Indonesia 2012, Jogyakarta, Keraton, Mt Merapi, Candi Borobudur and Prambanan

Jogyakarta 2012-7-1

A volcano seen on the airplane

We had breakfast early in the morning in Pullman Hotel in Jakarta and paid Mei the costs for the remaining trip up to Lombok. Yinfa and his family didn’t join us for the remaining of the trip, and therefore, our number was  reduced to 11. I didn’t have the window seat in the airplane, and could not take much photos from the air, however, I managed to take the photo of the majestic  volcano (Gunung Sumbing?). Its flank had been heavily cultivated all the way up to 2/3 of its height. At its peak, I saw the feature of a caldera and a depression followed by a new cone shape peak with a crater in the middle. This volcano apparently was not the tallest in the mountain complex, another one was showing its higher peak in the backgraound. The airplane made a turn around the volcano, and I took a photo of its active crater. I must be facing south when this photo was taken because the Indian Ocean was in the background. The colour of the crater was light to deep muddy orange like that of a iron furnace. It was a strong contrast to the bluish colour of the remaining of the mountain. 

Seats of the motorbikes were covered by cardboard

Street performers

We arrived at Jogyakarta at 10 am. The airport was small, clean and orderly. Our bus was a new bus similar to that we took to Bukit Tinggi. We quickly boarded our bus to visit the Keraton (the palace). The streets were straight and clean, and the sidewalks were well maintained. Many of the streets were one way, and when the traffic light changed, all kinds of vehicles pouring into the intersection like flood water.  The parking attendants on the street would cover the seats of the parked motorbikes with cardboard boxes to keep it cool from the hot sun. We saw two men each held a whip in his hand standing in front of the red traffic light in an intersection. One of them wore a red pants like in a circus. They were probably street performers begging for money but they certainly looked more like a road robbery. The horse cart had four wheels, two small wheels in the front and two bigger wheels in the rear, and looked like that used in Europe. It must be more comfortable to ride than the local two wheels carts.

Dancers entering the hall

The Keraton was the palace for the Sultan of Jogya. It was now opened to the public except the building which was used as their residence. There were many souvenir stalls crowding the road toward the entrance of the Keraton. I was surprised that some cars were still tried to squeeze in to get parking closer to the gate. The palace consisted of several courtyards partitioned by walls and pavilions and buildings. In the largest courtyard, there were low and big halls, and many tall trees. The sawo (naseberry) trees in the palace was famous of its small fruits. None of the buildings in the palace had the appearance of greatness and luxury. The courtyard was big and the ground was covered by cement and bricks tiles or sands. There was not a single grass or weed found on the ground. Big crowd were gathering around a big hall. Along the peripheral of one side of the hall was occupied by musicians playing traditional Javanese musical instruments. Four young female dancers in gorgeous batik costumes wearing a gold colour crown with a pink feather slowly and graciously entered the hall in barefoot. They started dancing when they got to the middle of the hall. At the end, they walked slowly to the other end of the hall, then stopped, turned around and walked back to the side where they entered the hall. The next performer was a male wearing a famous and familiar mask of the clown Petruk. We finished our visit by seeing some museums in the palace.

Beautifully carved wooden panel

Performers in Hotel Santika

We passed a wide boulevard with wide sidewalk.  The spaces of the later were taken over by a long row of food stalls. Like in Jakarta, the bus stop was also elevated but smaller. Probably there was no long tandem bus running in the city. I saw a Chinese temple Fuk Ling Miao 福霊庙 on Jalan Senopati. It had the traditional Chinese roof.  We had lunch in a big chicken restaurant but the food was only ordinary. After lunch we visited a silver and batik shop on Jalan Nyi Pembayun where we saw some workers making silver jewelleries, and  there was a demo of how batik was made using wax. Our last stop was another batik shop on Jalan Nogosari Lor, and I was surprised to find many beautifully and richly carved wooden panels doors and ceiling inside the store. It was almost dark when we arrived in Hotel Santika where we stayed. Two male musicians and a female singer were performing traditional songs at the stage on one end of the reception hall.

