What a Lovely Pinky Day (valentines day add in Yogya)

Hello hello! Remember us? Yes, we know it's been a little while, but, though we came close, we did not drop off the face of the earth. Thought you should know. okay. that's all-- bye.

Only kidding.

Okay, wow--it's been, what, a month? no, not quite. Three weeks? Yeah, almost a month since our last post and, of course, there is much to tell. At the moment, it is 10 at night in the city of Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta and nicknamed "Yogya") in central Java, where we have spent a very exciting and satisfying five days exploring the labyrinthian streets, the temples of Borobudur and Prambanan, and the markets. Our first morning in Yogya, we stumbled off our 16-hour overnight bus from Bali around 6 a.m. Though we were rather sleep-deprived, we immediately ventured out to the bird market. We walked through alleys of brightly-colored cages containing, not just pretty songbirds by the dozens, but also roosters, bats, pidgeons, squirrels, hamsters, geckos, puppies and rabbits. What a zoo! So much to take in. Thoughts about animal treatment took the backseat while we simply tried to see everything around us. Beside the bird cages, there were large baskets of squirming grubs, crates of crickets and trays of rice mixed with live ants--what treats! PetsMart has got nothing on these guys! The main business in the bird markets are pidgeons, which are trained as a hobby by many who proudly showed us their fine feathered friends.

While on the subject of markets, today we came upon one of the best yet. Right in the center of town, taking up at least two city blocks, this three-story tall market was chock-full of everything you could possibly want. From underwear and toe-socks to spices and fresh produce to cleaning supplies and beautiful muslim headscarves--it's all there. We squeezed between the numerous stalls, trying to get a good glimpse of everything and walk at the same time. Men were carrying five bags of rice on their backs and old women hunched-over under the weight of coconut-filled sacks. Huge piles of fresh ginger, overflowing baskets of green limes, red chili-peppers, purple shallots and enormous bundles of the biggest sticks of cinnamon either of us has ever seen...ever. It was a pretty neat feeling to be the only Westerners ("bule"s) in this local market: a treasure.


rewind a few weeks...


Afer two weeks on Lombok, we slowly made our way up through the clouds to a tiny mountain village called Candi Kuning. The cool air was very refreshing and reminded us of the scrumptious mountain air back home, except more humid. Our plan was to hike to the top of an ancient volcanic cone (sounds neat, don't it?) called Mt. Catur. On the morning of the hike, we woke up early to beat the inevidable afternoon rain, bought some snacks at the market and set off. The trail head was supposed to be easy to find. umm. okay.... we think we found the right one...? Our spirits high, we tramped down soggy jungle trail after soggy jungle trail. Each one ending either in wildly-lush, green overgrowth or wandered steeply down the mountain (and we wanted to go up, right?). Anyways, we had a blast. The jungle was beautiful with hairy vines, fiddlehead-ferns, exotic flowers and everyplant seemed to be growing and thriving right on top of another one. Have you ever heard of a jungle leech? Well, Misra hadn't. We got up-close and a little too personal with these sneaky bastards. Fortunately the worst was done only to our pants and shoes while our blood remained un-sampled. We never made it to the top of the mountain, but enjoyed bushwacking, rambling through mud-holes and passing rural farms.

So, folks. That's all we've got time for. It's difficult trying to decide what to share and what to keep as juicy stories for when we get home. Tomorrow we board another 16-hour overnight bus back to Bali and we will soon be at the clinic and beginning our volunteer work. You can check out the link on the right of the blogpage under Yayasan Bumi Sehat for more info on where we will be spending the next seven weeks. Hope you are all doing well. Stay warm! (Ha!)

alright,
Love to all of you and Happy Valentines Day

C and M