Prambanan, Taman Sari and the attempted Kraton

Clare has been in Bogor doing the ACICIS Journalism option for the last few weeks, but she’s just had a break and came to Jogja for a week. I caught up with her on Thursday and met with some of her other friends. It was heaps of fun, we hired a car and went to the Kraton.. Well… actually, I caught a becak and was going to meet them there… I was waiting at the Kraton for a while, but still couldn’t see them, but they said they were at the entrance too, so I asked, and apparently there was only one entrance… Clare rang and after a while I thought I knew where they were, so I went for a walk while trying to decide what to do… anyway, turns out they were at the building in front of the Kraton.. Haha.. Can’t remember what its called.. It was really interesting tho, seeing all of the traditional royal clothing and where the sultans family and he would relax and listen to gamelan. 

Then we went to a nearby carriage museum. It was pretty interesting to see all the different styles of carriages that were used, some of them are so extravagant. Taman Sari was next on the list, it’s where the sultan used to live, with all of his wives. He had this tower he would sit in, surrounded by pools, where all his wives would swim, he would look out over them all, choose whoever he thought was looking particularly good that day and invite them up into his tower...lol.

Finally we went to Prambanan, a group of Hindu temples. There used to be over 200 of them, but since a series of earthquakes had destroyed them, only several have been rebuilt, I don’t think they will ever all stand together again, which is a little sad. But with little funding, and some of the pieces being stolen, its a near impossible dream. It was amazing none the less.

I’ve come to realize, that sometimes the tourists at the tourist attractions are part of the attraction for the locals at the tourist attractions. I should have realized this after Borobudur, but what can I say, I’m a little slow :P haha.. I was stopped for photos with people I don’t even know about four times, haha… My friends were saying I should start charging 1000Rp per photo. Not a bad idea! I reckon so far I’d have about 30,000Rp! haha

On the way out from Prambanan, there was a small stall selling souvenirs, a few of Clare’s Indonesian friends were looking at them, the lady who owned the stall was saying “lima ribu… lima ribu” (meaning 5000Rp each) … I was standing right there when she was saying it.. Then, as I came over to look she said “10,000 for you” … hahahaha… I didn’t know how to react.. I thought it was hilarious! Ah, the joys of being a bule… it does come with occasional benefits tho… All of which seem to be slipping my mind at the moment.  haha