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| Maps, tickets, passes etc from our 6 days. |
For over a year now we had known people who went to see the Borobudur Buddhist Temple in Jawa and came away feeling overwhelmed, leaving us with the desire to
see it for ourselves. We had two choices of where to leave Matilda at anchor:
Lovina, Bali and fly over to Jawa or Karimunjawa and use the fast ferry to Jawa.
Due to weather, we decided to leave Matilda at anchor at Karimunjawa and catch
the fast ferry over to Jawa then make our way to Magelang to see Borobudur – we
were not disappointed in our decision, our trip of 6 days was full of amazement
and far succeeded our expectations.
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| Borobudur Temple |
We left Karimunjawa August 16 and returned on the August 21
st
2017. Here is our journey with details and tips for others to consider as they
travel in Jawa. But before you head off download these Apps:
- Google Translate,
- Go Jek (has a motor bike in
the middle of the words) and
- WhatsApp (commonly referred to as WA).
We used
these 3 app’s a lot as they are very helpful and easy to use. Good thing with Google
Translate is it can be used offline.
All of our accommodation was booked using
Booking.com
We also enjoy being in charge of what we are seeing and when. If you join a tour group or allow a guide to organise your day you risk not having the luxury of doing things at your own pace. Some things you will tire of quickly and others things you will want to spend more time on - these are just our thoughts after having been caught in this situation before.
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| This little butterfly landed on tree leaf beside me, so I took a quick shot. |
DAY ONE – August 16, 2017
Prior to leaving Matilda for Jawa we had been dealing with our agent
Joe (aka DJoe). Joe was very helpful and had good advice for us. He helped us
with car hire and booking The Manohara Hotel. We also had booked our friend Hasim who is a local here in Karimunjawa to pick us up from Matilda (saving leaving our tender at the dock for 6 days) and take
us and our luggage to the ferry terminal. Hasim also looked after Matilda for
the 6 days we were gone.
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| Deb on Hasim's water taxi - ready to go! |
We arrived at the ferry terminal 1 hour before departure at 1100. Loads of people started to turn up and we where glad we had purchased our tickets the day before. The seating is allocated on the ferry which is great, as there was no rush for the line to board. The journey took 2 hours and we enjoyed a movie on the way over.
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| Entry to the ferry terminal - Karimunjawa |
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| Our fast ferry waiting at the dock. |
It was great to see our driver 'Sisca' waiting at the end of the walkway with a sign welcoming us. Sisca was a great driver and full of interesting facts as we drove along. We asked her to stop for lunch at Sultans Chicken - a popular take-way here in Jawa. After lunch we jumped back into the car, which was in excellent condition and we continued our drive to the town of Magelang on some very good road ways and highways.
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| These two beauties are in the foyer of The Manohara. |
The scenery as we drove into the central Jawa was breathtaking. We saw loads and loads of magnificent green rice paddies fringed by coconut palms. There are many volcanoes and at one stage we actually drove on the rim and could clearly see the rest of the rim, it was an incredible view.
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| Taken from the car window, check out the load on the truck in front. |
In total the journey from Jepara ferry terminal to The Manohara Hotel took us 6 hours. Keep in mind we did stop for lunch, there was (always is) loads of traffic in Jawa's main townships and once we reached Magelang, Sisca did not know where The Manohara was exactly and it did take a bit of finding in the dark due to the lack of signage. We where in our room by 1930.
The Manohara is not the cheapest option in town, but what appealed to us was the hotel is literally in the grounds of the temple. Once settled we had a quick shower and headed to the hotels restaurant for dinner and beers. Dinner was excellent and the beer was very cold. Back to our room where we watched the hotels 30 minute video on the history of the Borobudur Buddhist temple, which made understanding the reliefs a bit easier. The video is a bit dated giving us a laugh at fashions but it is interesting.
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| So glad this sirloin was on the menu. It was so good after eating endless amounts of noodles and chicken. |
A long day of travelling had made us tired which was good because we had booked into the Sunrise Tour at 0415.
