Yes I'm back from the short trip to Jakarta/Yogyakarta.
Let's start with the photo above of the Hindu (and Buddhist) temple compound at Prambanan, on the outskirts of Yogyakarta. The amount of reconstruction that had to be done is pretty amazing, putting together the blocks again after eruptions and earthquakes over the centuries. (It was built in the 9th century, but abandoned for about 900 years.)
On arriving there, this was the first "influencer in the wild" that I spotted on this trip. A simple photo of smiling and being happy to be at a grand historical site was not enough for her, obviously:
The temples are very impressive, obviously:
As you can see, the inside of each temple has a Hindu god or divine figure (if I remember correctly, the bull is Nandi, Shiva's mount and guardian.) The interior space in each temple is small and fairly dark, but I like that in an ancient temple!
We were assured by our guide (well worth paying for one) that all statues were originals. Some rocks in the temples themselves had been replaced, but not any of the carved panels (which tell Hindu stories).
After seeing the group of Hindu temples, you can take a golf buggy ride (or walk in the heat) to a separate large group of temples at the back of the compound to see the one that is believed to have been Buddhist (and yes, I think the tops look more obviously stupa like than in the Hindu temples above):
As you can see, there remains a lot of reconstruction of the smaller buildings yet to be done - although it is not entirely clear how many they think they will ever get to. (We also did not have a guide at this part of the complex, but the guardian statues did look new. Also, the Buddhist statues inside the temple had been lost.)
As with Borobudur, the grounds of this complex are very large. And it was from here that I first realised how close we were to active volcano Mt Merapi:
(I never found out who it was that were staying in the campsite set up there - they were teenagers in red uniforms, so possibly a school group, or something like scouts?)
Before moving onto Borobudur, the other famous temple complex everyone visits, how was Yogyakarta generally?
It is obviously beloved by Indonesians themselves - of course Western tourists are around, but it felt like at least 90% of tourism on the street was domestic. We stayed at a very lovely heritage hotel - The Phoenix - which was rather like a mini Raffles and which attracts a clientele of nearly all Westerners for whom, I guess, colonial style still appeals. Well, who can blame us, really :)
One minor point that surprised me - that courtyard was the main dining area, especially at breakfast, and for some reason, flies were rarely to be seen. (Even on the street, the street food vendors with their wide variety of meat and innards on sticks waiting for sale uncovered, and unrefrigerated, didn't usually attract flies. My tentative theory is that it's too hot for them!)
I doubt there are too many hotels from which you can watch an active volcano from your balcony:
(And I swear, that night I did see a brief flash of a of a red dot from lava flow on the left hand side near the peak, before it disappeared under steam. But no, the lava flow was not strong during this visit.)
The main shopping/tourist street in central Yogyakarta is Malioboro Street, which would probably have to be the world centre for batik clothes, which range in price and quality from cheap to boutique. Yes, Indonesians really, really love their batik designs. The male sarong is also popular here, and it did make me that think that it's kind of odd that the West refuses to contemplate adopting any form of male "skirt" as acceptable day to day fashion, despite there being nothing unmanly looking about an Indonesian or (say) Pacific islander wearing it. (Kilts don't count - they are a bit weird in that they are remarkably unsuited to the climate of the country they come from, and their shortness also makes them impractical.)
Malioboro street is also extremely lively at night - the shops are open til 10pm, despite the call to prayer being heard at 4.20 am, and people (nearly all Indonesian) mill about, without a drunk person to be seen (given that finding alcohol outside of a hotel bar is not easy.)
So the next key temple complex to visit is Borobudur, about an hour's drive out of the city. This place is pretty well managed: you have to go in a guided group of about a dozen or so, and the numbers on the temple itself are limited to (I think) 150 people for each 90 minutes booked time sessions, so it doesn't get too crowded. (The first morning sessions, when the day is somewhat cooler, seem to fill up days in advance on the online booking system.)
I've seen some Western visitors on Youtube grumble a bit about the entry price - it was about $45 per person for a foreign visitor to be able to enter and climb to the top of the structure. But it is a world class site with very well kept grounds; the guide was friendly and able to answer questions; and you can wander around on the grounds as long as you like after the 90 minutes with the guide is up. I have no complaints at all. Even the vendors at the souvenir stalls you have to go through to exit were not too persistent.
Anyway, here's a bunch of photos, very similar (no doubt) to those taken by all visitors:
What? Another influencer in the wild. (I can assure you the one having her photo taken was not genuinely meditating):
One of the most interesting things about the place are all the carvings, mostly telling about Buddha and related teachings. I wasn't detailed and quite sophisticated boats to feature too:
These boat reliefs have their own Wikipedia entry, given the apparent controversy of which particular region (or civilisation?) they belonged to.
Here's the classic photo showing both sides (each over 100 m long):
And a bit closer up to see some of the many, many Buddha statutes still in place:
Many are headless or armless, the guide telling us that this was their weak spot that would naturally break when the statues tumbled due to the substantial subsidence it underwent before restoration.
As with Prambaran, a combination of political unrest and natural disaster led to this huge temple being abandoned for centuries; it took decades to restore and although some new stones were needed, the relief carvings and statue are all original. There is no interior (or so they would have you believe!); it is built on a hill that partially eroded away internally during centuries of rain, leading to the subsidence problem that has apparently been permanently fixed by a new internal drainage system you can't see.
