Today and Yesterday

This entry is more or less part 2 of the last two blog entries.  I'll update you from the last entry.

It's still cold but.....this past weekend the temps were in the negative teens which felt like spring.  I was able to spend time at the black market, known locally as Naren Tuul Tsx hatless and mitten less without fear of frostbite.  What an experience! This rivaled taking a shower the other day and not getting water on the floor after alterations were made to the tub that is tilted so that more water falls to the floor than the drain.  Pam and I were amazed at our level of excitement over these two moments.  One still has to practice being aged by shuffling around many places in town because of the massive ice sheets on the sidewalks and roads.  The few breaks come at frozen puke spots, which there are quite a number of, and high usage areas.  There is almost always a gorgeous blue sky that offsets the grayer moments.

Our first peddle taxi ride 

People must have thought we were famous because they kept asking to have their pics taken with us.

The local brew

Nerves, buns and legs of steel

Sunset in Java

Our first hotel room due to my disorientation

Our 2nd hotel to compensate for my blunder

Our final hotel, great price, location and service

Java volcanos and countryside

Borabudur Temple - taking a break after walking around the top 7 times for good karma.  Being able to successfully negotiate the crowd proved that it worked. 

Reminded me of sandcastles we'd make on the Jersey Shore.

Prambanan Temple, ran out of camera battery "sigh"

We left Bali and flew to Java since we had a week before heading back to Mongolia.  We spent the week in Yogyakarta, a university town with 2 World Heritage sites, many batik makers and lots of peddle taxis.  We began our visit with scrambling for a hotel two days before New Years because the hotel reservation I made turned out to be several hundred kilometers away from where we were.  I should have had the map of Java in front of me.  We then spent New Years Eve many kilometers away from the city in a beautiful resort with the promise that there was to be a great jazz party.  The great party, by midnight, turned out to be about 8 people singing karaoke with a local female "professional" singer.  It was a first for both of us.  The next day we moved back into the center of the town and stayed at a new hotel that had a disco type motif with an absolutely wonderful staff that catered to our needs.  We rented a driver and visited both heritage sites, Borobudur and Prambanan.  You should Google them and then start saving for a visit.  The peddle taxis were such an enjoyable way to see the town and very reasonable even before bargaining.  The week flew by and soon we were back in Bali fighting with Korean Air about the screw up with our flight itinerary.  We lost round one and had to spend an additional $400 to get back to Seoul.  We did make it back to UB without having to spend hundreds more.  We are presently trying to get reimbursed for the airline's admitted mistake so the war is not over.