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Jogjakarta trip
Day 2 - 29th April - Prambanan, Jogjakarta (Part 4)
This reminded me of
Prambanan
Silhouetted Prambanan
From the side
From afar
There were three more temple complexes apart from the main cluster, so we went to have a look.
Candi Lumbung
There was also Candi Bubrah but it was basically a dump.
Candi Sewu
Access to this temple was very restrictive, and you had to walk all the way to the side to get in (we saw one group inside, and took a while to figure out how they got in). By this time it was getting dark, the place was closing and we were all temple-d out so we decided not to go in for more of the same. Some carvings appear to be slightly different from Prambanan, though, and the place allowed you to look at the reliefs in more detail.
Closeup
CWN: "Is that a giant lingam?"
There were some red ants clustering on the fence blocking off access, so I decided to kill some before they bit me.
Strangely, they did not panic the same way black ants panic when you kill one of their kind. Instead they clustered around their dead comrade to have a look.
We then tried to burn the ants with a cigarette, but it didn't quite work out.
Candi Lumbung
I had to use the toilet (due to the lack of English signage, I walked into "wanita" instead of "pria", but only found out when I exited), and discovered an interesting thing about Indonesian toilets: they had no toilet paper (my hotel toilet didn't, but that might've been because it was cheapskate).
Water for you to wash yourself. Notice how murky it is. If I'd gotten gonorrhea, I'd have known what to blame.
Not only was there no toilet paper, there was also:
No soap. Well done.
I considered having a deer lick my fingers - that might make them cleaner than using water alone (the deer enclosure was just beside a restaurant. I wanted to see if venison was on the menu but didn't get round to doing so)
Deer compound
Prambanan from one of the avenues
Back in Prambanan, we walked around looking for dinner.
Along Malioboro, some genius had set up a drinks stall (also selling Es Teler/Duren) - outside a public toilet. Well done.
In the shopping mall along Malioboro, we found Nusantara, a shop selling street food - at decidedly un-street prices. From the lack of English it was apparent that it was targetting locals, so I concluded they were targetting affluent locals who didn't want the lack of hygiene/comfort of the roadside.
You can see how empty it was
The shopping mall also had a lousy-looking food court (which was still better than Malaysian ones, but that's not saying much). One stall was especially questionable:
"Winner Snictzhel" and "Gordon Bleu" on the menu
Meanwhile, KFC had "organic rice". Given how poor people in Indonesia are, I'm not sure this was a smart move.
I saw a tudung-clad woman going into a pink shop called 'naughty' (it sold a lot of girl accessories). Hah.
In the end, we settled for Texas Chicken.
Texas Chicken
Eat me. Just eat me.
Their menu
Strangely for a fast food chain, their sets came with rice by default. CWN pointed out that the local potatoes were not good for fries, so fries potatoes had to be imported.
Black pepper beef, burrachio beans, 2 piece chicken
The beef wasn't as smelly as what you get in Singapore - CWN's theory was that it's Australian and NZ beef that smells.
The chicken was similar to the roadside fried chicken I had on my first day, so I wondered why all the fast food chains hadn't been run out of town. My theory was that fast food was the local equivalent of fine dining.
"Free English lessons with UK and Australian. Five Indonesian girls who want to learn English for better understanding and upgrade their working profiles. Must be dedicated to improving their lives. Send brief CV of last 3 jobs and picture to bali4english@yahoo.com"
I can't be the only one who finds this ad suspicious. The unspoken premises are quite clear, especially since the lessons have to be free.
Caramel Crunch and Coffee Crunch McFlurry. They were sold out, sadly.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped by a convenience store, where I made more interesting discoveries:
"Dutch Mill". My earlier theory about Frisian Flag doesn't seem to hold.
"Promosi. Cadbury Dairy Milk Roll 50 Gram. 8th Edition"
I wondered what editions 1-7 were like. Other products were also advertised as being 8th (or some other) edition.
"A&W Rasa Sarsaparila" - how they package A&W Root Beer in Indonesia, and with a darker colour. It tasted the same though.
Woman with good balancing skills.
Ad in Internet Cafe: the "unlimited" in "unlimited internet access" is blanco-ed out.
"3 Manjakani Condoms. VIRGIN Dotted Condom with Manjakani, love secret from the East, gives a satisfying sexual experience for you and your partner"
Virgin Condoms. Which idiot came up with the name?!
Quotes:
Oh wow, my boob burn is quite bad.
You specialise in knowing weird useless shit that does nothing to improve the quality of my life... You're getting freakier by the minute.