Bali Field Trip (Day 2)

Day 2 May 1 2014

We had our breakfast at 07.30. The hotel provided us various kinds of food, from local cuisine, such as fried rice until western one. For the beverage, we could choose tea, coffee, milk and some kinds of juices.

We left the hotel for Ubud an hour later. Again, due to the traffic jam, we took a longer time than we should from Kuta to Ubud. (Aha ... in fact Jakarta is not alone for its being notorious for its traffic jam; only Denpasar – especially Kuta perhaps – is not that notorious as Jakarta. LOL. As an international city – you can find almost any nationality of people here – it is understood for being crowded no matter whether it is holiday season or not so people understand if traffic jam is everywhere. The local people understand it, the tourists – perhaps due to their holiday mood – also understand it. J

The first place to visit is Bajra Sandhi monument. This is a monument to commemorate heroic Balinese struggle against Dutch colonial government. It is located in the center of Denpasar, the capital city of Bali. It takes around 30 minutes by car/bus from Ngurah Rai International airport. This is one best place to learn the history of Balinese people since pre historical era until the twentieth century. The historical struggle is illustrated in 33 units of diorama.

The monument/museum started to be built in 1987; it was officially opened by Megawati Soekarno Putri – the then president – in 2003. Bajra means carillon while sandhi means sacred. The shape of the monument is like a carillon. This sacred carillon is usually used by Hindu priest in holy religious prayers.

From Bajra Sandhi monument we visited Pura Puseh in Batuan village. The temple is built in classical Balinese temple architecture style with elaborate carvings. Before entering the temple, we are given sarongs to wear during our visit.

We didn’t spend much time in Pura Puseh. The following place to visit is Ubud! Shopping time! Yeayyyy. As before, I was responsible to supervise the girls + Peter. This time Julio chose to be with the other boys.

After shopping for around an hour, Mr. Bob and Ms. Kerry took us to NOMAD restaurant for lunch; a very historical restaurant for both of them! (Ssshhhttt, Mr. Bob proposed Ms. Kerry to marry him here! )

As one of the oldest restaurants in Ubud, Nomad offers a mix of fresh modern Asian and Western tastes mixed in with Balinese classis cuisine. I ordered a plate of fried noodle. It was very yummy; but the big portion made me so full that I couldn’t finish it.

It was drizzling after we finished our lunch. However, we were all excited with the following destination : SANGEH.

Sangeh – a forest site full of monkeys – is not far from Nomad restaurant. Everybody had fun with the funny but naughty monkeys inside the forest. The hiking was enough to burn calories after our yummy and full lunches.

We arrived back at the hotel around 17.15. We didn’t want to pass up the stunning view of sunset in Kuta beach of course. The boys played ball using the ball they just bought in Kuta Square. Peter went swimming again, enjoying the quite big waves in Kuta beach. The girls were playing with water only.

In this second chance to spend our afternoon in Kuta beach, there was a minor accident: the boys threw some mud to one another and Aryo accidentally threw some mud to Zulfan’s right eye! This made Mr. Bob and Ms. Kerry get angry. As a result we were grounded: after dinner we were not allowed to go out from the hotel.

We had our dinner in the restaurant across from the hotel again. Well, anyway, the food was delicious. J After dinner, we all went back to the hotel. (All of us? Oh in fact NO! Secretly – without Restu and my knowing – two boys sneaked out to have tattoos! Can you guess who? Ryan and Samuel! Oh well ...) Meanwhile, Zulfan was resting in his room; Aryo, Alex, Julio, Vito, Ellen, Bella, Retno, Cecil, Peter, Restu and I went to the top floor of the hotel. But not long after that, Ellen, Bella, Retno, Cecil and Peter went down to Retno’s room to watch movies. Restu jumped to the pool and had some swim, the rest – Vito, Alex, Aryo, Julio and me – had some chats until 22.00. After that, we all went back to our room. 

To be continued :)

Bali field trip (Day 1)

And the D-day came : field trip to Bali. Yeaaayyy ...

