JAVA – Week 3
07-02-17
Goa Gong Caves to Pracimontoro
Up at 7am for our last breakfast at the best surf camp on
this planet. The weather was looking amazing and as we ate our brekkie and
drank our coffee we sat and admired the islands just off shore and the nice
formations of waves rolling in. Our driver arrived at 8am and packed the truck
with our bikes and our gear, we were
hitching a ride up the mountain to explore the stalagmite caves before
continuing our cycling journey. We said our farewells to Rod and staff and
climbed into the truck and were on our way once again.
The road out was through the jungle, up and down steep hills
and with some great navigating from our driver we managed to miss most of the
large pot holes. It was a good solid hour’s drive to the caves and once at our
destination it was time to place all our bags back on the bikes, say good bye
to our driver and push the bikes into the entrance of the caves.
We are so glad Rod suggested we come to the caves, as they
were just amazing. One place that should not be missed if ever visiting this
area. The caves were very wet and humid as we came in through the entrance into
some narrow passage ways, the air felt really close. We didn’t have to go too
much further until the cave opened right up into a very large cavern. Slippery
steps took us down through the cavern allowing us to investigate all the
different types of formations. There really was quite a lot to see, sometimes
the lighting was a bit odd, but we really enjoyed it and easily spent a good
hour within the cave exploring. 
After an ice cream and cold drink at a warung once we
finished our exploration of the caves, we were then on our bikes and back on
the road. The ride today was up and down with a pretty good road surface. A
little bit of pushing the bikes up a couple of steep pinches, but most of the
riding was pretty enjoyable. We did have 6km of dirt and road works to ride
towards the end of our ride today, we were expecting this, as Rod had mentioned
it as this section of road has been in progress for the last 3 years. We were
just very fortunate that there hasn’t been much rain the last couple of days as
this section of road would have been an absolute muddy bog. So as we rode the
rough and bumpy sections we just smiled and were thankful for dry and dusty. It
felt really hot and humid today on the bikes, the temperature was showing 37
degrees on the garmin, and by the end it was really starting to zap the energy
right out of us. We were about 4 k’s away from our destination when we stopped
at an Indo mart for a cold drink and a quick bite to eat.
We arrived at the Green Hotel, checked into our clean
comfortable room with air con and hot water and then crashed out for about an
hour. We ventured outside and we were offered a lovely coffee from the guys at
reception, and then went to see if we could organise a place to walk to for
some dinner. It was suggested that the nearest warung was about a 2km walk down
the road. Oh!!!! That’s ok we needed a walk, so we ventured off down the road,
walked a tad over 2km but couldn’t find anything really open, so back we came.
We were about half way back when we stopped to check out a group of people
watching some guy all leathered up doing tricks on his motor bike. Here was a
tiny warung that was open. We had a choice of bananas, peanuts, soft drink and
chicken noodles. So we grabbed 3 bananas, a packet of peanuts still in their
shells and a drink each. This was our dinner and we were very thankful for it
even if the drinks were warm. On the way back we got stopped three times for
photos with the local kids and lots of waves and hellos from locals as they
drove past.
08-02-17
We got an early start. The hotel had organised a toaster and
some bread for us for breakfast. It was lucky we had some peanut butter and
vegemite in our bag still. Instant coffee too, after the great coffee they gave
us the afternoon before, never mind.
We had no idea of today’s terrain, but it was going to be
sixty four k’s to our hostel in Yogja. We started off with a nice down, we were
still up at around 350metres. This was very short lived, and the punishing
rolling hills started again. Up 50, down 50, sweat some more. We had already
planned a decent stop about half way at Wonosari, we were going to need a good
meal.
We got there about 9:30, which surprised us, considering the
climbing we had done. Rod had recommended a café called “Hafe”. We laughed
about whether it was just a typo, but anyway, we found it and had some second
brekky. Mary struggled to find something she wanted , but we ate and headed
back to the bikes. At this point, the chef came out to meet us and was totally
overjoyed. He was amazed at our story, and just couldn’t stop giving me big man
hugs. He was a great guy, and just another example of how nice and welcoming
the people of Java are.