Jogyakarta 2012-7-2

Gajah Mada University

The breakfast in Hotel Santika had many selections of local dishes and deserts. I tried many of them and they were all good. Our first stop was to see the volcano Gunung Merapi. On the way, we passed the entrance to the campus of Gajah Mada University, the famous university in Indonesia. From that entrance, one could clearly see Mt. Merapi far in the background. For the first time, I saw a street person laying on ground in front of an abandoned building in rags. He was probably insane.

Mt Merapi seen on Jalan Bebeng

Mt Merapi seen in the car terminal

Smoke puffing out of the crater

We were travelling north along the busy commercial road Jalan Kaliurang, and we could only see stores after stores along the road. Only after we passed Jalan Bias in Ngaglik we started to see the farmlands and the volcano in a distant. There was a fork south of Universitas Islam Indonesia, and instead of continuing north in Jalan Kaliurang, we turned right on a smaller road, and eventually turned right into Jalan Kalasan-Pakem. Soon the road turned north and became Jalan Bebeng. The land along the road was heavily cultivated and we went through villages after villages, and we could see the volcano in front of us along Jalan Bebeng. The road took us straight into a car terminal with an altitude of 1,080 m. This was the last terminal for all cars visiting Mt Merapi. There were some shops in simple huts selling simple foods, deinks and souvenirs, and other services catering for the needs of the tourists. When we arrived, we were lucky to see the peak of the volcano was not hidden behind clouds. And soon we saw smokes started to puff out of its crater. It lasted for about half an hour. The land was heavily cultivated around the terminal, and the whole mountain slope was covered in green vegetation. there was a touring service for hire and they used  old Indian jeeps. We hired three jeeps to tour the devastated area damaged during the last explosion.

The route of the lava flow

Large boulder from the last eruption

An old woman walking alone in Mt Merapi

The jeeps took us down on a trail, and soon we were on a bumpy dirt road. The ground was covered by gray volcanic sand, and we saw new plants were starting to growth on the sand. We passed many ruins of houses flatten or burned down by the hot pyroclastic flow from the eruption. In front of an old dam, we saw the huge amount of sands and rocks brought down. And people had started digging and transported it in trucks. An old village woman was carrying a big bag on her back, we stopped and Mei gave her some donations. She was very happy for this unexpected kindness. We went slightly up the slope of the volcano almost to the end of the trails, and reached an open plain resulted from the destruction of the last eruption. And large boulders the size of a jeep  and rocks littered the area. A hut had been set up next to a trail, and a person was holding a box for donation. There were a few huts in this area serving drinks and simple foods for the visitors. We bought some salak which we had not seen in the market. Instead of the dark brown colour on it scaly skin, the colour was much lighter and close to gold. Its taste, however, was the same as the regular fruits. Seedlings of a variety of trees were already planted and started to growth. I didn’t know if they would achieve their maturity before the next eruption would destroy them. I left my GPS on our van,  and therefore, no GPS track for the trip on the jeep. Fortunately, I carried a camera with GPS capability, and therefore, we had recorded the locations of the photos.

Salak grove

A Chinese cemetery at Sucen

We left the car terminal and drove to Candi Borobudur, a Buddhist temple. We went south along the same road Jalan Bebeng that we had taken before. We then turn west to join Jalan Kaliurang going south. On this stretch of the road we saw some beautiful paddy fields and villages. We also started to see salak groves hidden behind other trees. We then turned west on Jalan Kalasan-Pakem.  Along this road, we saw clearly many salak groves growth next to the wet paddy fields, and some grew along the road. Salak or snake fruit tree (Salacca zalacca) was a kind of palm tree only about three metres high, and the fruits were grown in a cluster at the base of the palm. We then joined Jalan Magelang going north. We started to see shops along the road selling Buddha and other religious rock statues. And at Sucen we saw a neatly maintained Chinese cemetery on a low hill.

We turned south-west into Jalan Raya Borobudur south of Bojong. There was a welcoming arch at the entrance to this road. We arrived at Borobudur at 10:43 am. The site had now been designated as UNESCO World Heritate site in 1991. The ground was cleaned, beautified and fenced. However, the tall trees along the walkway in the courtyard had made it difficult if not impossible to take a full photo of the temple. During my first visit in 1988, the temple was more clearly visible in a far distant. I didn't find and feel any difference between the two visits.

