Idul Fitri Vaca Part 1: on Java

Idul Fitri; the end of Ramadan. For many of my fellow ETA's, the beginning of teaching, since their schools have more or less been on holiday since orientation ended. On Papua Christianity is by far the most common religion, so although there is a Muslim minority, my school (YPJ Kuala Kencana) wasn't on break for the whole month of Ramadan. We did get a week of holiday at the end of September -and that's when I took my first expedition off of Papua.

Rohan, the other ETA on Papua, lives a 2 hour Range Rover ride up the mountain from me. The next closest ETAs are in another timezone, so Ro and I are tight. Our schools are part of the same YPJ, just two different locations - they share a superintendent and some teaching faculty. So for administrative purposes, all our stuff gets handled together, and we've been planning travel outside of Papua together for sanity and safety... and for fun!!!

Sometimes I spend the weekend up the mountain in cool, misty Tembagapura. I stay with the Sudibyo's, an Indonesian family that's adopted the both of us. Erwin, one of the guys in the band I play in teaches music at the Tembagapura YPJ, and so when I go up there for the weekend, we can practice at the school. It's a good situation -stay in a house with a fun and sangat gila (so crazy) family... never a dull day. All that plus band practice with the boyz from West-Leste. It's a nice break from the PK container where I live. But back to the vacation...
The plan stood to get off Papua and meet up with a group of friends in Central Java. We flew into Surabaya (East Java) at 8pm on Sept 26th and took a taksi (taxi) to Semarang in Central Java (7hrs driving) that night. Seven hours by taksi may sound crazy, but we bargained down a price that wasn't too bad (Rp.800,000), and since it was peak holiday season, there weren't any open flights and the train was booked. There was a bus for Rp. 20,000 (just over $2), but maybe there's pickpockets, it's loud, could be smelly, etc... all told, we probably wouldn't sleep. Taksi is the way to go.
2:30am, we got to Semarang, greeted by Tara (at her house) and Rashi who had come in from Salatiga earlier that day. Next day I found out that Semarang is hot. Really hot. Hotter than Kuala Kencana. Didn't know that was possible. But it's a nice city - Tara has a huge house in a little neighborhood with kind neighbors and front doors that pour out endless gangs of little monyet (Indo word for monkey... i.e. cute kids).

Our day in Semarang we went to a Chinese temple, Sam-Po-Khong. that we thought was really old, supposedly it dates back to the voyage of Cheng-Ho, the Chinese Admiral who sailed to Java in the 15th century. 


Turned it's being renovated, so it's old, but lacking in the ancienty quality that makes for a cultural-rich and extra-unique by degree of obscurity experience. Very colorful, very flashy, very beautiful lots of things for sale... and it smelled like tourist trap.
But we're tourists, right? Well actually we went and did a very Indonesian thing: 

we took our picture.

 One very Indonesian thing about this temple is its fusion of ideas and forms that I so often see here, especially in religious context. The guide said the temple was Hindu-Buddhist-Taoist, but he could point out elements of Islamic religious practice. That's Indonesia.

Late morning of the second day in Semarang, the four of us loaded up our bags and left for the first stop on our Idul Fitri Adventure... Gunung Lawu.


Many buses and one shady van ride later, city to city and up into the hills and some beautiful farming countryside, we met up with two more ETAs (Taylor and Erica) and some folks from Madeun. 

It was already dark when we dropped off our extra bags in a little hotel room and the eleven of us set out to hike Lawu by night, and watch the sunrise from the top. The extreme heat of Semarang and our long day of AC-free travel only served to increase the shock of the cold on the climb up Lawu. I was in no way prepared. But we made it and in time to watch the sunrise from the top.


Somebody made a fire and we ate a hot breakfast of Pop Mei (like Ramen) and instant coffee, and rested a bit. I was crouched in a fetal position for most of that resting period, psychologically frost-bitten and remembering one very long, freezing reason why I'm really glad that I won't be in Chicago a few months from now. 

The good thing about heading back down the mountain is that it starts to warm up. And there was plenty of time to thaw during the descent of what turned out to be about an 18 hour hiking adventure. Now, usually I'm one for the outdoor adventures and a clear sunrise from a mountaintop above the sea of clouds, seems like it would justify long hours hiking in the dark... but the cold got to me. And on the way down, I was worn out and ready to collapse asleep.
That night we got to Yokjakarta (Rashi, Rohan, Tara, Taylor and I) exhausted and stayed the night in the Sudibyo's home there (yes, they're on Papua, but they're from Yokja). 

Morning after, we were all pretty sore and still worn out, so we took it easy in Yokja. We only had that one day and a flight to catch to Denpasar that night, so we took Ojeks (motorbike taxis)  into the main part of the city and walked around a bit. Some of us got lured down a shady sidestreet to a "special student exhibit" of Batik for sale... and the rest of us followed shortly after. 

These smooth loc's sat us down in their display room, offered us tea, and told us a sweet story about all this being student art one-time only sale... yea.  Well I was determined not to be fleeced, but after enough time there, and some hard bargaining, I did end buying from them. I left feeling accomplished because I paid about 15% of the original price for what I got. But I have no doubt that they still made out just fine.