October 2000 - Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia

To break up the long journey from Bali, west across Java, we stopped back in the city of Yogyakarta.  We spent our first night back in Yogya at a performance of wayang kulit, shadow puppet theater.  The puppets are made of perforated leather and are manipulated behind an illuminated cotton screen.  A single puppeteer, called the dalang, animates the puppets, narrates the story and conducts the accompanying gamelan orchestra.  The performance that we attended was anepisode from the Hindu epic, The Ramayana.  A unique aspect of this performance was the ability to wander behind the screen to witness the talents of the dalang and the gamelan musicians and singers.  The gamelan is a traditional Javanese and Balinese orchestra consisting of mainly percussion instruments such as gongs, xylophones, bronze kettle drums and
One of the sets of gamelan orchestra gongs housed in the Sultan's Palace in Yogya.
wooden drums as well as string and woodwind insturments.  When previously in Yogya, we had the opportunity to play some of these insturments ourselves.  Karen proved to be pretty good at the sarong (xylophone with bronze bars struck with a wooden mallet) while Brian's favorite were the gongs.
The following evening, our eight year anniversary, we ventured back to one of our favorite sites in Indonesia, the Prambanan Temple Complex to see the complete performance of the Ramayana Ballet.  With the Prambanan Complex illuminated in the evening sky as a backdrop, the dancers performed the very elaborate story of the Ramayana.  We have attended many cultural performances in our travels but this, by far, was the most spectacular.  The ballet consisted of approximately 40 dancers, including some talented children playing the parts of small monkey warriors, and an additinal 15 or so gamelan musicians.  The highlight was when Hanuman, the monkey god, broke free from his imprisonment and burned down the fortress of the evil demon Rawana.  Much to the audience's delight, the stage erupted into flames as Hanuman stood triumphantly above the burning city.  It was quite an experience.
Prambanan lit up for a performance of The Ramayana Ballet.
October 2000 - Bogor, West Java, Indonesia

We spent our final day in Java hanging around with a friend that we met our first time in Bogor, Adi.  Adi was kind enough to take us to his house in a village on the outskirts of Bogor.  On the way to his house, he showed us around the village and we noticed that he knew absolutely everyone in his village by name.  His house was simple and small but with a great view of a river, rice paddies and Gunung Salak, the mountain that dominates the area south of Bogor.  He took us on a walk through the villages, and up to a hilltop that provided superb views of the city.  On top of the hill was a villa once owned by the former president Suharto, but now open to all.  It then started to rain and some of Adi's friends, noticing he was with foreigners, offered to take us to the local angkot (city mini-bus) stop on their motorcycles.  At first we were a little apprehensive being that we had experienced for two months how reckless Indonesians drive their motorcycles.  However, soon after hopping on the bikes, we realized their great skill in driving along the potholed, wet and narrow streets.  Upon arriving at the bus stop, we began feeling hungry.  We decided to get some satay, delicious tiny kebabs of chicken, mutton or beef dipped in a spicy peanut sauce.  Being that the satay stall was located in a small village outside of the city, the owners were surprised and amused to see tourists in their establishment which was pretty much the front porch of their house.  They were further amused to hear us say "thank you" in the local Sundanese language.
No matter where you may travel, the most important and useful phrase to learn in the local language is "thank you."  It is not only polite but also the only true way to show your appreciation to the people and to their culture.  In Indonesia, this is easier said than done.  Once you learn how to say it in Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, you must then learn it in the various local dialects, numbering over 300.  So far, we have learned four ways in which to say "thank you" in Indonesia: terimah kasih (Bahasa Indonesia, jokingly pronounced tear up my car seat), hatur nuhun (Sundanese in West Java), matur nuhun (Javanese in Central and East Java), and matur suksuma (Balinese in Bali).  We are currently looking forward to learning more Indonesian ways to say "thank you" when we visit the island of Sumatra, sometime in early November.
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