Home Sweet Home

Boarding the plane home
We could see Merapi on our ascent

It was great for aerial photography as the visibility was about 8km according to the captain


Aerial view of Batam

The sunlight made the buildings in Singapore stand out

Keraton and Parangtritis

Shops line the street outside the royal palace
The gates of the Keraton
The Javanese Muslims practiced a different form of Islam.Here the face of a giant wards off evil at the gates of the Keraton

This sedan chair is over a hundred years old
We headed to Parangtritis beach.The surf here is strong and there are signs warning against swimming here
We asked our driver to recommend a good place for seafood.He brought us to this place where you buy fish from the fishmongers and pay someone else to cook it for you
It is obvious that very little tourists come here.We were not comfortable with the idea of sitting on a mat for lunch. The ownrs of the restaurant stacked up the short tables so that we could eat sitting on a bench

To Borobudur, Merapi and Prambanan

We left the hotel at 4am and arrived at the Manohara an hour later.The Manohara is a pretyy classy hotel that also serves as a reception area for us to pay for the entrance fees to the moniment.
The complex was just a short walk away and was shrouded in early morning mist
The structure is made of 6 square platforms and topped by three circular platforms
Bas reliefs depicting the life of Buddha cover the walls of the first six platforms
There are a total of 2,672 reliefs
As well as 504 Buddha statues

The circular platforms are dotted with bell shaped stupas.If you look inside ypou will see a Buddha statue
Not all statues are hidden in the stupas





The complex looks better in sunlight

It was reaaly hot by the time we left Borobudor

We drove thru the Javanese countryside on our way to Mount Merapi
The clouds have obscured our view of the volcano.We ventured up the old lava trail



A man and his dog gathering grass for his livestock
Mount Merapi grabbed the world's attention when it started spewing ash in 2006. Instead of erupting it triggered an earthquake that affected much of south Jogja

It was 2pm when we reached Prambanan.It is also a UNESCO heritage site
This temple complex is dedicated to the cult of Shiva

Yogjakarta

Thanks to the fee ticket offer by Air Asia I am off to visit the city of Jogjakarta. I only paid Sing$38 for the taxes and fuel surcharge
There are a number of ways to spell the name-Jogja,Djogja or Yogjakarta
Maggie and Cecilia, my colleagues from China
It started raining heavily on our way to the hotel.We had to wade thru ankle deep water to check in and change into our slippers at the lobby
It was already evening by the time we settled down. The hotel staff suggested that we take a tour of the city on trishaws or Becak as it is known here
We soon realised why we were only chrged 30000 rupiahs for a three hour tour of the city. The drivers brought us to Batik shops Mask shops and silversmith shops with the hope that we would buy