All around the city of Yogyakarta, the countryside is covered with ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples. Today I went on an outing with Sas, an Indonesian friend, and some of his coworkers at Save the Children.
First we drove to small village where we saw the batik making process and then made our own batik. The process basically involves tracing a pattern onto cloth, applying hot wax to the pattern using a special stylus, dying the fabric, rinsing, boiling (to remove the wax), and drying. A medium sized piece of batik can take one month to make, working all day, every day for a month.
We then drove deeper into the countryside passing beautiful green rice fields and mountains. We took a break on the side of the road for a cold drink. The drink tasted fine, but the part that bothered me a little were the clear little globs of stuff floating in the drink. The globs are made from rice, but reminded me of something disgusting.
Boko temple is a buddist temple from the 9th century, which is mainly in ruins. It felt like it was our own personal discovery because there were hardly any other tourists there. The temple grounds covered a lot of area and here and there women were leading goats around by rope. The parts of the temple that are still standing had detailed stone carvings and we could see where the stones had been chiseled to fit together like a puzzle. No mortar was used here. All around the temple were mountains and palm trees, with hundreds of dragonflies in the air. It was really pretty magical and was nice that we didn’t have to deal with souvenir stalls and men calling out “taxi, taxi” as at other temples.
We then found ourselves in the middle of a downpour so we found shelter under the corrugated iron roof of a little drink stand. On the way back to the car, I had to use the bathroom and was surprised to see a little frog in the toilet.
The next day was a Sunday, and Katie, a fellow from Sumatra, surprised me with a visit. We decided to go to Borobudur, which is the most famous buddhist temple in Indonesia. After lots of searching and asking people where to catch the bus, we finally found our bus and were on the way. The bus was literally falling apart………….a piece from the ceiling fell off during the ride and the entire bus shook like a wheel was about to break loose. We made it safely to the temple, but unlike yesterday, this temple is definitely discovered. There were so many tourists and souvenir stalls, and people following us, trying to coax us into buying their piece of junk………….I mean their souvenir:) But the temple was amazing. It’s over 1200 years old and has survived a volcanic eruption, many earthquakes and a bomb (in 1985). It seemed as though Katie and I were also a tourist attraction. Everywhere we turned, Indonesian tourists were asking to take our picture with them. At first it was flattering, but then got a little annoying. We then took a becak (see picture on blog) to see another temple and were almost hit head-on by a bus. (Don’t worry Mom and Dad…………..this is very typical of Indonesian style driving………happens all the time). We returned by bus (a newer one) to my city and then went shopping in an area known for silver.
It was a busy but fun weekend. It’s nice that there are so many things to do in and around my city.
Durian fruit is called the "stinky fruit" because of the strange and strong odor. It smells similar to dirty socks, but the taste isn't too bad. Not something I will be eating alot of!