The riding became a bit flatter and our legs were pushing
the bikes on well. We had some final climbing to do before beginning the long
switch back descent down onto the plain that Yogjakarta sits on. There are a
lot of cafes and restos at Bukit Bintang taking advantage of this hazy view,
which was pretty cool. The quality of the places was quite low however, we can
usually sniff out a good one, but this time we couldn’t. We had a quick bite
and a cold drink and began the descent.
The final run into Yogja was fast and busy. We enjoyed it
though. I was thoroughly ready for a cold beer when we rolled into our Hostel,
called Sae Sae. This turned out to be a great choice of places to stay. Really
set up as a backpackers, but it is really chilled out, has a great lounge area,
and a young guy making cool food in a little warung on the premises.
We had a nice double room, shared bathroom, but that was ok,
and the location gave us great access to the cool side of Yogja, with great
cafes, restaurants and everything else you could need just a short stroll
through the back lanes of the area.
09-02-17
We had decided that we would ride out to the Prambanan Temple
today after a nice breakfast at ViaVia. The ride out was 19k’s. It was really
fast on our unloaded fat bikes, but we arrived really sweaty as usual. We were
excited about checking this place out, which includes the main Hindu temple and
a Bhudhist one on the same site, but a reasonable walk at the other end. It was
good to get there early, by the time we had a good look around the Hindu
temples the crowd was building, and it was extremely hot and humid. We walked
in the direction of the Budhist temple and went to the on site museum on the
way, which was stunning. We were the only people in there. 
The museum was a series of really nice pagodas in a
beautiful garden setting, and was very chilled out. We went for a cool drink
before heading on to the Siwu Bhuddhist Temple further along. This was very
impressive, although a lot of the restoration work was very haphazard and
poorly done. The best thing about this was that no one else was there, they
don’t want to walk that far. So other than a little girl and her dad, and a
group of guys who turned up in a golf cart for a selfie at the gate, we were
the only ones there. We spent quite a lot of time exploring the little nooks
and crannies of this site. 
We found our way back out and were bombarded by the enormous
crap market that you are forced to meander through before you can get out. We
then took off on our super light bikes, and took a different route back,
through the city centre, which was slower and a few k’s longer, but at least it
was some territory we hadn’t already covered.
After that, we chilled at Sae Sae for a while over a cold
beer before heading out to “The Mediteranean” for my birthday dinner. This was
really special. Western food was a real treat, and it was seriously great food.
I had a great day.
The rest of our time in Yogja was just seeing some local
sights, eating great food, a little bike maintenance and some further route
planning. We are realising that we will have to skip a section at some stage in
order to get to Padang in time, but the hard question is how. At this stage we
think we will ride the next week to Bandung, and see if we can fly direct from
there to Padang. So we will head off to a local travel agent to see what the
story will be for flying with our bikes.
13-01-17
We said goodbye to the crew at SaeSae. They said goodbye to
us by one of their staff quickly going home to get his special bike that he had
built himself. It was very tall, see photo. Everyone else called it a circus
bike. We had an awesome stay here, and would definitely stay here again, but
forget about the main tourist attractions and just explore the back lanes for
street art, great coffee and food of all types. We love Jogja.
We are trying out a new mapping app today called MapsMe,
that I downloaded. The highlight of this app is that it works while offline,
you have to download maps for the district you are in, but it will also choose
better cycling options than the main road if they are available. Compared to
google maps that is. So we were very excited that it showed a better option to
get to Borobudur than the main road.
So we went and had our last Jogja breakfast and headed off
through the back lanes once again. Our route took us away from the main roads
and quickly got us out of Jogja into semi rural areas. We followed narrow
lanes, edges of canals and rivers, the possibilities of this app were really
starting to excite us. We had a wonderful ride today, it was like a carnival
atmosphere, everyone so genuinely pleased to see us. We were catching glimpses
of Mount Merapi ahead, occasionally revealing itself from behind the high
clouds around the peak.
