Semarang

Last Friday I had the first of two Indonesian cooking classes. It was awesome, though unbearably hot with all the pans on the boil and only one measly fan to push the air around. The class only had about 10 people which meant we all got to have a turn pounding spice pastes, extracting fresh coconut milk, peeling garlic, stirring etc. We made beef rendang, pecel (leafy vegies with peanut sauce) and fried tempe. They all tasted amazing and I can wait to get home and try to recreate them! The only problem was the class ran more than half an hour overtime, meaning I just had time to shovel down the food before having to run off to the bus office to get the bus to Semarang.

I was in Semarang for 2 nights with Erinn and Steve. Semarang is on the north coast, and to me just seemed to be another city, only hotter! We arrived on Friday evening, and after checking out 3 hotels (full, too expensive, demolished) we settled on a simple, but cheap place in the central area. We spent Saturday sightseeing – an 18th century church, 2 markets, a Chinese Buddhist temple and Lawang Sewu, an old Dutch fort come train station come setting for a horror move of the same name. I haven’t actually seen the movie, but apparently it has something to do with the thousand doors in the building and never being able to find your way out… By lunchtime the heat was getting too much so we retreated to the air-conditioned bliss of the local mall. Later that afternoon we headed down to the central shopping area – Simpang Lima – and had the most amazing lumpia (spring rolls) ever. Lumpia are a Semarang specialty and can be bought all over the city.

Having exhausted all the sights in Semarang, on Sunday we caught the bus up into the mountains to Bandungan to see the 9th century Gedung Songo temples. It was refreshingly cool and clean after the heat of Semarang. There was a 3km steep uphill walk from where we got off the bus to the entrance of the temples. As we didn’t really have the time to spare we decided to get an ojek (motorcycle ride) instead. The guys couldn’t understand why we wanted helmets – “there aren’t any police here”. The temples looked amazing, scattered all over the mountain. The view, although cloudy, was also spectacular with mountaintops jutting through the clouds and a huge lake shimmering in the foreground. I just loved being able to draw a lungful of air without choking!

Another week...

The rainy season has well and truly arrived. Yesterday there was a huge and destructive storm. It began around 2pm with huge cracks of thunder and lightning, followed by rain so heavy you couldn’t see more than a few meters in to it. It rained solidly for not quite an hour. This may not seem that long, but the volume of water that poured out of the sky was enormous. I had to walk to one of my classes through rivers of water, ankle deep flooded roads and around courtyards that had turned into swimming pools. Most of the time there was no way around the floods – they went from wall to wall. On my way home my feet were slipping around in my (cheap) shoes and they both broke, so I had to walk some of the way barefoot. Needless to say I chose to walk through the mud rather than through the murky pools of water. Besides all the flooding the storm had partially knocked over a huge Yamaha sign on one of the main roads, causing all the traffic to be diverted through the back roads. Most annoyingly however the entire electricity grid around my house was knocked out (again), leaving all my area without power from mid afternoon until nearly 9 that night!

In other news, it was Emma’s 21st last Thursday, so we all went to a Chinese/Japanese/Korean restaurant to celebrate. Emma’s parents were here all last week, so they were there as well, which must have been nice for her. The meal was delicious, but I have to admit my favourite thing was the amazing rich, dense chocolate cake. As much as people in Yogya like sweet things, one thing I don’t think they do particularly well is dessert. Cakes here are normally sponge cakes, which I don’t really like, or made out of tasteless jelly. So this was the first proper cake I’ve had for months and it was brilliant!

On Sunday I went with a few friends to the breakfast markets at uni. I’ve been meaning to go for ages but have never seemed to get around to it. It was brilliant. There were heaps of stores selling little trinkets and clothes, and even more set up with straw mats selling food. The stalls stretched right along 2 of the main roads within the uni and the area was packed with people wandering around, eating and sipping on fresh juices. The choice of places to eat was seemingly endless, but in the end we settled on a busy one (usually a good indication that the food is safe and/or tasty). While we were eating we were approached by more people asking for money than usual. There were the usual suspects – people on their guitars singing with various degrees of skill, women with their children, but there were also some that I hadn’t come across before, like the woman who had a microphone and speaker strapped to her body (so you just couldn’t ignore her) and the group of three transvestites who may or may not have sung. The food was good and I’ll definitely be back the next weekend I’m in Yogya.

Exams, karaoke, weddings...

Photo 1: In traditional wedding gear
Photo 2: The happy couple

Last week I had my mid semester exams. The first, for Hinduism/Budhism was actually supposed to be on the previous week, but because the lecturer was on holidays/ on a project/ too lazy/ still asleep (take your pick) it was postponed. All the exams went ok – I was allowed to use dictionaries and the exams were only short, so language wasn’t too much of a problem.

On Friday I swallowed my embarrassment and went with a group of friends to Happy Puppy aka karaoke central. I must admit that when I stopped being uptight about the whole thing I did actually enjoy myself. We had a private room, so my humilliation was somewhat limited. To lessen the pain (of both myself and everyone else) I made sure I always sung with someone who actually could sing, sung really softly, and kept the microphone well away from my mouth.

On Saturday I went with Erinn to her pendamping Dini’s (helper/ guide from the start of semester) sister’s wedding reception. I barely knew Dini and have never met her sister, but it seems the mentality here is the more the merrier. Erinn and I got done up in the traditional Indonesian kebaya and sarong, which earned us plenty of stares along the road when we went to hail a taxi.

The reception was held in a huge room of a posh hotel in Yogya. there were lots of people, two buffets and not enough chairs! The bride, groom and their parents spent the night sitting on a raised platform at the end of the room, shaking hands with the guests ( many of whom they probably didn't know very well, if at all), haviing photos taken with said guests and watching everyone eat.