Rainy Yogya, & Singapore!

Last week already feels like long ago - I stayed in Yogyakarta for a while but for various reasons. It rained so often here so a few times plans had to be pushed back or rescheduled for the following day. Instead the rain provided some less intense heat and some more opportunities to explore street food, cafes, a bit of University nightlife (there is a big school here), and some local delicacies...

Yogyakarta - Bird Market

I mentioned it in brief in my previous blog entry, but as cool as it was to be there and see so many different things, it also made me really sad. These poor things are squished sometimes 50 at a time in the same cage. Where can they fly? How can they use their wings? Some of them had piercing looks - but also with a sadness in their eyes, I thought. They are almost all for sale but some are pets. Owls, pigeons, sparrows, geese, turkeys, parrots, chicks that were dyed different colors, BABY VULTURES... Some standouts included other animals - bats, civet cats, sea otters, puppies, kittens, snakes, maggots, crickets, hamsters, chipmunks.  and it reminded me very much of the Sunday market in Bangkok. It was all still an amazing sight though... I won't forget how striking their stares were.

Those were all still alive - different worms and maggots - and she would grab them with her bare hands, toss them into bags and weigh them (...)

Look at this bunny!!!! So fluffy he can't even see

Possibly related to grumpy cat

Prambanan Temple

I took a bus that cost me 25 cents to go more than an hour away to Prambanan Temple, which is a 9th century temple that reminded me very much of Angkor Wat but on a much smaller scale. It is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. It was pretty, but much of it was destroyed by earthquakes, too... Probably would have been more wowed had I seen this one first, then Angkor Wat... I didn't stay very long.

My fav pic of the place - just in time for the man to appear -
looking so small in this majestic structure

Becaks

Just a quick note on these - I wish we had these in New York. they are awesome! And the main mode of public transport here if not a motorbike or taxi. Some are on bicycles where the driver pedals, while others have an engine. I loved these things. They are also each decorated in different ways and are so cheap to travel around the city with.

Borobudur

This!! This was impressive. This is the largest Buddhist temple complex IN THE WORLD. And it is definitely as impressive as guidebooks describe. Seeing this at sunrise required getting up at 3AM to take a motorbike about 1+ hour away. There was a guy insisting that we catch sunrise on a hilltop instead, so we followed him far enough away that dawn suddenly began. Hot coffee and breakfast snacks awaited us at various stands along the uphill trail where we finally reached the top and enjoyed the view. Borobudur seemed so tiny though. It was also less breathtaking than the sunrise over Mount Bromo, but beautiful nonetheless. The mist is so other-worldly...

Borobudur to the right...

Afterwards I wanted to get in and actually visit the temple itself. You get a huge discount if you are a student, 50% off. Thankfully I had my Grad school ID on me but... THEY DIDN'T BELIEVE ME! Because it said "Teachers College" on it. This became a very frustrating, ten-minute battle with them that that is a school name. They said, "it says teacher." "Right, but it also says college, and Columbia University underneath..." This leads to a demand that I pull up the website and log into my student account and show them my student profile. To say that this stirs frustration would be an understatement. No one else had to prove they were a student - and even my expiration date was still valid... But then that's when one of them challenges me and says "exp. 2025, that's too long to be a student." Oh my god I wanted to pull my hair out. In the end though (after navigating 5 different pages and logging in, wasting so much time), they finally believed me.

The site itself is massive... and is definitely a workout to climb the steps. It was breathtaking, but there were way, way too many tourists. I actually am not sure how I got lucky enough to get such beautiful shots with nobody in them. But I think most of the time, those pictures require a lot of patience and waiting for the right moment. This complex is made of 6 layers, with the final 3 being circular like mandalas and surrounded by stupas - each stupa you could actually peer through a bit, and they all had a stone buddha sitting in each one. That was so cool! Some photos of this beautiful hilltop...

One of the views from the top - it was a 360 degree view everywhere 

From the base, making my way up to the top

I found the carvings to be absolutely beautiful and soooo detailed everywhere. Truly a work of art

The stoned ground was interesting too...each like strange Tetris pieces.
Makes you wonder how they assembled all of these together so perfectly.

Food delicacies?

