Friday June 5, 2009


Oakland Art Murmur was my last bit of fun before heading off to SFO.  Great turnout -- Alex + bike friends, Anita + Bob, Erika, Nicole, Andrew and I all met at Cafe Van Kleef before heading off to the galleries.  Joy and Stacy joined up later.  We got on the Bart a bit after 10 which got me home by 10:30 and to the airport around 11:30.  Awesome.

Saturday June 6, 2009


This day did not exist. ;^)

Sunday June 7, 2009


The trip is off to a great and eventful start!  On the flight from Taipei to Jakarta I had three seats to myself which was pretty sweet.  But the fun started in the airport right after I landed.  You know those extra pages at the end of your passport labeled "Amendments and Endorsements"?  Well they don't count as a blank page as far as visas go.  Maybe. ;^)  The immigration agent pointed out that I have no more blank stampable pages for the visa sticker and hence I needed to go right back to San Francisco to get a new passport.  I made my case that the amendments pages were a perfectly good place to stick a visa, but he didn't seem to agree.  I wasn't explaining my logic to him very long before I found myself in a dark smoky administrative room while he chatted dramatically with his stern-faced superior.  After a few minutes he led me back to the Visa On Arrival counter and nodded "OK".  He left me alone again without explanation, and a few minutes later he returned with my visa emblazoned on the Amendments page, just like I suggested earlier.  I scored some points with him by saying "Terima kasih banyak" ("thank you very much").

He then frowned at me suggestively and said "Do you have a souvenir for me from America"?

"Will this portrait of President Jackson do?"

"Oh, money!  Yes my friend, terima kasih."

Of course, I'm going to expense that $20 to Sun, although I may need to be creative in choosing a category to file it under. :^)  Turns out that the bribe + Visa On Arrival fee is actually cheaper and faster than getting the visa at the SF consulate anyway.

Jakarta rules.  As soon as I got to the hotel (the Grand Hyatt Jakarta, which is not substandard in any way) I set out and walked/jogged clear across the city to the historic harbor.  The people here couldn't be more friendly!  Adventures include: successfully ordering an iced decaf americano, checking out a park and monument that was self-dedicated to the third to last evil dictator, walking through slums/favelas, buying fruit, goofing around with kids, getting a private tour of the neighborhood by the harbor by a guy that works at the Maritime Museum, and then paying him $5 (which I'm also going to expense) to give me a ride back to the hotel on his motorcycle.  It's only been six hours since my plane landed!  100+ pictures already, plus a few krazy traffic motorcycle ride videos.  Yes.

Monday June 8, 2009


I awoke a bit before 5 and then met Dave for the breakfast buffet.  He got in a day earlier.  Back to the lobby at 6:30 to meet Harry and Adhari for the scenic drive up to the hill town of Bandung.  It took a bit over two hours to get to Institut Teknologi Bandung which has a nice tropical feel to it with lots of huge trees and Dutch roofs.  The auditorium for the OpenSPARC event had about 100 seats and there were about 40 people in attendance.  Dave's presentations went well, and almost all of the questions were about the hypervisor.  Rats -- I present on this tomorrow and as of a week ago I had little idea how the thing works or even what it does.  Will have to cram.

For an afternoon snack I treated myself to a durian yogurt.  It was kind of good.  I guess. :^)

A nice thing about this conference is that it's over early.  We were done well before 4 PM, so I was able to jog over to Jeans Street which is the main Bandung tourist attraction.  It's a noisy, exhaust-fumy, intense several blocks of super concentrated hyper cheap Asian kitsch.  I picked up a "Bandung, Paris von Java" T-shirt which is especially awesome because it has a picture of a bicycle on it.  And the implicit association of Champs Elysees with Jeans Street is too much!  Jogging home was a bit of an adventure.  I couldn't take the exhaust any more, so I tried to cut through a favela.  Which was great because the narrow street-paths lined with tiny shops were fascinating, but then not so great because I got lost and had to come back out the way I came.  It was dark and drizzling a bit which helped cause me to skin my shin by slipping part way into an open sewer.  No sewage contact though!

Dinner was pretty good.  We drove a long way up the hill to a nice open air restaurant overlooking the city.  I got some sort of food which I guess was OK because I can't remember what it was.  Jet lag kicked in hard after dinner.

