tourism in Indonesia

Tourism here has undergone a decline in recent years. From its height in the mid 90s it has gone down, and hasn't been helped in recent years by the introduction of a visa that needs to be paid for (I assume to get American currency to the government).

Arriving in the backpacker area of Yogya was really surreal. It's all here, the resytaurants an dthe guesthouses, and the used bookstores but the tourists aren't there. Well they are but just not very thick on the ground. There are ups and downs I've seen but a lot of times people just sit in their own empty restaurants watching the HBO they have on to get someone in.

Yet every morining it seems people wake up and open their shops and sweep things out. Maybe today will be the day... I suppose part of the strangemness for me comes from being from a place where you need good turnover and high occupamcy or the copsts over overhead and taxes will kill you. I'm guessing people here are more paid for and do all the work in places themselves so those costs aren't there.

Om Bromo it was very odd sitting in the restaurant the first night and watching just how bored the staff was. Attentive when they needed to be but very "man this is dull when they weren't called upon. WHile I was up there I'll just mention here I ate at a family's little restaurant everyday. SAved some money and made friends enough to practice a bit more INdonesian and find out about the bus situation. (Indonesian/Malaysian -almost the same- is by far my post prolific language so far. I ahve numbers!!!)

But at the same time there seems to be quite a few Indonesian tourist about. So I'm sure everyone will get by okay in the end.