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| Our bed at The Manohara had the softest linen and the bed was so comfortable. |
Helpful links:
Tips:
- You could also use Pipit at satudunia_yogyakarta@yahoo.com
for transport. Pipit can arrange car, bus, etc
- Pipit can book you on the coach which picks up the ferry terminal
in Jepara and goes directly to the Artos Mall in Magelang. This journey takes around 6 hours, dependent on road conditions.
- There are loads of various accommodations to choose from in Magelang.
- Magelang is very close to the Borobudur Temple and is a very populated township
- You do not have to be a guest of The Manohara Hotel to enter the
grounds for sunset/sunrise. Your hotel, home-stay, agent whatever can arrange
your entry in to the grounds.
- Buy your ferry tickets the day before travel and don't forget your passport for identification
DAY TWO – August 17, 2017
Sadly for us we did not receive our 0415 wake up call due to the previous guest turning off the ringer on the phone. Luckily the staff used their initiative and came knocking at 0500 to wake us up. In a mad dash we got up, threw on some cloths, grabbed the cameras and made a run for the temple as we wanted to do a time lapse movie of the sun rising over the Mt. Merapi volcano.
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| One section of the many steps we had to climb at 0'dark 30. |
Poor Bruce felt unwell with a horrible and persistent head cold complete with blocked sinuses but he didn't want to miss this much anticipated event after all this time, so he braved the 300 odd steps up to the top. In our mad dash out of the room we forgot to take some water, so we were glad to be in a hotel in the temple grounds as after sunrise was complete as we could walk back to our room for showers and breakfast.
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| Here comes the sun right beside the volcano in the distance - spectacular. |
The Borobudur Buddhist Temple is one of the most incredible sights we have seen in all of our travels in Asia. As you enter the long walk and up the steps its hard to believe what your seeing and walking on. We where so glad we had watched the video the night before as we enjoyed talking and wondering about those who built the temple some 1100 odd years ago. What an incredible feat.
We had taken 2 cameras. One on the tripod and set to sunrise/time lapse movie mode and the other camera went for a walk with whoever was not standing guard beside the tripod (loads and loads of people walking around) to take pictures of the other side of the temple complex. You can not take a bad photo here, its just incredible.
Here are some interesting facts on Borobudur:
- It is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and one of the greatest
Buddhist monuments in the world
- Borobudur is still
used annually as a place of worship during Vesak in May or June
- It is Indonesia’s
most visited tourist attraction
- In total there are 9 stacked platforms - 6 square and 3 round
- The base square is 118 meters on each side, covering 123m x 123m with 4 meter high walls.
- From ground level the highest point is 35 meters
- On the very top is the largest Buddha and he is surrounded by 72 smaller Buddhas all seated in stupa's (domes)
- In total there are 504 Buddha statues on the temple
- It was declared a UNESCO World
Heritage Site during 1975 - 1982, with its final listing upon a completed restoration in 1991
- Constructed circa
760 – 830 (9th century), reportedly taking 75 years to build
- The temple was abandoned during the 14th
century due to the decline of Hindu kingdoms in Jawa
- 1814 Sir Thomas
Stamford Raffles who was then the British ruler of Jawa, revived the site which was
reportedly totally covered in layers of ash and jungle growth
- The preservation of Borobudur commenced 1814. This included removing over 1 million stones during 1975 to stabilize the sagging ground underneath the temple, which was successful, after which the 1 million stones where returned to their positions
- Borobudur has
survived 9 bomb attacks in 1985 and in the mid 1980's the temple was bombed again by Islamic Extremist Group, several earthquakes, in particular one during 2006
reaching 6.2 magnitude
- Its greatest threat
now is its visitors defacing it, wearing it out by walking on it and sadly the public wanting ‘momentos’.
- Sadly loads of the Buddha's have no heads and no hands due to people wanting souvenirs including back in 1896 by Saim's King who took 8 massive cart loads away with the consent of the Indonesian colonial government!
