Jogya-memory

Trip Start Nov 12, 2008
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Trip End Apr 30, 2009


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Flag of Indonesia  , Java,
Friday, February 6, 2009

Dashing through Jakarta, a city not meant for tourism in any way, or seemingly for living, we took the 8-hour 'Exsekutif' train to Yogyakarta.  The train journey was pretty fantastic.  Not only was it well served, but it provided some simply amazing scenery.  It seems that in these countries the traveling really is part of the experience.  Looking out of the window, we passed through huge sweeping fields, deep lush green jungle, raging rivers cut through mountains and rice terraces to rival those in Banaue.  We also passed from sun, to dark cloud, to biblical rain.  Its the rainy season here, and when it rains, which it seems to do intermittently, its real rain.  Coming from a country pretty much known for its rain, this is an experience.  Its heavy, soak you to your skin rain that falls in every direction.  It reminds me of Forrest Gump when he talked about rain that falls downwards, at an angle, sidewards, even back up at you.
Arriving in Jogya, its a city I don't remember from when I last visited it.  Its known as a centre of culture, art and intellectualism.  A short hop from the train station is the guest house area, small little alleyways called 'gangs' with old traditional buildings, art galleries and book shops. Its little gangways echo with the sound of the call to prayer, which I'm getting quite used to now, and is actually quite a nice accompaniment as you walk around.  It makes a pleasant change from the incessant Jack Johnson and Ben Harper played in the travellers joints!! 
Being immediately 'befriended' by one of the locals, we were taken to a batik gallery to view the wares.  Not really a scam this time because we wanted to see the batiks, which admittedly were pretty fantastic but well out of our price range.
Aside from the city the main reason to visit here is the proliferation of temples located nearby.  On the first day we popped over to the Dieng Plateau, way up in the mountains.  Built around the same time as Angkor Wat, and then mysteriously abandoned almost as soon as they were finished, these Hindu temples are hewn out of the volcanic rock.  This is actually not too hard, seeing as the whole bloody place is built on volcanoes.  In fact a short walk from the Dieng temples is an open crater of an active volcano, which in complete deference to any concept of health and safety, your welcome to walk around. 
Its a weird landscape of Mars-like proportions.  The floor is made of rocks coated in the chalky yellow of sulphur, the air is almost suffocating with the smell of rotting eggs.  As you walk closer to the centre, the rocks change from yellow, to orange and then purple.  You really feel like you are in the middle of the end of the world here, the only thing alive are the resilient ferns.  The whole 'hell's gateway' feel is magnified when you realise the surface water around you, spewing out of holes in the ground, is boiling at your feet.  Gases escape from small holes and finally, a big, black oil-like pit of water bubbles away given off fantastic heat.
After Dieng we visited the magnificent temple at Borobadur.  Again hewn from the local rock, this is a huge, imposing structure built on levels with intricate carvings, Buddha statues and stupors (upturned ice-cream cones hiding meditating Buddhas).  The idea is to walk around, clockwise, all of the levels, taking your time, gradually moving upwards before reaching the final, huge stupor whereupon you achieve enlightenment.  Needless to say I didn't achieve enlightenment, but I didn't walk all the levels either, and it was hooning down rain upon me, so maybe I wasn't in the right mood to receive heavenly wisdom.
The final Temple to tick off the list is Prambanan Temple.  Located close to Jogya, its a collection of similar temples built around one very large central temple.  Since I have returned, the area was struck by a huge 'gemba', or earthquake, registering 5.8 on the richter.  The result was that the temples were badly damaged, with huge chunks, statues and balustrades falling and smashing (from the size of these things, I wouldn't wanted to have been underneath any of this, it would have left you with a headache).  Its under repair at the moment, and you can no longer go inside the larger ones for fear of bits, or the whole thing, falling on top of you.  Its still an impressive sight.
We finished the day off by playing football with some kids in the shadow of the temples.  Although we didn't achieve spiritual enlightenment, we did realise that the days of playing football for a few hours straight are firmly behind us, puffing and wheezing our way back home with one or two pulled muscles.
Enough Templing, on to the great Bromo volcano...
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