Breathtaking, spectacular, corny adjectives galore will not suffice.
Monday, May 15, 2006
Fortune Finds Me Fit and Able
Thus far in Indonesia, I have to say that there are few things from which I derive as much simple pleasure, as riding along on the back of a motorbike through the rural areas of the province of Yogyakarta, with my walkman in my ears. For some reason this combination of circumstances turns me into a goofily happy passenger.
Imagine escaping the city limits of Yogyakarta, experiencing an almost instant drop in temperature, cool wind rushing over your skin, picturesque “countryside” on all sides and a beautiful clear blue sky, shining sun and the silhouette of an angry angry volcano punctuating the view to the east.
This was my Saturday afternoon. The planets truly aligned, so instead of the afternoon rain blowing in at 2.30, an almost Adelaide-esque sun poked its face from behind a cloud and stubbornly shined until it set.
Saturday also happened to be the most important day for the Buddhist faith, that is the Waisak Festival, which celebrates Buddha’s birthday, day of enlightenment and his reaching of Nirvana. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world converged on a point one hour from Yogyakarta which is one of the most spectacular and important pieces of Buddhist architecture in the world : Borobodur.
So Alana, Willy, myself, Ida and two other of Alana’s kos friends decided to join the pilgrimage. It really is a lovely ride from Yogya to Borobodur. We met a little misfortune however, because being improperly informed on the logistics of the roads that were open on the day, we arrived at the normal entrance and were told we would have to dismount and walk for 5Km. Instead we took an alternative route through a village which involved riding along on the narrowest of roads, crossing a river on a bridge reminiscent of an Indiana Jones film and also negotiating impossibly steep hills with the motorbikes. However it was also incredibly fortunate that we were forced to pass this road as we were able to stop with a perfect vantage point of Gunung Merapi, which that day began to erupt (I told you the planets aligned). I have some really good photo’s of the Mountain on the photostream.
Anyway we eventually passed the village and had a relatively clear run of traffic until we reached the main road into Borobudur, at which point traffic slowed to less than a crawl and it felt like we were going to be trapped in a throng of revving motorbikes for the rest of the day. Luckily, after half an hour of literally moving about 10cm a minute we made it. The journey took 2 hours, but it was of course, half the fun!
We walked up to one of the gates only to find that it had closed 1 minute earlier! So with just one gate open we had to walk for about 2 Kilometres along with all the other people who had been locked out but still wanted to make it in for the final ceremony. We got in eventually, and although there was literally thousands and thousands of people there, there was an unusually calm atmosphere, especially for a crowd in Indonesia! Being just about the only two blondes in the whole place apart from the odd backpacker, there was never any risk that Alana and I would lose our friends. We literally stuck out a mile. We listened to some of the ceremony and took photos of the monks, and then as the sun was setting we sat down to take some pictures of Borodbodur itself. Unfortunately we were unable to climb it because it was a special day, but we are going to return to get a proper look at the stonework which is spectacular even from a distance.
We then walked around the entire perimeter and as it got darker, we turned around to see a perfectly full shining moon. Absolutely gorgeous. The day could not have been more perfect. We waited for around half an hour just soaking up the view (Borobodur is perched atop a hill which is one side bordered by enormous hills and greenery, and on the other two mountains, one of them being Merapi.) Just as we were about to leave, there was a sudden burst of activity as all the pilgrim monks rounded to corner and descended upon the place for the evening function. I have a few photos of this, including one of the four token Tibetan’s who were there!
Anyway, the ride back was also trafficky but we were all so pleased at how the day had turned out, (even the Indonesians who had been to Borobodur before) that it didn’t matter.
So that was the weekend. However as you have no doubt heard, the volcano has started to erupt and last night from the roof of my kos we could see lava being spewed out from the top. Let me just repeat that- I saw lava! It is an amazing sight, and we are really lucky because the weather is so clear right now that even during the day the view is unobscured. I am perfectly safe. We would have been evacuated if not. So no worries, and you can all stop sending me SMS’s! Hahaha! I got 3 yesterday!
Oh and just quickly, I was a bit of an erupting volcano on Friday night. Alana decided to have her hair chemically straightened and I decided to get highlights done again. We went to the salon we have been to before. I was there 5 hours because the first guy, although he clearly understood my instructions, had no clue on what he was doing and gave me a head that was all the colours of the bleaching rainbow from bright white to golden yellow. I told him in no uncertain words that I was not leaving until his er, error was fixed, at which point the manager decided to provide me with a more competent hairdresser who proceeded to do a nice job, that is, after he dyed over the mistakes from the first idiot. Oh, and I also sang “Holy Grail” in Bar Bintang later that night with the band. All I will say is that dutch courage is a double-edged sword- it gave me the nerve to get up there, but also clouded my memory just enough that I missed a whole verse. Heh heh heh.
BTW- go Crows!!!!! Yeeeehaaaa!
