Week 2 - The Volcanic Eruption!

This week has been like no other!! Firstly, Mt Kelud erupted very early on the 13th of February and rained ash all over Jogja. There is still ash in my room! Thankfully I live with 2 girls from Australia in my kos, Alex and Megan, and a friend called Sindy from another kos, came over to be locked inside with us. Many shops and places to buy food were closed or flat-out, taxis were almost impossible to get a hold of. We found ourselves most worried about finding food than anything else! We finally found out that Pizza Hut was open and ordered way too much pizza, salad and drinks! Sindy and her pendumping (helper) bravely rode to Pizza Hut to pick up the food. They came back saying mostly every other franchise/shop was closed, the streets were deserted, and with news that many civilians were trying to escape Jogja. I personally did not want to leave but I did read the facts about volcanic ash and became too scared to go outside and to breathe-in the thick, and potentially harmful substance. Anyway, we had our first very relaxing day and appreciated the rest. The next was also fairly chilled. Alex and I hung out in my kos listening to music, reading and drinking coffee before we got ready to go to Gilang's Wedding! Below are some pictures of the ash covered road and buildings from my kos' window.

 

 

After about 48 hours of locking ourselves inside our kos Alex and I left the kos for first time wearing our new Batik clothing (and a mask) for Gilang's traditional wedding. Gilang is a man who works for ACISIS and coordinates the Development Studies Immersion Program. Here are a few photos of his beautiful, Catholic wedding:

 

 

 

After the reception a small group of us headed out to a local dessert shop called Cocolat which may have been where some of us got over-tired and laughed way too much. We finally jumped into a taxi and I arrived home to my kos feeling exhausted, covered in volcanic ash but very happy after such a joyous day.



 

Day 2 - Adventure time!!

 

 

Travelling around Jogja yesterday was fun but it was pretty, darn, hot and humid! I enjoyed the morning walk to the main shopping street. There were horse and cart everywhere (some horses were a lot thinner than others :'( ), there were colourful French styled lampposts, and beggars approaching us as we walked along. There were also weird smells coming from underneath the foot paths. However, the city is very pretty when you excuse the poverty of the place, with green trees over the roads, reminding me of Grote Street in Adelaide.

When we (a group of 6 Aussie girls) got to Jalan Malioboro (the shopping road [see above]) everyone was a bit too keen to see us like we were money with legs! A local kindly told us that there were many pick-pocketers and we hugged our bags a little closer. 

We found a very western 4-5 story mall with a shop called ‘Hero’ very much like Woollies, with the slogan “The fresh food people!”. I bought a shower sponge and a pair of scissors there then we up a few levels to get a 30 minute back massage with a friend for $3!! It was even better than my Dad's massages dare I say it!!

 

At 2pm we were starving and stopped at a fairly busy place for lunch where they sold weird food! I regret getting my dish of brown-looking egg, and gelatinous jackfruit with rice. It makes me sick thinking about it.. it also makes me laugh that I actually ate it because I wanted to be adventurous... bad mistake! Anyway, that's when things started going down hill health-wise and I felt a migraine coming on. There was also a transvestite dancing over my friend who sat on the edge of the table. This man dressed as a women freaked us out and sung terribly and wouldn't leave until we gave him money. After lunch we decided to jump on a Indonesian styled tuk-tuk and a man rode us back to our hotel for $2.50 each. I wonder if I'll be able to get a cheaper price when my Indonesian improves and I'm not perceived as a tourist!

Once I arrived back at the hotel I felt fairly sick and went straight to my room, drank some water checked fb and went to bed.

Day 1 in Indo!!

I rose at 6.30am on Friday, the 7th of February after a sleepless night to get to Adelaide airport at 7.45am. Mum, Dad and I were soon met by Michelle and Lia who came with a very special card and bracelet (see below). At 9.50am I flew to Denpasar and landed about 6 hours later. I stepped out the plane and hopped onto a bus. I knew I was in for a crazy adventure when the driver couldn't close the bus door and the guy standing just inside of the door held on a bit tighter as we drove off. Once I got into the Denpasar airport I knew people at home were praying for me as I peacefully bypassed the NON-VISA queue of at least 2000 people and continued onto the KITAS queue where there was a queue of 1 person! I thought it was too good to be true! I then exchanged my $250 for over 2,500,000 rupiah! I'm proud to say I am now a millionaire! Woohoo!! After waiting for 3 hours I boarded my 1.15 hour flight for Jogjakarta and landed about 4pm (7.30pm Aussie time). The bird's eye view of Jogja was beautiful! I could see roads lined with black and white striped gutters, luscious, green trees everywhere, rice paddies, colourful Indonesian buildings and hills covered with green trees in the distance.

Thankyou Michelle, Lia, Laura & Jordana! <3

On the way from the plane to inside the Jogja airport I met up with 2 girls from Sydney and 1 from Melbourne doing the same ACICIS program as me. They were very good at speaking Bahasa Indonesian and booked a taxi to Universitas Gagjah Mada which cost us $1.30 each! Interestingly, the taxi driver was listening to Katy Perry and Bruno Mars which was pretty cool! The traffic was pretty crazy! I think people just made up their own rules, especially our driver! I was surprised to see some buildings fairly wealthy European-styled, buildings with two stories and huge white columns, others were very small, crowded and basic. I could see the huge inequality between the rich and poor within Jogja. There were so many stalls on the sides of the road which sold jackfruits fruits, mobiles, helmets... you name it and they probably had a stall for it!

We reached the university which is huge! It is so big that we soon realised were at the wrong uni hotel and our taxi was driving off! The porter chased him down and packed our luggage in the boot again. We then drove to the formal entrance of the uni which seemed like we're entering a new, small city! There were two, huge metal pillars on each side of the road, toll gates, manicured gardens, a huge building with an Asian-styled, red roof (it looks very important). Anyway, we finally signed in and set-up our stuff in our rooms. My room is fairly nice. It has two firm beds, an air-conditioner, a TV, a private bathroom and free wifi!

I met 3 more people in my program that night 2 girls - one from Canberra and one from Melbourne and one guy from Perth. As a group, we went on our first adventure to find some dinner! After crossing a busy road we found some food stalls and decided to go where the locals were. The soup they were eating looked delish! However, it was made up of parts of goat that I could not decipher and prefer not to eat! We autonomously decided to move on! Emma bought a fairly large meal of satay chicken and rice for $2 which was wrapped in newspaper. We soon found a small restaurant on the side of the road which was under a bamboo roof. It had wooden tables and seats and sold little parcels of food wrapped in banana leaves. I tried a vegetable stir-fry parcel, a mild tofu green curry and rice parcel, and fried vegetable patty since the meat options were not refrigerated. Remarkably, this satisfying meal on cost 70 cents! We went to bed at 9.45pm (1.15pm Aussie time) exhausted but excited for our new adventure around Jogja the next day!