This time we decided to make our “carbon footprint” as small as possible, so the only time we chose to travel by air, was our first Jawa destination of Yogjakarta on the 27th of January, also to be on time for Firman’s wedding!  To view additional text and photograph, just click on the ribbon and it will unfold….

Day 1 and 2. Invitation to a Wedding

Arriving at the airport of Yogjakarta we were picked up by Farja and although it was pretty early in the morning, around 7 am, we set of to Magelang, where we were going to give someone the surprise of his life…. But first, we paid a quick visit to the lovely Mendut temple, where a Buddhist monastery is situated, and possibly one of the oldest Waringin trees on Jawa.

In 2010 we were introduced to a young high-school student, Firman Ariyanto whose parents had the brilliant idea to give him the opportunity to take responsibility of driving their car for tourists on the island. As we had to travel a lot in exploring Lombok for the various educational projects we wanted to set up and check their suitability and logistics, Firman became one of our regular escorts.

Becoming more and more familiar with our intentions and mission/vision of the YKS we noticed he felt uncomfortable taking our money, as he felt it would be far more appropriate to spend it on our projects than taking this for his fee; of course, we never allowed him to refuse our pay for his chauffeuring services, but it made it very obvious how kind his character was and still is…

Exchanging our ideas for the development of green energy, safety measures for the fishermen and technology – Firman having his Masters in technical engineering at Gajah Mada University, and Yaya being a mining engineer – we invited him to join the member of the YKS Lombok team, and from now on we will be able to develop plans in this area for the benefit of the people on Lombok specifically and for Indonesia in general.

Day 3 – Yogjakarta

I have always loved Yogjakarta, as it seems to bustle with energy. It is probably due to the fact that it it hosts the great University Gajah Mada, where many Indonesian icons have completed their education, one of them is the current Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ibu Retno, who was also the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia in Holland for a while, before Jokowi called her back to Jakarta. In my view, she was one of the best we had the good fortune to meet.

We once were invited to stay on the Campus by the Professor who was an acquaintance of my dear late friend Carla Meek, founder of SCI-INN. Another great feature of Yogjakarta is its artistry in creating the most beautiful batik designs and today we are going on a hunt for our friend in Bogor, as there will be a two-year old waiting impatiently to meet us.

Malioboro, the area where we are staying is a broad avenue where you can find all sorts of batik clothes and “original” Javanese artifacts. The avenue is leading from the station to the palace of the Sultan, The Kraton and is one of the most popular places to “hang-out”.