We twisted and turned, rolled through rice paddies, tiny
villages in the jungle, and one productive rural scene after another. We
crossed a very major looking river after having to backtrack after my iphone
overheated in my map case, another problem I have to solve. This caused us to
miss a turn, but only cost us about a kilometre.
After crossing the raging torrent, we had to do a bit of
climbing, nothing too drastic, but one really steep pinch that beat Mary. Even
then, there were three ladies, dressed in their Hijabs sitting at a local bus
stop. One of them ran down the hill to help Mary push her bike up the last bit
of the hill, while the other too laughed and called out all sorts of
encouragement to their courageous friend. Terima Kasih Teman.
As we rolled through villages, men would shout out to us
“Borobudur Sir”? We would call out yes,
Borubudur, and they would call back,” that way Mr./ Mrs. You are going the
right way”. I so love Java.
We came into the village of Borubudur and it immediately
gave us a good impression. This is a major tourist site, something we normally
avoid, but we were definitely drawn here. We found a lovely café, just across
the road from the Temple, and had a cold drink and a snack while we tried to
work out where our accommodation was, all we really knew was that it was in a
tiny village just out of town. We had booked for two nights, so that we could
spend all day tomorrow at the Borobudor temple. So we asked a nice policeman
for directions, “one k up the road and turn right sir.” Ok, we did that. Then
what? We asked someone else, “Go down towards the small hospital and turn left
before you get there”. Ok, we did that. Then we are going up this muddy lane
which seemed to be forever, though extremely beautiful. Another kilometre and
the road turned into a muddy track. Just as we were thinking we should turn
around, a guy on a farm bike came past and we asked him. He pointed behind us
to an even smaller muddy track going up and around a huge tree and said, “just
there”. So up we went and stopped in front of a few houses that we couldn’t even
see from where we just were, and on the gate a sign, Jolan Jalan, our homestay.
Well, what a welcome we got. Jolan and Uus, their two
children, a sister Irul and their Auntie. There were several other family
members who we didn’t meet until later, but they were all lovely. Irul and the
Auntie (sorry, we never did get her name) went into let’s look after Mary and
David mode, and off we went. Before we knew it we sat down, coffee was on the
way and the inquisition began. Jolan is Swiss, married to a lovely local girl
Uus. They run their homestay as a family and are doing really well. They have
four rooms, two up and two down, and are set in behind the family with the big
communal kitchen in between where all sorts of delights were cooked up for us,
with vegetarian options always available for Mary. We loved staying here and
would totally recommend them.
14-02-17
We were both really excited to go to Borobudur Temple as it
is the largest Buddhist Temple in the world and Buddhist Temples always seem to
attract us. As soon as we were up, finished our delicious banana pancakes,
fresh fruit and coffee for breakfast we were straight on the bikes and heading
out of the village and back to town. Everyone in the village wished us a good
morning and waved us on our way. We got to the gates of Borobudur and found a
car park to park our bikes. The car park attendant said they would be safe with
him, handed us two bottles of water and said “you be back at 12”. It was 9am
and we answered “maybe longer, maybe 5 hours”. He just looked at us and
laughed.
We entered the gates, bought our tickets, were handed more
water, had our sarongs put on and we stepped into the Temple’s grounds. The
surrounds were beautiful with large green lawned areas, beautiful established
gardens and large shady trees. As we headed towards the temple, sadly three
elephants walked past us all set for the day ahead taking tourists for rides. I
knew there were elephants here at the temple but I wish I didn’t see them. Just
makes me so sad to see them forced to work with the mahout sitting on top with
his probing hook, the thick heavy leg chain on the front leg of the elephant
and knowing the training method they use to break the elephants spirit. This is
all in aid of tourism. 
Shaking that bad energy off, taking a few deep breaths, we
continued in the direction of the temple. Our first glimpse of the temple
emerged. It literally took my breath away and I felt a chill all over me. I
really don’t know how to explain the feeling I had with this vision. I was
speechless, it was just so surreal, we were both in awe.
We climbed the first set of steps up to the first terrace.
