Templing in Yogyakarta (& Swine Flu)
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2009
1
14
25
Trip End
Jun 12, 2009
Yogyakarta,
Java,
Indonesia
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Our first day we visited the Sultans Old Palace (Kraton) in the city centre and avoided the cyclo drivers from hell. The city relies on these drivers (a pushbike with a cradle on the front) but a few linger lazily for one fair a day in the tourist road. One of said drivers decided to hound us on our first day by following us (until we gave into the oppressive heat he thought) as I marched us left and right, up and down to shake him off. He must have expected us to give in. A - we're British, B - meet me. So we trudged during the mid-day sun for a good few k's until we met a friendly local who worked in the palace wrote down what we should do (and when) and got us a local cyclo for 30pence
Silver Factory
. As we drove back past our old friend he hides his face behind his bike, the valve. The Palace turned out to be remains of very little. Bit pants, but we're not sure if the guide actually took us there or just spent 30mins trying to sell us his services instead.So we spend the first day ambling the markets and visit a Batik school. This is a type of artwork where the artist paints using a candlewax outline done by hand on fabric and dips it into dye to colour the area. Very impressive.
A wee bit of shopping later and we've planned our next few days. Evening spent in a Dutch/Indo bar in town and I dutifully return Cath to the room at about 11pm. I obviously return to the bar to discuss football over multiple Bintang's until about 2am.
Now the next day I have a hangover. Fair's fair. But I gradually get worse as the day progresses. Wondering what the crazy Dutchies did to me I contemplate all possible illnesses. Not wanting to be put down by this monster hangover I try to battle it but just cannot move. Gradually I feel horrendous and by the evening I'm shaking like a leaf and shuddering all night. In steps Nurse Kellett, who by my own admission is THE BEST number one Nurse in the world
Polishing at the silver factory
. I would have said 'get up you lame hungover idiot'. Thankfully she didn't recognising I had a little man flu. The next 3 days I spent flat out seriously thinking of death. Swine flu, bird flu?? Having never had flu before I couldn't compare it to anything. Reluctant to get tazered by a witch doctor I pushed it out. Cath was the best and Day 4 I rose from my bed, still kaned. As I had lost my appetite, Cath knew something must be amiss. On this note I'm sure they've done the rounds but I saw a mate of mine update facebook to say he thought he had swine flu so phoned NHS direct. All he got was crackling. Cath conquered this by telling me to get up as there snout wrong with me - her very own.Anyway, self righteous gripe over (yes I just had some fever) we take the ailing, dribbling idiot (me) off to get going again. Saturday 7 May is a big celebration here. It is Waicek - the Buddhist New Year. More importantly it's Richie's birthday and in his honour they moved their New Year. Joke. Hope the BBQ was nice Spence.
As we wanted to visit Borobodur the huge Buddhist temple complex here we were offered the chance to join the festivities the following day - culminating at Borobodur. Result. Kill two birds and all that.
The following morning we jump in our minivan to disappear into our 3 hour trip to join the beginning of the festival procession. It all looked pretty good when we arrived with heaps of floats and thousands of people (National holiday as well) so we join the end of the procession with a couple of Brits, our guide promptly does a bunk and we trundle along. Then the storm came..
SIlver Butterfly
.Almighty crashing of lightning and thunder, the transformer on the pole in front of us blows up and the heavens opened. This reduced the 'procession' to more of a dribble. It's only rain we thought.
We gradually make our way to Borobodur for the final, walking through the complex as the rain eases off. Completely lost we meet one guide who points to where we should be at 7pm. Excellent, day at leisure now (3pm).
We plan on spending the rest of the day in the complex walls of the temples (compared to Angkor Wat but not that close I think) but this is p'd on from a great height when we find the one day of the year it is closed is.....today. Too many people. They didn't mention that when we booked it. Fairly key to the visiting.
We have 4 hours to kill with very little to do so hook up with some others from our group, have a wander, complain about the tour and kill time.
So as the evening comes, we have no guide, we make our way to where we should be for 7pm. Except it's closed off to guests due to the presidents arrival and Indonesia styley - everyone points in different directions when you ask for help.
A whole 90mins later, one security guard (the police just shunned us off like shmucks) gives us directions and we finally find our little hut for dinner, very flustered and quite pissed off
Prambanam
. Thankfully we're not the only ones and the other Brits drag in later on making us look pleasantly pleased. All in all a pretty crap tour with Great Tours, Yogyakarta (got that in ;-)) The police were pants but officials rule above all else here. It's quite ironic really - the government here (elections coming up - pick between 46 parties!) have elected an anti-corruption commission to clean up Indonesia's corrupt look. Last month the chair of this board (all senior MP's and business owners) was arrested for allegedly murdering another business associate and bribing someone to cover it up. Madness. If you want something doing here - the greenback works. Although it's different at street level. The country folk are of the nicest and most helpful I've found. They say Thailand is the land of smiles, but this place comes in very close.The following day we book Bellongg of Bellongg Independent Tours (bellongg@yahoo.com) for his man and a van day run to Prambanam with a side trip to the silver street of Kota Gede. As per everything we wish we had met this guy a long time before! He was great. A little one man company he is trying to expand, he caters for longer term tours (mainly Dutch) and takes people all over the country.
Today he takes us to Prambanam, the next big tour site in these parts. A mainly Hindu centre, the temple caters for all religions with small relief's depicting all the religions in these parts over the years. Sadly most was destroyed in an earthquake in the 1500's and again more recently in 2002. This is why you'll notice some scaffold on the pics. A huge amount of manpower is currently pouring into this place to repair it, but it's going to take years.
Prambanam
A tour with the campest little guide in the world (not Bellongg) shows us round and we spend the whole day there taking in the serenity of it all. As we looked at the holy bull inside a temple, our guide suggests we climb it for a picture. Not the best idea we suggest back. A very peaceful place all in all.
We did have a side stop in the morning to Kota Gede where the silver smiths are in abundance. A big export of the area is jewelry so the lady had to see it. With purse strings firmly tied (joke) she was let off on a tight leash to the shops. Needless to say she bought a small something, but was very restrained.
Back to our digs to listen to the evening call to prayer competition - we were based in the middle of 4 mosques that compete for hollah's. It was quite amusing listening to them go at it.
It was in Jogja (short name) that Cath tried Banana Spring Rolls with Cheese on top for a desert at Restaurant Guding. Turned out to be excellent oddly?? Go try...
Duta was a nice place to stay, excellent in fact, sadly our room was relieved of about 50 quid in our absence. When I asked if anyone had 'handed it in' they just shrugged. Tough's tough here.
So the following day we head out to Guning Bromo by 10 hour minibus trip (if it says 10 hours it means 12 - without fail).
Peace.