The students had been very excited since we planned this trip, a few weeks ago. Therefore, it can be imagined how exciting it was when the D-day came.

(This journal was written from my point of view : one teacher who planned the trip together with the kids, after Ms. Kerry offered us this chance; then Mr. Bob executed the plan, such as booking the plane, the hotel, the whitewater rafing, etc.)

Day 1 : 30 April 2014

When I arrived at Ahmad Yani airport around 07.25, I found Peter, Samuel, Vito, Zulfan, and Alex, also Restu (another teacher to accompany the students) there. Not long afterward, everybody else arrived: both Mr. Bob and Ms. Kerry, Retno and Aryo, Bella, Cecil, Ellen, Ryan, and Julio. Mr. Bob checked everybody’s ID card, controlled the weighing of our luggage, then gave us the boarding pass.

We left Ahmad Yani airport at 09.00 WIB; arrived at Ngurah Rai airport at 11.00 WITeng. We needed 4 taxis to bring all of us (16 people) to the hotel. One taxi was charged Rp. 70.000,00.

Although Mr. Bob had booked the rooms since 3 weeks before, we had to wait for more than an hour in the lounge before everything was settled. Together with Bella and Ellen, I was in room 3302 (the third floor).

After checking in in our respective room, ordering food for our lunch in the hotel restaurant (on the top floor), we left for Tanah Lot at 13.00 WITeng. We ate our lunch in the mini bus on the way to Tanah Lot.

To my surprise, Kuta is very crowded. The narrow street with so many vehicles made our way to Tanah Lot take almost one and a half hour.

Tanah Lot is always amazing. However, I didn’t have much time to explore it to my heart’s content. I came here to accompany the students. And ... my personal photographer was not with me so ... yeah ... :D

I didn’t have time to play with water because I brought a camera. I also didn’t have time to come to the temples because i always had to be with the kids. One romantic scene we saw, though, a couple (foreigners) seemed to get married because they were wearing wedding dress. So cute! So romantic! J (But I didn’t take their pictures.)

At 18.00 WITeng we were back to the hotel. Not long after that, we went to Kuta beach, to play with water. J We were lucky, we could reach the beach only by walking in less than 5 minutes from our hotel. J Some boys were swimming; some others were beachcombing, while the girls were busy taking pictures as well as playing with water. J

At 19.00 WITeng, we were back to the hotel, taking shower, then we went out for having dinner, in the restaurant located ... across from the hotel. J The name of the restaurant is F4. The food is yummy!

After dinner, Mr. Bob let us go for a walk to the nearest mall. We were divided into two groups: the girls + Peter and Julio were under my supervision; the other 6 boys (Ryan, Vito, Samuel, Alex, Zulfan, and Aryo) were under Restu’s supervision.

And ... this was what really happened that night. When we arrived at the nearest mall (I dont know the name except there is name PULL & BEAR in one side), we found out that Samuel and Ryan were gone! They walked so fast that we could not follow. Restu and the other boys decided to wander around that mall while waiting for Ryan and Sam to be back to be with them again.

Meanwhile, Retno and Cecil, in fact, made an appointment with Bagus & Irma, two ex students of Permata Bangsa International School, when they were in primary school. J So, this brother and sister accompanied us walking around the mall. To my expectation, Ryan and Sam were already back with their group around 21.30.

We went back to the hotel at 22.15 WITeng, at exact time Mr. Bob asked us to be back. I directly fell asleep while Bella and Ellen went to Retno and Cecil’s room to watch movies. They went back to our room before midnight, I guess. J

To be continued :)

B2W : Biking with Confidence

Entering the sixth year of my biking to work

This July 2013 I have been doing the so-called ‘saving environment’ effort : bike to work for more than five years! This writing is, in fact, the English version of my writing a year ago. You can click the Bahasa Indonesia version here. :)

It all started on 26 June 2008 where some people including me gathered together at Budianto’s (also nicknamed ‘Budenk’) house, not far from my dwelling. There were around 10 people at that time, but I don’t really remember who they were. Some people I remember were Budianto, Triyono, Nasir, Firman, my sister, and me. I didn’t have my own bike yet, just a bike given by my brother in the beginning of 1990s.

