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/

An Early Vacation Part 2

Our second night in Jogjakarta (pronounced Dyogdyakarta there but Yogyakarta for non-Indonesians) was spent at the Manohara Hotel, only five walking minutes to the Borobudur Temple. We arrived there at about 4 pm with grey skies and rains, but it did not deter us to approach the foot of the temple which closes at 5 pm. Good thing that we are prepared with hats, umbrellas, raincoats, dry bags and camera covers.

At 4:30am the following morning we started our walk to the temple for the sunrise shots. Manohara Hotel provides guides and flashlights for the resident tourists. The stairs are a bit steep, but there are stainless rails added lately to avoid accidents. There are nine levels, but the 2 top levels are still closed due to the destruction by the recent eruption of Mt Merapi. The temple really depicted the visualized Path to Enlightenment. The first levels show wall-stone carvings of the mundane things, including human vanities and pursuit of worldly happiness. As the level rises the carved pictures lessen, with the topmost and biggest stupa already devoid of any human or animal depictions. This show the disappearance of worldly concerns as the consciousness approaches enlightenment. Literatures say that the biggest and topmost stupa is open and contains nothing both inside and out. Several stupas in the lower levels contain the bust of the Buddha.

Above and Below: The Manohara Hotel complex

The approach to the Temple of Borobudur before sunrise in a really foggy cold morning

      I am sorry i still don't know how to merge photos, the topmost protruding stupa is the topmost center of the Borobudur Temple. Besides, my wide angle is not as wide to capture it in just a click!



 The Path to Enlightenment is very steep, and the symbol to get that is steep too! At the right is the moon on top of the central dome

 

Top left: Mt Sumbing at the background, the highest volcano around Borobudur. Top right: the side walls along the pathways upward the temple.

Those stupas have Buddha's bust inside, and at the top right is an open stupa showing the Buddha

The central dome or Stupa is already devoid of carvings, signifying the clean consciousness after undergoing the travails of life and diligent cleansing and good deeds. At the right shows details of walls at the mid levels of the temple, of people in meditation pose, to be one with the Divine.

Left: the walk at the mid-level of the temple. Right: the gargoyle serves as water spouts

 The wide angle view taken from the grounds of Manohara Hotel.


Postscript:
For a more detailed description of the places and events we saw in Indonesia in this trip, i would like to recommend you see this link from my journalist friend. He writes and photographs better and even put the cost and prices for hotels, entrance fees, and transport, hahaha. http://www.lagalog.com

An Early Vacation in 2011

A vacation in January might be too early, and maybe to most it is unusual. But for me and four of my friends it is just the right time. We have availed of promotional airline fares a few months earlier and our New Year has been more exciting because of the expectation for this trip. My friends called it 'Oplan Whirlwind Borobudur' because it really was so sudden and everything just went into place. I just asked them when are we going to Borobudur and immediately one booked us for the plane and the hotels. Two of them also made the itinerary. It was really more exciting for me because i did not have any input in the planning, but to agree with them in whatever is the plan! Maybe that's the privilege of being the oldest in the group. haha!

It was a budget flight so we left Manila at midnight. Indonesia is an hour late than the Philippines, and we spent 4 hrs in flight to Jakarta and another hour domestic flight to Yogyakarta, where Temple Borobudur is located. We slept for a night in Yogyakarta and spent the whole day at the old Royal Palace and the Temple of Prambanan before transferring to another hotel near Borobudur. Prambanan is a must to visit as it rivals Borobudur Temple in elegance and magnificence.

It was vacation, but it certainly is not easy because no matter how late we were in going to bed, we always wake-up early for the sunrise shots. But of  course, we went there purposely to get photos! My friends are either professional photojournalist or expert hobbyists, I am the only trying hard photographer in the group.

Hotel 1001 Malam, Yogyakarta is clean and organized, a pocket garden at the middle, with free coffee/tea the whole day in addition to free breakfast

At the left is a painting on the wall of the hostel, while at the right is the long rows of motorcycles, a common mode of transport in Yogyakarta.

The expanse of Candi (Temple) Prambanan with the renovated structures. A wider ground with blocks of stone ruins are still waiting to be reconstructed. 

  

Left: Skyward view of the main temple; Right: a detailed apsara on the wall of the temple

A night shot of the Prambanan Temple

The Ramayana Ballet in Prambanan complex was a beautiful cultural presentation, at left is one of the lady dancers, while at the right is a fast dance number almost like the Turkish swirling dervishes.

I will cut my post here and will continue the Borobudur episode next post.