Hey, everyone! For once, I can report that it has NOT been a chock full week. This post is a bit of a palette cleanser, but how was I supposed to compete with the back-to-back chaos of excitement that was Ijen, Bromo, and Mount Merapi? It is important to have chill days, too! That said, I did manage to get some excitement in.

A few housekeeping things:

1) I have started a podcast on Spotify called Rose Thorn Bouquet. Please check it out!
2) If you’re interested in my art, have a look at my merchandise on RedBubble!
3) I have recently finished the first draft of my latest novel, The Death of Duncan Lee. I’ve sent it out to some friends to get feedback and I’m really excited to have it done(ish) finally. If you haven’t read it already, the link to my first book, Eclipse Me can be found here.

Borobudur Temple

I had six nights in Yogyakarta and five of them were spent debating whether or not I should go to the two iconic temples around town. My hesitancy was the expense. It was nearly $70 for the two temple visits combined (+ driver), which I think is… honestly, crazy. And a goddamn rip-off! Locals pay a fraction of the price. BUT that said, the temples are still going through re-construction works and so really, the money helps pay for the labor that involves.

Anyway, Kory was the one who helped me to decide. He said if he was with me, he would go. That many people will never get to see the temples, so I should. LOL, okay, Kory. Done. (I was also talking with someone else at the hostel who said that she’d been to a lot of temples in Southeast Asia and Borobudur was unlike any others she had seen.)

So, what makes Borobudur important? It is the largest Buddhist temple in the world.

I have had so many early mornings lately. Once I leave Indonesia, I don’t want to wake up for sunrise for a very long time haha. The driver picked me up at 3am and after grabbing a few others, we drove a little over an hour to get to a hill where we would watch the sunrise. The view was very pretty and as the sun came up, I was able to see Mount Merapi along the horizon. I was hoping to see some lava flows in the darkness but I think we were just too far away.

There were some annoying influencer-types, setting off drones and taking a million selfies. I have to laugh to myself, because it’s like – honestly, it’s nice but it’s not THAT great, why are you taking photo after photo after photo? Just enjoy the moment.

Anyway. From there, we continued on to Borobudur. Our driver told us we were allowed to walk around the outskirts of the temple for about an hour before we had to return back and meet our guide, who would take us inside the temple structure. From my first sight of Borobudur, I thought, “alright, that’s pretty unique.” The structure has ten stories and the walls are covered in carvings and statues of Buddha.

Later, our guide explained to us that the temple was sort of “forgotten” for about 800 years. The reason for this is that Mount Merapi had buried the temple grounds in volcanic ash and the temple wasn’t rediscovered until about 1814. Because the temple had been out of commission for so many years, no one actually worships at the temple (like monks, etc.). If they want to pray, they have to burn their incense outside the temple structure. Borobudur was estimated to have been built around the 8th century.

I walked around the temple grounds and then returned back to meet our guide. At 8.30am, our guide led a group of maybe 25 people through the grounds. He explained that it would take four years to know all the stories carved onto the walls. I think he said it’s 5 kilometers of walking if you were to walk the length of each of the ten levels.

The most iconic part (at least, judging from the photos I’ve seen) of Borobudur are the stupas on the top levels of the temple. They are pretty massive and each of them have Buddha statues inside them, which I wouldn’t have noticed had the guide not told us. I learned about stupas during a Buddhism class I took back in university – they essentially symbolize the Buddha’s final resting place.

I was pleased to get some more glimpses of Mount Merapi off in the distance.

After having some free time to walk around the top levels of the temple, it was time to leave. V cool temple!

Prambanan Temple

And then… Prambanan. So, this temple is unique because it’s the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. So, Borobudur was the largest Buddhist temple in the world and Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. They’re also both UNESCO sites.

I think that, despite Prambanan being in the process of a lot of re-construction, I preferred it over Borobudur. The grounds were more interesting. There were four main temple complexes, all spread out within a pretty large area. I enjoyed wandering around.

The most popular, with the largest temples, was the Prambanan temples. It had a number of different temples within each temple compound, and I was able to go inside many of them. The Prambanan grounds houses temples for Shiva, Brahma, and Vishnu – the three major deities in Hinduism. Shiva was the largest temple – the God of Destruction. Shiva is also my favorite from what little I knew of Hinduism in the past.