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| The giant gold Buddha. |
After breakfast we headed back out to the temple and its grounds for a more leisurely walk - this time with plenty of water in our bags. The grounds open to the general public at 6am for those who have not
booked their sunrise tickets. We were surprised at the amount of people all
over the temple and its grounds by 0930. Even though it was busy, it was lovely
to just walk around and look more closely at the reliefs admiring the
workmanship. The entire structure has no mortar, the blocks simply sit on top
of each other.
The grounds surrounding the temple also are home to various other
displays. We were keen to visit the replica ship: Kapal Samudra Raksa (which means ‘Defender
of the Seas’) display. Here we saw a replica of the very same ships which
sailed trade routes between the 7th – 13
th centuries. It’s
mind boggling to think they sailed in these outriggers all those years ago for
trade with other countries. Just how far did these vessels travel for trade? No one is totally sure but the vessel on display had traveled from Jawa across the Indian Ocean around Cape Horn then up the West Coast of Africa.
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| A copy of the rock drawing dated 3000 BC. |
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| Another copy of a drawing dating back 500 BC. |
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| The route the replica followed in 2003 |
Then we walked back to the hotel passing elephant rides in the grounds,
which we always find upsetting. The sight of these poor giants as they droop
their heads and shuffle their massive feet for people to make money is very
depressing. A few also had their tusks cut ½ way so they had no point. They
looked so sad.
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| The pick in his hand is how they control the elephants.They literally hit the pick into their head! |
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| These poor little horses are every where, carting people around in the heat. They are like a taxi. We just couldn't understand why they were not resting in the shade which was right beside them (to the right of the photo). |
The grounds also offered archery for something to do and one part of the
walkway was covered in small umbrellas hanging down which looked very oriental and
fabulous with the walkway looking towards Borobudur.
By midday we needed to check out of The Manohara and make our way down
to the central hub of Yogyakarta. We used the Go Jek app to secure a car &
driver for the 1 ½ ride to our hotel being the Jumbuluwuk Malioboro Boutique Hotel. The
hotel foyer is fantastic along with its staff. We had arrived too early for our
room so we enjoyed a late lunch by the pool.
Once we could go to our room, I enjoyed a long hot bath and Bruce enjoyed
a snooze. We had heard that the place to go at night was Malioboro Street. It’s
famed for its shopping, places to eat and general busyness. We had to walk down
a quiet street not sure what we were meant to be seeing but once we turned a
corner to the street, it was a shock. There were 100’s of people walking
around. For local transport there were horse and carts (another sad sight), rickshaws powered
by either motor or foot pedals and a massive volumes of cars and buses – it was crazy!
After we did some shopping we found a fantastic place to chill, eat and
enjoy a beer on the top floor of the Legion restaurant. We enjoyed it so much we
came back for dinner every night. Sitting above the madness, just watching the mayhem over dinner was very entertaining.
After dinner and feeling pretty tired after a big day out with a very
early start we jumped in a rickshaw and happily paid $5 for the ride back our
hotel for a good nights sleep.
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| Poor sick Bruce, I was dragging him all over the place! |
Helpful links:
Tips.
- Don't forget to take your sunglasses and water at sunrise
- Wear good walking shoes
- Take a hat and or umbrella, it gets very hot quickly here
- You can have breakfast at the Manohara hotel even if you are not a guest
- Don't forget to walk around the back of the temple during sunrise for some photo's as the views are incredible.
DAY THREE – August 18, 2017
After a
fabulous night’s sleep we enjoyed our complimentary breakfast and headed
straight out for our rickshaw ride to The Kraton. The ride only took about 20
minutes from the hotel and was a good choice. It’s a nice slow and at times
scary ride about town and you get to see things. Not only that the sides of the
road to walk on are a bit hit and miss. We saw a lady fall over after slipping
on rubble and Bruce also slipped on our way to Malioboro Street the night before, so being in a
rickshaw we think was a safer option for us. Our driver was really good
pointing things of interest out to us along the way.
