Gambar-gambar Papua

Hidup Baru

And now I have reached Papua. After a night of Jogja Gudeg and Independence day celebrations, complete with dancing to Dangdut in the Kampung, I packed my bags, said goodbye to my friends, and flew east. After a few days in the heat of Jayapura, it was on to my destination, the place I expect to call home for the next year and a half. Wamena, a small town way up in the Baliem Valley. Population around 10 000, altitude 1700 m (I think). Midday sun is strong, nights are cold, rain is frequent, the clouds cling to the mountains that surround me. As for culture shock, moving from Jogja to Wamena is possibly more of a change than Montreal to Jogja.

On the flight east I made my first friend, Andi from Medan (North Sumatera), moving to Wamena at the same time. Since then I have walked around town, enjoying the markets, the smiles and the natural splendor on display right on my doorstep. Oh yeah, and then there is work...

Yogya sights

Gua Cerme

CAVEING at Gua Cerme. A 1.5 km long cave. A river runs through it. The entrance is high in the hills of Imogiri; the exit is in Gunung Kidul. You walk through the river. Your guide has flashlights from another era, with massive batteries slung over his shoulder. My friend Anang gets to carry the second of these lighting beasts, I am happy with my tiny LED light, a valuable gift from my sister Laura. Bats emerge from holes between stalactites in the ceiling. Here and there are meditation sites for mystics. Apparently this cave was used by the Wali Songho in their efforts to establish a mosque, or something. I need to do some research.

Jalan-jalan. Ke mana-mana.

A day at the beach, at Pantai Baron: crashing surf, the south Java sea is not gentle. Only at this sheltered cove is the beach safe for play.























A stop at a peaceful Maria-worship cave on the way home...







A day in Singapore: 2 stops at the visa agent leave plenty of time for running around town, digging the temples and sweets of Little India, the durian and bakeries of Chinatown, the treasures (many of which are from Java, such as the Cirebon batik) to be seen at the Asian Heritage Museum. A strange, cool town. Not free: j-walking is punished, so is eating on the bus. But seeing signs in four languages is a trip.

Kerajaan Zaman Dulu

I took a whirlwind trip around Jawa Timur (East Java) a few weeks ago with my pal Lenci (orang Tegal, ex-aktivis, pengamat spiritual-politik). As we progressed rapidly from place to place, we realized we were on a mission: uncovering the history of Java's old kingdoms. As luck would have it, we ended up tracing the history of Java's 'first' three kingdoms in chronological order, from Kediri through to Singosari and finally the great Majapahit, with time for various pilgrimages in between.

Kediri was once the seat of a powerful kingdom. Now it is known for its tofu, and is the home town of my friend Hardiana, so we had a nice place to stay. The vestiges of a glorious past are mostly forgotten or disappeared, though some archeo-entrepreneurs are 'uncovering' 'new' artefacts. We were puzzled and not quite convinced... Not pictured here (I didn't have my camera at the time) is the fantastic street celebration for Kediri's Birthday, where the whole town took to the streets to witness the amazing horse-costume-transe, called Jaranan. It was quite shocking to see entranced dancers in massive horse outfits dancing, whirling around, the round being whipped violently by the horses' 'masters', with a half-dozen gamelans playing on in the background... You will have to come to Java and see it to believe it.
















From Kediri, Lenci and I headed on to Panataran, where there is a fabulous Hindu temple complex from some time long ago...









































And then on through Blitar, but we did not stop at Soekarno's tomb, though we would have liked to pay our respects to the fallen hero of Non-Alignment. Instead, for some reason we ended up on Gunung Kawi, where we found an odd scene of superstitious Chinese-Javanese-Islamic blessing-seeking. We got our fortunes through an odd bamboo-stick-shaking thing, and mine was good. Lenci's was not, but that was temporary (later in the week, back in Jogja, Lenci sent me an sms just after I mentioned him as met someone from his hometown of Tegal. The assembled crowd exclaimed that this co-incidence meant Lenci would enjoy a long life. Supersition, called 'mysticism', is alive and well in Java. And I cannot help but join in, seeing patterns, signs and omens of various sorts in the events that unfold around me...)

From the strange mountain, we headed forth to Malang, mostly hoping to check out some old Singosari ruins. We found two temples on the outskirts of town: Candi Kidal and Candi Jago. And ate at a fantastic restaurant where the names of the dishes are hilariously contorted and distorted and flipped.








































Bahasa Malang: backwards. You need to speak Indonesian to get the jokes. Well, except for this one: fried goat's brain (delicious) is referred to as... 'computer'.

Kalau mau mengerti, harus membaca dari kanan ke kiri... atau membuka otaknya pada metafor. Adapun otak kambing, di warung ini, itu dipanggil 'komputer'!


















Malang's live animal market has a corner for reptiles and scary things like scorpions.























From there we headed for Surabaya, a big economic hub with plenty of history. We stopped at the old Synagogue, at the same time as a busload of Israeli tourists arrived to learn about the tiny Jewish community's history from the Iraqi Jewish woman who takes care of the place. Then we headed straight for the Arab Quarter for a quick stop at the tomb of Sunan Ampel, one of the nine Wali Songho who brought Islam to Java. We got there at the same time as a crowd of pilgrims, and afterwards ate a fine dinner of Soto Ayam (basically, chicken soup).
























Early next morning, we woke early to visit a Chinese temple



Then we ate some local specialties: Bubur Maryam (a strange Indian-seeming lentil soup... with beef bones), and then, the train station, some Sate Madura (special chicken sate) and Rawon (beef stew) before grabbing a train to Mojokerto to visit the ruins of Majapahit in Trowulan.














Majapahit is sometimes referred to as a Hindu kingdom, but it is known to have housed a diverse population including a variety of religions and ethnicities. Indonesia's current slogan - Unity in Diversity - BHINNEKA TUNGGAL IKA - is part of the Majapahit legacy.

Images

Lomba mocopat













Nangka























Maria statue at Sedangsono





















La nuit on discute entre amis










A nice place I found
























Parangtritis. The sea one must not enter.







Making friends at the market.