Sue in Jakarta: Jogyjakarta

We had three days off last week for Chinese New Year and I joined a group of five other teachers on a trip to Jogyjakarta, an old city that was the first capital of Indonesia. We met early on Saturday morning at the train station for the eight hour trip. It was so nice to get out of Jakarta and see the countryside, which became similar to areas of Bali, with mountains, rolling hills and rice paddies. The train was air conditioned, had great leg room and comfortable seats. The only problem for me was the squat style toilet, not great at the best of times and much worse on a moving train!
We had a driver arranged and he met us at the station with a van large enough for six women and all our luggage. His name was Sojourno and he was at our beck and call for the next four days. He took us to our hotel, The Phoenix. It is a beautiful, Dutch Colonial style hotel that was originally a private home. We settled in then took a ride in a becak, which is a cart attached to a bicycle and human powered. We went to busy Maleaboro Street which is like a market. Being Chinese New Year and a Saturday evening, I think it was extra busy. Besides the dozens of becaks, there were horse and buggies, motorcycles, and of course cars, buses and pedestrians.

Travelling down Maleaboro Street by becak.

The courtyard at The Phoenix.

A becak driver waiting for a customer.

Over the next few days, we visited the Sultan's palace, where the current Sultan, his wife and his five daughters still live, the Water Palace, where the Sultans used to take their huge families (the current sultan's father had 72 children) for the weekends, batik makers, puppet makers and the Borobrudur Temple.

Dancers at the Sultan's Palace.

The United Nations at the Sultan's Palace,
Jude (Wales), Jackie (US), me, our guide (Indonesia), Claudia (Romania) and Julie (US).

The Borobrudur temple was my favourite. It is symbolic of a mountain. It was built in the eighth century and is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and the largest ancient structure in the Southern hemisphere. It took fifty years to build and shortly after being completed, it was abandoned as the Hindus came to power. It was abandoned for centuries, covered in volcanic ash and jungle growth, and uncovered in the 1800's, when Sir Stanford Raffles was told about its location by local Indonesians. It is built of volcanic stone with six square platforms topped with three circular platforms that represent Nirvana. There is a main dome or stupa at the very top which is surrounded by seventy two smaller stupas each with a carved Buddha inside. When you enter the temple you walk in a clockwise direction along open passage ways that are filled with almost 1500 relief panels that were carved to show the story of Buddha and Buddhist teachings and images of everyday life in the eighth century. By the time you reach the circular platforms at the top, you have walked five kilometers. We were there in the early morning and it was very misty. As the mist cleared, we had great views of the surrounding mountain,The Sleeping Giant and valley. It was very beautiful.