Yada, Yada, Jakarta &Yogyakarta – October 14, 2026

This one is going to be short and sweet. The last two weeks have been really nice and a big change from city life. In a 3-day, 2-night boat trip on an advertised delux pinici boat that turned out to be a dilapidated wooden boat, the Princess Lala, porting from Labuan Bajo, we did some of the best snorkeling ever, and saw the sunrise from a high hilltop. At night we dosed with fellow passengers from Germany, France, China and Indonesia under a sky full of stars and were awestruck by the mind-boggling Milky Way. On day 2, the group wandered around Komodo Island with guides to find the enormous, but nocturnal scaley dragons sleeping in the shade. Snorkeling and sunning ourselves on a pink sand beach was on tap for the afternoon.

From Labuan Bajo, we traveled to Yogyakarta, pronounced Jogakarta, anb made our temporary home at another absolutely lovely tropical resort. It was a distinct vibe change from busy Jakarta where the call to worship being sung from nearby mosques woke us every day at 5 AM. At this new heavenly tropical place, crowing roosters woke up up at 4:30 AM. Still our boat trip from Labuan Bajo and our stsy at Rajaklana Resort and Spa near Yogyakarta, was just the thing we needed after many days and many weeks of hard travels. The important to do in Yogyakarta is climbing and walking throught the ancient Budhist and Hindu temples, Borobudur and Prambanan, both well over 1000 years old, and lost under dirt, debris, and ash for eons but rediscovered around 1900. Both were beautiful, incredible to imagine being artfully carved and built from volcanic rock so long ago. Both temples, now UNESCO sites suffered complete destruction during devastating earthquakes but like a jigsaw puzzle archaeologists put them back together again, stone by stone. Back at Rajaklana, Stan and I were taught the art of Batik, a very ancient and intricate cloth decoration dyeing process. It is a tedious craft, but the result is amazing and specific to this part of Asia.

One of our most enjoyable outings in Yogyakarta was a peaceful bike ride through villages and countryside where we met cows, goats and friendly people who wanted to day hello and talk with us obviously foreign people. We rode through rice paddies and corn fields and stopped to see how tempeh is made at a small family operation. Guess where the main ingredient, soy beans, are sourced. Yes, USA. I would not be surprised to learn that the soy beans came from a farm near where I was born, Lee County, Arkansas, once owned by one of my dearly beloved uncles. The highlight of the bike trip was watching a pigeon race, a very popular hobby here. In the race, there are pairs of pigeons. The males are taken to a place quite far from the ending spot and released. The love-struct male pigeon’s mate is kept at the ending spot. The winner of the race is the male pigeon who not only flies, but speeds back to return to his mate from far away. But to win, he must also by swoop down through a square frame “target” 15 or 20 feet above the female bird being held by the trainer. If he skips the target, nanny-nanny, he gets no treat.

What fun! Our next stop is Singapore. We are on our way and more than delighted to say that Tessa will meet us there tonight.

Woo-hoo!