To Bogor: Making progress via mini van ride

October 1, 2006

In the morning, we take a becak to the Kraton palace at the south end of Maliboro road. We are early, the street vendors are still busy setting up their stalls. From where our becak driver drops us off we walk towards the entrance gate accompanied by a young guy that starts off with small talk and "practicing his English". We are on guard for the switch to "you want to visit batik factory," but it doesn't come. He does try to get us to visit his house and there might have been a batik factory there....but we need to be aware of not being too suspicious and expecting ulterior motives whenever someone is friendly. It's a balance.

At the palace entrance gate, at first it seems things are still closed, even though the guidebook says it opens at eight. A guy says it will open sometime after nine, and in the meantime, he knows a batik factory we could visit.... We look to walk away, and suddenly we can get in through a side gate and buy our 3000Rp tickets plus a 1000Rp photo permit. A guide comes included. He shows us around the grounds with mainly large, open air covered ceremonial spaces. The steel columns holding up the roofs were forged in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 19th century. Each one has a red tulip halfway up. It's a nice walk, but nothing earth shattering. Our guide is determined to take us to the "government" batik factory next, it takes us some effort to convince him we are not interested.

We walk back past the central market (bazaar) and guess what, we go batik shopping.

Not the artsy kind you hang on the wall, but two pieces of cloth that Rachel intends to give to Jo O'Connor who can make something out of them. We go past the ATM for some more cash. Most machines only dispense 20 bills, 2000,000Rp at most, only enough for 4 days if we stayed on budget, which for now, we are not. These minibus rides where we pay for 5 seats (3 for the bikes) are costing money and so is this $20 a night hotel. Hopefully, we return to being healthy soon.

We pack up, read, and wait the pick-up at 4:30pm. At about 3:45 we get a call and are picked up early. Everything fits just like before. For the next hour we drive around Yogyakarta picking up our other passengers, then we head west. Next to Rachel sits a nice Muslim lady. Rachel is struggling to control her coughing and the lady massages her back, face, arms and hands to relax her. Patrick popped a Benadryl, Rachel takes some more Nyquil to sleep. The seat is hard though and Patrick wakes frequently on very curvy sections of the road with our driver frantically passing trucks. Better to not watch, better to sleep! We travel via Kebumen and Bandung and are dropped off at our hotel at 4am. A crowded night market is in full swing just outside the hotel.

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