I love flying. Always have. But this short flight from Kuala Lumpur to Java was not my favorite. It was all fine until we approached the Indonesian island just before landing. I had hoped to see some of the volcanoes and mountains as we came closer to land but instead just saw a lot of lightening and a thick covering of clouds. It is a small airport, the kind where you get off right on the runway area beside the planes. The air was thick with humidity and by the time we got our bags and got out of immigration the heavy rains had started.
It’s the tail end of the rainy season but as our taxi driver explained, “the weather now is sick” and it seems that it is raining more than usual for this time of year, but it also means there are far less tourists around. A friend from Spain who I met years ago on the Gili Islands has an amazing guest house called Tiga Lima Home Stay here in Yogyakarta. He booked us a room next to the secluded swimming pool surrounded by lush gardens and fountains filled with coy fish.
It’s my first time to this particular island in Indonesia and the locals see far fewer tourists than neighboring Bali. There is still a shyness here, especially among the children who will often cover their faces with their hands in fits of laughter if we try to speak to them in English (or Bahasa). When the older locals hear we are from the United States they remind us that Obama is from Java and also ask why Trump doesn’t like Muslims. We have a hard time trying to explain but they always smile anyway and continue with conversations about other things.
Hoping to do more writing in the coming days, so stay tuned. We are adding photos to Instagram if you want to see more from the last two months of our adventures in Thailand and Malaysia.
