Advertisement
Published: August 6th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Relief in Prambanan
Beautifully carved relief. 21 July 07
Reached Solo (Surakarta)
We landed at Solo Adisumarmo airport at 8:30am local time. The airport is the smallest airport that I have ever seen. There were only 2 counters with 2 small tables and 2 immigrate officials at a narrow walkway area. We took more than 30 minutes to exit from the airport.
Train is the most economical way of going to Yogyakarta (Jogja). After reaching the Solo town from the airport, we took 11:45 am train from Purwosari station at Solo to Jogja. It was an old train, and was very hot, as it was a dry season in Java. It takes 1 hour from Solo to Jogja.
After reaching Jogja, We were greeted by ck’s friend at the Jogja Tugu train station. Tugu train station is just located a stone throw away from the bustling and busy Jalan Malioboro and the back packer heaven of Sosrowijayan area.
We had trip to Gadjah Madah University, which is a famous University in Indonesia. It is also well known in Malaysia, as many medical students were sent over there by the government.
Sacred Hindu Complex - Prambanan
After lunch, we went to
Java
Java a great Hindu monument in Indonesia, Prambanan. Prambanan is the largest temple complex in Indonesia dedicated to the Hindu divinity of Shiva. It is located to the east of Jogja. Actually this is a temple complex which was believed to be built in 9th century.
It was declared by UNESCO as world heritage site in 1991. The temples underwent extensive reconstruction from 1918 to 1953 but the 6.3 magnitude earthquake happened on 27 May last year sending hundreds of intricately carved stones to the ground.
To enter the temple, foreigner got to pay a ticket of USD10, which is costly compared with local people who just need to pay 8,000Rp. Hopefully the money will be used for maintaining the temples.
From far, we could see the Shiva Temple stands tall among of the other temples. Actually originally there were 234 temples in the complex. But most of them had been destroyed due the earthquake in 16th century.
In front of each main temple is a smaller candis on the east side which dedicated to respective god - the bull Nandi for Shiva, the gander Angsa for Brahma, and Vishnus Eagle Garuda. The Garuda is Indonesian national
Solo Adisumarmo airport
Solo Adisumarmo airport. symbol, like Garuda of Indonesian airline.
Among these temples, Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma temples are the three main temples. The biggest among the three is Shiva Temple, which is 47 meters high. Shiva Temple sits in between the Brahma Temple and Vishnu temple, Brahma Temple in the north and Vishnu Temple in the south. Based on the God statue in the temple, we could know that this is the place of Hindus worshiping in old days.
Due to lack of record, one could not exactly tell who built this great temple complex. It was said that the temples were built by Mataram Dynasty’s Pikatan King and his queen, Sailendra Dynasty’s princess, Pramodavardhani in 856. Some historian said that the complex was built by Daksa King from 910 to 919.
There was also a legend which is famous throughout the Java. In ancient time, King Baka’s daughter Roro Jonggrang was a very beautiful princess. One day neighbor country’s prince Bandasawa attacked the King Baka and requested to marry Roro Jonggrang . The request was rejected by Roro Jonggrang. But she agreed after being pressured by the prince. However the condition was Bandasawa was required to build one thousand
Purwosari station at Solo
Purwosari train station at Solo. temples in one night. Assited by spirits, Bandasawa had almost accomplished this impossible task. But Roro Jonggrang ordered the village women to begin pounding rice, an activity generally performed at dawn. The spirits thought it was dawn and fled. Bandasawa was very angry and cursed Roro Jonggrang turned to a stone statue and now it was placed in the temple as the statue of Durga, Shiva's formidable consort. This is why the Shiva temple also called Roro Jonggrang temple.
Prambanan is a must go destination when u come to Jogya as it is not far away from Jogja. We walked around the surrounding and the temples, it is so great and the reliefs were beautifully carved on the wall. The balustrade was not only beautifully crafted, but also very unique of its onion shape. The reliefs on the wall were telling the Hindu’s epic of “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata”.
We spend more than 2 hours there. It was great and unimagined that in Muslim country today, these temples still kept intact. It serves as a reminder of the predominantly Muslim country's today of Hindu past.
Malioboro
After immersed in the Hindu epic of Ramayana, we got to
Train schedule
Checking the train schedule find a hotel, I was heard that this month and August is a peak season in Jogja. Ck’s friend was helping us to look for a hotel through a travel agent, however most of the hotels had already been taken up. Finally there were 2 rooms available at Wisma Djoglo Hotel, 130,000Rp for a standard room. It is not far away from the Carrefour. After checked in and rest for an hour, we took a taxi to Malioboro.
Malioboro is a tourist heaven in Jogja, there were many handicrafts, souvenirs, t-shirts and etc sold just right in front of the shop houses along the road. Many batik shops also located at this area. The prices of the goods are competitive and most of the time you will be able to get a very good bargain. Besides that, there is a shopping mall, called Malioboro Mall, though the mall is not big, but do provide a fast food like 24 hours Macdonald, KFC and local brand of Texas to foreigners like us.
However we took our dinner at Malioboro road side stall. I observed most of the road side hawkers do not provide chair for their customers. It is
Train
Train Indonesia. only with a low table (like a Japanese one) and people got to sit on the floor. Coincidentally there was a traditional dance and performance just next to our table. Indonesian traditional dance is almost the same as Thais. Both countries have been influenced by Hindu since 6th to 7th century.
After dinner, we walked around the area and look for a hotel for day 3. Jln Sosrowijayan is the area which has a lot of hotels, guest houses and etc, just like the Kao San road in Bangkok. However compare with Thailand, there were few western backpackers here, may be due to terrorist bombing which were happened in Jakarta and Bali few years ago.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.133s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 16; qc: 84; dbt: 0.099s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Jacque the idiot
Jacque Foo
Prambanan
It looks a bit like Angkor Wat le.....