Some days it rained so much that the only thing I could do was go and play some pool at a nearby cafe - and then at dinnertime try some local delicacies... Here in Yogyakarta you get to try cobra and even drink cobra's blood. So that's exactly what some people ordered while here, and I got to try a little bit. The cobra is also lit up in flames when it's presented. Cobra tastes a lot like eel but a bit chewier. Cobra's blood is interesting... It's meant for men to drink to make them and their hearts stronger - you also have the gross sack of bile floating in the drink which you have to swallow WHOLE first before drinking the blood (thankfully it's mixed with a bit of lemon and honey). But the bile sack grosses me out so much. I still tried the cobra's blood and it actually tasted like sweet syrup. YUM!

That's the cobra's blood with lemon being squeezed into it a bit...
Cobra meat to the right, with blue fire...

The coastline (sand dunes)

Not far (about 1 hour south) from where I was staying, you could reach the beaches where there are also sand dunes. I was delaying this visit because they said that sand dunes are not impressive when it rains as it gets flattened with the downpour. I tried anyway... And also got to take a stab at sandboarding. It is a LOT harder than it looks, but it was still fun. Sunset was enjoyed on this last day here by visiting a nearby resort that had an infinity pool on a hilltop overlooking the beach and sunset. That was amazing!

I look ridiculous

Nightlife

The nightlife here was a big mixture of live music everywhere and then really intense nightclubs. One place "Lucifer" had frequent live reggae nights, and two nightclubs I wound up going to were "Liquid" and "Bosche" - My friend and I were the ONLY non-locals in the entire place when we went to Liquid - it made it so fun because the locals in there would notice us and dance alongside us. Way too much smoke though. Indonesians all smoke a full pack a day, outdoors and indoors, it seems. On our last night Bosche nightclub had a huge cover charge because there was a very famous indonesian band coming to play! What an experience that was. We got to hear all of their hits. And then there were the occasional "break" dancers, that would then distribute bags into the audience for donations.

SINGAPORE

I also went to Singapore this week!!! Spent 2-3 days here which I honestly felt was enough for what I wanted to see. I didn't have much interest in the big tourist attractions of botanical gardens and zoos - really I was there for the food. Overall, Singapore looks nothing like what I had pictured in my head. My first day there I befriended a few Europeans who were actually there to study or intern for 6-12 months, so we did some exploring together.

My first full day there I visited Little India, the Malay neighborhood, Marina Bay area (the only place that matches what I had envisioned Singapore to look like), and the Raffles Hotel to try their world-famous cocktail - the Singapore Sling.

Little India had amazing hawker stands - stall after stall of different types of Indian food. Really colorful neighborhood as well. Huge.

Little India Hawker Centre

There was also an amazing art installation near Little India that I completely adored, which was a park decorated with umbrella trees. The artist and conceptual art teacher in me swooned.

When I was at Marina Bay I ate inside the large shopping center at the foot of the big boat building where there were more upscale hawker food choices - this was the best food I had tried so far in Singapore. It had every single type of asian cuisine possible. The place was called Rasapura Masters.

THIS is how I pictured Singapore !!! The boat skyscraper to the left is where I had my last night out...

At one of the food stalls in Rasapura Masters 

A side note about the Raffles Hotel - this place is stunningly beautiful but also costs over $600 USD a night. No thank you. Likewise, the Singapore Sling that maman wanted me to try at their Long Bar cost me a whopping $36 Singapore Dollars ($26 USD). That is completely insane - I'll check that off the list and never again. It was an enjoyable cocktail though. Apparently, it was created in 1915 initially so that women of the time could be able to drink something alcoholic in public. A tradition at the raffles hotel which has been going for many decades as well is by throwing peanut shells on the floor.

The Singapore Sling

Tons of peanut shells on the floor

On my last day I also checked out Singapore's chinatown. It is huge!!! I went to try this "world renowned" chicken and rice from a stand at a hawker center that had a line going out and around the corner. It was the blandest chicken and rice I might have ever had... Was I in the right place? I was disappointed. In other news, this Chinatown boasted other interesting options...

"non merci"

I ended my quick visit in Singapore with a great night out at the top of that huge building with the boat lying across it - it was a huge bar and nightclub, with an infinity pool that overlooks the entire city skyline... Drinks were up the wazoo expensive again. I think we all paid something like $12 USD for small beers and $18 USD for simple mixed drinks. Get us out of here!

Where I am Now

Penang, Malaysia! I absolutely love it here. I will be staying 2 more nights here (have already stayed 1). This area might have the most amazing street art I've ever seen. The food here is already incredible, and the hostel I'm staying at is so much fun. I can feel my trip ending soon though, but I don't want to leave...