Since then I have been in Delhi, Kolkata and Serempore by the Ganges. Our adopted orphens home is there and of course I went to visit. Things are going very good, we now have an excellent English teacher who is making fantastic progress. I'll tell you more later.
Right now I'm in Yogyakarta.. Pronounced Jogyacarta but commonly referred to as Yogya. You know you are in a Yogya hotel when you see signs on the lift that say "Do not use during Earthquakes or Eruptions" and the restaurants have signs showing how you must immediately get under the table in an earthquake.
I'm due to fly to Denpasar tomorrow but the airport is closed due to some volcanic dust. Welcome to Indonesia..
I'm here because this city is a huge producer of handicrafts. Full of massively arty people. Thousands of small family businesses, of the sort we love to deal with. But they are surprisingly hard to reach. There is a formal wholesale market, which like a small town of showrooms. They cater for export and also the local tourist market. We discovered early on that they are mostly middlemen traders who get an order and then play off the real producers against each other to maximise profits. Better when we deal directly.
