Showing posts with label Yogyakarta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yogyakarta. Show all posts
Monday, February 06, 2012
Faces of Yogyakarta
Other than its artifacts and nature, Yogyakartans fascinated me as well. Yes, I love taking candid photos of people. I love to see their expressions. I think I can create new character for them... and story too... but that will make it fiction. For now, I will just show the pics without wordings. And I know this may not represents the entire Yogyakartans (as Yogya is a city), but I just like to see humbleness in photos :) And ou I add a pic of a cat too.. ups
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Taman Sari, the Hidden Jewel
When I was a child, I have visited Yogyakarta many times. But unfortunately I never come across to the water palace 'Taman Sari'. It's one of the sultan's villas. It was built in the 18th century by a Portuguese architect. The palace is surrounded by water for the sultan and his concubines to bath.
From afar, you can directly recognized the castle by the distinguish feature. It's white in colour with a mix of Mediterranean Europe style and Javanese style. When I got to the ticket counter, I prepared some money, but to my surprise, the ticket costs 3000 rupiah (or 40 cents usd) per person. It's definitely too cheap for an artifact that nice. No wonder they lack of money to maintain the site. But again, if you think about it.. It's Yogyakarta.. a city with lots of interesting artifacts but lacks of marketing for tourism. I can see big potential to make this city to become a tourist destination. The road system is already established with the right ambiance and feeling. It's just need some support from the authority.
Taman Sari consists of a few parts; the water castle, the mosque with 5 directions of stairs, the ruin of the main palace. In between those sites, we had to walk along the 'kampong' (village houses). This is an interesting view of the humble living in Yogyakarta. Of course this kampong has developed into a tourism focus spaces. We can see most houses on the main street are trying to sell home industry products, such as batik, traditional food, or wayang (shadow puppet).
Most of the gates and door's size are pretty short, so that whenever somebody wanna pass the gate, they have to bend their body a little bit. This represents respect to others and humble nature.
The sign board consists of 2 languages, French and Dutch, with the circulation direction in English. Diversity yeah.
The map of the surrounding village aka touristy kampong. As you can see here, the building used to be built on top of a lake. Sadly, there is no water anymore. Conservation anyone???
From afar, you can directly recognized the castle by the distinguish feature. It's white in colour with a mix of Mediterranean Europe style and Javanese style. When I got to the ticket counter, I prepared some money, but to my surprise, the ticket costs 3000 rupiah (or 40 cents usd) per person. It's definitely too cheap for an artifact that nice. No wonder they lack of money to maintain the site. But again, if you think about it.. It's Yogyakarta.. a city with lots of interesting artifacts but lacks of marketing for tourism. I can see big potential to make this city to become a tourist destination. The road system is already established with the right ambiance and feeling. It's just need some support from the authority.
Taman Sari consists of a few parts; the water castle, the mosque with 5 directions of stairs, the ruin of the main palace. In between those sites, we had to walk along the 'kampong' (village houses). This is an interesting view of the humble living in Yogyakarta. Of course this kampong has developed into a tourism focus spaces. We can see most houses on the main street are trying to sell home industry products, such as batik, traditional food, or wayang (shadow puppet).
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The Sacred Mount Merapi
The journey in Yogyakarta doesn't stop at Borobudur. On Sunday, I've got the chance to see the sacred mountain 'Merapi'. It is the most active volcano in Indonesia, or maybe in the world too. Recently in 2010, Mount Merapi erupted and cause lots of casualty. My mom told me, the town and village nearby used to be covered with white ashes and dusts. Not anymore though.
I was lucky that by the time I reached Merapi, the thunderstorm stopped. It only left cool weather, which is perfect. The scenery of Mount Merapi was extra ordinary. I still can see the lava route by the volcanoes. Apart from the bad casualties, there is also a story about the 'brave key keeper' of Merapi, called Mbah Maridjan. He's an old man who was trusted to guard the spirit of Merapi. When the Merapi erupted, he decided to stay behind, together with some of his followers.
His life was taken away by the Merapi at the end. And this Merapi trip is also include to see key keeper's house' ruin. It was quite sad to see result of Merapi eruption. ooo I forget to tell you the meaning of 'Merapi'. It means 'fire'. I guess you know why.
I was lucky that by the time I reached Merapi, the thunderstorm stopped. It only left cool weather, which is perfect. The scenery of Mount Merapi was extra ordinary. I still can see the lava route by the volcanoes. Apart from the bad casualties, there is also a story about the 'brave key keeper' of Merapi, called Mbah Maridjan. He's an old man who was trusted to guard the spirit of Merapi. When the Merapi erupted, he decided to stay behind, together with some of his followers.
His life was taken away by the Merapi at the end. And this Merapi trip is also include to see key keeper's house' ruin. It was quite sad to see result of Merapi eruption. ooo I forget to tell you the meaning of 'Merapi'. It means 'fire'. I guess you know why.
Le Bleu Borobudur
I’m on Chinese New Year’s long weekend..
Yey!!! For this CNY, I spent the time in Magelang, my dad’s home town. It’s
been a while for me since the last time I visited Magelang and Yogyakarta.
Magelang is located on the North of Yogyakarta. It is a small town with its own
charm and of course the marvelous Borobudur. My aim this time is to see Borobudur at
sunrise.
At 4 am in the morning we woke up and started the walk and hike to the top of Borobudur at 4.30. It was dark. The walk was quite easy; everything was well arranged by the organizer. We have to pay a bit of extra for the entrance fee, as the official opening hour is at 7 am. It was all worthy.
The ambiance at the top of Borobudur was very quiet and serene. The silhouettes of the stupas look amazing. At the end, I wasn’t lucky enough to witness the sunrise. Nevertheless, the feeling being up there, surrounded by the stupas and misty ambiance was priceless. Everything there is blue.
I know.., to wake up at 4 am or even earlier can be a pain. But.. compare to the experience you’ll get.., the pain is nothing. You can have the whole temple for yourself, as there were hardly people there.
At 4 am in the morning we woke up and started the walk and hike to the top of Borobudur at 4.30. It was dark. The walk was quite easy; everything was well arranged by the organizer. We have to pay a bit of extra for the entrance fee, as the official opening hour is at 7 am. It was all worthy.
The ambiance at the top of Borobudur was very quiet and serene. The silhouettes of the stupas look amazing. At the end, I wasn’t lucky enough to witness the sunrise. Nevertheless, the feeling being up there, surrounded by the stupas and misty ambiance was priceless. Everything there is blue.
I know.., to wake up at 4 am or even earlier can be a pain. But.. compare to the experience you’ll get.., the pain is nothing. You can have the whole temple for yourself, as there were hardly people there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)