Using that bike – brand ‘winner’, produced around the same era when ‘federal’ bike was booming in Indonesia – I started my ‘history’ to bike to work. It was not an easy decision to make though since I thought biking to work was a not popular thing to do (yet). It would be a ridiculous thing to do for a teacher, like me. :( However, since biking to work was an obligatory for someone who joined a ‘bike to work community (so I thought), I decided to do it. It was not easy for the very first time, having to answer people’s questions why I did that, having to bear people’s looking at me weirdly, and stuff like that. J I felt a bit shy if my students asked me, “why biking to work?” J

first time joining offroad biking 

In the middle of November 2008, I got a loving surprise from my buddies in B2W Semarang community: a mountain bike made by wimcycle! Wow! (Read the post here, n bahasa Indonesia) They had two reasons to buy this cute bike I nicknamed ‘Orange’ at the beginning then I changed it into ‘Orenj’ (just exactly like the pronunciation of ‘orange’ LOL) because I wanted to avoid the confusion of the meaning of ‘Orange’. In English ‘orange’ means the color of orange, just like the color of the bike. However, in informal Bahasa Indonesia, ‘orange’ means ‘the person’. The first reason was the ‘winner’ bike was too high for me who is only 150 cm tall. J The second reason was they wanted me to be able to join them in offroad adventure since ‘winner’ was no longer in good condition. At that time, spending Sundays going offroad biking was the favorite thing to do.

You can say maybe because I got a new bike, I got more enthusiastic to bike to work! With ‘bike-to-work’ tag under the seatpost, I felt like I was one heroine to save the environment since I tried reducing the pollution as well as the dependency on the fossil fuel. I should be proud to do that, shouldn’t I? J I didn’t need to feel shy to bike to work, did I?

FYI, I work for two institutions. In the morning, I work for a Permata Bangsa International School. The school is located quite far from my house, around 9 kilometer, and the location is around 190 m above sea level. In the evening, I work for LIA English course. The course is located very close to my house, only around 2,5 kilometer and the track is flat. As a newbie, I could not easily bike to the school due to the location which is 190 m above sea level. As a result, I biked to work only in the evening, only to the English course.

B2W Semarang community became more active in making Semarang roads be more friendly toward cyclists since we saw that there were more and more cyclists. It means more and more people realized to participate in reducing pollution and using fossil fuel. We proved it by having talk show to force Semarang municipal government to have bike lanes. We did it twice in 2010. Finally we proudly announced that the bike lanes were indeed made come true in the end of 2011.

Meanwhile, I started being challenged to bike long distance. With more people joining B2W Semarang community – with its new division ‘Komselis’ (folding bike cyclists Semarang community) – I participated in some events held out of town. Let us say JOGJA ATTACK event held 5-6 March 2011 where the participants biked from Jogja to Borobudur temple Magelang.  Then, B2W Semarang community itself held long distance biking, such as biking from Semarang to Kudus (April 2011) and Semarang to Jepara (May 2011).

By joining some events I mentioned above, I met a ‘partner’ in biking: Ananda Ranz from Solo. With Ranz, since June 2011, we biked from one town to another, only both of us. Since we did it for days, we called our experience as ‘bikepacking’ (‘quoting’ from backpacking traveler). We went bikepacking from Solo – Jogja; Semarang – Jepara – Karimun Jawa – Jepara – Semarang; Solo – Wonogiri – Nampu beach – Solo, Semarang – Tuban, etc.

With more experiences in biking, I challenged myself to – eventually – bike to work to the school where I work in the morning! In the middle of 2012, I started challenging myself to do it around twice until three times a week. Biking for 9 kilometer and going uphill until 190 m above sea level (now 230 m above sea level after the school moved to the new location which is higher than the previous one) to go to work is no longer impossible to do. Hope I can inspire more people to bike to work despite the track!

