An Early Vacation in 2011 Part 3

After our Borobudur experience and on the way to the airport to send off our companion returning home, we visited another temple on top of a hill, Candi Ijo (Temple Ijo). We had to walk maybe 200m of uphill unpaved road, leaving our car below.  It is a very strategic temple to clearly see the lowlands, but we had only a few minutes to take photos.

 Candi Ijo at present is composed of a big temple with 3 smaller ones. A big area is still not yet reconstructed, but the piles of stones are seen below right.

   
At the left is the linga at the center of the biggest temple, many of these are also seen in some temples in Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Its top directly points to the rooftop with small hole for water to seep through. Water droplets are collected at the base of the linga and believed to be medicinal or even magical. Top right shows the ruins of Candi Ijo waiting for reconstruction.

After sending our companion to the airport, four of us still continued our Indonesia escapade by taking a train from Yogyakarta to Solo, Surakarta. It is a place often suggested in travel sites as an old town with beautiful cultural traditions. For us it really is an awesome experience! After checking two hostels which were full, our taxi driver brought us to a homestay, located along narrow, circuitious residential areas. It was a bit difficult to traverse these alleys, as there are many motorcycles going around, motorcycles being their primary mode of transport. Chakra II Homestay was our hostel for 2 nights in Solo. It is in a big compound with many rooms, and a swimming pool. Serendipitously, it houses the Gamelan Orchestra that practices there every night. A gamelan is a musical ensemble from Indonesia, typically from the islands of Bali or Java, featuring a variety of instruments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan). We are free to watch them practice and take photos of the traditional instruments.

Top left: Chakra II Homestay Gamelan Orchestra playing on the floor; Top right: one of the side lobbies at Homestay where we take our free breakfast.                                                        

Top left: an elaborately carved walls for another set of Gamelan instruments. Top right: Wayang Kulit puppet at the Museum in Solo.

Top left: Batik making in one of the batik shops; Top right: image of Visnu in a side street

Becak (pronounced betsak) - unmotorized tricycle and manually pedalled by the operator is a common local mode of transport. Photos 8 & 9 are not becak but #8 is a mobile delicacy store, while #9 is a carriage drawn by a horse. All of the mentioned modes of transport are always very colorful in Yogyakarta and Surakarta, most especially in Solo.

Colored doors and windows of Solo. It is a cultural tradition in Solo to have brightly colored gates, windows, doors, as well as the becak (pedalled unmotorized tricycles).  At bottom right is a mosque door.

Our trip back home entailed an hour by train from Solo, Surakarta to Yogyakarta; followed by another hour of Asia Airlines domestic plane to Jakarta, and lastly, 4 hours via Cebu Pacific Airlines to Manila. We lost an hour in crossing the dateline, but we gained a lot from the wonderful sights and experiences.

Postscript: For a more detailed article of our trip to Indonesia, please visit http://www.lagalog.com/