Ps- Becky did you pick the Joanna Newsom reference in the title???!!! Injokesareusgituloh! Thanks 4 the phonecall btw even if the connection was dodgy!
Imagine escaping the city limits of Yogyakarta, experiencing an almost instant drop in temperature, cool wind rushing over your skin, picturesque “countryside” on all sides and a beautiful clear blue sky, shining sun and the silhouette of an angry angry volcano punctuating the view to the east.
This was my Saturday afternoon. The planets truly aligned, so instead of the afternoon rain blowing in at 2.30, an almost Adelaide-esque sun poked its face from behind a cloud and stubbornly shined until it set.
Saturday also happened to be the most important day for the Buddhist faith, that is the Waisak Festival, which celebrates Buddha’s birthday, day of enlightenment and his reaching of Nirvana. Thousands of Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world converged on a point one hour from Yogyakarta which is one of the most spectacular and important pieces of Buddhist architecture in the world : Borobodur.
So Alana, Willy, myself, Ida and two other of Alana’s kos friends decided to join the pilgrimage. It really is a lovely ride from Yogya to Borobodur. We met a little misfortune however, because being improperly informed on the logistics of the roads that were open on the day, we arrived at the normal entrance and were told we would have to dismount and walk for 5Km. Instead we took an alternative route through a village which involved riding along on the narrowest of roads, crossing a river on a bridge reminiscent of an Indiana Jones film and also negotiating impossibly steep hills with the motorbikes. However it was also incredibly fortunate that we were forced to pass this road as we were able to stop with a perfect vantage point of Gunung Merapi, which that day began to erupt (I told you the planets aligned). I have some really good photo’s of the Mountain on the photostream.
Anyway we eventually passed the village and had a relatively clear run of traffic until we reached the main road into Borobudur, at which point traffic slowed to less than a crawl and it felt like we were going to be trapped in a throng of revving motorbikes for the rest of the day. Luckily, after half an hour of literally moving about 10cm a minute we made it. The journey took 2 hours, but it was of course, half the fun!
We walked up to one of the gates only to find that it had closed 1 minute earlier! So with just one gate open we had to walk for about 2 Kilometres along with all the other people who had been locked out but still wanted to make it in for the final ceremony. We got in eventually, and although there was literally thousands and thousands of people there, there was an unusually calm atmosphere, especially for a crowd in Indonesia! Being just about the only two blondes in the whole place apart from the odd backpacker, there was never any risk that Alana and I would lose our friends. We literally stuck out a mile. We listened to some of the ceremony and took photos of the monks, and then as the sun was setting we sat down to take some pictures of Borodbodur itself. Unfortunately we were unable to climb it because it was a special day, but we are going to return to get a proper look at the stonework which is spectacular even from a distance.
We then walked around the entire perimeter and as it got darker, we turned around to see a perfectly full shining moon. Absolutely gorgeous. The day could not have been more perfect. We waited for around half an hour just soaking up the view (Borobodur is perched atop a hill which is one side bordered by enormous hills and greenery, and on the other two mountains, one of them being Merapi.) Just as we were about to leave, there was a sudden burst of activity as all the pilgrim monks rounded to corner and descended upon the place for the evening function. I have a few photos of this, including one of the four token Tibetan’s who were there!
Anyway, the ride back was also trafficky but we were all so pleased at how the day had turned out, (even the Indonesians who had been to Borobodur before) that it didn’t matter.
So that was the weekend. However as you have no doubt heard, the volcano has started to erupt and last night from the roof of my kos we could see lava being spewed out from the top. Let me just repeat that- I saw lava! It is an amazing sight, and we are really lucky because the weather is so clear right now that even during the day the view is unobscured. I am perfectly safe. We would have been evacuated if not. So no worries, and you can all stop sending me SMS’s! Hahaha! I got 3 yesterday!
Oh and just quickly, I was a bit of an erupting volcano on Friday night. Alana decided to have her hair chemically straightened and I decided to get highlights done again. We went to the salon we have been to before. I was there 5 hours because the first guy, although he clearly understood my instructions, had no clue on what he was doing and gave me a head that was all the colours of the bleaching rainbow from bright white to golden yellow. I told him in no uncertain words that I was not leaving until his er, error was fixed, at which point the manager decided to provide me with a more competent hairdresser who proceeded to do a nice job, that is, after he dyed over the mistakes from the first idiot. Oh, and I also sang “Holy Grail” in Bar Bintang later that night with the band. All I will say is that dutch courage is a double-edged sword- it gave me the nerve to get up there, but also clouded my memory just enough that I missed a whole verse. Heh heh heh.
BTW- go Crows!!!!! Yeeeehaaaa!
Ps- Becky did you pick the Joanna Newsom reference in the title???!!! Injokesareusgituloh! Thanks 4 the phonecall btw even if the connection was dodgy!
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