today i went to pranbanan temple, about an hour’s travel by public bus from the city. i’m not sure i’ve ever seen anything like it: three temples devoted to three gods, with three smaller ones devoted to the creatures they used to get around. the biggest one is sheva, then on either side are vishnu and braman. their “vessels” or transport were a bull, a swan and an eagle. unfortunately the site has been damaged severely by the earthquake in 2006, so we couldn’t go inside sheva’s temple; but we did go inside most of the others.

i’m not sure i’ve ever seen anything like this place. reaching out and touching the ancient stone, hearing about the gods from our stumbling 17-year-old guide in training, feeling the stale hot air inside the temples; it’s impossible to describe. similar to the feeling i’d had earlier in the day listening to scores of people singing the koran through loudspeakers across the town while praying. run-down houses and buildings, paint chipping for years. swallows zipping through the thick, humid 30+ air. breeze drying the sweat on my shining face. everything just old and sepia-toned through my sunglasses.

faith is so haunting. although i don’t believe in anything god-like, i can feel it–almost tangible–when i hear it, or see it. it’s almost enough to believe it.

hassled non-stop for being a white man (mat salah), buy this, buy that; take a picture with me, fall for my con, where are you from? i miss home. looking at pictures of granville and robson full of adoring hockey fans, i feel the pride i’ve always had for my nation swelling inside me despite the disagreements i have with so many of its decisions. in this heat i crave hot drinks in the cold, or two pairs of socks, or a painful nose after coming inside.

it’s impossible to call anywhere else from indonesia: calls internationally are almost a dollar a minute, which is impossible for me because i’m so poor. phone cards don’t exist. nine hours later and yesterday, it’s hard to catch anyone on skype. i’m truly isolated but having the time of my life. i’m not sure when the last time i’ve smiled so much or been so excited to wake up was.

tomorrow maybe we’ll go to the beach.

here comes a feeling you thought you’d forgotten
chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on

those lyrics from vampire weekend’s horchata are pretty much summing it up for me right now. thrust from a month-long stint in resort paradise straight into the messy, smelly, friendly city of yogyakarta in java, indonesia.

now, i know i say i don’t like cities, but after only a day here i’m in love with this one. the locals are either actually friendly or friendly and trying to con you (which isn’t actually that difficult to avoid); the food is delicious and cheap–my favourites so far are “gado-gado” which is basically fresh veggies in a delicious cold peanut sauce and of course tempe, soybeans in blocks usually deep-fried which tom claims are the “best meat imitation he’s ever had”. ah, meat eaters are so funny; they assume that everything that taste remotely like meat must be trying to imitate it. well, at least he likes it.

our new friend toto showed us a nice little restaurant and bar where we–you guessed it–ate and drank; an entire meal for both of us with two tallies (large beers) for under 10AUD. life is good. it is funny, though, paying say 9,000 for a beer… but 1AUD equals 8,100 indonesian rupiah. while we ate he explained that muslims, chinese and christians will celebrate each others’ holidays together; and later, we witnessed it in a massive parade celebrating muhummad’s birthday which was the day before yesterday, and chinese new year which was a couple of weeks ago. scores of cultures were involved in the celebrations and everyone was happy. get with it, gaza strip!

today we’re taking one more day to wander around and go shopping (i only have one outfit i can wear right now if i want to be culturally sensitive: no bottoms above the knee, and no low cut tops or short sleeves) then we’re off to see some temples, etc tomorrow and the next few days. soon we’ll head east to lombok as well.

miss you all! wish you were here.