Tuesday June 9, 2009


This was my big day with four presentations in two time slots.  I started off with a paper describing improvements N2 has over the N1 because I know the material well and have a lot of things to say about the slides.  Then came the hypervisor talk which went OK.

The day's highlight was the lunchtime gamelan performance outside in the courtyard.  These kids were really good.  I wish I knew the text of the play.  There was also some random dancing and music.

Before dinner we stopped by the mall at Jeans Street so Dave could pick up trinkets for the family.  The highlight was getting a "juice", which is actually more of a smoothie.  Mine was great, I think it was either lychee or guava.  Dinner was all out.  It was a legit Indonesian place so we got a broad sampling of food including fried crab, soup, chicken, fried tempeh, some sort of tofu thing, those huge beans (banyan?) and coffee.  OK I guess, but oily.  The steamed rice in a banana leaf was my fav.

Wednesday June 10, 2009


Yay, time to explore!  The cab took me to the train station at 6:30 so I could hop on the Argo Wilis train to Yogyakarta.  It was a 7 hour trip winding through some beautiful countryside.  I sat next to a nun on her way home from some sort of superintendent type job in Jakarta.  Great travel partner.  Kind of funny to see a nun with two cell phones rapidfire texting like a teenager.  The train was somewhat reminiscent of an Indian train, but more spacious and in better repair.  The door in the un-air conditioned kitchen car was left open for ventilation which I think was great.  It's fun to hang out of the train a bit and take pictures.

Upon arriving in Yogyakarta (pronounced "Jodja") I made my way to the nearby Asia-Afrika hotel.  It was dark and quiet, so I quickly made my way outside to check out the town.  Yogya is cool, but the main drag is way too commercial.  The sidewalks are jammed with people selling tourist crap, and the original building facades are mostly covered with store signs.  I followed the walking tour route suggested by the LP from my hotel to the kraton.   The highlight was walking through the bird market, which was more like being in a medieval zoo than a market.  Just about any animal you can put in a cage was beig sold here, some looking to be in rather poor health.  My favorite picture is one of a sea of meal worms squirming in their huge tray.  Some of the escapees from the ant tray made their way to my legs so I figured it was time to go check out the water temple.  I did more exploring and found plenty of live music on the way home.  I was beat, so off to bed early.

Thursday June 11, 2009


I was already awake when I got the 4:15 wakeup call for my trip to Borobodur.  Choosing the early trip was genius: I was up anyway, there were only two other people on the tour (really nice French honeymooners named Ben and Julia), and the temple was deserted.  Sunrise was awesome.  For a few brief moments we caught glimpses of Gunung Merapi puffing steam into the bright red sky.  Should have gotten the driver to stop so I could take pictures.  The other highlight of the drive was going through a fog bank in the rice field area which gave off a really mystical vibe.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that we were nearly the only car in the parking lot when we got to thee temple.  And while there were hawker stalls as far as the eye can see they were all empty!  Hooray for jet lag.  The temple itself was OK.  The reliefs weren't that interesting and weren't in very good condition.  The coolest part was the 72 Buddhas trapped in stone bird cages on the top few levels of the temple.  It's unknown what that symbolizes.  My guess would be that when the cage is removed (samsara) the Buddhas are released from the worldly unhappiness.  Hmm, should have hired a guide.  After Borobodur we hit a few tiny temples on the way home.  They pretty much sucked, but it was educational to see them anyway.

I was home with plenty of time to eat breakfast #2, check out, and figure out how I was going to get to Selo to climb Gunung Merapi.  The local bus looked like an adventure, but would be slow and there were plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong.  So I opted to hire a car and driver for $55.  Apparently I could have gotten it for $40 if I was a better negotiator.  But still, having a local drive you around in a Toyota SUV with leather seats isn't a bad deal in the US!  We left at 2:00 and made it to Selo at around 4:15.  Because the LP info I had on lodging was "outdated" according to the driver, instead of the said guest houses we arrived at the driver's friend's (father's) place.  They served me tea and tried to get me to sign on to staying in their damp dark room and hiring their guide who spoke almost no English.  It was pretty grim.  So, I walked down the street to the places mentioned in the LP that did, in fact and in contrast to my driver's earlier assertion, exist.  They were only slightly better though.  But there was a new guest house on the scene I walked past that actually had a bit of character despite not losing the "bare light bulb in the ceiling" feel.  It was by far the best of the three, but most importantly the guide they offered seemed really cool and spoke decent English.