The Kraton is
incredible, it’s a totally enclosed city in the heart of Yogyakarta. We spent
all day in here including enjoying lunch at a Prince’s place and visiting the
Water Palace. The only disappointing thing is there are little to no signs and
the signs we did see were not transcribed into English. Most of the day we had
no idea what we were looking at haha.
The Kraton is a
palace complex for the current and all previous Sultans of Yogyakarta and still
to this day guarded by His Majesty’s Kraton Guard Regiment. Construction of The
Palace began in 1755 and was completed in 1790. We found it interesting to
learn the word Kraton aka Keraton is the Javanese word for ‘Royal palace’.
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| One of many present Palace guards. Note his Kris tucked into his belt ready for action. |
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| This is a life painting in oil. Every single Sultan had his portrait done many times. Lots of paintings we couldn't photograph. So we were happy when we saw this painting with out the 'no photography allowed' sign on it. |
The Palace is
shroud in myth and holds many secrets in its Kraton walls. To quote from one
website: It was built to be a focal point
of the Sultan’s entire kingdom. The Keraton is built facing directly north
towards the majestic Mt. Merapi with to its south backing the Indian Ocean which
is believed to be the abode of Kanjeng Ratu Loro Kidul, the Queen of the South
Seas and the mystical consort of the Sultan.
In 1812
Stamford Raffles (yep same bloke who unearthed the Borobudur Temple 1814) attacked
the Palace inside the Kraton and took over the walled city. After looting it,
he burnt down the palace and in later years the locals rebuilt the Palace. Then in 1876 and again in 2006 the Palace and
surrounds where devastated by earthquakes and again was rebuilt both times.
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| What a big padlock you have |
We couldn’t get
over the attention to detail. Everything that could be decorated was, right
down to base the lamp posts. The displays housed incredible artifact’s
including every Sultans batik made for him. Each room we went into had amazing
light fittings, but most we were not allowed to photograph.
The grounds are
used every day for performances. Gamelan (traditional ensemble music), Golek
Menak puppets, cultural dancing, Macapat and Wayang (special puppets) perform for free every day of the week. We visited on a Friday and totally missed the
Macapat 0900 performance we were very disappointed.
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| Musical instruments, packed away neatly until the next performance. |
After exiting
the Palace grounds (but still inside the Kraton) and getting out of the
clutches of the heckling merchants we found a delightful quiet place to have
lunch at the Gadri Resto. This is the residence of the current Sultans son,
Prince Joyokusumo’s home. We knew he was home because his beautiful black Audi
was parked in the driveway. He also has quite the collection of artifacts.
There was loads on display, and he welcomes guests to enter the rooms for
closer inspection of these glorious pieces of a time gone by. As we enjoyed lunch we watched with amusement as a troop division from the army jogged in order chanting a song as they went past, even the staff found it amusing.
Once we had
rested up at the Prince’s place we jumped in another rickshaw and headed to the
Taman Sri Water Palace. These were the
former royal gardens of the Sultan (no longer used) and it had multiple
functions: resting area, a workshop, meditation area, a defense area and a
hiding place. There used to be 4 wet areas, but now only 1 has been preserved. The
pool we saw was a sad sight enclosed in a grand scale building. The water was
totally green and slimy. Sadly people throw their rubbish into the pool. Even
as we watched one of the waterfall lions having water coming out of his mouth a
black plastic bag flew out and splashed into the pool.
In the Water
Palace grounds we enjoyed an ice-cream and enjoyed visiting the batik shop
which only sold (according to the man in charge) local artists work. It was the
most interesting batik we have seen, and we have seen ridiculous amounts of
batik works. So impressed with it we purchased two pieces for our future land
based home.
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| Batik print in the making (Borobudur circled with a dragon) |
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| A finished framed batik, very cool |
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| Handmade puppets, there is an enormous amount of work in making them |
Since 1995 the
entire Kraton complex has been listed as a tentative World Heritage Site.
After all this
excitement we headed back to our room to freshen up and then headed back to The
Legion for dinner. Finishing the night off a little earlier to watch a movie in
our hotel room. Its lovely chilling out on a huge bed!
