At 6AM I had a 10 minute ride from my room to the airport in Bali. I was impressed by Mandala Airlines, they were speedy and efficient for my flight to the city of Yogyakarta in Central Java. The plane flew past some volcanoes, including the one year the city called Mount Merapi.
When I arrived I was surprised to see a new bus system in the city that was not mentioned in any of my guide books. I took bus 1A directly to the area where all the cheap rooms are.
Out of the bus, one man showed me one room, then another man showed me two others. I decided on a simple room at Nuri Losmen. The same man helped me check-in and then mentioned I arrived on a special day and there is an art exhibition only this morning. I agreed to go there since this man said he was one of the artists and he will be an art and math teacher soon.
I realized this isn’t an art exhibition. It is just a shop. They were selling Batik paintings. The owner talked to me for a long time, they gave me tea and really pressured me to buy something right then. He said he was an artist too and pointed out the ones that were his own. So many red flags appeared: “This is lucky morning, we’re not open every day, special discount for students.” I got out of there without buying anything finally.
Later in the day, I noticed everyone is trying to get me to go to a special art exhibition today. It was like a broken record around here. “Where are you from?” and then I say USA and they always ask “California?” because statistically that has the biggest population, and then they say “many Americans come here recently.” And then they tell me to go see some art exhibition so they can get some commission on a sale. I decided to take a look at another. And it was the same thing. They offered me tea like they’re reading from a script, a man shows me his own works of art and keeps talking and talking. But when he sees I’m ready to leave he doesn’t even say goodbye.
Later, I see the “teacher & artist” who found me my room and said go buy his artwork. I asked him which one did he paint and he said he it just happened to be the same one I was looking at in the shop. He started grabbing my arm and tried to drag me in there. At that point I knew he was a liar and he doesn’t do anything expect sit and sleep outside all day. I locked myself in my room for the rest of the day.