One of the best ways to get to know Java is to ride your bike long distances," says Helen Pausacker, who first traveled there in 1976 to study wayang purwa, traditional Javanese shadow puppetry. Riding her bicycle with a few friends from Cirebon in Central Java to Surabaya, East Java, frequent stops were made in villages along the way. There they could eat, drink and talk with locals, an opportunity many people, foreign and local, miss out o