This is my second writing to celebrate my biking to work ‘anniversary’. Keep biking. Keep the environment clean. Keep being healthy.

GG – IB 15.55 10/07/13

P.S.:

Versi Bahasa Indonesia bisa dilihat di link ini. 

Biking to Trowulan

This is the English version of this post. :)

BIKING TO TROWULAN

For those who have strong passion for ancient heritage from Grand Majapahit Kingdom, don’t ever pass up to visit Trowulan. Trowulan is a small town located in the west of of Mojokerto, on the border of Jombang regency. It is very conveniently located so that it is easy to visit: on the main road connecting Surabaya and Solo (Surakarta).

Trowulan is only around 100 kilometer acres. Although it is small, Trowulan is very rich with traces from Majapahit heritage, such as statues, temples, and some other archeological sites. Those sites are located closely from one and another so we do not need much time to visit all of them. One thing for sure: don’t forget to print the archeological site map of the location so it will be easy for us to find those sites.

Ranz – by biking soul mate – and I spared some time to bike to Trowulan from Solo two days before we attended the second folding bike national jamboree held on the 16th – 18th of November 2012. To prepare our journey, Ranz printed the map we needed, from Solo to Surabaya, also the map of Trowulan archeological sites.

We left Solo on Wednesday 14 November 2012. We needed approximately 20 hours to reach Jombang from Solo, and it was the first time for us to bike during the night. We arrived in Jombang on Thursday early morning around 5 am. We decided to take a rest in one gasoline station that provided toilet and prayer room. We spent around 2 hours here.

Around 7 am, we continued biking. On the way, in fact I was attacked by sleepiness so that I needed to take a nap around 15 minutes in front of one mini market where we dropped by to buy some bottles of mineral water. LOL. Ranz was sitting next to me nicely, taking care of me while sipping milk.

After 15 minutes, we continued our journey. This time, I talked to Ranz that I needed coffee so we dropped by at one simple food stall selling coffee, tea, instant noodles and some other refreshment. GIRAS was the name of the stall. GIRAS means healthy and energetic. And ... abracadabra, after drinking a glass of coffee, I felt energetic and really ‘awake’: ready to go on biking. LOL.

Not far from the stall, in fact we already entered the area of Trowulan. Ranz saw a name board of CANDI BRAHU (Brahu temple) on the left side of the street, so we turned left. However, before we arrived at Brahu temple, we saw a traffic sign of MAHA VIHARA MAJAPAHIT, so we followed the sign to visit it first.

at the front gate of Maha Vihara Majapahit

MAHA VIHARA MAJAPAHIT

Maha Vihara Majapahit (Grand Buddhist temple of Majapahit) is located in Bejijong village, Trowulan, Mojokerto. This temple is small, only one floor. The architecture of the building is the combination of Chinese and Javanese art. The temple is open for everyone and it is free to enter it. From the gate, we can directly see the main building of the temple. On the left and right side path, there are some statues in different poses. Unfortunately when Ranz and I went here, the door of the main building was close so we could not enter it. If one is lucky to be able to enter it. one can see three different shrines for three different sects in Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana dan Tantrayana.

From the main building, we chose to take the path on the right. There we found a giant statue of Buddha lying, it is 22 meter long, 6 meter wide and 4.5 meter high. The face of this statue shows Buddha when he was a child (young); different from the giant statue of Buddha lying that is located in Pagoda Avalokitesvara Watugong Semarang, his face was adult. In Maha Vihara Majapahit, the statue of Buddha’s color is golden yellow.

giant Buddha statue

From the location of the statue of Buddha, we went to the back of the main building, to the right path, where we found the miniature of Borobudur temple. We just followed the path, then we would go back to the front area of the main building.

Although it is located in Trowulan, and the name has ‘Majapahit’ in it, Maha Vihara Majapahit is not the heritage of Majapahit Kingdom. This temple was built by Banthe Viriyanadi Mahathera in 1985.

