Traveling Cows

Semarang is on the middle of the northern coast of Java. It is the fifth largest city in Indonesia and Java’s main commercial port. There may be many reasons to go to Semarang, but the only one for us is Borobudur.

Borobudur is a UNESCO World Heritage site built in the 8^th and 9^th centuries by more than five generations of workers at the direction of the Buddhist Kings of the Sailendra Dynasty. It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple. Shortly after its completion, it was deserted when the Sailendra Dynasty was overthrown by the Hindu Majapahit Empire around 850. It lay forgotten and by the jungle until 1814 when Sir Stamford Raffles (a name we hear a lot in the history of this area) followed a rumor and rediscovered the temple. It’s two million pieces of andesite stone have been restored.

The temple is a solid structure representing the path to nirvana. There are nine levels, the first six are square and the walls are covered with carvings of the life of Buddha and other sacred stories. The top three levels are circular, with over 70 stupas each containing statues of the Buddha rather than the carvings. It is topped off with one large closed stupa (the statue from the top stupa is in the national museum). If you were to walk around each level, you would cover about 3 miles. Each side has a steep stairway with each step being a foot or more high (two courses of stone).

Approach to Borobudur

One Stairway to the Top

Closer View of a Side

Detail Showing Evidence of Trade

Janice Before Climbing Borobudur

Detail from Level 5 or 6

Four levels of Stupas

A Buddha in a Stupa

Hanson Touching a Buddha for Good Luck (Watch Out for the Snakes!)

View from Near the Top

Scale Model of Borobudur

The drive to and from Borobudur was about 2.5 hours each way, not counting rest stops, with a police escort! One the stops included a traditional shadow puppet show. There were also the usual shopping opportunities.

Shadow Puppet Show

John had been to Borobudur when he was working in Indonesia for three months in the late 1960s so he decided to take a less stressful excursion to see some of the sights around Semarng including the Sam Po Kong Temple—a combination of Chinese and Muslim cultures—an herbal medicine factory and a batik factory.

Search Google images for a Komodo dragon and you will probably find a better picture of one than half the people who took the excursion have. We opted not to go on the excursion, which meant we couldn’t even go ashore. The Indonesian government requires that all visitors to the island be accompanied by a guide. Apparently the large lizards can smell blood from miles away and some previous tourists have ignored the warnings and been attacked.

Nevertheless, here is a picture of the island, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of two or three islands on which the Komodo dragon still live.

Komodo Island

We opted to enjoy an Aussie beer by the pool on the lido Deck

Coopers Best Extra Stout

and the water falls on the Oasis Deck.

Janice Enjoying the Water Falls on Deck 10

Indonesia is an amazing collection of 17,000+ islands, big and small, spread out over a area equal to the continental USA. About 6000 of the islands are inhabited with roughly 245 million people. Lombok is next to but quite a contrast to Bali. They say Lombok is Bali 20 to 30 years ago in terms of development. It is about 1/3 the area with 1/6^th the tourism. In addition, Lombok is mostly Muslim while Bali is mostly Hindu. (I guess the Java king who bought Islam to Lombok wasn’t as successful in Bali.) In addition, the “Wallace Line” runs between Bali and Lombok. Defined by Darwin’s contemporary, the line marks the bio-geographical division between the flora and fauna of the Indo-Malayan ecozone to the west and north (including Bali) and the Australisia ecozone to the east and south. Characteristic of the latter zone is the marsupial, like Australia’s kangaroos.

The day started out foggy, not that unusual for the rainy season in Indonesia.

Foggy Morning

We took an all-day excursion that started by being tendered to the pier in Lembar in a protected harbor in the southwest of Lombok. As we walked off the pier from the tender, we were welcomed by costumed dancers, legions of officials, and with buttons celebrating their new international airport which should be completed in 2012. (They are trying hard to catch up with Bali in tourism.)

Traditional Dancers on the Pier

Once outside the fenced-in dock area, we were also greeted by scores of vendors who actually followed us around on their motorscooters! Each time we stopped, they would jump off their scooters, pull their goods—from cloth to pottery to masks to T-shirts to jewelry to puppets—and surround us making starting offers.

“Our” Vendors at the Nusa Tenggara Province Museum

Our first stop was the Nusa Tenggara Province Museum. The Nusa Tenggara Barat Province combines Lombok and Sumbawa, an island to the east. The museum had many artifacts wost with Indonesian and English signage. Almost as interesting as the collection was the architecture—there were many small steps up and down into and around the museum. We’ve started asking around the Indonesian staff (most of the dining and cabin staff are Indonesian) to see if that was just the architects whim or if it has a cultural significance.

John in Front of Rocking Horses at the Nusa Tenggara Province Museum

The next stop was Narmada Water Palace built in 1805 by the Raja of Mataram when he became too old to climb the Rinjani Volcano, the 12,224 foot mountain in the north, the third highest in Indonesia. The centerpiece of the palace is an artificial lake in roughly the shape of Segara Anak in Rinjani’s caldera. Again we were greeted by traditional musicians and dancers.

Greeting at the Narmada Water Palace

Main Garden of the Narmada Water Palace

The Palace is now a public park. In addition to the lake there is a swimming pool, multiple gardens, and, just for tourists, vendor stalls! Then back through our cluster of vendors and to our buses.

Next stop a little further north was Lingsar, a large temple complex which combines Muslin, Buddhist, and Hindu temples.

Welcome Rotterdam to Lingsar (We want Tourism Dollars)

Our guide there wore a headband with two of the ends tied in front to form a “V” representing the yin and yang.

Our Guide at Lingsar

There were several temples as well as several water features including a lilly pond.

John and Hanson at One of the Gates at Lingsar

A Temple at Lingsar (Notice Offerings in Foreground)

After that temple we stopped at an art market. So now we have two sets of vendors: resident and itinerary.

We then had an Indonesian lunch at the Santosa Resort in Senggigi a popular beach area on the northwest coast. It was easier to deal with the vendors here because they were kept on the beach side of the resorts wall. You could more easily walk away if you didn’t get the bargain you were after.

After lunch we went to a more traditional village where the main economy is pottery. (We also had the traditional afternoon rainy-season rain.) We had a horse-drawn cart ride through town to the place where they fire the pots. Then another cart ride to the main pottery market.

Horse Cart

These carts are still an important means of transportation in Lombok. We frequently saw them as we were traveling around the island. Typically they will hold six Indonesians and the driver. For our rides they only alloted two passengers per cart!

As we went through the village, people at the side of the road, especially the children, would wave and laugh. The children were adorable.

Village Boys

Village Women

Sample Pottery

Then back to Mataram, the main city, for a stop at a pearl market. And finally back to the port. On the way we picked up a police escort to speed our way along the congested roads.

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The day concluded with a Mardi Gras celebration.

Lori (Event Staff) and Janice (Real Mardi Gras Beads)