29 January 2013 - In the UK, Home.

I caught the Air India flight at 9am in the morning from Singapore for Delhi then changed planes for the flight to London. In Delhi I was a bit surprised to be offered a wheelchair to go to the transfer lounge then on the flight to London to be treated as 'old' being covered by the flight attendant with two blankets as she said that I was cold. Being 'old' with my sight failing (cue the violins) I sometimes have trouble making out the signs for the toilets, the normal silhouettes for ladies and gentlemen, but there could be no mistake in Delhi Airport with the large pictures at each toilet.

Gentlemen

Ladies

                         










On the flight to London I took a photograph of the sunset that evening as I expected that it would be the last sunset I would see for quite a while.

That was the end of a 10 month trip, 28 weeks with Madventure/UKTOOZ and the remainder wandering round by myself and sometimes visiting friends in Australia. I have been asked if I have favourite place and the answer is No! There have been places I have enjoyed visiting such as Turkey for it's ruins and Istanbul (no ruins there) in particular; Iran, especially Esfahan, and the people of Iran who were very friendly; Pakistan for the wildness of the country and the friendliness of the people; India, Nepal and Thailand I have always enjoyed even when the hotel guests in Varanasi asked if the camp site on the hotel lawn was for refugees while it was some of the group camping there; Laos and Cambodia seemed to be slow, gentle places but Cambodia had the unforgettable Killing Fields and jails ; Vietnam full of contrasts with the American dollar as currency and with the Vietcong tunnels and the Vietnam War still being celebrated there; Singapore was not as I remembered it and I preferred it as it was years ago; Indonesia was fantastic with so much of a variety of temples, countryside and the amazing Komodo dragons; and Australia was expensive. I did side trips to Burma (it may still be called that though it has been renamed Myanmar) and Papua New Guinea. Burma and its temples were mind blowing, Papua New Guinea had changed considerably since we lived there as a family. I enjoyed going back and seeing the changes but I was very lucky in that I was looked after by the local people I had worked with before, which made travelling round much easier.

There was no preferred place out of all that I had visited. Different places had different attractions but there was one I would never want to visit again, which is Dharamsala in India. I know India was hot, smelly and full of people but that is what I expect in India. However, Dharamsala was so dirty that it was beyond the pale and that is where the Dalai Lama lives. Another question was if I felt threatened at any time. This was a difficult question to answer as although I considered Pakistan to be a dangerous country and with the police escort saying that it was too dangerous for us to be there I did not actually feel threatened, strange though it may seem. The local people in Quetta were quick to tell the group of Taliban we saw to go away as they wanted nothing to do with them and that was reassuring in itself. While out in the countryside we were an obvious target in a big orange truck. That was disconcerting.

Would I do another trip like this. At the moment I do not know. Maybe you can ask Mary!!

17 to 29 January - Singapore

During my stay in Singapore I stayed with Jane, Darren and Bronwyn who are now living there. During the week days I went wandering round Singapore especially going to the parts that I remembered from the 60’s when I used sail into the port here. I can honestly say that nothing is the same as it was then, every thing was different especially with the new buildings to be seen. Not much of the city was recognisable, the street names being most of what I recognised. When the family was not working we went to The Night Safari at the Zoo, Sunday brunches at hotels, Chinatown and the Chinatown Heritage Museum, a ‘Duck’ ride round Marina Bay, to the top of the Marina Bay Sky Park, the Art and Science Museum which had separate displays of the Fujian's and the Art of the Brick (this was the lego brick and not the house brick as I expected), Sentosa Resort and Spa and many hawker centres to eat various meals.

Bronwyn eating

Bronwyn drinking red wine

Singapore skyline

The Singapore Lion

Singapore skyline

Marina Bay Sky Park with ArtScience  Museum in front

Marina Bay Sky Park

Roof of the Marina Bay Sky Park

Marina Bay Sky Park

View from the Marina Bay Sky Park

Singapore River          

Singapore River

          

Singapore River Now

Singapore River as I remember it in the 60's

The ArtScience Museum and The Art of the Brick Exhibition photographs below. All made out of lego bricks, except me!

Tiger Balm Gardens (Haw Par Villa)

Entrance

1925 Buick California Hardtop

Preparing and rehearsals for Chinese New Year

On 29 January 2013 I left Singapore to return to the UK.

13 to 16 January - Jogjakarta (Indonesia)

I went to the Prambanan Temple site again, not to see the main site but to have another look at the Sewu Temple which is mainly a large collection of ruins, piled up stones and which I found to be more interesting than the rebuilt main site. Oddly enough I spoke to Korean/American and Indonesian women who preferred this site to the main one as well. Again I was the only person on the site as it seems that most people do not want to walk the 2 kilometres there or even get off a little road train that continually drives around the site.

