Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Pak Ateng, Prambanan and Alun-alun Kidul, Yogyakarta

I'm gonna blog according to these three subjects. Hehe. After cave tubing in Goa Pindul, our supir (read : driver) drove us to Prambanan which is situated an hour and half from Wonosari.

Pak Ateng

Remember this entry? The one I blogged about the three guys I fell in love with? My guy friends were forever guessing and all of their guesses were wrong. None mentioned Pak Ateng. Haha. Why him?

Read on to find out. =P

The stout Pak Ateng.
1. He knows how to sing! Haha. He had youthful Indonesian music being played in his van and he sang to all of the songs. I think the other guys were singing also but I didn't notice which "soulful" voice were theirs. We bobbed our heads rhythmically to the music through out the whole ride back. And it made me fall in love with the song "Ya Sudahlah" by Bondan Prakoso & Fade to Black.  (youtube link)

2. He knows how to crack jokes that I actually LAUGHED out loud to. And I mean it, my laugh was LOUD. For instance, he'll tell me to look out of my left window and say in Indonesian language, "Hey, that's where our ancestors live!". I totally thought he meant some sort of cemetery  But when I turned to look, I saw Yogyakarta's Zoo! Hahaha!

I answered in return, "No, Pak Ateng, they are your ancestors only. Certainly not mine!" That cracked the guys at the back though. Hehe.

It doesn't take much to tickle my fancy, eh? Besides, I don't have a type. If I like you, I like you. :)

Prambanan

That day was the day I had one of those bad hijab day. My hair was wet from the recent cave tubing activity and I resorted to putting my sarong as my temporary head cover. I tried as much as possible to avoid being pictured in any of my guy friends cameras... until this one got loose. At least my entrance ticket only costed me  Rp 30,000 (local price). Hehe.

Fauzan, me (bad hijab day!), Helga and Singgih. Picture from Helga's camera.
Well, they didn't escape my camera though. So here's my share of pictures taken at Prambanan.

Aren't they sweet? Jumping for my camera. hehe.
Prambanan is considered as the largest Hindu Temple in Southeast Asia. While the Borobudur (which I didn't get to visit) is a Buddhist temple. Seeing how close these two temples are to each other shows how Buddhism and Hinduism lived peacefully together in Jawa, 

I read that Prambanan is also called as Roro Jonggrang which comes from a local folk lore called "slender virgin". From the legend, a powerful man named Bandung Bondowoso wanted to marry the beautiful princess, Roro Jonggrang. Since she didn't love him, she asked him to build 1,000 temples in one night before sun rise and the crowing of the roosters. Then only that will she accept him. He did just that but Roro had women in the village to pound rice to make roosters crow earlier to fail Bandung's attempt. This enraged Bandung gravely and he turned her into stone. :)

Oh ya, besides Prambanan (Roro Jonggrang) is the so called Candi Sewu which means a thousand temples. Bandung was said to successfully built only 999 temples. I guess the 1000th temple would be Roro as the stone slender virgin also known as Prambanan.

The slender virgin?  
Folk lore aside, Prambanan was built in the 9th century. the biggest temple is dedicated to Shiva (the destroyer with the height 47 meters tall ) and the two smaller ones are dedicated to Brahma (the creator) and Wishnu (the sustainer). 

By the way, let me formally introduce to you Fahmi from Solo. He's the shirtless lass I blogged about from my previous entry here.  And NO, I don't have a picture of him shirtless but you can google "shirtless Taylor Lautner" to get my meaning. Haha!

Fahmi, a friend of Helga.
After spending some time at Prambanan, my hair was starting to get dry so during our ride into town, I managed to put my hijab on within the sarong. Haha. Thankfully Pak Supir and the guys weren't able to see my hair. 

Alun-Alun Kidul

Alun-alun also means big open grassy area. If you go to Alun-alun Kidul in Yogyakarta during the night, you could see all these colorful lit motorized cycle carts... errr... whatever you call them, all over the place! Some of the carts even have DVD players with mini screens on them! And I spotted some kids sitting on top of the carts.

Traffic jam in Alun-alun Kidul.
I have no idea where the carts were bringing their customers to. Haha. Maybe just going in circles. Unfortunately, our time with Pak Ateng was nearing to an end and I had to catch a bus back to Semarang the same night. 

What happened next was blogged before in this entry, where I got involved in a road accident. :'(

Guess that ends my trip to Yogyakarta. Hope to come here again for Jomblang and Borobudur! 
.


5 comments:

Alid Abdul said... [Reply]

Eh remember that I told you about Rezpector? fans community of Bondan Prakoso & Fade2Black? I'm one of them haha, and Ya Sudahlah is my fave too :))

I'd like to meet Pak Ateng :)

In Indonesia if we have sudden project and need to finish quick or maybe one night we call it Roro Jonggrang Project hahaha. Coz we need to build a thousand temples in one night hihi.

Faisal Admar said... [Reply]

wow the picture of prambanan is superb! :)

Henry Lee said... [Reply]

jeles aku! nak pergi juga! :P

Jard The Great said... [Reply]

@ alid.. ahh.. so roro jonggrang is really an important legend in Jawa. hehehe..

@ faisal.. thanks!! u shud come here too!

@ henry.. go buy a ticket now!!! where there's a will there's a way, my friend. =)

Anonymous said... [Reply]

Hey very interesting blog!