The corridor on one of the square platform

Niches on the square platforms

Stupa on the circular platforms

In a far distant, the temple looked like an inverted bowl, but at closer look, it had the shape of a square step pyramid built to cover a hill. At the lowest level was the 123x123 metres footing, and then there were 5 levels of square platforms, and 3 levels of circular platforms and finally was a large stupa at the top reaching a height of 35 metres above ground. There were stairways at the centre of each side of the pyramid. The square platform had two walls separated by corridor, and the walls were decorated with bas-reliefs depicting the life of Buddha; the life of ordinary people in palace, village and market. The wall became an arched gate when it crossed the stair. The top part of the walls was decorated with numerous niches and inside each niche there was a life size Buddha statue. The façade of the niche was beautifully carved and its opening was arched and adorned with Kala head. There were also a few small stupa decorating the top of the niche. From a distant, the temple was simply rows of niches on many levels of terraces. Among the many bas-reliefs on the walls, there were some depicting double outrigger large boats which were probably used for ocean going voyages at that time. A replica of the boat had been built and tested in August 2003 to February 2004, and it reached West Africa after passing the Cape of Good Hope.

Buddha statue inside the stupa

An outriggers boat shown on the bas-reliefs

I walked around the foot of the temple trying without success to take a full photo of the temple. I then climbed up the temple to the first or the second square platform, and started walking along the corridor taking photos of the beautiful bas-reliefs on the walls. It took me over 20 minutes to complete the circle. I was concerned that others might be looking for me, and decided to quickly ascended to the top and at the same time tried to look down at the base of the temple if I could find Ching. I saw Yet at the base who was apparently looking for me. I joined them and we walked back to the entrance. I didn’t have chance to study the bas-reliefs. My impressions were the figures were rough due to the large grains in the texture of the andesite rock used in the construction. All facial and physical features of Buddha, gods and human being resembled that of the local native. The shape of the people in the bas-reliefs tended to be chubby which might indicate the fashion of that time. I didn’t see any beautiful apsaras like in Angkor Wat. Experts estimated that the temple was built in 800 CE which was many hundred years earlier than the construction of Ankor Wat in Cambodia. I had my GPS with me, but somehow, I had problems to attach the locations of many photos with data on the GPS track.

Buddha statue in a niche

We left the temple at 12:40 pm returning to Jogyakarta. We were thirsty and stopped at a roadside restaurant to buy some green coconuts. They tasted very good and refreshing. After returning to town, we went to do some shopping for souvenirs in the shops in Tugu Station, where the prices were generally cheaper. There were many big tourist buses in the parking lot. It was already dark when we left the station, and someone suggested that we went to Alun Alun, a big square not far from the station. The biggest attraction there was to ride or watch the parade of many human powered vehicles decorated with all kinds of neon lights. We were hungry, but couldn’t find any descend restaurant. We finally settled in a small café. It was very clean and ran by an unprofessional couple. Even some simple foods like fried potatoes took a long time to get to the table. But it tasted very good.

Jogyakarta 2012-7-3

Candi Prambanan

We left the hotel at 6 am to beat the crowded tourist at Candi Perambanan, a Hindu Temple. We traveled east on Jalan Laksamana Adi Sucipto, and passed the airport bearing the same name. The road then became Jalan Raya Jogya Solo. At Prambanan, we turned north to the temple bearing the town's name, and arrived there at 6:45. There were already many visitors. The candi was built about 100 years after the Candi Borobudur. It probably reflected the regain in popularity of Hindu religion in the area. Unfortunately, it suffered the same fate of abandonment as the Borobudur after the population turned into Muslim. It was also re-discovered in the 10^th century by the Britain during its ruling of the Duth East Indies. The site had been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Shiva temple

