Frustration in Yogyakarta

The minute you step out of the airport, you are surrounded by touts offering you rides into the city. Once you are in the city, you are surrounded by touts offering you (addressed as "mister" for some reason) hotel rooms, tours, and trips to the special batik exhibition. which is obviously not special at all. You are also tortured through the same story of how "my best friend/cousin/sister/brother/etc lives in XXX (insert city name)". This is Indonesia.

I hate these men. They are stalkers. Seriously. The first day we got there, we were led to a hostel by one of them because the one we initially went to on our own was a bit pricey. We decided to stay there, but moved to another one the following day since it was nicer, cheaper, and the toilet didn't smell of curry (the place was actually named "Gandhi"...go figure). Anyways, so the guy saw us walking down the alley that day, and complained that we had moved elsewhere (how did he found out?!) and demanded to know where we were now staying. FREAK.

And at the market, these men trail you like a shadow while you're moving along the stalls. FREAKS. It's really hard to act like James Bond to get rid of them. You don't know how many times I had a fit and blurted out some Waru-ish comments.

I have other annoying stories, but I'll spare you the details.

However, I do have to say that these people are amazing in their persistency. You say "NO!" to one, and another one 5 meters away asks the same question: "Batik, batik?", "Where are you going?", "Ride, ride?" being the most common.

And I'm glad that I'm not traveling on my own here.

Enough complaining. I came to Yogyakarta to see the ruins of Prambanan and Borobudur.

(By now, I'm sure you've all realized that I like to see ruins : )

It's hard to describe what you see when you go to these places, so here are a couple of pics:

Prambanan - Unfortunately, the earthquake that hit a couple of years ago did some major damage here. Most of the area is under restoration, so you can't go in. Bummer.

Borobudur - Massive size makes it rather difficult to take a good photo. I suggest you look at the wikipedia photos! I was pleasantly surprised when I found that there were Buddha statues in each of these little bell thingies!

And the funniest part was that everyone wanted to take a photo with my friend - a Caucasian. The locals were completely mesmerised by her! So far, I've found that there are very few Caucasian people traveling around here.

(By the way, I wasn't asked for a photo at all! I guess I'm not unique enough...)

It turns out that I was in Yogyakarta at just the right time! They are having this motorcycle festival here. At night, there are concerts (bad singers) and motorcycle gear/wear stalls everywhere along the street. But they don't close the streets to traffic...an Indonesian mystery. So, I got to see all these cool motorcycles (lots of Harleys, although I don't know if they are real), met some of the designers, and took a seat on the police cycle.

In all honesty, though, I was a bit concerned about being in a large gathering in Indonesia. You never know when something might go off....

Oh, and this was on display at the sultan's palace. I guess he's a big fan.