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.
     

         

9 to 12 January - to Bawen and Ambarawa (Indonesia)

I found the following on the internet and it is thought provoking as to how it actually happens and the effect on any tourists.

Nyepi Religious Day & Cultural Event
Please be informed that Bali island celebrates Nyepi (Silent) Day each year on below dates. The Nyepi (Silent) Day is a day of absolute silence throughout the island. No outdoor activities are allowed including check in and check out from hotels.March 12, 2013 | March 31, 2014 | March 21, 2015 | March 9, 2016 | March 28, 2017. For more information about events in Bali, visit http://blog.baliwww.com  and http://baliwww.com/event/

I spent one night in Bali then caught a bus to Bawen as I wanted to visit the railway Museum in nearby Ambarawa with the overnight bus taking 21 hours for the trip. The first bus left Bali at midday and arrived at Bawen at 09.00 hours. There was a stop at 22.30 hours for a dinner of fried chicken, rice, vegetable soup and watermelon, all included in the fare. Apart from dropping people off at various places during the night there was no further stop until we reached the destination. Thee was a toilet on the coach (no comment) and the seats were like airline seats but I did end up with a sore back and neck.

I happened to sit next to an Indonesian lady on the bus. She spoke very good English having worked as a nanny for a Brazilian family in Bali and then going to Winchester (UK) with them for a year. She had also been a nanny in Singapore, Switzerland, and Uganda and now free-lanced for families on holiday in Bali, days or weeks at a time as required. She said that it was cheaper to employ her than to use the hotel baby-sitting service. As to how she finds the work, well, she advertises on the internet and on Facebook. I  asked her to explain the ‘quiet day’ and this is what she said having been in Bali for one herself.

On the day in question the Indonesians have to stay home, no cooking is allowed nor light in the homes. It is supposed to be a day of prayer and fasting but she was not clear if that was from sunrise to sunset or for the 24 hours. In the villages the children are taken to one house where they are entertained all day. No loud noises are allowed anywhere. The Bali airport is closed for the day and all tourists must stay in the hotels, they are not allowed on the beaches, they cannot make any noise but they are able to eat. All bars and clubs are closed for the day. The religious police patrol the streets, towns and villages to make sure that everyone is doing what they should. The lady said that a lot of tourists go to Bali at this time just to observe what happens on the ‘quiet day.
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Ambarawa was a military city during the time of the Dutch Colonial Government. King Willem 1 ordered the construction of a new railway station to enable the government to transport its troops to Semerang with part of the line requiring construction of the short (7 km) rack section, the only such example in Java. On May 21, 1873 the Ambarawa railway station was built and called Willem I Station. The Station was originally a trans-shipment point between the 4ft 8¹⁄₂ in (1,435 mm) gauge branch from Kedungjati to the northeast and the 3ft 6in (1,067 mm) gauge line onward towards Yogyakarta. It is still possible to see that the two sides of the station were built to accommodate different size trains.

The railway museum has a number of steam locomotives which remain from the closing of the 3ft 6in (1,067 mm) railway line.The museum has 21 steam locomotives of which four locomotives are operational. There are also old telephones, morse telegraph equipment, old bells and signals equipment, and some antique furniture.

PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN AROUND THE MUSEUM

At the station

Workshops

Workshops

Workshop manual crane

Workshops

Turntable

Carriage

There was a large horizontal steam boiler inside this locomotive

Some of the steam locomotives are the 2 B25 0-4-2T B2502/3 which is from the original fleet of 5 supplied to the line about 100 years ago. The B2502 and B2503 were built by Esslingen in Germany in 1902 and 1906. These are the original locomotives built for the rack line. One locomotive, B2501, is preserved in the War memorial Park; the E1060 which was originally delivered to West Sumatra in the 1960s for working the coal railway was the last steam commercial locomotive in the world to be built (1966) outside India and China; and a conventional  locomotive 2-6-0T C1218 which was restored to working order in 2006.

Up the road from the Railway Museum was the War Museum for which there was no information available. I did however take some photographs of the items in the War Museum, shown below.

Locomotive N/1902

Inside the carriage

P45 Mustang

4T Dodge (1941)

I asked in different places where the post office was so that I could post some cards and in the end someone took me to the building only to find it was closed for lunch. Making it clear that I would go back later was not acceptable as the man then banged on the glass door until those inside came and opened the door and sorted out stamps and posted the cards for me. Being a foreigner in some countries and in some places that do not see many foreigners actually walking the streets has its advantages.

One of the local buses

The following day I went by bus to Jogyakarta  a journey of only two hours this time. When I arrived at Jogyakarta the man sitting next to me asked where I was going and took me to the street showing me how to use the local transport called Trans Jogja (known as Trans locally). This bus service costs IDR3000 (20p) per trip no-matter where or for how long. The bus stops in the street are raised off the ground, covered, and the money is taken at the bus stop itself. The bus pulls up, the doors are manually opened at the stop, manually opened on the bus and someone always checked that I was getting on the right bus. This was all the transport I used for my stay in Jogyakarta.