Temples, temples, temples!

The construction was a little unsightly and I was wondering why they were doing so much of it around the complexes. What I didn’t realize until nearly the end of my walk was that many of the temples had collapsed due to earthquakes and the impact of volcanic ash from Mount Merapi. SO, the perk of visiting the temples is largely due to the re-construction work done by the locals. And well done, because it looks great! However, this is why you’ll see many of the photos including some scaffolding and also large piles of rubble. They have to figure out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. How crazy!

The other temples are called Sewu, Bubrah, and Lumbung. Other than Prambanan, Lumbung was probably the next most impressive – but it has a lot of work to be done still.

By the time I had to return to the car, I was DONE. I was desperate to go back to the hostel and take a nap.

Aside from the overnight tour of the lava flows at Mount Merapi and my temple day, I didn’t do much else in Yogyakarta. The location of the hostel I stayed at was kind of shit. I originally was telling myself – I’m going to rent a bike! I’ll explore the surrounding area! But other than some minor exploration around town, I kind of just chilled out and was biding my time to head to Jakarta. Nothing wrong with that.

Yogyakarta to Jakarta

The reason I named this post Station to Station is a bit of a multi-faceted one. Station to Station is the name of my absolute favorite David Bowie song, and maybe the #1 song of my life. In it, Bowie makes a reference to Jakarta. And for that reason, I was hoping I would be able to get to Jakarta. Simply for the novelty of it. (Bonus: another favorite song, Gypsy by Lady Gaga, references Jakarta as well)

Well, I made it. I took a 6hr train from Melang to Yogyakarta and a week later, a 7hr train from Yogyakarta to Jakarta. I am living it – traveling station to station. The ride was nice and easy. Much of the time, we cruised between rice fields.

I was anticipating Jakarta to be a big, bustling city with towering buildings but it wasn’t really the case. I hardly spent time in Jakarta at all, to be honest. I had heard it was not the nicest city and is very polluted, so I didn’t plan for anything close to a week-long affair. Instead, it served as a two-day layover.

I find the city to be overcrowded (10 million people!), dirty, and… not really charming at all. And also, it is not a walkable city. Like many places in Indonesia, there aren’t really sidewalks lol. Which at times can be annoying. I just want to go for a damn walk! But, hey, I made it to Jakarta after all.

I had a scary experience yesterday when I was going on a walk to explore the National Monument in Central Jakarta. I was listening to music, was only maybe two minutes from my hostel, and someone was trying to get my attention. I try not to be an asshole but I’ve learned that usually, these intrusions turn into trying to get you to buy something or give them money. Or it’s a scam. Or XYZ. So I just ignored him at first. But then he tapped on my shoulder. I lifted off my headphones and was like, “What’s up? What do you want?” I don’t remember what he said, he kind of was stumbling a little bit. I put my headphones back on but I knew he was still following me, which I did not like. “What’s up, dude?” “I’m talking to you,” he said. “Well, I’m trying to go somewhere. What is it you want?” I can’t really remember all that was exchanged, but at one point, he asked me why I was nervous, and I said, “Because you’re following me and I don’t know what you want.” He pulled something out of his wallet and showed me a card that was supposed to be a police badge…? Which I immediately did not believe. “I don’t know what you want, dude,” I said and put my headphones on and kept walking. He stopped following me after that. Literally have no idea what was at play there, but it was easily the most unsettling experience I’ve had since in Indonesia. It was daylight and there were people around, but still.

(I asked ChatGPT what type of scam this might be and it said it’s an extortion attempt. So he would show me a fake badge, say I’m being nervous, then try to fine me for suspicious behavior or something like that.) LORD!

Anyway, 15min later I arrived at the National Monument, which is a large area similar to that of Washington, D.C.’s National Mall. In the center is massive pillar with a flame on top, which is supposed to symbolize Indonesia’ independence and their fight against colonialism. There were a lot of people walking around. I saw there was an area where you could go inside the monument but I had to go to bed early and wasn’t up for it. Instead, I went for Indian food and returned to my accommodation for the rest of the night.

This morning, I got up at 1.30am (well, I never slept actually) and took a flight to Medan, Sumatra.

