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Published: June 18th 2009
Long hair, long life!
This is the greeting I receive a lot from Indonesians. I think it’s a fine slogan and I hope it’s true! Long hair is not uncommon here for men, but limited mostly to artists and musicians.
I’m writing this blog from outside our bungalow in Yoshi’s Hotel at Gunung Bromo, a volcano in Java Timur, or western Java. We’ve been here for two days now and it’s a beautiful area. Unfortunately it was very cloudy yesterday so we couldn’t see much of the volcano, but this morning we went up for sunrise (5.15, had to get up at 3.00am!!) and had a beautiful view, but more on that later.
Back to where we left you. My last blog was from Denmark, in the far south of Western Australia. As predicted the weather turned foul so after two nights in our big caravan we headed back up north to Busselton where the weather was a bit hit and miss, before heading back to our old home in Perth. We stayed for one more week, sorting out our odds and ends, getting shots, medicine, a mosquito net and saying goodbye to our friends in the West.
Then on Monday at 9.35pm we boarded the plane to Singapore, arriving there at 3am before flying on to Jakarta at 7.40am. The flights were good and all went well. Since we already had our visa for Indonesia, getting in didn’t take long and within an hour of touching down we were on a bus into the city.
And what a city. Loud, smelly, noisy, crowded, dirty, polluted and did I mention smelly and dirty? But the experience was great. To come from the peace and quiet of Perth into the complete anarchistic mayhem of Jakarta was exactly the kind of culture shock one expects to be greeted with on arrival in Asia.
We walked around the city for a while, exploring the narrow streets and alleys of the Jalan Jaksa area where our hotel was located before getting on a Bajaj, basically a tuk-tuk, to the main shopping area of Mangga Dua. Unfortunately a lot of the markets close quite early so we didn’t get any shopping done but the trip in the Bajaj was already worth it just for the experience. Sitting mostly outside, you’re fully immersed in the suicidal traffic of Indonesia which we’ve since
formed a love-hate relationship with. On the one hand it is awesome because of the chaos and total disregard for human life, but on longer journeys it can make for a pretty uncomfortable ride, bouncing back and forth, accelerating and breaking almost continually.
The next morning we boarded the train to Bogor, where we saw the botanic gardens before travelling on to Cibodas where we stayed in a homestay operated by an elderly Indonesian man who had been to a Dutch school as a boy and thus spoke perfect Dutch. Next morning we checked out the botanic gardens there, which were much nicer than the ones in Bogor, and had some really nice food in a restaurant at the foot of the hill after a long walk.
Next day on to Bandung, which was not very interesting but the trip there was. We climbed on a local bus, crammed full of people and spent three hours just enjoying the show. Traveling by bus here is never just a bus ride. It’s food and drink vendors jumping on and off every so often, offering various wares. Musicians of greatly divergent talent also join the trip for between ten and
thirty minutes and provide entertainment and there was even an imam with a portable stereo for the obligatory prayer. I have to say that after a week, I’m well and truly over the whole Muslim thing. They start the morning call to prayer at 4.30am (!!!) and since there is generally a mosque for every twenty or so houses, there’s no escaping the sound while you’re still trying to sleep. In general it’s amazing how early people get up. Those that don’t have a market stall -half the population feeds and provides the other half with cigarettes, it seems- get up at 5am at the very latest. I’m all for getting up early while traveling but 5am, surely that’s not Insha’Allah. Luckily here in Bromo there don’t seem to be as many Muslims, or at least they’re not as devout and tomorrow we leave for Bali and the relative peace of the Hindus. Once we got off the bus in Bandung we were still outside of the city centre and had to catch a local town bus, which was really packed to the rafters and us big folk with our backpacks were taking up most of the space but nobody
complains, they all just smile and squeeze in a bit closer. 1800Rp each (about 25 dollar cents or 18 euro cents) for a 5km bus ride. Nice!
Anyway we were really only in Bandung to catch the 7am train to Yogjakarta, the cultural centre of Java. The train ride was a surprisingly comfortable 7 hour trip and even included lunch and many, many miles of rice fields with smoking volcanoes in the background. Yogja was awesome. It’s such a difference with other cities in the area. For one it’s quite clean and there is lots to see and do. As everywhere we’ve been in Java, people are extremely friendly and helpful. Often this is because they make their money from tourists but we found quite a few people who just wanted to help us, wanted to speak a little English or Dutch, or were just generally friendly. Having said that, it was obvious that Yogja is a lot more geared towards tourism. Every few meters there’s a rickshaw driver saying ‘hello, transport? Very cheap!’ or ‘You want buy batik?’. If it’s not that, it’s people shouting ‘Hello Miiisterrr’ from across the street. Especially kids love to do this,
followed by either ‘What is your name?’, ‘Good morning/afternoon/evening’, often regardless of the time of day. Another popular one is ‘How are you’ or sometimes ‘Who are you’ so those of you who are philosophically inclined should be warned that his is in fact not an invitation to engage in existential debate. But again, usually it’s quite funny and people are just trying to be nice although it does at times seem that we are actually the attraction rather than the tourists; I guess I also have the long hair and beard and the fact that I’m quite tall to thank for that as Janine gets less attention here.
