Categotry Archives: Travel
Phantom Volcano
We’re up to Day 6 of my trip to Indonesia. Sorry it’s taking me so long to get to everything. It was quite the packed vacation. This morning we were supposed to go on a hike around the sloped of Mount Merapi. Supposedly we could see this volcano from our hotel in Yogjakarta. I’m sure normally it would be visible while we were on it. At the time two or three volcanoes in Indonesia were putting out tons of ash. […]
A Home Visit
It was a very long day. After seeing the temple, going to a hidden restaurant, and dropping in on batik factory, we split up into smaller groups and went to the homes of some locals for dinner. I consider myself very, very lucky in the family that took us in. First, we were warned that not everyone would speak English, but at least one person would. In our case, everyone did – and we are talking over a dozen people. […]
A Batik Factory
On the way back to the hotel from the Prambanan Temple Complex we stopped off at a batik factory. I’ve always been a fan of batik, and was looking forward to picking up a few yards of material while in Bali. I knew that even in Bali it wouldn’t be cheap, but I was hoping it would get cheap enough for me.
A Hidden Restaurant
We left the Prambanan Temple Complex fairly close to dinner time. The nice thing about a packaged tour is that you don’t have to worry about where you will eat or finding a place that should be food-safe. You just get on the bus and the touring company will take you to a place at about the right time.
Get On the Bus
This ominous black bus is part of Indonesia’s anti-corruption campaign. It goes from place to place and educates the masses about their rights and responsibilities regarding corruption. IT also received complaints from the citizens. Apparently this has proven effective as problems with corruption have decreased noticeably since it began. I’m well aware that it is serious business, but I couldn’t help thinking Men in Black.
Zoos
At the end of the our visit to Prambanan Temple Complex, the train let us out near the entrance where we ran into something of a zoo. I can’t say I really considered it a zoo. There were only a few cages. The emu, and some deer seemed to be the only exhibits. Just how much of an exhibit does there need to be to consider something a zoo? I thought the one we visited in Belize was rinky dink. […]
Prambanan Temple Complex. Yeah, again.
The area just past the ticket boot for the Prambanan Temple is a lovely garden. You can see it here. It’s #10. Once you get past that, you’re faced with a jumble of rock. As the archaeologists uncover the stones, they pile them up in the area. Until they have more than 75% of a given temple, they can’t do anything with it. Considering there were 224 temples in the area before volcanic activity and earthquake took them down in […]
Ramayana Ballet
I’ve been recounting my vacation in Indonesia in more or less chronological order. Today I’m going to jump around a little bit because I still have another 13 pictures to share from the Prambanan Temple complex, but I also have events the next day for which I have few if any good pictures. Probably the worst was the Ramayana Ballet.
Prambanan Temple Complex
This week I’m just going to do 13 pictures from the Prambanan Temple Complex, which is just a relatively short drive from Candi Sambisari. 1.
Candi Sambisara
Candi Sambisara was the first of many temples we visited on this trip. It was also the first serious test of my trekking poles. For the first few minutes it scared me spitless. There I stood at the top of a hundred steps, no railing, and a left hip with no cartilage left. After all I’d been through the year before I was painfully aware that I no longer knew what I was or was not capable of. I couldn’t […]
Snack Time
After our walk around Kasongan Village we went to our hotel. Despite all the pictures I took, I have very little to show of the various places we stayed. More is the pity, as we stayed in some wonderful hotels. Often the decorations were wonderful. More often than not there would be something to eat in our room. I’m not talking a wafer thin chocolate here. I mean mostly fruit. I’m sure your recognize most of what’s in the picture […]
Textiles in Kasongan Village
After we left the first pottery place in Kasongan village we went up an alley and came in the back door of a combination fabric and hat making operation. It was an odd place. The fabric was in an area that looked like a three sided car port with one side open not to the street but to the porch of the house it was attached to. Inside this area a couple of women worked industriously at decorating fabric. I’m […]
Kasongan Pottery Works
The area around Jogjakarta, including Kasongan Village, is considered an important area for pottery in Java. It’s called a center for the arts, and know for pottery as well as theater and fabric. The two places we visited both had pottery brought in and added the finish for resale, mostly on a wholesale basis. The first shop focused on large vases. They painted the outsides with glue, then attached pieces of colored glass for a mosaic effect. Several women did […]
Mystery Volcano
See it? Yeah, I didn’t either. It’s there on the right. Or so they told me. The whole time we were in Yogjakarta we were within a couple dozen miles of a fairly large volcano. We were also shrouded in a haze of volcanic ash the whole time. Although I caught glimpses of the volcano, and even walked on it, most of the time I didn’t see it. In fact, when I was walking on it I wouldn’t have guessed […]
