Yogyakarta ke UKSW - Senin 26 Okt

Today, a new travel experience - naik travel. Naik is used whenever you refer to the way you have travelled. For example, naik bis, naik mobil, naik sepeda motor (motorbike), naik pesawat (plane), naik kuda (horse), and so on. I've naik angkota, mobil pribadi, taksi. Naik travel is travelling in a minivan. Today's trip would take three hours. No airconditioning, other than the windows. Picked up at the hotel at 8.30am, and, after the driver picked up other customers, dropped at their main office, to transfer to another vehicle. The minivan is roomier than an angkota, so don't have to crouch. Lucked out, though, and have the middle seat; the fate of the newcomer, I suppose, because sitting in the middle means I'm not near the breeze and I have nothing to lean against.

The ubiquity of single-lane traffic on this island of 130 million people never fails to surprise. Speed varies between 20-60 kms an hour. Often have jagged bursts of speed, darting in and out of traffic, overtaking on both sides of the lanes, the driver alert to the any opportunity to claw ahead. Lovely, clear run, when we hit 80 kms on a rare stretch of a dual highway, near Magelang. Not long, though, before we're back to the clog, the scurry forward, the drift back when confronted by a truck or a bus.

Near Salatiga, we take a backroad, winding out way down through the immense ricefields, the green relaxing on the eyes after the visual clutter of the main road, with all the space taken over to advertise or promote something. Pass a local commando unit on a training run. Rice everywhere, in different stages of production. Some listing with grain. Feeling dehydrated and, with the constant turning, queasy. Finally see a Salatiga angkota. Arrive at campus at noon. Outside, refreshing, dingin even, compared to the blunt heat of Yogyakarta. To work.