Here we walked clockwise around the whole of Terrace one, taking our time and
looking at all of the 104 Buddha statues that sit in niches and all of the
reliefs on our left and our right sides. The reliefs are stone walls made from
stone blocks and have been hand carved in great detail which tells a great
story. No two reliefs are the same. Many
of the statues are damaged in some way. Some damaged by natural causes like
from weather, volcanic ash and earthquakes, but disappointingly many have been
damaged by humans. People over the years, before it was a protected site, have
come in and removed heads from the statues and in doing so have destroyed other
parts of the statues and the reliefs. Many of them were being sourced by
prominent museums around the world. So much work has gone into repairing the
temple and protecting it from future damage which is fantastic to see. It has
now been given the respect it deserves. 
After completion of Terrace l, we climbed the steps up to
Terrace II here again there were 104 statues. Terrace III has 88 statues,
Terrace IV has 72 statues and Terrace V has 64 statues. These five terraces are
all in a square shape and as we walked around slowly we were finding ourselves
always looking up to Buddha. Each Buddha on each compass side on Terrace I, II,
III and IV has the same hand gesture. On the east side the hand gesture is of
Bhumisparsa mudra which means ‘earth is called as a witness’. On the south side
the hand gesture is of Wara mudra which means ‘giving blessing’. On the west
side the hand gesture is of Dyana mudra which means ‘silent or meditation’. And
on the north side the hand gesture is of Abhaya mudra which means ‘unafraid of
danger’. On Terrace V all of the Buddha statues on all four sides have the hand
gesture of Witarka mudra which means ‘giving lecture or speech’. 
As we completed the walk around Terrace V we stepped up to
Terrace VI the first of the three circular levels. On these terraces are 72
Buddha statues and each one actually sits inside a stupa. On Terrace VI there
are 32 statues, Terrace VII there are 24 statues and on Terrace VIII there are
16 statues. All of these Buddha statues have the hand gesture of Dharmacakra
mudra which means ‘law or rightful principle’. 
Finally, we made it to the very last terrace where the main
stupa sits. This is like a huge dome that looks like it sits inside a large
lotus flower. An unfinished Buddha statue was found buried under a walnut tree
in the temple yard and some experts believed this statue was meant for the
large stupa. Other experts now doubt this assumption, considering that the
temples’ roof (Arupadhatu) is the level that symbolizes formlessness element.
The Buddhists believe that this is the highest form of Buddha, and as a result
the Buddha would have no form, so no statue would be required.
So much was seen today, so much was felt, and so much was
learnt. As we walked slowly around each terrace we found that we were by
ourselves most of the time. So many people just walk straight up the steps and
then back down again not spending the time, taking it all in from each side of
each terrace. This made it so special and we found we were able to absorb
everything that this special place had to offer. Dave was in his absolute glory
spending quiet time taking photos and admiring all the detail on the reliefs. I
spent time on Terrace V and VI in a bare foot silent meditation which was a
very special moment for me to walk a part of this ancient temple, bare foot, in
silence and absorbing the energy from my feet up. It was strange as before
Terrace V the black volcanic stone pavers were really hot but on these two
levels they weren’t. 
We just wanted to stay up there at the very top forever. The
view was amazing. We could see Mt Merapi as it appeared out from the cloud
cover, we could see over the whole of the temples’ grounds, the villages and
food bowl on all sides and the mountains way off in the distance. After
climbing down the stairs, we went and sat under the shade of a beautiful old tree.
Sitting cross legged and facing the temple I closed my eyes and spent time
meditating. It just felt so right to just be in silence and be connected. We
are both so thankful for having the opportunity to visit this beautiful,
respectful monument to Buddhism. 
Lots of deep breathing was required as we made our way out
of the grounds. They usher you out on a long winding path through all of the
materialistic stalls, one after another, around every bend, until you finally come
out the other end feeling exhausted. We made our way over to the car park to
find our car park attendant all packed up and waiting for our return. We were
gone over 5 and a half hours and by the looks of things he had been waiting for
our return for quite some time. We had speedy legs on the bikes back to our
homestay as we could see rainy weather coming in. We made it back without
getting wet. The rain soon set in and it didn’t let up all night. 
No comments:
Post a Comment