed in every shade of green imaginable.  The villages cling to the roads winding up the valleys towards the peaks.  The island of Java is part of the ring of fire, a victim to frequent natural disasters.  Here, they have turned that to a profit with the tourist trade visiting Mount Bromo, a still smoldering volcano.  I did the long hike from my guest house, or losmen, up to the volcanic cone.  I managed to sunburn myself nicely, but the hike was fantastic and it was pretty cool to hike across a caldera filled with ash to see this geologic thing belching out sulfuric clouds.

With my legs shot and the town thoroughly explored, I left that night on the long bus to Jogjakarta.  Eight hours on a bus makes for a long time, particularly when said bus has only 36 official seats but 45 or so passengers.  Nobody is turned away so long as a profit is to be made.  Basic, simple capitalism at work here.  Jogja is one of the main cultural hubs of Indonesia, a smallish city of students and tourism.  Like other southeast Asian cities, it features its very own backpacker ghetto where I’ve seen more white faces in a few days then in the past few months.  I’ve dedicated myself to simply wandering the city, enjoying the sights and, more importantly, the food.  In some cases this means eating donuts, fantastic donuts like thai iced tea flavored.  In a more culinary sense, it means eating high-quality Indonesian fare, which is just a tad spicy and generally quite good as long as they don’t short you on the ingredients.

One of the obligatory tourist draws here are the ruins of Prambanan, just past the airport on the outskirts of Jogja.  Prambanan is one of the largest Hindu temple complexes in the region, and belongs to a dynasty I’d never heard a word on prior to setting foot in their thousand-year old compound.  The main temple is an impressive site, with tall spires and nice stone masonry.  Much of it is unfortunately off limits, subject to repair work after falling victim to an earthquake in 2006.  The other three sites are still largely in ruins, with scattered clusters of rocks laying about.  All in all they are nice, though not as spectacular as the Angkor ruins.  Clear architectural linkages are easy to spot though, and fit given the timelines and relative proximity, along with the Indian influence on both.

Today I visited the Sultan’s Palace in Jogja, known as the Kraton.  It is a bit rundown and in need of better curation and upkeep, but it also means ticket prices are nice and low.  So I won’t complain much on that.  The highlight for me was being assailed by an English-language school class on a field trip.  I was the focus of attention for a very long ten minutes or so in which I had a dozen brief conversations, posed in fifteen pictures, and signed somewhere north of twenty autographs.  The kids were between 8-11 or so and, man, they sure no how to make an American feel welcome.  I’ve had funny instances in China being the lone white person, but this was a whole new level.  It was a little overwhelming but interesting and enjoyable all the same.

As of now, there are still a few days remaining here before I head to Singapore for a night and then on to Oz.  The highlight of the remaining time and, the guidebooks and guides assure me, is Borobudur.  It is a large, hulking ruin of another dead empire I’ve never heard of, situated a little ways north of Jogja.  It seems like it ought to live up to the hype though.  In the meantime, I am looking forward to a few more Asian meals and enjoying walking around the town until I fly out.