Solo-Yogjakarta Trip - Part 2

Day 3 - Yogyakarta Kraton & Prambanan Temple

The third day in Yogja was spent visiting the Kraton & Prambanan Temple. As per the Solo Kraton, the Yogja Kraton is a working Kraton, where only 2 parts of the palace open to public. The rest are still being used as the royal residence and access is limited. From our conversation with the guide, the royals are opening up their kraton to the public as part of collecting revenues for the upkeep of the palace. This is due to the fact that the royal did not receive any allowance for the maintenance of the palace. In the compounds, as per Javanese believe were black volcanic sands instead of grass and sawor kecil trees. The Javanese believe that great beings lives in the mountains and the seas, hence the volcanic sand represents these two places. Sawor means 'everything' and 'kecil' means 'prosperity', hence that explains the abundance of the trees in the compound of the kraton.

Entrance to Yogjakarta Kraton ( Palace )

Javanese Mask Motive near the entrance

Balai Rong Seri - Yogyakarta Kraton
Effects of the recent earthquake - Flattened part of the holding hall of the Kraton

Guardian of the Kraton

Intricate Joglo Architecture



Potrait of Hamengku Buwono & Royal Paraphenalia (replicas)

Royal Gamelan



Declaration from the government of Indonesia to the Yogja Royals

Prambanan Temple

Prambanan Temple is located on the outskirt of Yogjakarta, and its the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. It is also a UNESCO World heritage site, where part of the temple has been restored. As the temple lies within the earthquake prone region, the recent 2006 earthquake has damaged the temple. The site was open to public but with access is limited as the damage from the earthquake wasn't fully repaired.

Word of advise, please brace yourself for the salesperson selling souvenirs as they are very persistent to the point of annoying. Also if you could do a good impression of Bahasa Indonesia or better still speaks Javanese, then head towards the local entrance for a cheaper entrance ticket.

Prambanan Temple Complex

Damages due to the earthquake

Day 4 - Borobudur Temple

Borobudur Temple is a Buddhist Temple, unlike Prambanan which is a Hindu Temple. What blew our mind away is the entrance fees charges to tourist, which is 11X dearer than the local rates. We decided to get a guide to explain things and guide us around, and Pak Dhani did an excellent job explaining things to us. He's well versed with Malay, English, Dutch and Japanese. IF we thought that the salesperson was quite annoying in Prambanan, at Borobudur it was 100X irritating, up to the point of sick at the sights of souvenirs being thrusted in your face. In a different circumstances, I would buy those but under these extreme selling scheme, we were put off of buying stuff from them. But Abah has a soft spot for them, and he was swarmed like flies. Its hard if you can't say no kan.....

UNESCO Heritage Plaque

Jauhnya nak jalan.....

Tingginya nak naik

Pak Dhani - Our guide

A water spout feature

Sleeping Man MountainCuramnye...camne pakcik nak naik ni

Profile of Borobudur Temple


View from the top

After visiting Borobudur, we head back towards Solo as we need to catch an early flight. Along the way we stopped at a salak stall to buy the famous salak pondoh. Its sweet and nice, with no soury or bitter taste at all. I bought some only to eat through half of it during the drive to Solo :-0

Lunch was at a sort of 'floating' restaurant, where the setup was huts above a man made lake, with fishes swimming around. The setup was serene and peaceful, the food typical of Javanase but a little to sweet for my liking (even though I'm of Javanese descent ). The best thing about the setup is that even the remains of the food could be thrown to feed the fishes.

The setup of the restaurant

One of the huts - the have more than 20
Cute monkey made out of coconut

Feeding the fishes

We also managed to see part of Bantul province, which was hit by the earthquake. From our guide, most of the residential dwellings have been repaired but bigger buildings such as schools and stadiums have yet to be repaired.

All in all the trip has been a a good experience for me, even though there are similarities in between the two countries, there are also a noticeable difference in the way, pace and quality of life. My observations are that the Javanese people are very courteous especially those whose in the service industry which may prove a challenge to Malaysians and they are also hard working but not rewarded enough. No wonder thousands of them heads towards Malaysia in search of a better living, very much like what my grandad did in 1941. There another trip to Medan coming in Aug 07 and hopefully it would be as enjoyable as this.

Solo-Yogjakarta Trip - Part 1

It was a spontaneous decision, my parents have asked me before to follow them to Solo, but due to work commitment I haven't been able to confirm with them. With only 3 weeks to go, I decided that it might be a good break to join them on this trip. The purpose was for me to get to know my relations there, as I'm the only one who haven't visited them as the rest of my siblings had done the trip.

Day 1 - Solo

The trip started with an early flight from LCCT direct to Solo. The 'Now Everyone Can Fly' airline does only 1 flight per day. Somehow the night before I had an overdose of caffeine, so I couldn't get a wink of sleep until the designated time of wake up at 3.30.