Going out of the temple, we turned left, then turned right again to go back to the ‘main route’. Not far from there, we would find one site named SITI INGGIL.

SITI INGGIL

Siti Inggil – or high land – was meant to be a sacred and respected land. It was said that in one point around this area, there was a place where Raden Wijaya – the name of the founder as well as the first king of Majapahit – meditated. Raden Wijaya ruled Majapahit from 1293 until 1309.

Siti Inggil

There are two sacred graveyards in this area, of Sapu Angin and Sapu Jagat. Many people – not only from neighboring places but also from distant places – come here to pray in order to get blessings.  Outside the graveyards, there is a fountain where people believe that the water is sacred too. After praying inside the graveyard area, the pilgrim then drink one or two sips of water from the fountain.

It is free to enter “Maha Vihara Majapahit”, but to enter “Siti Inggil” we have to pay one thousand rupiahs per person.

From Siti Inggil we continued our journey to CANDI BRAHU.

CANDI BRAHU

Candi Brahu is located in Bejijong village Trowulan, around 2 kilometers from the main road connecting Mojokerto – Jombang. It is said that the name of ‘Brahu’ is taken from word wanaru or warahu that means sacred place. The word was found in Alasantan manuscript collected not far from Candi Brahu’s location.

Brahu temple

Candi Brahu was made of red bricks (different from temples located in Central Java whose color is black or grey). It faces west, 22,5 meter long, 18 meter wide, and 20 meter high. It was allegedly built in the 15th century, with Buddhist influence. When paying a close attention to the temple, one will easily find that the temple is no longer original, there were some new bricks added in order to renovate it to look like it used to be. To avoid it to get more damaged, visitors are not allowed to step on the temple, moreover to climb it.

Visitors do not need to buy any entrance ticket. They just have to pay the parking fee, but for cyclists, it is free for them to park their bikes. From the friendly parking man, I got information where to go to CANDI GENTONG, and how to go back to the main road from there.

CANDI GENTONG

Candi Gentong (Gentong temple) is located around 360 meter to the east of Candi Brahu. People say that in 1889 the building of Candi Gentong was still complete. However, in 1907, the area was just full of a big piles of bricks. in 1995, an exvacation done showed traces of old building of walls made from bricks. The building was square, around 14,25 x 14,25 meter and 2,45 high, and the wall was 1,9 meter wide.

Gentong temple

Ranz and I didn’t stay long here. We only took less than 10 pictures then we continued to go to the main road. Coming to the main road, we found an intersection; we crossed the intersection to come to KOLAM SEGARAN (Segaran Pool).

It was still 10 am when we arrived there, however, it was very sunny and hot. We were very thirsty. Luckily outside the Segaran Pool, there were many people selling iced young coconut. We bought two glasses.

KOLAM SEGARAN

Segaran Pool is located around one kilometer from the intersection I mentioned above. This pool was discovered in 1926 where it was full of soil. The site was renovated in 1966 then again in 1974. It is around 6,5 hectare acres, from north to south 375 meter long and 175 wide. Around the pool, there is a wall of 1,6 meter wide. Outside the dry season, the water in the pool can reach 2,88 meter deep. Unfortunately when Ranz and I went there, the water inside the pool was only little.

Segaran Pool

Segaran Pool is allegedly the only ancient pool discovered in Indonesia. Historians say that in the past, Majapahit royal family used the pool to serve foreign guests around the pool, while the water was used as dam.

From Segaran Pool, we continued our exploration to Trowulan Museum.

MUSEUM TROWULAN

This museum is located across from Segaran Pool, a bit to the left. Visitors do not need to buy any entrance ticket.  The museum was built by Kanjeng Adipati Aria Kramadjaja, one regent of Mojokerto. He was helped by one Dutch archeologist,  Henry Maclaine Pont. The museum was built to keep and display ancient arheological things discovered around Trowulan.

Trowulan Museum building

Visitors, however, are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum. Therefore, Ranz and I didn’t stay long either here.

