Java Jamboree: Taking a Train to Solo

From Jogjakarta, we moved on to Surakarta aka Solo and that just being 60 km away, it was such an easy thing to do. There is a train to Solo every half hour or so and you would like us, not mind standing all the way to this city where one of the most prominent South East Asian terrorists, Noordin M. Top was reportedly killed in a shootout on September 17th 2009. Perhaps, you would shudder to know too that in the early 1980s, an Islamic school, Pesantren Ngruki was established here by Abu Bakar Bashir and Husein Al Habshi and a group with connections to the Ngruki school plotted violent attack on foreign tourists in the nearby Borobudur temple and on the island of Bali. If you like us, were not aware of the facts, then you would enjoy your wait at the railway station in Jogjakarta, drinking in the sight of cute Indonesian toddlers and the adults going through the hustle and bustle of everyday Indonesian life and taking the pleasant ride passed farms while you try the local fruit, buah salak...


Can you spot the buah Salak?

Traveling Tip: Don't worry unnecessarily!

Java Jamboree: A Just Dessert

We didn't spend a lot of time at the bird market. It was not just that it deserved just a browse but the encounter with the unsolicited tourist guide perhaps shortened our visit there. We walked back to our hotel and on the way, we came across a little stall selling a cold dessert which looked very much like the ice-kacang back home in Malaysia. It was already high noon by then and the sun was high up in the sky. The tropical heat really got to some of us and the ice-kacang really looked inviting. It must really be good; otherwise, how could there be such a crowd eating at the stall. So, that was it - so what if we decided to eat at the roadside? We deserved our just dessert yet!



Can you spot our dessert?

Traveling Tip: Enjoy your just dessert!

Java Jamboree: At the Bird Market

The first time I heard of a bird market was in Iran. Jogjakarta has a bird market of its own called Ngasem Bird Market and I would think it is more impressive here. For one thing, it seems bigger and yes, since it is a bird market, you could find all things that has to do with birds sold here, from bird seeds, bird cages to live birds. My friends and I took a memorable horse-drawn carriage there. The bird market was not very far from our hotel and the Water Palace was just beside it. Of course, we were not aware of all these then and had resorted to taking the carriage. Mm..mm.. Talk about Cinderella taking a carriage to the Ball! Once there at the bird market, an Indonesian man offered to be our guide. When we refused to hire him, he turned rather nasty and that broke the spell. Our carriage did not transform into a pumpkin of course, but our mood probably was shaken...


At Jogja's bird market...

Traveling Tip: Expect the unpleasant!

Java Jamboree: Streets of Jogjag

We left Dieng Plateau in the early evening. It was a long journey back to Jogjakarta. The day's activity had by then taken their toll on us and for most part of the return journey, all of us slept. We would soon be back to the hustle and bustle of the hot and dusty streets of Jogjakarta. That night, we had dinner at one of the streets around Sosro Vijaya area. Sitting on plastic mats while your food was served on low, long tables at the roadside did not sound like a nice idea but in Jogjakarta, you might just want to do that. You would want to be serenaded by some talented locals too for a fee of course, to make your trip memorable...

Look around the streets of Jogjag...Guess where we have dinner?

Traveling Tip: Look around the streets!

Java Jamboree: A Still Forest Pool

It was nice walking the woods of Dieng Plateau. I remember our guide taking us all in a van and suddenly we were at the entrance of a park. Rupiah changed hands. We bought our tickets and then, we were walking towards a beautiful, blue lake. We met a Caucasian couple who told of the breathtaking scenery. There should be caves there too but we did not get to see more though. It was not just that the day was getting shorter but it was beginning to drizzle. The guide had left us and had instructed us to walk straight ahead to a spot where he woud pick us up. Big raindrops that fell suddenly sent us scurrying. The sound of a whistle blowing pierced the air. Our guide appeared suddenly. He was holding a whistle. He had come back because of the sudden rain. What a fine experience at the still forest pool - The Telaga Warna or Coloured Lake!


At the Coloured Lake...

Traveling Tip: Bring a whistle!

Java Jamboree: Hot Spot

Almost at 2000 m above sea level in the Dieng Plateau, there is a place where the air reeked of rotten egg. It seemed like we were transported back to New Zealand to the year 2000 where at Whakarewarewa in Rotorua in the North Island of New Zealand, a similar aroma of sulpur prevailed. Like the Rotorua Caldera, most certainly there is geothermal activity in the Dieng Plateau Caldera complex. Perhaps, there is no Pohutu Geyser or any other geyser here and the area with geothermal activity is not as extensive and spectacular but enough gases could be harvested to produce electricity. An occasional hot mud pool here and there drew gasps of wonder and where thick smokes came out of the hot belly of the earth, the gasps were perhaps gasps of horrors. Our guide told and showed pictures of jilted maiden who jumped to their death here at this hot spot called Kawah Sikidang...