In Yogjakarta we did quite a few things apart from generally enjoying the city and the beautiful Javanese food. We went to the Ramayana ballet next to the Prambanan temple. This is the biggest Hindu temple in Java but it was mostly destroyed in an earthquake in 2006. They’ve already rebuilt a lot of it, including the theatre but there is still plenty of work ahead of them. We didn’t visit the actual temple since our time was limited and we will see plenty of temples along the way, but
the theatre was built right in front of the temple so the whole ballet is set against its backdrop. The story of Rama (Ramayana) is a famous Hindu story and is related in four episodes on four consecutive days by a group of over fifty dancers. We saw the third episode which deals with all kinds of war and fighting and finally the death of one of the main evil characters at the hands of Rama. It would be interesting to see the whole story although I think four times two hours would be quite a sitting if you’re not more intimately familiar with the story and who is who and does what. Still, it was very cool and the lead dancers were extremely good with beautiful costumes and traditional music and of course you couldn’t wish for a better place to watch it.
We stayed at the Losmen Setia Kawan which I can highly recommend to anyone going to Yogja. It was reasonably priced at 90.000 per night including a nice breakfast. The hosts are friendly and helpful and they organize everything from the hotel so you won’t fall prey to clever agents wandering the streets. Having said
that, you can also find perfect accommodation for around 50.000 a night and there’s Cecko, an agent just down the street from Setia Kawan that offer all the same trips at the same prices. But this place is cool with nice murals, great furniture and atmosphere including old vespas and motorcycles.
The next morning we left at 5am to go to the Borobodur temple. This 9th century construction is the largest single Buddhist temple in the world, although it’s not technically a temple but a stupa; the difference being that a temple is generally a place you go inside, with halls and corridors, while a stupa is solid so you walk on top of it. This one consists of 10 levels, embodying the ten levels of enlightenment. The ground floor is basically where you are before you start your training. Then follow five levels of enlightenment based on the five principals of Buddhism. If you have mastered these, you attain Nirvana, but this is not the end. Even then there is more to learn so there are three levels of Nirvana before you reach the top, or the ultimate enlightenment. The temple is decorated on all sides by carved
murals. Those on the ground floor depict all the bad things we do, all in story form. Alcohol, drugs, etc. Then the next five levels take you through Buddha’s entire life, starting from when he was still in heaven awaiting his final reincarnation to earth. That is on the mountain side of the temple. On the outside, all his previous incarnations (some 560-odd) are also depicted. One that our guide pointed out is where they show a rabbit, a lion and a monkey. A beggar comes up to them asking for food. The lion gives him some meat, the monkey gives him some fruit. The rabbit tells him to light a fire and then jumps on the fire and so sacrifices himself and gains once more in karma, reincarnating as a higher animal form the next time, and so on until he is ready to reincarnate as a human being.
His parents to be meanwhile, a king and queen in the Kingdom of Kapilvastu in the north of India, mordern day Nepal, have been trying to conceive a child for twenty years without luck. Finally, desperate, the king goes to the temple to pray. While he is praying, Buddha
(still called Siddhartha at this time) senses that it is his time and goes to the gods to ask them if he can become the child they want. The gods agree and so the queen dreams of a white elephant entering her womb and when she goes and tells the king about the dream, they find out she is pregnant. Apparently she’s also still a virgin (so one wonders exactly how they were trying to conceive a child for twenty years…) but still it’s a miracle and the king, instead of being jealous, is happy. Sure enough, nine months later little Buddha pops out and miraculously he is almost full grown and can already walk. He takes seven steps and below his feet, seven lotus flowers bloom. His mother dies shortly after this (not surprisingly after giving birth to a full grown man I would say) and so starts his life. An interesting thing that our guide told us, is that there are two main streams of Buddhism. One that believes in reincarnation, and one that doesn't. So I was wondering, if they don't believe in reincarnation, then how does the whole story of Buddha work out? Anyway, much like
in Christianity, Hindu wise men proclaimed upon his birth that this child would become a great leader who would change the world, which I guess turned out to be true for all the countless millions of Hindu who are now Buddhist.
The temple is beautiful and impressive. All around it there are statues of Buddha, 504 in total, sitting in the lotus position and holding his hands in different Mudras, hand-gestures. The statues of Buddha on each side of the temple on the lower five levels have a different Mudra, from waiting, to sharing to teaching. Once we reach the Nirvana level there are no more murals but instead there are 73 Stupas, each holding a Buddha with his hands in the circle-of-life Mudra. 36 on the first level, 24 on the second, 12 on the third and one Stupa at the top. This one doesn’t hold a Buddha however but there is a theory that the big Buddha statue in a nearby temple (which we also visited) was meant to go there but was too big for them to get up there. One of the statues is meant to be lucky so if you touch the top finger
of his hand, or for women his feet, your wishes will come true. I’ll let you know at the end of the trip whether it actually worked.
