Dhanya Damodaran

Jan 25, 20204 min read

Indulge In Indonesia

Visited In June 2014

Selamat Datang di Indonesia!!

Our visit to Indonesia was for 3 days, hence we had to choose one island of this largest archipelago and we decided to go to Java. Bali still remains in the wish list for a later time.

We landed in Jakarta and took a domestic flight to Yogyakarta which is about an hour and half flight. We had hired a private taxi for the trip hence, it was easy and comfortable to commute here.

Itinerary was

1) Yogyakarta

2) Prambanan

3) Borobodur

After checking in to our hotel, our friendly driver cum guide took us to an authentic street side Indonesian restaurant and we tasted the local cuisine, lot of salads, rice crackers and yummy peanut and red chilly paste.

I felt that the Indonesian countryside resembles that of Kerala, where I belong to, with its tropical weather, flora and fauna.Extensive paddy fields, plantain vegetation, brick tile roofed houses etc. can be seen all around in Yogyakarta.

Our first destination was the Candi Sambisari, a Hindu temple which was buried under the volcanic ashes of Mount Merapi and excavated in the later 1960s. Candi means temple in Indonesian language. One can view the Shivlinga, Ganesh and Durga statues here and the architecture of the temple is very unique with its back stone carvings all around.

Next stop was the glorious Prambanan Temple - The largest Hindu temple in Java from the 9th Century dedicated to the Trimurti - Lord Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The temple complex sprawls across a very large area and a lot of reconstruction and renovation works were in progress. Since Indonesia is in the Pacific Ring of Fire, frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes pose as a great challenge to the preservation of these historic sites. In Indonesia, we have to cover up with a Sarong - a long fabric to tie around the waist while entering temple sites.

Our son made some friends here :)

The sculptures around the Prambanan Temple complex

We did some souvenir shopping and had Indonesian style dinner, Nasi Goreng - The Indonesian Fried Rice; yummy indeed!

Later in the evening, we enjoyed the Indonesian style performance of the great Hindu epic 'Ramayana'. It was very interesting to watch the stories of Ramayana in a different style from what we get to see in India. The dancers gave an amazing performance indeed.

The next day, we visited the palace of Yogyakarta - Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. The Palace has beautifully carved wooden ceiling, vast courtyards, pavilion, Javanese styled pillars etc. Javanese language is not much seen to be used in Indonesia, but here in the palace, we can see a lot of scriptures in this ancient language.

The traditional Javanese numbers on a wall clock from the royal possession at the palace

We can also enjoy the Gamelan performance - the traditional Javanese instrumental ensemble with several percussion instruments in bronze

We met a few locals here in the palace complex and spoke to them, took photos too

Later, we visited Tamansari, the Sultan's Bath House. Here, we can also visit the artists and sculptors at work and but the traditional Batik styled art works from them.

In the afternoon, we drove to a remote village in Yogyakarta to meet the local people, visit their house, enjoy their hospitality. It was an incredible experience and the people were so loving and made us feel very homely at their village. We also walked to the river where a lot of sediments were deposited from the volcanic eruptions. We thoroughly enjoyed the fresh Papaya slices cut fresh from the plant and the delicious Tapioca snack prepared by a granny at her home.

Our food and musical experience in the village

We left the village with lots of nice memories and checked in to the Manohara Resort near the historic Borobodur Temple. As the name states, the resort is indeed very beautiful. There was traditional Javanese music being played and the tamarind based welcome drink served at the resort was very different and tasty. This resort is so close to Borobodur temple that it is just a few minutes walk away.

We woke up early morning the next day at around 4 am and viewed the beautiful sunrise at Borobodur amidst the stone sculptures of Buddha and numerous Stupas. I have no words to explain the beauty of the sunrise next to those Stupas overlooking the Merapi volcano, spitting fumes. The golden rays of sun fell over the Buddha statues and Stupas slowly clearing the morning mist and we walked around and explored this really old and big Buddha temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.