Yogyakarta Part I

To be honest, I can't believe that I'm typing this second post and it's already Thursday morning here.  This trip has been such a whirlwind with the 11 hour time difference from home and the mult-leg flight.  BUT, we are here in Yogyakarta and it's been a great first few days here.

We arrived on Monday morning about 11am and from the moment we landed we knew we were in a very different environment than the bustling cities of Singapore and New York, where we'd been just prior.  The plane landed and we exited it down a stairwell to the tarmac, walked just a few yards over to the airport terminal, and immediately waited in line for immigration processing.  The room was quite small and from the line we could see signs behind the immigration counter for both baggage claim and customs.  The entire airport terminal was no bigger than an average sized one-bedroom apartment.  I was surprised by this given what I'd read about the size of Yogyakarta and it's importance to the cultural and traditional heritage of Indonesia, but despite the city's size, it feels intimate.

Our taxi driver was a lovely man named Supri who offered to take us on a full-day tour of two of the most well known temples near Yogyakarta and, after doing some research on the locations and cost of tours, we decided to book with him.  That will be later this week, so another post will follow with details.  The buildings, streets, and traffic here are very reminiscent of Gabon and Benin.  We arrived to our AirBnB apartment relatively quickly from the airport with few traffic delays.

Our AirBnB is an interesting building.  It's very modern and fancy and plopped right in the middle of a bustling street, surrounded by stores, vendor carts, and homes of widely varying appearance and age.  Our apartment is amazing.  It's on the 12th floor with floor to cieling windows throughout, a view of the volcano (when the haze doesn't obscure it) and probably my favorite feature, a rooftop gym and infinity pool.  

View of the city from our apartment

This is the clearest view we've had of the volcano

There's a Starbucks attached to our building and the food is so different.  I just wanted to take a picture to show the offerings.

You go to Indonesia to play Street Fighter on Super Nintendo, right??

Our first day here we dropped our bags at the apartment (it wasn't quite ready as the previous guests had just checked out) and wandered down the main street to see what there was to see.  We stopped to have a bite to eat at one of the many food stalls lining the street, ordering gudeg (roasted jackfruit, a Yogyakarta specialty) with rice and a boiled egg.  I was surprised at how sweet the gudeg was because I expected it to be more savory, but it was still very good.

After returning to the apartment we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out.  I took a nap, went to the gym for a bit and then we went out for dinner at another restaurant not far from our apartment.  Here I had mie rendang, noodles with vegetables and meat with a spicy sauce.  Yum!

Out at a food market on Tuesday night

Sate (satay) and other street food offerings

Cassava noodles, another Yogyakarta specialty

Tuesday marked the start of the International Consortium for Social Development conference.  The theme of this year's conference is the integration of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals into practice to improve global social well-being.  On Tuesday afternoon I presented on the use of the Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for teaching social policy in our BSW program.  Then on Wednesday I did my second presentation, focused specifically on reshaping white narratives in the US as a way of achieving Goal 16 - Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions.  If you are interested in learning more about  Sustainable Development Goals you can click on the link above to go to the official site.

After attending the afternoon sessions I skipped out of the conference a bit early yesterday to enjoy our rooftop pool (wouldn't you?)  Then we went out into the city and got gudeg for dinner at a restaurant that was highly recommended for it.  Again, a bit sweet for my taste, but Landry loves it and I always love experiencing things specific to a place that I'm visiting.  

Gudeg with rice, egg, and chicken

It's Thursday morning now and I'm trying finish up this post to get ready for the conference.  One of my favorite things about being here is that I get to ride a motorbike to and from the university each day.  For those of you who have traveled with me or read my other travel blogs, you know I have a deep love for and obsession with motorbike taxi rides.  The Uber of southeast Asia is called Grab and you can call not only cars, but also bikes for rides.  My Grab bike costs approximately 65 cents from my apartment to the university where the conference is being hosted.  Can't beat that!  Mom, don't worry, I'm wearing a helmet! 

I expect another post after our day trip to the temples on Friday.  Then Saturday morning we're off to Bali with lots of photos and stories to come!