Back to Jogja

It’s been about 7 months since my week in Yogyakarta, or just Yogya (pronounced “Jogja”, see previous post), when I spent a week here studying Bahasa Indonesia (remember, bahasa = language). That was before Amy was part of the show. As you may recall, if Jakarta is the financial brain of Java, Yogya is the heart and soul, and center of Javanese culture. It’s where all things Javanese bloom: the language, the traditions, and of course, batik – the dazzlingly brilliant cloth patterns that pretty much define the daily Indonesian dress code.  

Shirts, dresses, place mats, you name it. Indonesia is the land of batik, and Jogja is ground zero. I love batik. The standard male dress code here – business, office, wedding, formal, casual, no matter – is batik. You don’t even say “shirt”, you just say “batik”. I have always been a “crazy shirt” guy, so if there is one thing I love about Indonesia, it’s that every day is crazy shirt day at the office. Love it! Amy’s catching on too. Friday at her school is batik day, and she is getting a good eye for 5-dollar batik dresses. Gotta love that too!

In addition to batik and all things Javanese, Jogja is also, ironically, well-known as the launch pad for visiting the largest and most spectacular Buddhist temple in the world: Borobudur. Although calling Borobudur a “temple” is like calling the Vatican a “church”. This is the Macha Picchu of Indonesia. So why – you ask because you are astute – is the largest Buddhist temple in the world in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country?

The answer is simply that Islam is but the last religious wave to wash over the archipelago. Long before Columbus even set foot on a boat for the first time, these islands were celebrating the likes of Buddha, Vishnu, and Shiva (the latter two being central figures in Hinduism). In fact, another nearby temple, Prambanan, is the largest Hindu temple in Southeast Asia (see previous Jogja post for that trip report). Fascinating place this Indonesia.

So ya, Borobudur: one of those mandatory must-tick checklist items if you are, or definitely live, anywhere near it. So when presented with a long weekend – something about the prophet Muhammad’s birthday, whatever…day off?...we’ll take it! – we set our sights on Jogja and a visit to Borobudur (personally, I think Amy was more excited about the batik shopping).

A quick 50-mins flight out of JKT on our now-favourite airline, Garuda (Indonesia’s national airline...puts AC to shame), and we were enjoying a cool beverage in the courtyard of our cozy accom in Jogja’s Maliorobo area by lunch. Up at 4:30 am the next day (everything in Indonesia starts at 4 or 5am…it’s a thing), we hit Borobudur for sunrise. Well, actually, it was cloudy and sort of rainy, so “sunrise” is a huge exaggeration. But we were there very early!

Built sometime (no one is really sure when or how or exactly why) about 1200 yrs ago (+/- 800 AD), Borobudur is another one of these gigantic, mysterious, and infinitely detailed stone structures erupting from the midst of jungle that make us digital-aged humans shake our head and think: how did a bunch of half-starved jungle natives move that much rock with their bare hands? Somehow they did, all 60,000 cubic meters of it. Not just move it. The intricacies and infinitely detailed carving of every square centimeter of stone, is mind blowing. Man, that would take all day! J More realistic estimates are that the job took 75 years to complete.

The site laid dormant and covered by jungle for centuries after Buddhism and Hinduism were replaced with Islam in this part of the world. In a scene right out of Indiana Jones, and lured by a story of a massive temple deep in the jungle, the site was rediscovered by the Dutch in the early 1800s, and brought back to life with machetes and sweat. After a massive $25-million restoration effort in the 1970s and 80s, Borobudur is now fully restored and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1991.  Hmm. Cool.

Like all spectacular ancient stone structures hidden in the jungle, or built at the top of a remote mountain, that no one knows anything about, Borobudur does not fail to impress. Even a heathen like me can appreciate the significance of it. It’s just impressive, that’s it, that’s all. Nuff said. Truth be told though, after a couple of hours and 400 +/- photos later, it’s time to move on. And besides, the droves of Asian teenagers wanting selfies with us gets mildly annoying after the 30^th time. That is also a thing here, that we haven’t figured out. Question: if two Asians get off a bus in Prince George, BC, are they mobbed by Canadians wanting to take selfies with them?

A little more batik shopping – can you really have enough batik? – a new Bintang beer tank top (Amy absolutely loves my growing beer tank-top collection), and hey, of course a ride in a bicycle rickshaw peddled by a guy in a bamboo rice hat. And oh ya, the elephants. We were wondering why the guy meticulously pulled the rickshaw over and stopped. Oh, I see, because the elephants have to get by. Right. Of course. What, you’ve never seen 4 elephants walking down the street before?