It turns out that I was the only tourist staying in all of Selo that night, and almost certainly the only white person.  I didn't bother negotiating on the guide fee because I felt that $20 was more than fair for he services provided.  Hardi was fantastic.  While there was still daylight he gave me the grand tour of Selo on his motorbike.  We saw the sunset from the trail head up the hill which was awesome because of all the clouds and fog in the sky.  Occasionally the summit of Merapi would appear through the clouds.  Then we rode down the hill much of the way to Solo (large city of a few million).  There's a scenic overlook where the locals hang out and take in the view on the side of the road.  The Flying Fox zipwire was also there -- looked like a total blast but alas it wasn't open.  It was cool just watching Muslims kick it on a Thursday night.  It was definitely a "date" spot, but like the rest of nightlife in Indonesia it's mostly a bunch of dudes hanging out and not drinking alcohol.

When we got back to the guest house I cooked up my dinner.  This entailed toasting a few pieces of bread in a wire frame toaster over the open fire in the kitchen and scooping out some tuna onto it.  Quite tasty, and obviously rather odd in the eyes of my hosts.  Then after dinner we all hung out in the outdoor area by the pool table.  The guides and friends of Sony (the owner of the travel company) mixed up some sort of drink in a 1.5 liter water bottle using arak, the liquor of Indonesia.  I played my ukulele and then just chatted with Sony for a while.  He seems pretty slick, but a nice guy.  It was insightful to talk to him about cultural things, most notably religion.  He said that while 85% of Indonesians are Muslim, only about 1/3 of those are really "Muslim".  His main gripe was the call to prayer, which was intrusive to his job (not polite to excuse yourself from working with tourists by having to to run off and pray all the time).  I was really tired, and wakeup was at 1:30, so I was asleep by 9.

Friday June 12, 2009


When I woke up I wasn't dragging in the least.  Again, hooray for jet lag!  The hike in the dark was great.  The moon was nearly full so the flashlights were off almost the whole time.  Awesome seeing the steam trail from the top of Merapi gleam in the moonlight!  I also really enjoyed chatting with Hardi.  Some highlights from our conversation:
 The approach to the summit was surreal.  Steam vents became more and more frequent, and it was odd to scramble up boulders in the chilly night that were actually warm to the touch.  The steam was nice and warm, but smelled musty and only slightly of sulfur so I tended to avoid it.  The view from the top was beautiful even in the dark.  By now the masjids (mosques) were blasting prayers like dozens of choir voices spread out below us in the valley.  It really sounded quite excellent - should have taken a video to record the sound.  I bounced around the summit until sunrise when I started my photo fest.  Probably my best sunrise ever.  Even though I was only 3,000 meters up I felt like I was in a jet at 30,000 ft. because the clouds were so low.  I took pictures nonstop, and depleted the battery about when we headed back down.  I forgot my spare battery!  Luckily I was able to milk the charge that was left until I made it back to town.

After a drink and a few selak fruits I headed into town to check out the town market on Sony's suggestion.  Fantastic scene -- a bit reminiscent of markets in India, but cleaner and women wore head scarves instead of saris.  In all directions the townspeople were either heading to or from the market with their baskets.  The few that didn't were carrying the omnipresent bails of grasses used as animal feed.  I took a lot of nice pictures, but many people were too shy to pose for photos.

I took a quick sponge bath and then made my way back to Yogya with a stop at the volcano museum which seemed really good, but it was all in Bahasa Indonesian so I didn't get too much out of it.

One of the best decisions I made was not going back to Asia-Afrika and instead staying at Bladok Losmen despite it not having A/C.  The new place had a hostel vibe that I liked, and a pool.  Oh man did I need that swim!  On the way back from the pool I met Adrian who ended up being my travel pal for the net two days.  Interesting story -- he's a 45 year old Londoner who had to move to a better climate or health reasons.  So he was in Thailand for the past few years, but he said that it wasn't really helping.  I never pressed to find out what his health issue was.