At Kawah Sikidang...Can you spot a hot mud pool?

Traveling Tip: Be careful!

Java Jamboree: Abodes of the Gods

If you have seen Borobudur and Prambanan Temple and have lots of time to spare - one extra day perhaps, you could well consider taking a trip out of Jogjakarta. Take a trip out in the early morning and reward yourself with breathtaking views of terraced hills planted with padi in the countryside. If you are traveling towards Wonosobo, you would pass densely populated towns with strange names and then you'd realise the air has become cooler and there are thick mist around. You'd start imagining you are in the abodes of God and no wonder- You have come to a marshy plateau that forms the floor of a caldera complex on the Dieng active volcano complex called the Dieng Plateau. Dieng comes from the word, Di Hyang which means abodes of the Gods and you'd be pleased like we were to find the oldest Hindu temples in Central Java. There arer eight small Hindu temples from the 7th and 8th centuries left out of a total of 400 and though the structures are rather small and plain, you'd love this Candi Arjuna that we visited. If not, the local children and wild dandelions would warm your heart...

At Candi Arjuna...

Little children...

...and wild dandelions to warm your hearts!

Traveling Tip: Take a break in the countryside!

Java Jamboree: Sad Stories on the Walls

No one in the world except the Javanese perhaps would know about Borobudur if not for Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles and no one would catch a glimpse of it too if not for the Dutch-Flemish engraver, Isidore van Kinsbergen, the latter having provided the world with its first photograph. Java was occupied by the British right after the Anglo-Dutch Java War. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was elected governor and during his tenure, he was informed of the abandoned Buddhist monument by natives. He then sent a Dutch engineer, H. C. Cornelius who with 200 men cut down trees, burned down vegetation and dug away the earth to reveal Borobudur. Following that, much excavation and restoration were done and if you were to visit Borobudur today, you'd notice that some of the bas reliefs which c0ver the facades tell tales on this later era. No, it's not simply the statues and carvings were well cleaned and free from mosses; it's more of the bas reliefs turning brown and being eaten not by acid rain but really- our guide said that the Dutch, when taking photographs of the bas reliefs, had applied some sort of chemicals on them to highlight the carvings. Sob! These ate the stones and well we have these...

Sad stories on the walls...

Traveling Tip: Listen to the walls wail!

Java Jamboree: Stories on the Walls

Walking up the stairs and corridors to the uppermost floor of Borobudur was a fascinating experience. You'd get to pass approximately 2,670 individual bas reliefs on walls and balastrades, 1,460 of them narrative, telling the life of Buddha and the famed Buddhist Jataka Tales and 1,212 of them decorative. Since this is a Buddhist monument, you'd expect to find Buddha statues here, and there are 504 here. Over 300 of them however, are damaged and 43 missing. The damaged statues mostly have their heads missing as these have been stolen as collector's items and placed in Western museums. A main dome at the center of the top platform is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa. I remember seeing a black and white Indonesian film very long ago showing an elderly Indonesia trying to touch the Buddha statue inside. It is said that if one is able to touch it, one would get one's wish furfilled. On 21 January 1985, nine stupas were badly damaged by nine bombs and in 1991, a blind Muslim evangelist, Husein Ali Al Habsyie, was sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding a series of bombings in the mid 1980s including the temple attack. Maybe, we should make a wish that this world heritage should be safe from future mindless attacks...

Stories on the walls...

Traveling Tip: Listen to the walls!

Java Jamboree: Inside Borobudur

Inside Borobudur isn't really inside Borobudur. There is actually no inner space like that empty space enclosed by walls and roofs of a building that one can walk into. Borobudur is built on a hill, using stones from neighbouring rivers which have been cut to size, laid without mortar and joined together by knobs, indentations and dovetails joints; that perhaps makes the stones sound very much like Lego toy building bricks. You can imagine Borobudur as a pyramid or a stupa with open-air corridors and staircases that leads you to the top platform and yes, if you are up there during midday, it could be terribly hot. It was a good thing that we went there very early in the morning. My friends and I had wanted to catch the sunrise but since Borobudur isn't open to the public that early, we failed to see it in all its sunrise splendour...



Inside Borobudur...

Traveling Tip: Start early!