13th January 2009
Tonight will be my fourth night at the Perwita Sari Hotel in Jalan Prawirotaman in the South of Jogjarkata. I have a basic room with fan, no airconditioning, a clean and comfortable bed, a tv that I haven’t felt the least inclined to watch ( I suspect all of the programs are in Bahasa Indonesia anyway), and an attached bathroom that has hot water but no place to hang the shower head (?!). With a basic Indonesian fried rice breakfast this little number is costing me 99,000 Indonesian Rupiah a night which is around 6 UKP. Oh yes..there is a swimming pool and the place is very friendly. It is about 10 minutes walk from my 1st room in Jogja on this trip at Rumah Eyang. Atik at Rumah Eyang was charging me a similar amount for similar accomodation but I felt that the rooms location within the grounds of the house were a little dismal. However I am going back there for a couple of hours each day to catch up with the friends that I have made there and enjoy the friendly rapport between guests who are mostly connected to the art scene that is very dominant in this area of Jogja.
One artist that I have chatted to most days is Barry! Although Barry’s art tends to be rather liquid oriented he is a leader in his field particularly in this relatively muslim region. Today he wanted to show me around a little. We got lost! Barry is seventy one and as with it as they come until directions and names are concerned. However we did ultimately make it to a McDonalds which I had already indicated to Barry was placed rather firmly near the top of my agenda. We rode the regular bus into the Malioboro area which appears to be a single fare operation no matter where you get on or off. 2500 I R felt like a bargain for a 15 minute ride in heat that would have made what was probably a 40 minute walk an exhausting affair.
I haven’t felt challenged or discovered a great deal in the last couple of days. This often tends to produce a little agitation within me. However I am treating this as a break from what has been a period of intense marketing and business development activity for me around the semiconductor related affair that I have been trying to establish. So a period free of challenge and discovery is allowing me to ‘breathe’ a little.
I have to admit the subject of earthquakes hovers in the wings of my mind. Today they ventured toward centre stage for a few minutes. I talked to a hotel guest that was here during the massive quake of 2006 that hit the Jogja region badly. He was staying in this hotel then also. The pool managed to develop waves of over 6′ in the 1 minute 4 secs that the earth moved here. His first floor room collapsed and he was pretty lucky to escape with his life he believes. He will only ever stay in ground floor accomodation near the road now!
Tomorrow I have a 1 hour domestic flight to Bali. There my intention is to take a taxi to the Seminyak region. I have no accomodation booked but I think during this quiet period there I should have no difficulty finding accomodation on arrival.
Down The Road 