The temple was probably built in 8th century and was possibly the centre of religious activities of Buddhist people. Sewu Temple, (the second biggest Buddhist temple after Borobudur, and Prambanan temple), which is a Hindu temple, indicated that Hindu and Buddhist communities had lived together without ant problems. The name “Sewu” (from the Javanese word, meaning thousand) indicates that there are many shrines included in the Sewu Temple compound, although their number does not reach a thousand. Sewu Temple has 249 shrines consisting of 1 main central temple, 8 flanking or intermediate shrines, and 240 ancillary shrines in a symmetrical arrangement. Sewu Temple has four gates and each of them is guarded by a couple of Dwarapala statues facing each other. From the outer court into the inner court, there are also four gates, each guarded by a couple of Dwarapala statues similar to those at the outer gates. Each of the Dwarapala statues is made of a single block of stone, placed on a square base 1.2 metres high with one leg on its knee, the other one bended, and one hand holding a club. The statue stands 2.3 metres high and is fantastic to see. 

Showing the elaborate carving

 Dwarapala Statue

 A pair of Dwarapala Statues at one of the gates

Me as the tourist wearing a covering which had to be worn out of respect to the meaning of the temple   

Site Views

   

The rebuilding of Sewu Temple

Local dancers in the temple grounds

Pooh Bear in Indonesia

 

Prambanan Temple at night

Having been told that there was another temple near-by (3 kilometres away) I went and visited the Plaosan Temple, again more of a collection of ruins and stones but still fascinating. The complex is divided into two groups, namely the North Plaosan Temple and the South Plaosan Temple. Both of the temples have square terrace that is encircled by wall, a pillbox for meditation at the west part and dome on other side. Because of that similarity, the appearance of both temples are the same when they are seen from distant so that Plaosan temple is also called the twin temples.The entire complex has 116 ancillary domes and 50 ancillary temples. Ancillary domes can be seen on each side of the main temple, as can smaller ancillary temples.

Plaosan Temple

Plaosan Temple

Plaosan Temple

Plaosan Temple

Plaosan Temple

The palace of Jogyakarta is known as the Kreton or Sultan's Palace and which I visited on another day. It is a complex that reflects the Javanese culture and architecture. It was designed and built in stages and completed in 1790.

This complex of pavilions was constructed entirely on ancient beliefs and each feature of the complex, from the courtyards to the trees, has a special symbolic meaning related to sophisticated Javanese world view. The Keraton was built facing directly north towards Mount Merapi. Malioboro Road (the main shopping street in Jogyakarta) was originally used as the ceremonial route, not unlike London’s Pall Mall, and forms a straight line drawn from the Sultan’s palace to the Merapi volcano. The palace was designed to be more than just a royal residence but as a focal point of the Sultan’s entire kingdom. Today, the Kraton (Palace) is a piece of living history and tradition. It continues to be used, both as a home of the Sultan as well as for other important ceremonial and cultural  functions of the Yogya court. The present Sultan Hamengku Buwono X of Jogyakarta retains the title of Sultan although Yogya (the local name for Jogyakarta  has become one of the provinces of the Republic of Indonesia. The Sultan of Yogya,is also the governor of the province, and is still considered the cultural head of this region, and is greatly loved by the people. There are actually two parts in the palace that can be visited, the first being the terrace area then, if the staff remember to tell anyone how to get to it, the palace area behind with an entrance a few hundred metres further along the road.

Audience Hall

Inside the Audience Hall

Ceiling of the Audience Hall

The entrance to the rear palace

Inside the palace

Inside the palace

An old carriage

An old carriage

In the back streets is the Taman Sari Water Castle, an old photograph of which is shown below. It looks very much the same now except that the area round the castle has been built on. This is the site of a former royal garden of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta being built in the mid-18th century. Only the central bathing complex has been preserved, while the other areas have been largely built over. The complex consists of about 59 buildings including a mosque, meditation chambers, swimming pools, and a series of 18 water gardens and pavilions surrounded by artificial lakes. The complex was used between 1765–1812.

An old view of the Water Castle

A row of small Tajug buildings that functioned as air vents for the underground tunnel. The area, once an artificial lake, is now filled with settlements.

The Water Castle was a bathing complex for the royal family and consists of three pools decorated with mushroom-shaped springs and large flower pots. There are two buildings in the bathing complex. The northernmost building was used as the resting place and changing room for the daughters and concubines of the sultan. On the south side of this building is a pool known as Umbul Muncar which is divided into two by a central pathway. The next building on the south is a building with a tower in its centre. The right wing of the building was used as the sultan's changing room, the east wing was used as his resting place. The central tower was used by the sultan to observe his daughters and concubines bathing in the pool. On the south of this building is the third pool that was used only by the sultan and his concubines. During its era, only females and the sultan were allowed to enter this bathing complex.

Photographs of the underground mosque near the castle

The elevated platform where the four staircases meet
               

 

Entrance to the pools

The double bathing pool

What the sultan was able to see at the double bathing pool

The single bathing pool

The single bathing pool

Street Scenes

A Marshall Portable Steam Boiler on a plinth near the railway station

Rickshaw driver

Nothing to do with Indonesian culture, just a sculpture erected by the Jogyakarta Arts Society

Rickshaws

Horse and buggy transport

                Malioboro Road at night (the shopping area)

On 16 January I left Jogyakarta and flew to Singapore to stay with Jane, Darren and Bronwyn.