Safely in yogya

After a long trek from Lubuksikaping to Yogya I was asked where my hotel was. He had a good point as it dawned on me that you're supposed to sort these things out in advance normally, especially in the middle of August. I asked him to just take me to the main tourist area and I'd chance my arm, 5 minutes after arriving I'd checked in, booked a tour to Borobodur for tomorrow as well as a trip to Bromo, Ijen and Denpasar. Not sure what lesson I've learned here, possibly that being lazy and forgetful has serious upsides.

Sadly between being picked up and dropped off I had 30 minutes to talk to my taxi driver in a very disjointed Anglo-Indo exchange where 70% of comments were met with a laugh on both sides that effectively translated into "what the fuck did you just say?" The other 30% basically consisted of me trying to politely turn down repeated offers to accompany him to a disco tonight, he was insistent because he wanted to go and meet some "lovely shapely women" (all done while doing the hourglass shape with his hands). By the end of the conversation I ended up married with a child to whom I'm extremely faithful. Apparently.

Actually it provided the last piece of evidence I needed in order to finalise my thesis on whether all Indonesian men are irrepressibly horny, slightly disturbed individuals who are otherwise really nice. The answer is yes, yes they are. Thankfully most seem to understand when I say that Indonesian women are too small for me, this tickles them and means that I get to spend the next 10 minutes in relative silence as they chuckle to themselves while pondering the ridiculous of this oversized bule (foreigner).

Off to dinner but before I go it's time for another tall person abroad stat update I feel:

Number of people who measured themselves up against me during a 10 minute walk around the city - 11
Number of people who took pictures - 7
Number of those that asked - 0
Number of people who said I was tall to their friends thinking I didn't understand - 17
Amount of times I walked into signs - 2
Number of women who blushed and giggled when I smiled at them - 9

Seriously the last one is a great confidence booster but I think that will shatter when I arrive back home, smile at someone and get met with daggers that tell me without the need for words that very tall, slightly dirty and horrifically bearded men are not exactly what they're after...

Hope everyone had a good weekend, especially Dad (happy birthday, I hope your 2nd round at St Georges was an improvement, if not hopefully my present will come in handy...)

Until later,

Keg