He dedicated himself to writing The History of Java, an encyclopaedic, seminal study of Java, contributing hugely to Western knowledge of the East and still used by scholars today. In 1815, undaunted by the 400-mile journey across difficult tropical terrain, he finally arrived at the jungle covered site on the fertile Kedu Plain to find a vast structure built of andesite covered with panels of exquisitely carved relief carvings – the Buddhist temple of Borobudur.
Sir Stamford Raffles was, as Collis writes, ‘captivated by it as a work of art,’ even if he was, as Collis claims, uncertain whether it was Hindu or Buddhist. ‘We are at a loss,’ wrote Raffles, ‘whether most to admire the extent and grandeur of the whole construction, or the beauty, richness and correctness of the sculpture’. Filled with awe, he organised drawing, measuring and recording details about the numinous structure with its rising four square terraces, three circular terraces,1,460 radiant relief carvings, 504 life size images of the Buddha and 72 perforated stupas culminating in a single, large, empty stupa at the top. Dating from the 9th century and the period of the Sailendra (‘Lords of the Mountain’) dynasty in Java, the exquisite narrative carvings form a divine exposition of Mahayana Buddhist doctrine, as later scholarship would reveal, with figures in meditative and graceful movement, sculpted with sublime expressions.
(Yet I note that Wikipedia says Raffles didn't personally visit the site - just that he sent the Dutchman engineer who spent a couple of months digging it out from the undergrowth and - presumably - volcanic ash. I'm not sure who is right - I haven't got to the relevant part of my own book yet!)
Anyway, it's all spectacular stuff, and as Wiki explains, all built starting around 1,300 years ago:
Hindu clerics appealed to the people of Java for generations, a fact that architect and author Jacques Dumarçay finds first mentioned in 450 AD.[25] Influence of the Sailendra and Sanjaya dynasties followed. Dumarçay says that de Casparis concluded that Sanjaya and Sailendra shared power in central Java for a century and a half, and that de Casparis traced alternating succession from 732 until 882.[26] During this time many Hindu and Buddhist monuments were built on the plains and mountains around the Kedu Plain. Buddhist monuments, including Borobudur, were erected around the same period as the Hindu Prambanan temple compound. In 732 AD, King Sanjaya commissioned a Shivalinga sanctuary to be built on the Wukir hill, only 10 km (6.2 mi) east of Borobudur.[27]
There are no known records of construction or the intended purpose of Borobudur.[28] The duration of construction has been estimated by comparison of carved reliefs on the temple's hidden foot and the inscriptions commonly used in royal charters during the 8th and 9th centuries.[28] Comparison of an Indian architectural process across temples, and acknowledgment of who was in power, enabled Dumarçay to approximately date the construction of Borobudur in five stages.[29] Loosely, the Sailendra began c. 780, and continued stages two and three c. 792 through to an unremarkable fourth stage during their decline c. 824.[30] The Sanjaya completed Borobudur's fifth stage c. 833.[30][a]
So, what else about this quick trip:
* Indonesia (or Java, at least) seems to have a sophisticated, affordable and comfortable train system, with the "Executive" class having big well padded seats with plenty of leg room. The 6 to 7 hour trip from Jakarta to Yogyakarta is about $70 one way. There is also a "luxury" class, with seats set up like airline business class, but for around $120 (I think) seems hardly worth it for a relatively quick trip.
Here's the seats, with the incidentally charming child a bonus:
And here are two station photos: the first is Yogyakarta, the second shows a chill cat in Jakarta's rather busy Gambir station:
* Jakarta: Well, I was only there for about 40 hours, but it's clearly one of those cities with massive disparities in wealth and lifestyle in different areas. (On the drive to the airport, the Grab driver avoided some traffic by going through some very narrow streets in some pretty poor looking areas. But the worst was the glimpse of some shanty slum areas on the train going to Yogyakarta.)
As lots of online commentary says, the city is not exactly very walkable, so working out how to use Grab is essential to getting around comfortably. (It's pretty easy, and not expensive.)
I reckon Hanoi might be slightly more overrun with scooters, but they are also ubiquitous in Jakarta, making for some apparent near misses on every car ride. In fact, it occurred to me, it's surprising you don't see more cars with panel damage than what you do - does such dense, weaving, traffic mean speeds are slow enough that car damage is pretty restrained?
The "good" thing for Western visitors is that you don't have to spend a lot of money to stay in luxury. Yes, another heritage hotel for the last night, The Hermitage, and it was the swankest suite I have ever stayed in:
This is the view from the rooftop bar. Live music til 10.30pm.
* Security was very high in Jakarta: Grab cars checked with mirrors for bombs underneath, and dogs, was a common feature when entering the hotels. Up market shopping malls too. Obviously, the government is taking a long time to relax about the risk of terrorist attack.
* Service in the country was, however, overall friendly and welcoming; both in Jakarta and Yogyakarta. It's a bit of a pity there is not much to see in Jakarta itself. (I believe there are some decent daytrips into the adjoining countryside, though, after overhearing a conversation in the airplane.)
* As for the countryside generally:
I have never been to Bali (always sounds like too many Australians behaving badly), so the mountain backdrops, extensive rice paddies and banana and coconut trees everywhere certainly felt exotic to me in a way that perhaps isn't new to those who get outside of Kuta. It was the end of the rainy season, so it looked probably as lush and verdant as it ever does.
The plains between Jakarta and Yogyakarta are so extensively covered in rice paddies, and Jakarta is so low lying with some rather foetid looking canals and a serious subsidence problem, that the overall impression is that most of the country that isn't mountains is barely above the water table. I can understand how badly earthquakes can affect the country.
And to finish on a trivial note, this is the biggest avocado I have ever handled. :
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