A long day spent around and about Central Java<\/p>\n
By Philip McCausland<\/p>\n
BOROBUDUR, Central Java (JP): It was still dark, not yet 4:30
\na.m, when my driver and I left the Central Javanese resort of
\nAmanjiwo. The limestone hills of Menoreh flickered with scattered
\nlights: villagers either climbing the hills to their fields or
\nmaking their way down for the morning market. A few minutes along
\na one-lane country road, I heard the first call to prayer. The
\nsounds of the muezzin pierced the predawn darkness. In the
\nkampongs of Borobudur, only the roosters could be heard to stir
\nin response.<\/p>\n
My last day in a week-long wander through Central Java had
\nbegun. Like the others, it promised to be a long and rewarding
\nday. The plains and volcanic slopes of Central Java are thick
\nwith ancient temples and monuments, with villages whose way of
\nlife has remained little changed through the centuries.<\/p>\n
I barely had enough time to nod off before the driver arrived
\nat the gates of the largest Buddhist sanctuary in the world. In
\nsilence, we slipped across the dew-slicked lawn, past three
\nsleeping elephants and up the dark-stone steps of the eighth-
\ncentury wonder known as Borobudur. We were alone with the
\nswirling mist and flocking sparrows until the new day's sun began
\nits climb between the twin peaks of Merapi and Merbabu. We stayed
\nuntil the sun flooded the rice fields and the coconut plantations
\nof the fertile Kedu Plain. And then, while my driver returned by
\ncar, I made my way back to the resort. Atop an elephant.<\/p>\n
At first it seemed a little odd to be bouncing along on a
\nSumatran elephant with a Sumatran guide on a Javanese country
\nroad. But that quickly passed, and soon I began to appreciate the
\nelephant ride for what it was: just another vehicle for taking in
\nthe extraordinary countryside and culture of this enduring
\nregion. I might equally have returned with my driver in a resort
\ncar or hailed an andong, the horse carts used daily by locals in
\nthe region.<\/p>\n
If the elephant ride was a little bumpier than a touring car,
\nthe world we passed moved at a decidedly more gentle pace. More
\ntime to appreciate the harvest of papaya and chili and rambutan
\nand cassava, the rice fields, bright green and sopping wet, the
\nriver we waded into, the kampongs we passed, the great volcanic
\npeaks of Central Java -- Merapi and Merbabu, Sumbing and Sundoro
\n-- in the distance.<\/p>\n
Through it all, I was welcomed with big, disbelieving smiles
\nand the melodic selamat pagi (good morning) endlessly repeated.
\nThe greetings came from farmers peeking past cassava plantations,
\nfrom the uniformed schoolchildren who lined the country roads,
\nfrom mothers and grandmothers a few feet behind them, and no less
\namazed at the sight of the elephant and his handler and the man
\nalong for the ride.<\/p>\n
It took about 90 minutes to make our way back to Amanjiwo.
\nThere, I got to feed Molly. She took small finger bananas from my
\nhands. The big green coconuts she pawed with her trunk, before
\nstomping on them. With one foot still on the fruit, she used her
\ntrunk to rip away at the coconut husk, pulling up the meat to her
\nmouth as easily and elegantly as if she were using a fork.<\/p>\n
It was not yet 9 a.m. There was time, still, for the market in
\nMuntilan. The Borobudur area's main market town is less than 20
\nkilometers from Amanjiwo. A maze of laneways lit from gaps in the
\nclay-tiled roof, the market was flush with Javanese fruit and
\nvegetables. Simple food stalls tempt with country delicacies,
\nfrom small fried fish in rice-flour batter to water buffalo-skin
\ndeep-fried in coconut oil and bubbling up golden and crispy.
\nMore captivating than the food were the women who served and sold
\nit. Sweet and gap-toothed, black-toothed and lipsticked, shy and
\ncurious and occasionally bold, chewing betel nut or eating their
\nbreakfast of rice, chili and palm sugar, they all seemed to wear
\na wide Javanese smile this fine morning.<\/p>\n
The bird market is just across the street. As the fruit and
\nvegetable market is a woman's world, so this is a man's repose.
\nOr, more precisely, man and bird. 2 of 4<\/p>\n
Along the riverbank, past the gamblers and the healers, dozens
\nof men were watching the sky, eyes narrowed, looking for pigeons.
\nThey were running practice sessions this morning. In a few hours,
\nthe pigeon racing, and the gambling, would begin in earnest. A
\nsudden flash of wings high above brought a rush of excitement,
\neveryone in rapt attention on the bird now dropping like a small
\nplane in free fall. All the while, the trainer was swinging his
\narms vigorously back and forth. It's as if he's bringing the bird
\nin all by himself. Which, it turned out, he was. In each folded
\nhand, the trainer kept a female pigeon. They're what the male
\nracers return for, I was told. Nothing new there.<\/p>\n
After lunch, there was Mount Merapi to see, if not to climb.
\nAlong the way, my driver stopped by the roadside, a field of corn
\non one side, rice rising in terraces on the other. He had
\nsomething to show me. So we walked along the road's edge, eyes on
\nan irrigation channel no wider than a ditch. But even with the
\nhelp of passing villagers, there was no finding it -- this corner
\nof a temple somewhere now under the irrigation water, the rest of
\nit, surely in ruins, deep under the rice fields. It was, he said,
\na Buddhist monument as old as Borobudur, as big as Mendut. It was
\ninundated by Merapi, he said, by an avalanche of Merapi mud and
\nlava 1,000 years ago. There was no point in questioning the
\nstory. In the 1,000 years since, the Central Javanese have come
\nto know their volcanoes rather intimately.<\/p>\n
You can climb Merapi, leaving late at night and arriving for
\nsunrise. On this day, however, I had sunset in mind and barely
\nthe time to see it. Returning from Merapi after 4 p.m., I made my
\nway, on foot, out of Amanjiwo, past the kampong of Pakem and up
\nthe leaf-littered path. The Menoreh Hills, weather-beaten and
\nbeautiful, offers unimpeded views of the Kedu valley, with
\nAmanjiwo in the foreground and Borobudur in the middle distance.
\nThe hard-won trail ends at a mountain road. From there, I was
\ndriven to Suroloyo, a sacred sunset point. Here, people come by
\nthe hundreds on special evenings, some to meditate, others to
\nenjoy the festive spirit.<\/p>\n
From the observation post 300 stone steps away, I watched as
\nhills fold into mountainsides, colors fading to silhouette, to
\nthe end of another memorable day in Central Java.<\/p>\n
Getting to Central Java and Borobudur is easy. Garuda offers
\nfive flights a day to Yogyakarta, just an hour's flight away from
\nJakarta. From Yogyakarta, it's another hour by car to the
\nBorobudur area.<\/p>",
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