lupestripe | The Sound Of Devotion

I am writing this to the sound of the mosque across the road calling the devoted to evening prayer. In a way it is quite relaxing, yet it is also empowering at the same time. It's another reminder of being in a foreign country and it is something I will miss when I return to secular Singapore tomorrow morning (having to awake at the God-awful time of 5:30am). I will miss Indonesia, it has been a fascinating few days.

I was knackered last night, particularly as I stayed up to watch George Of The Jungle on Indonesian TV. The ad breaks here are shorter but last every 10 minutes, which is a little annoying. Most adverts are on repetition - they are either for washing powder or election commercials. There is a general election here on July 8 and there are campaign posters everywhere. There is a lot of interest in the election, particularly as current encumbent SBY is going up against former president Megawoti. Many I have spoken to are supporting SBY whose strong stance has allowed Indonesian economic progression over the last five years. JK, the third party candidate is focusing on football, saying that he will aim to bring the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Indonesia. Football is massive here - Manchester United stars advertise 3 mobile phones - indeed the first thing I saw was Rio Ferdinand on a poster and yesterday there was Ryan Giggs in a Man Utd shirt, wearing batik and advertising 3. The slogan "Mau?" - Do You Want? - couldn't have been less appropriate for me.

I didn't get up until lunchtime due to the constant touring taking its toll on me. This afternoon we went to a restaurant where I ate ayam curry - chicken cooked in coconut milk. It was a nice fusion, particularly with the mashed potato which is another local speciality. The chili sauce was amongst the hottest I have ever tasted. The meal was tempered though by us observing a poor woman on the other side of the street. She was chopping up some lettuce to cook on an open fire, on the side of the road. She was using a vast array of plastic bags as fuel, along with little pieces of wood. Her right foot was wrapped in a bin bag and its toes were quite clearly missing from the shape of it. She had no qualms lifting her skirt up to reveal her intimate areas as she put a salve on them for whatever reason. It was a tremendously sad sight - with no social welfare here, I guess these things occasionally happen. Her industriousness was credit to herself and out of pity, we donated a little cash to her.

Shortly after this, we visited a batik factory to see how it is made. Firstly, a pattern is mapped out on white cloth, which is then covered in hot wax. The detail is created with the wax before the cloth is dyed. The wax is melted away by boiling the cloth and then reapplied on the areas where you don't want the second dye to permeate. The wax is then melted again and reapplied in different places for the next colour and so on. Sometimes the wax is added by quill and other times it is done by stamps. The hand blocking batik process is called Batik Cap. Finally, when all the dyeing has been done, the final wax is melted away to leave the finished product. Batik is a common clothing design here amongst Indonesians - in fact most locals wear batik shirts. It is also used in tablecloths, ornaments and wooden items (it can be done on wood as well as cloth). I bought a pink batik cloth map of Indonesia - a nice little souvenir. I also got a picture of a flower made out of wax from one of the talented ladies who drew the wax on the cloth.

The final trip of our time in Indonesia involved going to the temple at Prambanan, some 40 minutes outside Yogyakarta. This was where we had seen the Ramayan Ballet on Saturday (and it took us an hour and a half to get there then due to the traffic) but this time we returned to see the temple. It is different to the temple at Borobudur. Borobudur is a massive single construct whereas the Prambanan complex contains 240 individual temples. There are 14 in the main precinct area and 226 on 4 levels surrounding them. Most of the 226 have yet to be reconstructed as the temple lay in ruins for 9 centuries before being rediscovered by the Dutch in the 19th century. Also, the 27 May 2006 earthquake created a lot of damage to the temples and many of the smaller ones still remain in ruins. It was eerie to walk through the piles of rubble but the Indonesian Government are working to restore them, which is probably why we had to pay another "tourist" rate. Still, we got a free tea out of it.

Because of reasons of safety, only half the temple complex was open. Of the 14 temples in the centre, there are 6 main ones. These include the massive temple dedicated to Siwa whilst the two slightly smaller temples are dedicated to Brahma and Wishu. Set in front of them are three other temples dedicated to their respective chattels. We could go into the one dedicated to Siwa's chattel, a cow, and I was allowed to sit atop it and have my picture taken. Beneath the Siwa tower, there is a 30ft hole "for symmetry" in which gold, silver and bronze were discovered. The other 8 temples dotted at each apex of the square compound and also half way down each side were water temples.

We also saw the sunset amidst the temple, which was magical. The pinks and oranges of the hues was breathtaking, particularly amongst such an impressive structure. The light hit the carvings on the walls of the temples in such a way that it would fail to leave anyone without a sense of awe. It truly was beautiful.

After this, I was asked to have my photo taken by a few Indonesians again - probably for the same reasons as at Borobudur - and we were ushered through Ye Olde Worlde Market Stalls where people competed to make us part with our money. The problem was that most of these places sold the same type of tourist tat although I did pick up a metal boat toy that they stopped making in England in about 1894. For Rp10,000 (about 85 cents), you can't complain.
I am just about to head out now for my last meal in Indonesia before I hit the sack. With a flight at 7:35am tomorrow, I am going to have to be up mega-early :(