Helpful links:
None this day.
Tips.
- Take water with you, it gets very hot here
- Research The Kraton before you head out, there is little to no information on offer once your there, unless you pay for a guide
DAY FOUR – August 19, 2017
After another big
sleep we enjoyed our breakfast, ordered a car via the Go Jek app and driver to
take us to the Prambanan Hindu Temple. It was only about 30/45 minutes away according
to Go Jek and we were very happy to pay the $7 for the ride. When our driver
arrived he announced he did not speak English, no problems I said and confirmed
with the door man of our hotel (who spoke English) that our driver understood
we were booked to go to the Prambanan Temple – yes he announced. Excellent, off
we go.
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| Never missing an opportunity to celebrate their 72nd year of Independence. |
After one hour
and thinking we should be seeing it soon (it stands 47 mtrs at its tallest
tower) we started to wonder if our driver was a little lost. After some very
broken English conversation, and finally remembering the Google Translate App
we stopped the car and indeed realized he for some reason thought we wanted to
the township of Prambanan – no we didn’t. We all had a laugh and took off in
the right direction. If we had said we wanted to go to Candi Prambanan he would have known where we wanted to go, temple isn't in the locals vocabulary.
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| One the grounds of the Prambanan temple there was a massive display of arts, music (Jazz) and culture. We assumed a part of the 72nd Independence celebrations. These young ladies where employed we think by Telkomsel (local phone company) as they had the same colours on as all the signage (which was everywhere). |
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| These were the two guards into the temple. Everyone is always up for a quick happy snap! |
We felt bad
about the confusion with our driver. We asked him to join us but he declines, so we asked if he could wait for us while we went into the
Temple grounds. He did and at the end of day we paid him $50 for his
troubles,,,he was extremely happy. So were we considering that was a round trip
and we were in the Temple for about 2 hours. It was endearing when we got back, as he had downloaded the Google Translate app and was very glad to be able to use the voice activation option. We had a good chat on the way home!
The Prambanan
Temple is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia and one of the biggest in South
East Asia. It was constructed in the 9th century circa 850. Before 930
the temple was home to 100’s of people living with the original compound walls,
but soon after this the temple and grounds where abandon due to Mt. Merapi erupting
causing serious devastation.
A lot of the
temples collapsed during an earthquake in the 16th century. To use a quote from Wikipedia: ‘The temple attracted international
attention early in the 19th century. In 1811 during British short-lived
occupation of the Dutch East Indies, Colin Mackenzie, a surveyor in the service
of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, came upon the temples by chance. Although Sir
Thomas subsequently commissioned a full survey of the ruins, they remained
neglected for decades. Dutch residents carried off sculptures as garden
ornaments and native villagers used the foundation stones for construction
material.
Half-hearted excavations by archaeologists in the
1880s facilitated looting. In 1918, the Dutch began reconstruction of the
compound and proper restoration only in 1930. Efforts at restoration continue
to this day. The reconstruction of the main Shiva temple was completed around
1953 and inaugurated by Sukarno. Since much of the original stonework has been
stolen and reused at remote construction sites, restoration was hampered
considerably. Given the scale of the temple complex, the government decided to
rebuild shrines only if at least 75% of their original masonry was available.
Most of the smaller shrines are now visible only in their foundations, with no
plans for their reconstruction.’
Even though
most of the original temples are gone it was certainly awe-inspiring being amongst
what’s left. The temples are very decorative and it seemed no stone was without
some kind of fancy decoration, artwork or inscription. Again the entire the
construction is without mortar.
Once finished
we jumped back in Go Jek hire car and returned to the hotel for a hot bath, a
snooze for Bruce and then off in another rickshaw to Malioboro Street for dinner at
Legion. Deb enjoyed a foot rub from a mobile massage lady on a seat in the
street while a mobile band played hits from The Beatles and The Bee Gees after Bruce gave them a generous $5 tip.