It was a very good decision not to go on the weekend and also to take such an early tour as after our guide said good bye after a very interesting tour of just over an hour (a steal at 50.000rp) it started to get more busy very quickly, mostly with busses full of school children.
Back in Yogja we went to see the water temple, which was a bit disappointing as most of it is just rubble but it gave us a nice view over the city. We also had a very nice dinner, sitting on the floor at a warung (street stall) where a small band was playing some very good music. Pete Goreng (fried beans), Tempe (fermented soy-beans), Sate Kambing (mostly sheep here rather than goat) and local specialty called Gundeng (English translation is Jackfruit but that still tells me nothing). The food has mostly been pretty good although you sometimes have to search around a bit for nice street stalls or small restaurants if you want something
more than Nasi or Mie Goreng with chicken.
We then we left Yogja on a minibus to Cemoro Lawang, which is where we are now, on the edge of the volcano. The trip started off pretty bad as we were stuffed in the front seats which were very uncomfortable and after four hours (of an eleven hour trip) we were done for. Luckily after lunch we managed to secure some seats in the back of the van and then it was fine, if not exactly comfortable. The van is alright but like I said before, the traffic and driving style of the drivers leaves something to be desired. They are basically continually overtaking as traffic here is insanely busy, even outside of the cities and there are huge speed differences. Sitting in front was an interesting experience although I soon managed to fall asleep for a while only to awaken to a pale-faced Janine sitting with sweaty palms a white-knuckle grip on her bag; it is quite intense.
We arrived quite a lot later than the company had promised, 9.30pm instead of 7.30pm but got a nice private bungalow for a ‘special price’. Rather than AC like in
the previous places, we would’ve needed a heater here; I gets down to 4-5C in the mornings. We were quite tired and since we had an extra day here (most people stay only one night for some reason, but the concept of two 10 hour bus trips with a morning of getting up at 3am in between didn’t really appeal) so we didn’t get up too early the next morning. After breakfast we went for a refreshing stroll, thinking we could walk to Mount Bromo in about 45 minutes as the guys at the transportation office had said. However, turns out it’s 45 minutes from the village at the crater’s edge, which was another 6km away. We found that out after we’d been steadily climbing up the mountain for over an hour and were still nowhere near a volcano. Of course we couldn’t really tell through the mist but I felt fairly confident we wouldn’t stumble into the crater all of a sudden. So we turned back, had lunch, looked at a map and then took an Angkot/Bemo (mini-bus) up to the edge in the afternoon and went for a walk in the completely deserted crater. Through the mist we
could see some parts of the volcano but it wasn’t really epic yet. Back at the top the only Bemo wanted to charge us 50.000Rp for the ride back to the hotel, five times what we paid to get up. We said no thanks and walked the 6km back down hill, with a 500m height difference in there. All up we walked about 16km and not more than 2 or 3 of those on flat land. Suffice to say we had slightly sore legs for the next few days!
Next morning it was 3am wake up to pile into a small landcruiser troop carrier with 7 people and a driver for a trip through the dark and mist up a mountain. The cars were changing the order quite a lot as I gather none of them wanted to be the one to drive in front. That’s always a comforting thought! Soon enough we were on top of our viewpoint and looking out at Bromo and the surrounding volcanoes -still shrouded in darkness- while trying hard not to freeze to death. It was all worth it though as the sun soon revealed a truly beautiful vista. There's something very special
about watching a volcano belch out smoke, seeing the steep slopes rise out of the clouds. I've seen pictures of Bromo on days when it's completely clear but I think we were actually lucky that it wasn't; the clouds add a lot of character to the scene.
After an hour or so we piled back in the 'cruisers, stopped halfway down at another viewpoint before driving down into the crater to the foot of Mount Bromo, back in the clouds. From here it was a fairly doable 20 minute walk and then 250 steps up to the edge of volcano but the altitude makes it all quite hard; at 2300 meters there's a lot less oxygen and the climb up the steps nearly did us in. The whole experience was pretty epic and well worth the 90.000Rp for the trip in the jeep. You can walk up, but I don't really fancy getting up at 2am to trek for 3 hours through the dark and clouds and cold up a mountain to save 8 euro.
From here it’s on to beautiful Bali where we hope to rent a scooter or motorbike so we can explore by ourselves
like we’re used to in Australia. We've decided to change our plans a little bit so we'll have some more time in all the places where we're going as we've found the traveling to be quite intense and after all, we're here to enjoy ourselves and relax, not necessarily to see as much as possible. We'll still be going to Flores but we'll leave out the west of the Island which will buy us a week or so of traveling. Instead we'll go there on a 3 day boat trip which includes Komodo Island.
I hope you enjoy the pictures, we'll be back in a week or two with a report of Bali and Lombok.
Stay safe!
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Maria W.
non-member comment
Great blog and wonderful photos!
Hi! You don't know me, I stumbled upon your blog during a slow day at work and am so glad I did! I am in the U.S. and have been living vicariously through your travels! Absolutely wonderful! Happy and safe travels!