A Bit of Oldies Trail in Solo & Jogjakarta

There's no choice except waiting for a long weekend to go on a trip, especially after being employed. Last May I went in a small group, my fun buddies at heart and TUMMY. Yup, a bit different from my adventurous trip, I decided to just enjoy this leisure trip, eat a lot, sightseeing, and eat again. The local foods are amazing so that we directly eat as soon as it's served (goodbye #instagram #foodporn #foodie ). The price is quite cheap too ( obviously if you compare it to the price in Jakarta ).

I'm still amazed how my friends and I talked all the way from Jakarta to Solo ( Surakarta )! ( more than 10 hours on the train,LOL ). The atmosphere in Solo and Jogja are pleasing. You will find that I wrote many words of "lovely","oldies",and "antique". I think those are suitable keywords for snapshots I posted here. Enjoy!

Lovely signage with Javanese writing found on the way to Triwindu Antique Market, Solo 

"Wayang", Indonesian traditional puppet as the decoration at the front building of Triwindu Antique Market

A vintage typewriter. Wish I could have one :) 

Do you remember seeing these TVs in your younger years ?  

A rickshaw rider who kindly posed for me at the alley of Kauman Batik village

Windows wall.
( Sorry for blurry pict, I also regret not checking thoroughly at that time ) :(

Es Dawet, a traditional drink of Indonesian.
It's made from rice powder & pandan leaves, served with palm sugar 

Spinach noodle with chicken mince at Mie Gajah Mas 

A steam train for tourists rides across the street in Solo ( Surakarta ) city 

Happy passengers on the steam train 

Waiting for our train to Jogjakarta at Purwosari Station, Solo 

The train from Jogja to Solo is pretty comfy. It takes just an hour,making it a nice day trip. Unfortunately, the ticket back to Solo was sold out. Plus, I screwed up by leaving my identity card at the hotel. It was used for a guarantee. I have a spare one, but I forgot to bring it :')  

Then, we rent a car along with three new friends we met at the station. They are so friendly to share the recommended dining place in Solo. After all, it turns out to be a laughable moment now, haha.

The ruins of underground mosque, Taman Sari, Jogjakarta 

The beautiful underground mosque at Taman Sari 

 A random graffiti along the way to the ruins of underground mosque

Despite the hot weather, it was fun visiting these two cities. Thanks so much to my friends : Vinca, Vina, Mike and Rendy for being a nice companion on this trip! Things I'm gonna miss the most are definitely the moments and FOOD! 

The Graceful Steps in Prambanan

Coming to Central Java is not complete without visiting Prambanan Temple. Located in Jogjakarta, the center of Javanese culture and its exotic art, Prambanan Temple is the biggest Hindu Temple site in Indonesia.

My friends and I arrived in the afternoon. Prambanan Temple was full of visitors, just like always. I started walking around and looking for a nice spot to wait for the sunset. Beautiful pictures of Prambanan Temple are everywhere to be found, but I couldn't keep my urge to portray its glory in the midst of golden light.

After posing together with the temple, we left for having dinner, preparing an extra energy for the night show. Yup, we were back to the temple to watch the Ramayana Ballet. It was adapted from a Hindu epic poem and mixed with Javanese music and cultural style. We were on the right side of the stage. There was just some viewers below my seat, so I sneaked until close enough to the stage ( all I've got back then and until now are a lens kit 18-55 mm and a tripod. And that was a large stage, hiks ).  

It began with Sinta, the wife of Prince Rama, was abducted by giant Rahwana because of her beauty and she was believed as the reincarnation of Rahwana's former lover. Rama saved her wife with the help from Hanoman, the white monkey. The dance was slowly getting intense till the climax of story, showing Hanoman succeeded burning Rahwana's kingdom and Rama won the fight against Rahwana.

Silhouette of A Temple

The Beautiful Sinta 

Prince Rama received the help from Hanoman, White Monkey 

Sugriwa, The Monkey King, joined Hanoman for the rescue
  

The Action of Hanoman

Hanoman burnt down Rahwana's Kingdom 

Rama sent his brother Laksmana for the fight against Rahwana

Rahwana beat the monkey troops with his mighty power
( this is my favourite scene )

Rama's beating down on of Rahwana's alliance.

It was a massive performance on an open air theatre with more than 200 crews total and Prambanan Temple as the background. It was quite windy that night but the heat on the stage made me didn't feel cold at all ! And I still can rewind the graceful steps of the dancers in my mind.

*taken on August 2012, copyright: Dian Permatasari

 please kindly insert the credit or relink to this blog for reposting the pictures

The Hidden Mystical Village in Bali, TRUNYAN

What places come to your mind when Bali is mentioned? Kuta beach, Tanah Lot, and Ubud probably are on the top list. What about Trunyan? Have you ever heard that name?

Trunyan is a village located near Lake Batur, Kintamani subdistrict. This is a special interest destination for those who are curious and fond of mystical or strange thing. What makes Trunyan “not an ordinary village” is how the locals treat the “dead body”. Instead of being buried or cremated, the corpses are only laid on the ground and guarded by bamboo fence. The strange thing here is, though they are exposed to the air, THE CORPSES ARE NOT SMELLY!

The sky looked pale. The sun was hiding behind the clouds when my photography club partners and I drove down to the small dock by the lake. The wind was blowing quite strong. In brief, it was overcast ( sometimes I wonder why writers must use many sentences just to describe one word but now I’m doing it too, lol ). The road was small and rough with forest on one side and cliff on the other side, therefore you must be careful ( jadi please siapin sopir yang udah berpengalaman, yah kira kira yang selevel sopir kopaja atau metromini gitu lah, lol ).

We got into a small boat. No one was there beside our small group, I could only hear the sound of crickets and ourselves. The rain started to fall. The mist was chasing behind, making the atmosphere more chilly. We met another group who departed before us and waving happily to them. We crossed the lake for about 45 minutes.

A view of Mount and Lake Batur, Kintamani. It's where we took a rest before driving down to Trunyan. 

The misty and serene Lake Batur 

Another group of tourists we met on the way to the village

Trunyan Village 

We were accompanied by a local people to the cemetery called Sema Wayah. Only the people who died naturally, already married, single, and kids who had lost their milk teeth can be put here. Meanwhile, babies are put in Sema Muda, and people who died in an accident in Sema Bantas. A huge tree caught my attention when I reached this place. Its name’s Taru Menyan ( Taru means tree and Menyan means fragrant ) and later became the village name. The tree was the reason why the corpses were not smelly. It was believed to be able to release a certain chemical that neutralize the rotten smell.

There were lots of skulls neatly put below the tree. At first, I was doubt to take a look at the corpses, but my curiousity won over my fear. I walked slowly to the bamboo fence. There were several corpses with different death timing  but none of them recently put at that time, so all you can see were the bones of heads, hands and legs since the bodies were covered by clothes. And yes, there wasn’t any smell except the humid ground because of the rain. Unfortunately, the rain was getting harder, so I could only take several pictures in hurry.

Skulls from different ages are neatly arranged 

The cemetery  

The Taru Menyan Tree

The corpse was covered by white fabric. It's a head beside the plastic bag.
I usually remove unnecessary thing like the plastic,
but obviously not for this case :) 

It wasn’t as frightening as I thought actually. Yeah, you could call me weird but when I looked at the corpses, I wondered they were once a human like us. Like a lesson in religions, whether you are beautiful or not, rich or not, we will eventually become like that. And what’s anything left to take beside the good that we done? Though in fact I’m not a religious person, I couldn’t agree more. Well, let me end this post by a quote from Albert Enstein :

" Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us, our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life. "