After a shower and a nap I headed out for more exploring.  I began to really like Yogya despite the incessant "where are you going"s, "come in, cheap price" and "where are you from"s.  I met up with Adrian for dinner at the hotel, and then we headed out to rage at Yogya's best night clubs.  Ha ha.  The tip we had on where to go was outdated and didn't exist anymore, and the street was over 6 KM away.  Finally a nice Muslim family in a SUV told us to go to Boshe, which we did because that was our one and only option.  Turns out that this was the scene that we were looking for.  The staff outnumbered patrons by at least 2 to 1, 100% of them had dyed hair, and probably 50% had mohawks.  And there we were, the two white guys with shorts and flip flops.  Ha.  There was a band playing cover tunes and I guess Indo-pop that actually sounded quite good.  There were two singers sporting dresses that were exactly even with crotch level, which we weren't expecting.  The only girls in the club were likely hookers.  Adrian explained to me there KTV (Karaoke TV) was there, where (In Thailand at least) you get a private "karaoke" room which eventually turns into a dirty massage with the proper tip.  Apart from that it was all dudes and the music was too loud so we left.  As far as I'm concerned the best bar in Yogya is Bintang, just a block from our hotel.  There's always a band (in this case, a good reggae band) and there's lots of travelers to meet.  I chatted with Toby and Katia from Bavaria for a while before calling it a night.

Saturday June 13, 2009


I did a sunrise walk and took pictures to kill time until I could rent my bicycle.  At about 9:30 I set off to ride to the Prambanan Temples about 20 KM east of town.  The bike rental guy pointed me to a route that goes along the river that avoids the main highway to Solo.  I heard from other travelers that the temples are pretty lame, so I knew this was going to be all about the ride rather than the destination.  And indeed, just getting to the road that goes along the creek was intense.  I boldly became a part of the insane Yogya traffic as I made my way.  But maps aren't reflective of reality, and almost no streets have signs so it's hard to make split second directional decisions.  The best part was when I asked a group of school girls where the hell I as.  They very kindly gave me directions and were extremely amused and impressed that I was braving Yogya on a bike, white-skinned and flip-flop wearing as I was.  As I clumsily made my way to the intersection they all shouted "be careful mister!!!"  Ha, loved that.

The rest of the ride is probably best experienced in pictures so I won't write about that here.  There are some highlights that I didn't photograph though.  I stopped by a random temple to drink water and eat a Clif Bar in the shade, and locals came to chat with me.  One was an older lady with limited English, the other might have been her husband who spoke quite well.  He asked all the usual questions, but many of his responses consisted of shaking his head and saying disapprovingly "tsk tsk tsk".  E.g.
"You have wife, kids?"
"No, just mme."
"Ohhh... tsk tsk tsk."
And:
"How long flight to Califirnia?"
"About 20 hours, I have a long day tomorrow!"
"Ohhh... tsk tsk tsk."
It was hot when I started my ride, and after a few hours on the road it was really scorching.  I was so hot that water didn't really taste good, and I wasn't the slightest bit hungry.  So when I got back to the hotel I just melted into the pool.  After a few minutes I felt quite good, and after 30 minutes mostly recharged.  Ahh.

Ack, it's my last night already!  And I have like zero energy.  Still, I tried to rally.  Adrian and I went to the funky little cafe/restaurant/losmen on my favorite Gang II alley for dinner.  They served liquor so I finally had a chance to try arak.  I chose the brown sugar and lemon cocktail, and it was OK but definitely not easy drinking.  My guess is that arak taken straight would taste like rice wine, which is nasty.  After dinner we were ready to rock, and hired a horse + carriage to take us to what was supposedly the happeninest club in all of Yogya.  And it might have well been, had there been any people there.  So we walked though the nearby shanty town to the river where some girls taunted us, and then walked back to the trusty old Bintang Bar.  Dave from the hotel was there, so we ordered up a few Bintangs (the Indonesian beer, and also coincidentally the name of the bar -- it means "star") and chatted for a while.  Dave.  OMG.  The first time he talked I was like "what the hell's coming out of his mouth?"  Turns out it was Irish.  Thickest accent I ever heard.  He didn't say "yes", instead "ayeee" was used.  Fantastic accent.  Nice guy.

So that's it!  I passed out in about 2 seconds once I got back to my bed.  The flight home was fine.  I found it amusing how when entering the terminal in Taipei we were greeted by about half a dozen Duty Free employees all wearing surgical masks.  "Welcome to Taipei, you swine flu disease vectors!" I imagined them saying. :^)