Sorry I haven't written in a while but the last few days at CIVAS were really busy! One day we went to see a Native Chicken operation in an extremely remote location, and another was spent touring the University of Bogor. We got to see their teaching hospital and other large and small animal teaching facilities...including the surgery and anatomy labs they have. It was pretty similar to OVC and really cool to see! We had to give a presentation to a bunch of students on OVC and Global Vets too, which was kind of fun as well. Our last trip was to a dairy production place in Cikole, which was about a 4 hour drive from Bogor. It turned out to be around a 17 hour day...it was long, but really worth it!
Our last day at CIVAS we gave a presentation on what we had learned during our stay and gave some Canadian comparisons. We also made them some banana chocolate chip pancakes with some of Ryan's real Canadian maple syrup as a bit of a thank-you. They only had a wok to cook them in and the stove was an equivalent to a propane camping stove. It was quite the cooking experience to say the least! Everyone seemed to enjoy them, so I guess it all worked out in the end! That night we had our driver take us to the train station in Jakarta to catch our train to Yogjakarta. On the way we got caught in a traffic jam in a tunnel, we were barely moving and it was bumper to bumper. All of a sudden we saw this one kid pulling on the side mirror of the car in front of us...he managed to rip it off and made off with it! The people in the car did nothing, and not even a minute later this other guy made his way up to the car and used his fists to smash off the other mirror. Again the people in the car did nothing. It was shocking to see! Our driver didn't speak much English and just pointed and said 'rich' and then double checked to make sure the doors of our car were locked. The car that was robbed was really nice according to Indonesian standards - a Toyota which is kind of like our equivalent of a Lexus, so the 'rich' explanation made sense. Needless to say I was pretty rattled after seeing that, particularly because we are seen as being rich, being a Western 'boulais'. The train station was interesting too. Just packed with people and the trains that passed through would often have people (a few children) hanging off the back...Anyways, everything worked out though, and we arrived safe and sound around 5am in Yogjakarta.
Borobudur Temple
A Stupa of Borobudur
That morning we dropped our bags off and then figured our the public transport to take us to Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It took about 1.5hrs on this crazy bus with open doors and a bad version of what looked like to be the Indonesian version of American Idol playing on repeat. It was well worth the long and cramped ride though...the temple was absolutely amazing! It is one of the man made wonders of the world...absolutely huge and made entirely out of volcanic stone (it is situated in between 3 volcanoes) and no cement. I really liked it, despite it being so busy. On a weekend 10,000 people will visit it. We had to pose about 50 times, because of all of the Indonesian tourists wanting their picture with the rare 'boulais'.
Today we went to the massive Hindu temple Prambanan. It was really cool too, but I liked Borobudur more. It's also made of volcanic stone, and held together without cement. Unfortunately earthquakes have really destroyed it over the years. They have reconstructed it though based on trial and error. They did a really good job though! We also stopped at this art gallery selling Batik style art...it is an art form made on cloth. They use wax and multiple dyes to make images on the cloth. It is kind of like the Indonesian version of silk screening. I bought some, and can't wait to take them home to be framed! They are perfect for travelling too because you can just fold them up because they are made of cloth!
Prambanan Temple
We took another train this afternoon and we are in Solo now just for the night. Tomorrow we catch our flight from Solo to Kuala Lumpur and then we fly to Cambodia! Indonesia was a really interesting place. I have enjoyed my time here, but it has really opened my eyes to a totally different way of living.
Will write again from Cambodia!
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