The main focus in the fenced area was an elevated square platform surrounded by stone walls. The ground outside of these walls was littered with stone blocks which were the remains of hundreds of small ruined temples. On the platform, there were two rows of large temples. The most prominent row of temples was called Trimurti temples, and it consisted of the temples for the three Gods (from south): Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. Directly in front of these temples were the Vahana temples of each respective Gods, the swam Hamsa for Brahma, the bull Nandi for Shiva and the eagle Garuda for Vishnu. Between the Trimurty temples and the Vahana temples were two small temples near the edge of the platform and were called the Apit temples. And at the four cardinal directions near the gate were four small temples called Apik temples. Four more small temples were found at the four corners of the platform and they were called Kelir temples. All of them were built of stone blocks and had been restored after being damaged by earthquake and other factors.

Candi Prambanan

The Trimurti and the Vahana temples all had the traditional shape of a Hindu temple, slim and pointy like a tower. The whole complex were located at the foot of Mount Merapi, a very active large volcano, and their towering shape made them vulnerable to earthquake generated during the frequent eruptions of the volcano. Each of the temple was erected on its elevated terrace surround by stone walls. And the walls were topped by stupa like balusters. The towering temple was built up in the centre of the terrace. The top was like a pyramid, and along its pointy slope toward the top, the space were divided into five levels. Many stupa  were erected around each level. The size of the stupa was gradually decreased toward the top, however, the largest and the tallest single stupa was in the top level. The stupa was bulging and had creases from top to bottom like pumpkins. The exterior surfaces of the temples were decorated with beautifully carved bas-reliefs. I felt the detail features of the bas-reliefs were superior than those in Candi Borobudur.

Candi Sewu

I promised to stay with the group to make it easier to control the visiting time. In my first visit in 1988, the Shiva temple was opened and we could enter its chambers to see statues of Hindu gods inside. It was now fenced and we could not get in. We spent a total of only 30 minutes to walk through the temple ground. I regretted of not being able to see them in more detail. A large group of boy and girl scouts were unloading their gears and supplies from trucks in a large open field near the exit. We took a transport ride to go back to the park entrance. On the way, we had a stop in front of a Buddhist temple, Candi Sewu. The whole complex was fenced, and the ground was mostly covered by piles of stone blocks which were the remains of hundreds of temples. The major and some minor temples had been restored. They had the shape of the temples found in Prambanan, but the stupa was bulkier and had no creases.

Truck wearing a turban

The ride dropped us in front of rows of souvenir shops, and we spent just as much time here as we spent on the temple ground. Somehow, my GPS stopped working, and I didn't have any GPS tracks for the remaining of the trip. We left at 8:40 am and passed Klaten on our way to Surakarta (Solo). Ching parents lived here before they moved to Cibeber. On the road, we saw several trucks with its tall load covered in white canvas. It looked like they were wearing tubans. 

A huge hall in Keraton Surakarta

Inside the keraton

The street in Surakarta was also clean and orderly like in Jogyakarta, and we arrived at the Keraton Surakarta at 10:30 am. There were much less visitors here than in Keraton Jogyakarta. We passed a large rectangular grass field. On one side there was an old white building dated 1874, and was the mess for cavalry and artillery staff. Inside the palace was a huge low hall similar to that seen in the keraton in Jogyakarta but was larger. It was connected to another smaller hall in front of the residential complex. The complex  was a square with a large beautiful garden in the middle. The front row was a large open hall which was used to display royal photos and valuable goods in the palace. And the building surrounding the other three sides of the garden had very wide corridors. The corridor was well furnished and decorated, and was used for dining and other common activities of the royal family. The building had been partitioned into rooms for living spaces. We spent an hour to get some feelings of the life in the keraton.

Trip around Jogyakarta

We left at 1:45pm, had another chicken lunch and went shopping at an expensive batik shop. We didn’t buy anything there, and then went for more shopping in a mall next to the bus terminal. We returned to Jogyakarta in late afternoon, had a short rest, changed into a nicer clothes to attend a Ramayana  dance performance in an open stage in Prambanan.  There were already a big crowd when we arrived. Fortunately, all seats were numbered, and we were assisted by an usher to get to our seats. I enjoyed the performance and lighting on the towering temples in the background. We returned to our hotel late at night.

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