I had a series of minor hiccups that put me in a foul, hellish mood. When I originally checked into my Jakarta hotel, I was asked to pay a deposit. I mentioned that I would be leaving at like 1am and they assured me they had a 24hr reception. Well… they did not. There was a guy snoring on a chair next to reception but I wasn’t sure if he was an employee so I didn’t want to wake him. I’ll be returning to that hotel before I leave Indonesia, so I’ll get it back then (hopefully lol).

I then ordered a Grab for 110k rupiah, which is about $7 USD… for a 30min drive. In my flight confirmation, I wasn’t given information on what terminal to go to, so I just plugged in Domestic when ordering the cab. Well, I arrived and after entering the airport, I found out I was at Terminal 3 and had to go to Terminal 1. Because it was so early in the morning, the shuttle wasn’t running. So I had to order a 100k cab to take me the few minutes from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1. When I tell you I was fuming… I was going to just walk but, guess what? INDONESIA DOESN’T LIKE SIDEWALKS, so I was forced to take a cab. That on top of no sleep (which was my fault, because I had a massive dessert before bed and was just hyper all night instead of sleeping) made for a very aggravating morning.

There is always a silver lining though because I was anticipating I would have to pay extra for my checked baggage on this particular flight but that ended up not being the case. Yahoo!

I am sort of In Transit until tomorrow afternoon. I arrived at my accommodation in Medan, Sumatra and am currently typing up this blog. Tomorrow morning, I’ll be taking a shared taxi down to Ketambe, where I’ll spend the following five days on a jungle trek to try and see wild orangutans. So, THAT will be very exciting.

However, I am liking Medan, even though I only just got here. The buildings are so much taller than Jakarta and it really feels like a proper Indonesian city, in a way I haven’t yet experienced. I think my reflection is the only white person I’ve seen today. I’ve had a number of people saying hello to me on the streets and one girl asked if she could take a picture with me. I think everyone’s very tickled to see a foreigner here in Medan. I quite like that, though. Medan feels lively. Has character. I’ll be here for two more nights after my jungle trek so I’ll have to do some exploring.

But for now… a nap.

Miscellaneous

My friend Claire had warned me that there used to be an attraction of riding elephants around Borobudur. I had to look that up immediately because obviously I would hate to unknowingly support that. Luckily, the elephants were relocated back in 2023. But then at Prambanan, there was an enclosure to feed deer, which… not so nice. What really disturbed me was seeing cassowaries in a very small enclosure. I’d seen a number of wild cassowaries while in Cairns, Australia, and to see them in this environment was really unsettling.

One thing I saw in Jakarta and also a few times throughout Indonesia already is… street buskers COVERED in silver paint. I know that people do that all over the world but I think many of them just use silver makeup. But this was straight up chrome paint which has to be so, so bad for your body. Sad.

On the flight to Medan this morning, a voice over the intercom said, “if you’re found in possession of drugs, you’ll be punished to the maximum extent of the law… DEATH.” I knew this already, but to hear it on the loudspeakers… Jesus lol.

I was surprised to learn recently that Indonesia comes from “Indo Nesos”, which means Indian Islands. Interesting! I had no idea.

Tyler, from the sailing trip, sent some photos he took of me. I really like the one of me coming up the ladder on the ship – I was laughing but it was very genuine! My mom will love that one LOL.

Art of the Week

I have been meaning to attempt creepy smiles for AGES… and I think it worked out. The eye patch did not, however. I might try to correct it before posting on Instagram. ALSO, this is the first time I’ve managed to draw clouds/smoke that I am happy with. This picture was inspired by Mount Bromo as well – hence the crater head.

Reflections

I’m glad that the In Transit portion of this journey is almost done. From Gili Air to Bali to Banyuwangi to Melang to Yogyakarta to Jakarta to Medan to Ketambe… I had some recovery time in Yogyakarta, but yeah, it’s a lot of commuting. After Ketambe, I’ll only have to go back to Medan, then fly to Jakarta before leaving Indonesia. So, that’s much better. It’s coming to a close haha. So much to see in Indonesia. So many islands, so many faces. I have really come to love it here. But I’m also ready for something new. I think the orangutan trek will be the perfect Grand Finale to wrap up my time in Indonesia.

Otherwise, all is good.

Until next time, sending you all my love. x