Fruits and Vegetables

The Boy has started in on solid foods. Some initial dabbling in bananas and papaya has turned into a serious rice cereal habit. Like the Hold Steady sang, "It started recreational, but ended kind of medical." Welcome to a lifetime of chewing!
Perhaps by no coincidence in timing, The Boy has also cut his first tooth! Ask us how we know? Because we heard it clinking on the cold beer glass we were letting him chew on. Empty, I swear!

One Week in Yogya

So we finally spent some time in a city. Yogya, as they call it, is the “cultural centre of Java”. That could well be. It is certainly the shopping centre for touristy goods of Java. The main street which runs through the middle of the city is lined with sidewalk stand after sidewalk stand, selling batik fabric, tourist t-shirts (or t-shits, as one store put it) and other wares. This was a lovely street to walk down once or twice, as we did on our way to the Kraton – the Sultan’s palace.

Yes, there is still a Sultan who lives in Yogya, in some rather nice grounds. He is the ninth Sultan, and the Kraton contains a museum showcasing the achievements, history and memorabilia of the Sultanate.

We stayed at the Phoenix Hotel, which was originally constructed as a residence for a Dutch merchant in the late 19^th century. One can only assume it was a nice residence, because the bones of that residence have been turned into a quite nice hotel. We spent much time on our balcony, which overlooked an interior garden area. The Boy was content to play on a blanket or in his little tent, while we had cocktail hour every afternoon, consisting of Bintang beer and peanuts from the convenience store across the street. Got to keep it real, am I right?

Working around The Boy’s nap schedule, we managed to see all of the important sites around Yogya, of which there are a few. Hindu temples, Buddhist temples, mosques – the area has them all and they are worth seeing. Pictures later...

A week in the city was enough – despite the nice sights and culture, Yogya is still a large, dirty city with really no definable centre. The main street I mentioned earlier is the main street only by virtue of its size, location and proximity to the Kraton. It does not have much of the restaurant or other development you might expect to see.

On our last day in Yogya we were happy to discover a charming little area with several good restaurants and coffee shops, Via Via and the Ministry of Coffee being two of them. Getting take-out food for our hotel was a great way to end our time in the city.

And now, off to the tropical islands of Malaysia!

New Month's Resolution

It now bring April, it seems appropriate to make a resolution: I need to take notes on lessons learned during a trip and apply them to the next one.
For example, a shoulder bag is much more useful day-to-day than a small backpack. Not only is it sharper, it's easier to carry and get into.
Certainly I could pick up a bag for cheap here in Seminyak, but then I'll have one more bag kicking around at home. I can only use so many at one time, and I have a perfectly suited bag which is packed in a box somewhere in transit between Vancouver and Calgary.
I find myself considering the future utility of purchases a lot more in this trip than in the past. I think it may be a function of having just watched my home being packed up and shipped from city to city.
A word on the photos:
- Bintang, the leading local beer, displayed like nice wine in a supermarket. Not great, but very refreshing.
- Anomali Coffee, apparently a Jakarta outfit, has recently opened a Seminyak location. Staff still seems to be training, but they do great third wave coffee with an emphasis on Indonesian single-origin beans. Also, a in the photo, a fine piccolo.
- A particularly fearsome rooftop sculpture in Ubud. I was strangely reluctant to enter that store...
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You need taxi?

For having spent a lot of time in Indonesia over the years, it's funny that the bulk of that time was on one beach or another. Or not so funny when you consider that Indonesia consists of over 17,000 (!!) islands. It probably has the highest border area to total area ratio of any country.
Ubud is not on the coast. As you may have heard, it's in the woods. Or, as they call it here, jungle. Some say there are monsters in that jungle, and I've seen the statues to prove it.
I'm pleasantly surprised by Ubud - once you look past all the "Eat, Pray, Love" toting divorcees and the western yoga cats who are too cool for sunscreen - mental note: tomato yoga may be the next big trend, reserve trademark now - it's a great town that has, from what I can tell, managed to incorporate tourism fairly well. In a Banff sort of way, where the high school is across the street from a row of tourist shops, but still...
There are monkeys, banana pancakes and a drum factory here - what more evidence do you need to show this is a backpacker hotspot? Since you asked, I'll tell you about the taxi touts. All hours of the day and night they sit around with laminated signs, asking if you need transport. How do they make money? Do they own/lease their taxis, or just rent an available one when they have a customer? Is one trip a day enough for them to turn a profit? How successful is the "cold call" approach?
So many questions...
Myself, we used a driver recommended by a friend, and e turned out to be wonderful, a cheerful guy and a cautious driver. We'll be sure to use him again, perhaps to track down a source of that civet coffee I've heard so much about...

Destination Denpasar

Back after a few days without wireless, here is some catchup. This post was meant to appear circa March 25th, but I've been busy cold chillin'.
If you ever have the chance to visit the ANA Business Lounge in Narita, I highly recommend it. Made to order noodle bowls (better than the instant noodles in the Incheon Star Alliance lounge) and soothing decor were good enough, but then the staff gave us the use of a private meeting room for The Boy. A Japanese-style meeting room, where he enjoyed scratching at the tatami mats and we relaxed.
My favorite sign from Narita was on the door to a smoking room: "For adult smokers only". What are we doing for our children?
The flight between Narita and Incheon was uneventful, as uneventful as the first-class section of a 747 can be, sitting right above the cockpit.
Seoul - the aforementioned instant noodles, cold weather, and a wall-mounted bassinet for The Boy on the flight, in which he slept like a champ.
The only glitch in our travel plans occurred in Singapore, where, despite the best assurances of Aeroplan, we were neither able to upgrade our seats nor makes use of the Singapore Airlines lounge. Thanks, Aeroplan, you'll be hearing from us!
A short flight to Denpasar later, we were sweating out all the travel in Bali. I find it hard to believe I was working 10 days ago.

To the interior

We have moved from Sanur to Ubud, in the Balinese jungle. Verdant and steeped in history, Ubud is also rife with western yogis and older hippies in Simple shoe.
I wouldn't have thought that traveling away from the beach would result in a louder, higher intensity experience, but there are more busses, tourists, touts and temples in Ubud than Sanur, by far. Perhaps that impression is exacerbated by the fact that we lounged by our pool in Sanur most days, teaching The Boy to swim.
We are in a lovely cottage in the woods and just off the beaten track in Ubud - our own slice of jungle life. I'd show you a photo of the frog that guards the pool at night, but it's terribly grainy. Here instead is a photo of a place we were unable to stay at in Sanur.

Thoughts on the fly

The Boy loves airplane bathrooms. Small, filled with mirrors, a loud constant hum and some gentle movement, I imagine it is much like being in a brightly-lit womb.

The Boy did not, however, like his first taste of the ocean. We dipped his feet in and he had had enough. Even the pools evoke a similar response. Funy for someone who is learning to love bathtime.