Pics above taken at the Antique Market, Solo.

At the Kraton Mangkunagaran, Solo.

Traditional Javanese Joglo Architecture

Picture of the Javanse Royal Family - pinjam kerusi je....

Gamelan at Kratan Mangkunagaran Solo

Aiman & The Lion Guardian of the Kraton
Lesehan - Pecal lele, burung dara goreng, gudeg, gurame bakar...sadly no bebek goreng

After 'muter-muter' session in Solo, we headed straight to Yogjakarta which is about 2 hours drive away. Arrived at the designated hotel only to find out that the travel agency had somehow f***ed up the accommodation arrangement, instead of a break in between, they have booked consecutive nights in Solo, hence our arrangment to spend the night in kampong has to be changed.

Day 2 - Kutoarjo (kampung )

My grandfather had three wives, the first one passed away leaving him a son, he couldn't stand the second one (also a son) so he left for Singapore, worked in Johore, then came up to KL and met my grandmother and had 7 offspring, which my dad is the eldest.

The son from the first wive had passed away, but his offspring lives in Jakarta. The son from the second wife lives in Kutoarjo, about 2 hours drive away from Yogjakarta.

Paddy fields along the way

Weighing scale used in Indonesia - these were the norm in Malaysia about 20 years ago

Tempe - staple food of the Javanese

My cousins - Mas Tegu & Mas Aris

The Clan
My dad & his step brother
Enjoying a moment on a beca
Your friendly bakso keliling man - the arrival of the tamu from Malaysia might have made his day or week, where he sold 22 bowls of bakso in one sitting

The whole clan

Power rangers - it's an eye opener to see the kids play, even though there's a language barrier, they managed to get along nicely with using action and gestures - a truly universal language

The trip have been an eye opener for me. From my point of view, their houses are all made of bricks with roof tiles / atap genting, where in our standard it was rumah mewah, but to them it is the norm and most basic of houses. They have to do loads of works for a meager return just to ensure their survival. Most of my cousins are on KB (Keluarga Berencana) where every family is limited to 2 offsprings, also due to the fact that they cant afford to have more than that. I wish that we could have spent the night in kampong, just to soak in the atmosphere. My cousins did say that they wanted to visit Malaysia, but the process of getting their passport would cost them almost half of their monthly income, this is due to the presence on calo (middle man) with their commisison in between (the cost of renewal in Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia in only Rm25)

Will continue in part 2....

The last minute rush

As a self confessed procrastinator, I waited until the last minute to do these things :

• renew my driving license
• submit my tax return form
• change some currency for the trip I'm taking tomorrow
• packing for the above mentioned trip
• clearing up some outstanding things at work

All was done today since I'll be away when most of it are due, hence today is the last window for clearing it up. But in my haste, I managed to forget some loan repayment, which meant that it has to be settled when I got back later( with interests arrgghhh )

This trip wasn't really planned, but since my parents asked to accompany them to visit some relations and I'm the only one who haven't done the trip. Considering the week that I have been through with the doctors visits and numerous blood tests, situation at work etc, I'm kinda looking forward for this trip. I have no expectation whatsoever for this trip, but hopefully

But after the break, work schedule would be at a breakneck pace again, with meetings and inspection at the northern region, courses and paper presentation etc....

ps. went to Times warehouse book sale and got a few interesting title to read. Its on from 26 April 2007 - 2 May 2007, 2nd Floor Plaza Hamodal, Section 13, PJ.

Of Health, Fitness & Weight

As per my previous post, Comfort Food, I was made aware that I need to control my fitness level and weight better. Being in a different work environment, it's kinda hard to maintain regular exercise regime due to the time limitation. Anyway, realising this, I have embarked on a fitness program to increase my cardiovascular fitness and also part of my weight managment program.

Officially, I started the program at the end of March, after recovering from my bout of fever, and somehow there's some progress as per pictorial evidence (still 3 kg from my target of 70 kg), also I'm recording measurement of vital stats for records :-)


As part of the program was increasing my cardiovascular fitness, I managed to get my hands on a Heart Rate Monitor, to ensure that I working out in the correct HR Zone, optmising my cardiovascular workout. Hopefully I can post more improvement in the near future.

p.s. - Not trying to be like the Spartans in 300, just a nice flat tummy....


p.p.s. as per previous post, I have been having these low grade fevers for a few days in the past month. Normally the temp is just around 37-37.2C, hence a visit to the GP was made and he referred me to a specialist. A series of test was done and they couldn't pinpoint if there's anything *seriously* wrong with me. I'm due for another round of tests next Tuesday, so hope that will be given the all clear then. The doc also ordered that I cut down on the cardio for a while to give the body chance to recover plus keeping me on medication. Keeping my fingers crossed...