To round out the night, we went to Museum Sonobudoyo to watch an incredible performance (during which I was pulled up on stage 🫣). I recruited Claudia to write a description of the show:

\\ We saw pagelaran wayang orang, or a human puppet show, as the museum translated. It opened with two female dancers performing a traditional Javanese or Balinese dance, which stunned the audience into mesmerized attention. Afterwards, a number of performers burst onto the stage clad in colorful costumes and masks, to upbeat accompaniment by the live gamelan orchestra. We vaguely followed the storyline and character types—warriors, jester, etc.—which likely came from the Ramayana or Mahabharata (Hindu epics). As the show went on, it was fun to see performers interacting and laughing with the gamelan players and Indonesian audience members, meanwhile we and other foreigners were not quite clued in on the jokes. \\

As we left the museum, we stumbled upon a row of restaurants hosting a lively night market. We sat at one of the open picnic tables, eating street snacks and listening to songs played by local musicians. Looking back, I'm sure that this was my favorite day of the trip.

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After another delicious breakfast the next day, it was time to say farewell to this wonderful hostel. I already missed the slow-paced, peaceful life that we found here. We enjoyed the company of our fellow travelers: a disheartened but comedic Brit who had quit his job in advertising, a group of European college friends, and a surprising number of solo Dutch backpackers. All of them had weeks and months more to go on their international explorations, and were shocked at the length and pace of our two-week long excursion (I could thank the American work culture for that). It was a shame we couldn’t stay longer to visit some famous sites, namely the Prambanan Temple and Mount Merapi.

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