The Javanese of Indonesia are world renowned for their wayang kulit shadow puppets.  To their west are the Sundanese who prefer wayang golek wooden puppets—no screen, no shadow, just let us see the puppets.

When the Dutch colonized Java in modern-day Indonesia they struggled with the equatorial heat.  They eventually figured out that the high volcanoes of Java provided cool temperatures—if you could get there.  So they built roads into the highlands & then developed hill stations where they could retreat.

Sapeken--remote old port at the eastern end of the Kangean archipelago, north of Bali, Indonesia. 

As magic hour was coming on, we took a stroll circumventing Sapeken--only 1 kilometer across--to see the people who live on this remote but crowded island.  

As we started walking we saw the inevitable Indonesian small-scale entrepreneurs setting up in the late afternoon to sell Sapeken treats. 

 Ubud in central Bali is the art Mecca of the Hindu Balinese of Indonesia.  Painters, wood carvers, stone cutters all congregate around Ubud.  In the past you could find them making their masterpieces in cottages along the streets of Ubud.  But with the huge influx of tourists in recent decades, few of those places still exist with nearly all of them supplanted by shops selling mostly generic handcraft wares, but without the artists on site.

Every significant town in Java has a bird market.  This is because just about every self-respecting Javanese, Sundanese or Madurese man (the three major ethnic groups of Java) owns at least one pet bird—unless he’s destitute. 

The Indonesian Javanese villages in the vicinity of Borobudur Buddhist shrine make for fascinating photographs.  If you choose to tour with us next year, you’ll be able to try your hand at shooting the striking village scenes of this culture yourself.

On a bike ride back from shooting the sunrise over Borobudur’s plain we come to a village tofu (tahu in Indonesian) cottage industry.  This is true village life.  Though the owner of this little factory is wealthy, we find bare-bones facilities & skinny village workers.