Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta, commonly known as Jogja, is the tourism capital of Indonesia.  We flew here from Jakarta yesterday afternoon and will be here for a week.  I sat next to an Indonesian gentleman on the flight who lived in Canada for 2 years and did his MBA at UNB.  What kind of a coincidence is that, Zook?  He loved living in Canada and found Canadians to be kind and very honest.  When I said that my experience in Indonesia so far was much the same he said 'Yes, but in Canada it is not an act.'  Forewarned is forearmed.  I have to be honest, tho, I do find people here are not pushy and they seem very kind.

We spent the morning at the local market.  Very, very hot.  I was glad that I got up at 5 and enjoyed the cooler part of the day. Here are a few photos from the morning.

 This one is for Jesse.  Can you smell it?  Hmmmm?  Do you want to throw up?  For the rest of you, this is Durian fruit.  It is the grossest smelling thing you could ever imagine and it is a real delicacy here.  They even have Durian ice cream.  Apparently, you earn real respect from the locals if you will try it but I don't need anybody's respect THAT badly.

This one is for Chris.  You wanted photos of the food?  You see these plates of chicken at every food stall.  Diarrhea waiting.  It smells almost as bad as the Durian. 

This one is for Paige.  It is a tiny lizard on the floor of a pharmacy that I went into.  It was about the length of my forefinger and the girl working there almost had a nervous breakdown when I pointed it out.  She ran for cover.

 Family transportation.  Note the parents wearing the helmet but the child has no protection.  Go figure.

 You see sleeping rickshaw drivers everywhere.  I am not sure how they make any money at all.

 I think this must have been a vendors children.  They were sitting quietly and entertaining themselves.  There did not seem to be any parents in site.