I left Bukittinggi and headed for the airport. I got a bit unlucky and must have found the slowest driver in all of Indonesia. Somehow, it took us almost 4 hours to go about 40 miles on a paved road, and I barely made it to the airport on time. My next destination was Yogyakarta (called Yogya or Jogja) for a few days to get a taste of life on Java, the world's most populous island. Attitudes here in Jogja are a bit more relaxed compared to conservative Sumatra, but alcohol still isn't super cheap or as readily available as some other places I've visited. I'm looking at you, Philippines...can't beat $1.50 for a 24oz San Migel.
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| Farmer with a sweet ride |
I pulled the usual stunt of renting a motorbike and driving myself around to see the sights. I had a particularly nice early morning ride through the countryside on my way to see Borobudur temple about 40km outside of town. The temple itself was quite nice, but the best part was having it mostly to myself for a few hours before the tour buses showed up. I was accosted by a bunch of English students who came to the temple specifically to meet native English speaking tourists and chat them up. I'm pretty sure that this was actually a graduation requirement for many of them. It's a bit strange to have people lining up to talk to you, but whatever, I'm happy to help. Everyone's very friendly, and all I have to do is answer a bunch of questions and then take a few pictures. Ok...a million pictures. Here's a Borobudur photo dump.
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| The first of about a zillion photos with English students |
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| Dragonfruit. Picture stolen from internet. |
I visited a few other sights around town, saw a puppet show (it's a thing here), and ate a bunch of good, cheap food. While driving around the countryside, I found a dragonfruit farm and stopped to chat with the ladies selling them on the street. For $2 per kilo, I couldn't resist. Is there a more exotic fruit than dragonfruit? I don't think so.
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| Delicious bakso. $0.80 a bowl! |
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| Sitting in traffic in Jogja |
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| Possibly the most relaxed watermellon salesman ever? |
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| Chili mania at the market |
Photos of the temples and markets are fine, but I expect that most people are more excited to see pictures of the toilets. I know I would be. Below is a pretty standard operation in Indonesia. The tub on the right fills up with water, and you use the little pink scoop to pull water from the tub to flush. This hotel has a shower head right there above the toilet, but more basic places just have you use the scoop to shower as well. I'm not 100% sold on the squat toilets, but I'm sure that given enough time I'd come around. One thing I do like is that since the shower and toilet are all in the same area, there's a drain in the floor to let the shower water drain away. I assume this makes cleaning the bathroom a snap, as all you have to do is spray everything down, and just let it all drain away. Fastest bathroom cleaning ever!
Photos of the temples and markets are fine, but I expect that most people are more excited to see pictures of the toilets. I know I would be. Below is a pretty standard operation in Indonesia. The tub on the right fills up with water, and you use the little pink scoop to pull water from the tub to flush. This hotel has a shower head right there above the toilet, but more basic places just have you use the scoop to shower as well. I'm not 100% sold on the squat toilets, but I'm sure that given enough time I'd come around. One thing I do like is that since the shower and toilet are all in the same area, there's a drain in the floor to let the shower water drain away. I assume this makes cleaning the bathroom a snap, as all you have to do is spray everything down, and just let it all drain away. Fastest bathroom cleaning ever! 
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