JOGJAKARTA & BEYOND - Day 2

JULY 5, 2008 - CANDI PRAMBANAN

When one travels alone, one is at liberty to alter the route at one's own fancies. That's the beauty of solo travel, amongst other reasons. My itinerary was quite flexible, either to start moving out of Jogja into the countryside today or to remain in Jogja. I chose the latter. I decided to cycle to Prambanan and visit the Prambanan Temples first. Since Prambanan is under 20kms from where I lodged in, it would be an excellent introduction to more cycling in the days ahead.

I woke up early as usual, but breakfast was painfully late. The locals probably had breakfast at home, so eating shops were few and opened late. I was in no hurry, but my stomach was in need of top-up in a hurry. It was however, only at 9am that I managed to have breakfast. People here are like the Kelantanese. They have rice for breakfast, not Nasi Berlauk or Nasi Dagae but Nasi Padang look-alike. I called it look-alike because it lacked the usual arrays of the numerous dishes typical of Nasi Padang.

I cycled around Marlioboro and the surrounding areas to familiarise myself with this section of Jogjakarta. After all, this would be my base. I would return after a few days of my cycling out to the countryside back to Marlioboro.

The route that I took to Prambanan covered a distance of 24kms and just within 1 hour I was there. Paid IR1,000 to park my speda. My speda had no lock but somehow I was quite confident that it would still be there when I returned.

Candi Prambanan is a World Heritage site. A World Heritage site is a site designated by UNESCO as being of special historical, cultural or natural importance.

Looking at the structure up-close, the temple was constructed out of massive slabs cut to the shapes and sizes that eventually formed the temple structure. It would be a massive project of great effort and commitment. Human capabilities are immense. These slabs would have to be cut from boulders using tools which would be very inferior by today's equipment. Without the CAD drawing that designers and architects of today could not do without, one wondered how the people of the ancient, built great buildings that stood the test of time.









This period was the school holidays and there were already crowds arriving for the visit. Entry fee was IR8,000, very affordable to everyone.

There were still massive slabs scattered around in one area. There was an earthquake several years earlier and some parts of the building were brought down by the quake. Refurbishment work was under way and visitors were fenced off at certain locations.

The whole area is big. There is also a musuem within the complex and a mini-theatre where one could watch a video presentation of the history of the temple complex. There was also a courtyard and I chanced upon a function, which included a fashion show. On this trip, I planned to travel light and therefore carried Raqim's (my son) trustworthy Panasonic digital camera. If I had carried my heavier EOS Canon, I could probably spent sometimes photographing these beautiful Javanese .......... clothings

A nice cozy restaurant was also found in the complex. Slightly upmarket by Indonesian standard, it was mainly patronage by foreigners, me included. It had a nice ambience with plenty of local artificats and crafts. What caught my eyes had to be the Othell speda. I need to research why it's callled an Othell.

And I would see plenty of these spedas as I cycled past the numerous villages much later in my journey.

I saw this very colorful mosque minaret on the way to Prambanan but decided to capture it upon my return since by then, the sun would be in my favor. Must be quite an effort to paint the minarets.