Leaving the museum, it was almost noon, we dropped by at one modest food stall located across from the museum. We ordered one portion of ‘nasi pecel’ for both of us (we both were not that hungry) but we were very thirsty! We ordered three glasses of iced tea. J

After brunch, we continued exploring to SITUS LANTAI SEGIENAM or “Hexagone tile site”.

hexagone tile site

SITUS LANTAI SEGIENAM

The site constitute traces of a house having hexagone tiles. This is interesting because from this site one can see that hexagone tiles were already used during Majapahit Kingdom. Here one can also find pots made of clay. Perhaps those pots were used by people in that era.

Umpak Sentonorejo site

SITUS UMPAK SENTONOREJO

I don’t know how to say it in English. LOL. This site constitues an open area with rocks lining up neatly. The site was discovered in 1982. Archeologists said that perhaps this site used to be a foundation of a building, that was closely related to SITUS LANTAI SEGIENAM. Both sites are located in Kedation, Sentonorejo village, Trowulan.

From the two sites above, we continued our journey to CANDI BAJANG RATU and CANDI TIKUS. (Thanks to the map of Trowulan archeological sites that Ranz printed so we didn’t find it difficult to find those sites.)

CANDI BAJANG RATU (Child King Temple)

Candi Bajangratu is located in Kraton, Temon village, Trowulan. Name of ‘Bajangratu’ for the first time was written in Oudheidkunding Verslag (OV) in 1915. An archeologist, Sri Soeyatmi Satari said that the name of ‘Bajangratu’ referred to King Jayanegara from Majapahit Kingdom. Word ‘bajang’ means ‘small’ (or ‘kid’) because in a book titled Pararaton Jayanegara was said to be crowned as a king when he was a child so he got title “Ratu Bajang” or ‘child king.

Bajangratu temple

Candi Bajangratu is believed to have been renovated several times since Dutch colonial government. To keep it in a good shape, visitors are not allowed to step on the stairs and enter the temple.

CANDI TIKUS (Rat temple)

From Candi Bajangratu, Ranz and I continued biking to Candi Tikus. This temple is located Dinuk, Temon village, Trowulan. The size is 29,5 meter long, 28,25 meter length and 5,2 height. This temple is called Candi Tikus (rat) because when it was the first time discovered in 1914, the area was full of rats that ruined the ricefields around the area. It was renovated in 1983 – 1986.

Rat temple

It is stated that Candi Tikus is the replica of Mahameru – one mountain located on top of Semeru mountain in East Java because there are four small temple miniatures where gods stay and it is the life source in a form of showers along the foot of the temple. This temple is built underground. In the past this temple probably was the place to take a shower for royal princess.

As other temples, visitors are forbidden to step on the temple. They do not need to buy any entrance ticket though, just to pay the parking area to park cars/motorcycles. It is free for bicycles.

From Candi Tikus, we went back biking to the main road connecting Jombang – Sidoarjo/Surabaya. Before leaving Trowulan, we dropped by at Gapura Wringin Lawang (door oak gate) located on the right of the road from Trowulan.

GAPURA WRINGIN LAWANG (Door Oak Gate)

Gapura (gate) or Candi Wringin Lawang is located in Wringin Lawang, Jati Pasar villate, Trowulan, around 11 kiloeter from Mojokerto to Jombang. Once it was said that there was one temple near a big oak tree therefore this temple/gate is called Candi Wringinlawang (‘wringin’ means oak tree, ‘lawang’ means door).

Wringinlawang gate

The shape of Wringinlawang is ‘bentar’ temple, that is a gate without roof. ‘Bentar’ temple usually has function as the most outside gate of one building complex.  This gate/temple was renovated in 1991 – 1995, it was made of red bricks.

Wringinlawang gate was the last spot we visited in Trowulan. From there, we soon continued our journey biking to Sidoarjo to stay a night there. The following day we continued biking to Surabaya to attend the second folding bike jamboree.

PT56 ~ GG August 2013