Tiffa vs Delta Homestay
After 2 nights stay at the dodgy Tiffa, we decide to move from Sosro, as locals call the busy Sosrowijayan area. We have a pre-booked programme at the other more upmarket main tourist area called Prawirotaman. Since we are going there today anyway it makes sense to check out from Tiffa and take our bags with us. We arrive at Prawirotaman around 7.30 am, it is still all quiet. We are planing to stay for several days in Jogja, so we walk around to check a few places. We are really lucky to find Delta Homestay, which is actually cheaper than Tiffa. The staff are nice, rooms are tiny but clean, and there's a basic breakfast: you can choose tea or coffee, toast or fried rice, eggs and fruit. The bonus of the place is its lush garden with a pool in the centre. We agree that going swimming is an excellent start to the day, even if it is not the sea or a lake we normally prefer. The other brilliant advantage of the place, probably due to its secluded location, is that there is absolutely no street noise. We haven't had such undisturbed sleep for months. We deserved it :)
We spend a long time here (sometimes checking out but coming back again), using Delta as a base for our day-trips and other, longer adventures. Thanks to its warm and tranquil atmosphere, we are ready to discover not only the town but its surroundings too, where there is a lot to do and see.
Gunung Merapi
Java is home to a tremendous amount of volcanoes. Of course, we also pick one to hike up around Jogja. We choose the lazy way this time and join a guided package tour from Delta to Delta ( IDR 300.000 / person, including transport, guide, breakfast, national park entrance fee which we are not sure was paid or not, torch which we don't use since we have more comfortable headtorches, and sticks which we don't get). The minibus starts at 10 in the evening from our homestay and with four other fellows takes us to Selo village. We have time for a hot drink and some food before starting the hike at around 1am from an altitude of 1.500 metres. Our aim is to get to the 2.960m summit of Merapi, the Mountain of Fire, which is said to be the most active volcano in Indonesia but since mid-2011, it has been relatively quiet and possible to climb to the crater rim.
Two guides are coming with us. Both of them are sleepy, lazy and one of them doesn't even speak a word in English. They seem to be bored with this hike but enjoy the unnecessarily long breaks by smoking and falling asleep (not kidding!). We try to push them and keep on going since we are sure that the last part of the hike will be the most challenging, and we want to reach the top before sunrise.
And yes, here we are, at the most difficult part: sinking into the volcanic soil up to ankle level, when dawn arrives as the sky shines in unbelievable colours. The sun is already coming up when we reach the summit. The view is so astonishing that for a while we hardly realize the pretty strong wind, and how dangerously we are balancing on the narrow rocky edge of the summit. We spend about an hour at this spectacular spot before starting the well-deserved, fun sledge down, deep in the volcanic soil. The sun is shining, there are several other mountains around, but all all of them are lower than we are. Yes, we cannot avoid smiling!
Finding a good spot for breakfast we take our time and don't care about our guides who want to get back to Selo as soon as possible. They've already realised that we are faster than our company, so one of the guides stays with us, and the other starts to go down with the rest of the group. We keep taking breaks during our way down to breathe and feel the scenery which we can enjoy due to a lack of lush vegetation. It is a really different experience compared to the area of Gunung Gede. We reach Selo at around 9 am, and feel as if the past 8 hours would have been only a beautiful dream. A banana pancake we get for (2nd) breakfast makes us feel that we exist and our body needs energy after such a workout. No wonder we sleep all the way back to Jogja, where we jump into the pool to refresh ourselves arriving back to Delta.
Prambanan
Prambanan is 17 km to Jogja. Based on the Lonely Planet guidebook recommendation, we decide to visit by bicycle, going on a longer but more pleasant route along a small canal. We hire two city bikes at Viavia and set off early afternoon from town. It's the first time we’ve pedaled around here, and of course it gives a different perspective of the city as we go along its main roads and also through small kampungs to reach the canal. It’s a bit of a challenge to find the way despite our preplanned route map, but we keep asking locals as usual.
Arriving to Prambanan, there’re only 1.5 hours left still closing time, so we pay the entrance fee: IDR 207.000 (a complimentary drink included) is pretty high by Indonesian standards but being a UNESCO World Heritage site it’s at the focus of the government's and tourists' attention. We hide our bikes between the cars close to entrance (the Security insists we should park them at the designated bike parking area, which is far away…) and quickly go inside.
We are astonished by the sheer size of the temples, not to mention the sculptural details. The buildings were seriously damaged by the 2006 earthquakes and the main temple is still under reconstruction.
Prambanan has the largest Hindu temple complex in Java. It was built around the 9th century AD, just like Borobudur. There are Buddhist elements in the architecture and the sculptures. As we’ve seen all around South-East Asia, the religions and beliefs tightly twist around each other here, as well. Animism and Christianity, Buddhism hand in hand with Hinduism, topped with Islamism which is now the majority (and don’t forget to have a look at the Balinese belief system): they all have the same roots: it’s the very same tree we’re looking at.
With the temple complex in the background, there is an open-air theatre where the traditional ballet performance goes on almost every evening. During this 2-hour performance about 50 dancers and gamelan musicians take the viewers into the world of Ramayana, presenting one of the four, detailed episodes, or the full story. This evening we can go along to the full story of the Indonesian ‘version’ of this ancient myth.