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| This lovely lady rubbed Debs feet, arms, hands and neck for about 45 minutes and couldn't believe we paid her $5. In Rupiah that was 50, 000. |
Being our last night, we soaked up another
great night of watching and enjoying the passing parade in Malioboro Street, Yogyakarta!
Travelling details.
None for this day
Tips.
- Walking around the temple is very hot, take water, hats and an umbrella if you have one
- Use the Go Jek app quick and easy car travel.
- Rickshaws make travel around town cheap and easy
- Candi is the local word for temple (in Bali it is Pura)
DAY FIVE – August 20, 2017
An early start today. Alarm was ringing at 0600 so as we had time to
enjoy breakfast, showers and pack our bags. We needed to check out of Jambuluwuk Hotel and be ready
for our hire car (booked by the hotel) to take us on the 5/6 hour journey across
the country to Jepara for our stay in the Hotel Jepara Indah. The hotel is
close to the ferry terminal being only 2km away. We were picked up by two
wonderful people who kept us informed and very safe during our journey.
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| These were our guides. Extremely nice people and very informative. |
The trip was to take us up and over the mountain ridge between Gn.
(Mount) Sumbing and Gn. Merbabu. Giving us a giggle as we passed the official sign
‘Welcome to Top Selfie Spot’ which was at one of the best and highest spots to take a
selfie – naturally.
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| Misty mountain pass |
The areas we passed in the hills where magnificent. They are totally
covered in farms. We passed fields full of: strawberries, pumpkins, cabbages,
tomatoes, spring onions, broccoli, sweet potatoes, tobacco, corn, chili, bok
choy, pak choy, savoy cabbage, coffee and bananas. The bamboo on the side of the road was
some of the thickest and tallest patches we had ever seen. We were right up in the clouds and the
view was incredible of the terraced farms on the sides of the mountains – so
green, like emerald green. This was the most active farming communities we have
seen in over a year. There were people everywhere. In the fields, walking the roads with stock and mini utes loaded to the max with produce.
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| A local truck taking his produce to market. |
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| Farmers on the side of the road preparing their cabbages for transport to market. |
We saw quite a few celebrations, so lots of parades with colorful
costumes and dancing for the people still rejoicing in the 72
nd
year of their independence from the Dutch. There was some major road works on the way,
so this added to the time taken and we stopped for lunch at the very funky place called Beatrice’s Cuisine House. Owned and operated by an Italian guy so pizza
was the main dish but the extended menu was great and our lunches were
delicious.
The food here in hotel restaurant was very good. We really enjoyed
sitting in the cool well-furnished room reminiscing about our last few days
over dinner. Afterwards we went back to our room, watch a little bit of a movie
and fell asleep. Had to be ready for another early start tomorrow for the ferry
ride home to Karimunjawa.
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| Breakfast bar at the Jepah Indah Hotel. |
Helpful links:
Tips.
- If going on a long road trip, ensure the petrol and tolls are included in your price
- Take water and a snack
- Don’t be worried about asking to stop for a meal, your guides will know the best places
- Ask the driver to stop if you see something you wish to take a photo of, they dont mind
DAY SIX – August 21, 2017
Another early start, alarm at
0600, quick shower and down for breakfast. In a taxi by 0715 for the quick ride
around to the ferry terminal. We couldn’t buy tickets the day before as the
office on Sundays shuts at 1400. Bruce
got in line and we waited and waited and eventually we got our tickets.
The ferrys here run right on time.
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| Bruce in the que chatting with a local agent. |
We boarded and found ourselves in the VIP section which was funny, just meant
nicer curtains and a bit more leg room between seats.
The home was a bit rough as a
strong low was over the Java Sea creating a decent swell with the easterly
winds. Some poor souls found it to much and we could hear lots of vomiting
going on.
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| Vendors outside the ticket terminal. |
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| The ferry terminal at Jepara. |
Arriving at 1100 it was lovely to
see Hasim’s smiling face with hands out stretched to take our main duffle bag. Soon we were in the taxi and heading back to Matilda.
It was a wonderful trip and we
were so glad to be home and see our girl sitting pretty at anchor.
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