tired n stuffed!

it's been such a tiring day! n my dad's been over feeding us again!

we left the hotel at 8 and started our day touring the kraton (palace) of the sultan of yogjakarta. apparently he's one of the few remaining sultans in java, and who still actually commands great prestige. the palace was simple but nice, n i really liked the gamelan/wayang pavillion that's got a FULL ensemble in all its royal splendour. pity we missed the performances. another palace - the water castle - was also really quite quaint, with its courtyards of towers and pools.

we spent quite a bit of time exploring local handicraft specialities, including batik, silverware and wayang kulit puppets, before having lunch at this most interesting restaurant overlooking a vibrant garden, that also has the strangest of flavours of drinks like iced tea with cinnamon, black pepper and chili padi or lime punch with tumeric, ginger and lemon grass.

the afternoon was spent lost in the grandeur of the hindu temple ruins of prambanan which were just awe inspiring and emotional. the entire temply complex is just simply amazing, esp considered the whole thing was built 1200 years ago, lost to the junlge, discovered by the dutch in the 18th century, restored by the end of the 20th century, only to b damaged badly again in the earthquake of 2006. i had gone completely trigger happy by then. haha. n to top it off, classical javanes music was piped in in the background. really delightful!

after another more ruins and trying some javanese durians (which are HUGE and very much more oblong, n very delicious too) we were so tired we decided to call it a day and return to the hotel. pity we got back to late and the pool's closed, and somehow they decided that sunday should b a quiet night and no performance/activity would take place on tonight. o well. maybe we'll just rest earlier tonight and wake up earlier tmrw morning...

ugh. i'm really so tired and so stuffed i dunno how i'm gonna survive the rest of my hols! i suppose once we get further away from the city our pace would slacken? and we'll get too tired of indon food soon enough? :P