Entering the theatre we get a leaflet with the plot (see the text below after some correction), which is far from spotless, and is not written in a way that would raise your heartbeat, but the story itself is still very nice and interesting.
The Plot of Ramayana Full Story
Introduction
Prabu Janaka, the king of Mantili Kingdom has a very beautiful daughter, princess Dewi Shinta. A competition is conducted in order to decide who will be the right person to marry Shinta. The prince of Ayodya Kingdom, Rama Wijaya, at last wins the competition.
Prabu Rahwana, the ruler of Alengkadiraja Kingdom is eager to marry Dewi Widowati. After getting to know Shinta, he assumes that she is the incarnation of Dewi Widowati who he has been longing for.
Dandaka Forest
Rama Wijaya, the prince of Ayodya Kingdom with his wife Shinta and his younger brother, Leksmana take an adventurous trip to Dandaka forest. Seeing Shinta there, Rahwana becomes eager to possess her. He orders one of his followers called Marica to change himself into a golden deer, called Kijang Kencana so as to attract Shinta. Being interested in the beauty of the deer, Shinta asks Rama to capture it for her. Rama leaves Shinta and starts hunting for the deer.
After waiting for a long time, Shinta becomes nervous as Rama has not arrived yet. She asks Leksmana to look for him. Before leaving Shinta alone, Leksmana draws a magic circle on the ground to protect her from any possible danger.
As soon as Rahwana notices that Shinta has been left alone, he tries to kidnap her but he fails because of the magic circle. Then he transforms himself into an old beggar. As soon as Shinta gets out from the magic circle to give alms to the beggar, he takes her and flies with her to Alengka Kingdom.
Running after the Deer
Rama shoots the deer with his magic arrow, but the deer transforms into a giant, called Marica. A fight breaks out between Rama and Marica. Rama shoots the giant with his arrow. Later on, Leksmana arrives and requests Rama to go back to where Shinta is.
The Kidnap of Shinta
On the way to Alengka, Rahwana meets a bird, called Jatayu. After noticing that Shinta is the princess of Prabu Janaka, Jatayu attacks Rahwana in order to free Shinta but he is defeated by Rahwana.
After finding out that Shinta is not at her previous place, Rama and Leksmana decide to search for her. Later on they meet the seriously wounded Jatayu. Rama thinks it must be Jatayu who has kidnapped Shinta, and decides to kill him. Leksmana prevents him to do so. Jatayu explains what has happened to him and then he dies.
A moment later, a white monkey, called Hanuman arrives. He is delegated by his uncle Sugriwa to look for two heroes who can kill Subali. Subali is a sacred man and has been forced to take Dewi Tara, Sugriwa’s beloved woman. Rama decides to help Sugriwa.
Kiskendo Cave
While Subali, his son and Dewi Tara are chatting, Sugriwa arrives. With the help of Rama, Sugriwa attacks him. Subali is defeated by Sugriwa and takes Dewi Tara with him again. Sugriwa decides to help Rama to look for Shinta. For this purpose Hanuman is sent as an envoy to Alengka Kngdom.
Argasoka Garden
Rahwana’s niece, Trijata is comforting Shinta in the garden. Rahwana arrives and asks Shinta’s willingness to be his wife. Shinta refuses to do so. It makes Rahwana angry and he wants to kill her but Trijata prevents and says that he should be patient. Trijata promises to look after Shinta. Shinta is very sad when suddenly she starts to hear a beautiful song, sung by Hanuman, the white monkey. Hanuman tells his purpose to help her, and that this duty is ordered by Rama. As soon as he explains the purpose, Hanuman starts to find out the total power of Alengka army. Then he destroys the garden. Indrajid, Rahwana’s son captures him, Kumbakarna tries to prevent this, but he is thrown out of the kingdom. Hanuman is sentenced to be burned alive. Hanuman with fire around his body is burning at Alengka palace.
Rama’s Bridge
After delegating Hanuman, Rama and his ape troops go to the sea and make a bridge for running to Alengka. When the bridge is finished, Hanuman comes and reports about the Alengka’s situation and its troops' power. Receiving the report, Rama is very happy and commands Hanuman, Hanggada, Hanila and Jembawan to lead the troops to attack Alengka.
The Total War
When the giant troops of Alengka are on their guard at the boundary of the kingdom, they are suddenly attacked by the ape troops. A big war occurs between them. In this war Indrajid is killed by Laksmana. Kumbakarna, the younger brother of Rahwana dies as a patriotic hero. After the death of Kumbakarna, Rahwana finally becomes the commander of the Alengka troops to face Rama. In this war, Rahwana is killed by Rama’s arrow and Hanuman drops the Mount Sumawana on Rahwana.
The Meeting of Rama and Shinta
After the death of Rahwana, Shinta, accompanied by Hanuman, meets Rama. Rama refuses to accept her as he considers Shinta is not pure anymore. In order to prove her purity, Shinta burns herself. With the help of the God of Fire, Shinta is saved from burning. Her proof makes Rama happy and finally he accepts Shinta.
As can be seen in Atti’s pictures the performance is really worth a visit. We are lucky to have a short, refreshing shower of rain exactly at the time of the break, while Évi doesn’t hesitate to enter the VIP lounge to grab some fried banana and hot tea.
Going back along the canal lit by the moon and stars, and of course our headtorches is quite fun. There is barely any traffic on the way. Arriving back to Jogja around 11pm the town seems to be sleepy like we are after this adventurous day.
