JOGJA

 

Talk about a lovers or writers paradise, Jogja is one of those domestic locations where natives relax from the hustle and bustle of Jakarta.  A one hour flight into central Java and you find yourself amidst a lightly inhabited dwelling. (Pop. ~ 500k swelling to 1M with commuters).  But when do locals matter when these getaway resorts are designed for you to stay within them to fully exploit the gator skin at the golf and spa.  In an effort to promote native tourism, citizens receive 50% discount at most hotels which made me regret not luring one of those sultry and ugly indo girls (I met the night before at the Bliss) to tag along for the ride. 

 

"Sleep was stripping me of consciousness the way the clothes might be stripped from the body of an unresisting person."

 

At roughly 4am, the tour guide introduced himself as "(i'm bad with names and I don remember)".  Forty five minutes later I was standing atop Borobudur waiting for the sky to get brighter.  The roosters had already been crowing awaiting the sunrise and the birds had made it atop the upper rings of the temple for morning meditation.  This would probably be one of those places tooted as a place one can be in that environmental sanctuary to attain inner peace.  I however, was thinking more along the lines of Ace Ventura and wanted to hhHHhHhHHHHhhHhHHHhh-lllrighty then?  (Maybe I was too focused on listening to the other Japanese tourists yapping away).  It was still too dark to be focusing my attention anywhere other than horizon line so I just sat there in the circle of Nirvana, in between 2 stupa thinking of ?that just it, I was thinking too much.  No inner peace for me.  I came to this conclusion fairly quickly and abandoned the meditation route and quickly took up my day job, tomb photo-raider. 

 

Yogyakarta is a valley city and with the temple being on a hill, you can see the fog blanketed city and the surrounding mountain peaks popping out of the clouds.   Two peaks stood in my direct line of sight just left to the rising sun.  (Mt Merapi, active volcano, is the one on the right). 

 

 

"The point is, not to resist the flow.  You go up when you're supposed to go up and go down when you're supposed to go down.  When you're supposed to go up, find the highest tower and climb to the top.  When you're supposed to go down, find the deepest well and go down to the bottom.  When there's no flow, stay still.  If you resist the flow, everything dries up.  If everything dries up, the world is darkness."

 

I surely didn't resist the flow of things but as I stated earlier, it came quick to me that I was not ready to receive any revelation.  I would have been more interested in meeting Joey Buttafuco than the Dali Lama at this point.  (maybe that a stretch).

 

If you close your eyes, can you close your eyes and keep focused on one clear object?  a candle, a number, a coin, any simple object that will keep you from stressing the details, quite a difficult feat.  I first got the idea when reading Henry Sugar, and even the fictitious character took years to develop, but of course when he did achieve it, he was able to see without eyes.  I envy that sort of focus and mental clarity.  Maybe that how you attain that certain nirvana.  When I close my eyes however, my head rolls a black room with movie screen scratches, horror flick black and white pencil scratching start scribbling in left and right and the black walls feel like its closing inwards.  Solarized images flash along with the soundtrack of a traffic jam.  That just the initial stages when trying to fall asleep, after that, the vivid dreams begin.  Ie never been so heavily affected by any book, but this one is putting me in this heavy daze where Il float in and out of reality day and night.  Maybe I need to find a well to sit in and find my way out of the labyrinth.   could tell that something inside me-inside my body-was getting bigger and bigger.  It felt like this thing inside me was growing, like the roots of a tree in a pot, and when it got big enough it would break me apart.?/I>

 

"sounds like zen....interesting enough in itself as a system of thought, but not much good for explaining anything."

 

and the rest of the pics...

 

 

last time you saw me in JKT...i rode on an atv through the village....this time...elephant!

 

-murakami, wind up bird chronicles.