Adventures By Design

In which the travelers learn not to attempt to burn monkeys alive

This morning Gin woke up feeling somewhat dessicated, and with a terrible headache. Yesterday was a long day walking around in the heat and sun, and to make matters worse, our air conditioner had been turned to “dry” rather than “cool” last night. This effectively sucked all the water out of Gin’s body and dehydrated her, which inevitable led to the headache. She spent the morning taking a long bath (remember, we have a bathtub here!), and then having a nap. Her headache got a little better, but she didn’t manage to totally kick it for the entire day. Ric says she put on a good front though.

Finally around noon she got up, and we headed out to pick up our laundry and have lunch before we left on a tour at two o’clock. Once we got our laundry (which was impeccably clean, perhaps the cleanest its ever been, for the price of about $1.50 for 3.5kg), we started walking along the street looking for a restaurant. Unfortunately, while we were on our way it started to rain so rather than looking for the best restaurant we just found the closest one!

After lunch we headed back to our hotel to prepare for our tour. We were going to the Prambanan temple, Boko temple, and later in the evening to see the Ramayana ballet. We had been told that the van for our trip would leave at two o’clock, but that we should be ready at ten minutes to two. In our experience when they tell you that, the van actually shows up around quarter after two. However, today was an exception because when we showed up at 1:55, the van was already there with four other travelers waiting for us… oops!

We arrived at Prambanan temple, and after getting our tickets sorted our guide left us to our own devices. This trip only covered transportation and admissions, not any interpretive commentary. After making our way through about a square kilometer of souvenir stalls we got our first good look at the temples that make up the Prambanan complex. Originally there were several hundred small stone temples in this area, as well as some quite large ones. The tallest stone temple in Indonesia is here, at 47 meters it is quite impressive and beautiful!

As we were walking up to the main temple, two young men in purple blazers approached us, and asked if we wanted some information about the temples. At first we were a little suspicious, but they assured us that their services were completely free. It seems that these young men are in grade eleven at a foreign language high school here. As part of their studies they will spend the day at this temple everyday for a month, showing tourists around and practicing their English. As well as the two boys, there was a gaggle of giggley girls that seemed too shy to actually talk to anyone. However,they were quite good at laughing, waving, and saying ‘hello.’

One of our two young guides was quite shy and nervous so he didn’t say much; he also ditched us partway through to go meet his girlfriend. The other young man, named Mail, was wonderful! He told us that he was also nervous, but still he spoke well, and knew many interesting facts about the temples. All of the many temples in the area were built between the 7th and 9th centuries. They are Hindu temples, but with a heavy Buddhist influence. Further muddying the religious waters is the fact that most people in this area are now Muslim; the people here still have great respect for these temple though, and they hold them in high esteem. Several times here in Yogyakarta people have commented to us on the importance of respecting other people, religions, and traditions.

We had a wonderful time walking and talking with Mail. He was very fun, knowledgeable, and open. He answered any of our questions well, and he also asked some question of his own about our lives and about Canada. After we finished walking through the temples, and we were saying goodbye, Mail told us that he would also be attending the Ramayana ballet that evening, so we promised to look for each other there.

The next stop on our tour was at Boko temple for the sunset. At this point Gin’s headache was getting worse, and the temple wasn’t really that exciting, so after walking around a bit, and taking a few photos we just sat down and rested for a while. We waited for the sunset, hoping to get some nice photos, but it wasn’t very special, so we just headed back to the restaurant down the hill from the temple and had dinner.

After dinner we drove back to the Prambanan temple to watch the Ramayana ballet from there. We had over an hour to kill before the show would begin so we tried to get some nice night shots of the illuminated temple (easier said than done: our battery died just as Ric was getting the right exposure time) and had a coffee with another couple on the same trip as us.

Finally it was show time and we sat down (with our free Cokes, included in the ticket price). Our seats were not the most comfortable, and the man sitting beside Ric insisted on talking at full volume throughout the performance, but we had a great time anyway. Mail and his friend, our young guides, also found us, and we spoke briefly.

The Ramayan is based on a traditional Hindu story. The story centers around Rama, a prince who marries the beautiful Sita. One day when Rama and Sita are cavorting in the forest, the evil Ravana sees Sita and decides to kidnap her. Rama is tricked into leaving Sita alone, and Ravana swoops in and takes her off to his kingdom. When Rama realizes what has happened he goes off to rescue Sita with the help of some monkeys, especially Hanuman, the monkey god. Hanuman gets captured by Ravana who decides to burn him alive. However, because of his divine nature, Hanuman isn’t hurt by the fire, and instead burns down Ravana’s palace (involving actual fire on-stage: cool!). Now Rama comes in to fight Ravana, and of course good triumphs over evil. Rama and Sita are finally reunited, but Rama doubts Sita’s purity (bastard!). To prove her virtuousness, Sita lights herself on fire and the fact that she doesn’t burn shows that she is pure and honest. Finally Rama is satisfied, he and Sita get back together, and they live happily ever after.

Once the show was over we climbed back into our van and headed back through Yogyakarta to our hotel. Now it’s time for bed (with the air conditioning on cool, not dry) and hopefully Gin will feel better tomorrow!