Category: Travels

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Photography Travels

[2646] Yogyakarta!

As I wrote earlier, I was in Java for more or less three weeks. After Jakarta, I took the train to Yogyakarta. Indeed, I traveled from Jakarta to Bali mostly by train. The journey to Yogyakarta took about 9 hours. The rain made the journey longer than it should.

I must say, I like Yogya, as the locals call it, very much that I wished I had spent more time there and less time in Jakarta. Jakarta is big and it is good to be there to see what is going on with Indonesia. But the city despite its energy has serious infrastructure issues and its traffic congestion, the macet, is truly legendary. It took me around 5 hours to get to my hotel from the airports, and the distance is not that great. So, if you want to learn some early lessons about Indonesia, Jakarta it is a good place to start. For holiday, skip it.

I like Yogya because it is lively and always full of backpackers. I love that atmosphere and meeting like-minded people from all over the world. Unlike Jakarta, Yogya has a far more relaxed pace. You do not have to worry about cars. If you are to die by a road accident, it is likely to involve horse and carriage instead of roaring steel lions.

Yogya has a special position within the Indonesian republic in terms of history, culture and politics. Unlike most other places throughout Indonesia (remember, this is a republic), Yogya has its own royal house.  It is the way the republic chooses to thank Yogya for its contributions to the Indonesian republic.

So, one of the main attractions in Yogya is the kraton, which is the royal palace. The kraton is manned by various servants. And this is probably one of my favorite photos from the kraton.

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams

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Photography Travels

[2645] Jakarta!

And so, I was in Jakarta in the middle of December, where I began my backpacking trip across Java for three weeks. From Jakarta, I took an overnight train journey to the cheery Yogyakarta, from there on a night in Indonesia’s second largest city, Surabaya and then a more than 12 hours journey to Bali by train, ferry and bus.

In the Indonesian capital, I had free meals twice. Once was the welcome meal paid by a friend, which was also kind enough to pick me up from the airport and send me to my hotel.

And second was within the green compound of the National Monument for my effort to speak Bahasa Indonesia. The last time this happened, I tried to converse in French in Paris. He guy took pity on me and he gave me a free meal. That of course was not the first…

I am that endearing.

Anyway, the National Monument. This is probably one of several landmarks of Jakarta which are known abroad. Or at least, I know it. It is truly big. There is a museum underneath. Full of nationalistic propaganda but a museum nonetheless.

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams

This structure is sometimes called Sukarno’s last erection. Jakarta has several big sculptures and monuments. They are magnificent but it took a toll on the economy after awhile. The price you have to pay for grandiosity.

But that was in the 1960s. Indonesia is now an emerging economy (again) and all.

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Photography Travels

[2616] Reward and punishment in the afterlife, at Angkor Wat

A friend of mine will be spending a number of days in Cambodia later this month. Upon learning her travel plans, I began to reminisced my long hot lazy Cambodian days. I began to imagine going through the temple ruins all over again, and the walks I walked, the rides I rode, the conversations I engaged in, the drinks I drank, even the diarrhea I suffered.

So at the end of my work day, I drove home and the first thing I did was to switch on my laptop and went through my Cambodia album all over again. Sigh…

You know this entry will be about Cambodia.

Angkor Wat has a number of impressive bass reliefs along its outer corridors. The famous one is the Churning of the Milky Ocean. The myth of the Churning of the Milky Ocean is an important narrative in Hinduism. I also learned a lot of Hindu mythology from Angkor Wat and its reliefs.

Below is a bas relief telling the story of reward and punishment in the afterlife from Hindu perspective.

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams

There are some graphic representations of hell but this particular section of the relief is about the righteous being brought to judgment, if I remember correctly. This is also another significance to the relief: Angkor Wat was built in the honor of death unlike other temples. The king—Suryavarman—ordered the construction of the temple to prepare for his death.

Some parts of the relief appear polished. It is only so because visitors have the habit of touching the relief with their hands.

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Photography Travels

[2615] Life on Tonle Sap

I spent some time near the northern part of Tonle Sap, close to Siem Reap. While I did enjoy the temples and I did wish that I spent more time exploring more temples, the change in view was not that bad.

Tonle Sap Lake is the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia. I read about the lake when I was a teenager and it was an awesome feeling to have finally been there.

There are multiple interesting facts about the lake. One is that its size during the dry and wet season differs remarkably. So does its depth. At some places during the wet season, the water level can reach the canopy level of the forest. Two, the lake is connected to the mighty Mekong at Phnom Penh some hundreds of kilometers to the south east and that river flows upstream during the wet season and the Mekong overflows and downstream during the dry season. It is the overflowing of the Mekong that contributes to the size of the lake during the wet season.

Both Cambodians and Vietnamese live on the Tonle Sap lake. The Vietnamese would come to Tonle Sap when the lake swells the size. In the dry season, they would return to Vietnam. I find the transnational nature of the Vietnamese fishermen as amazing. Many other countries including Malaysia guards it frontier in the sea jealously. Cambodia employs a liberal policy instead. Tonle Sap is located in the middle of Cambodia and the Cambodian government allows Vietnamese fishermen to settle here during the peak season. There is a background story to this but I think that is too complicated for me to tell in this entry.

I visited a village or two on the lake. They are villages of fishermen. The reason for that should be obvious: freshwater lake, fish.

Here, two brothers were busy catching some fishes.  This was near the edge of the lake.

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams

When I reached that particular village, most fishermen were done working at the lake and they were collecting their catch caught in their nets.

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Photography Travels

[2612] Lost in Preah Khan

Which is my favorite temple ruins among all the Angkor temples that I visited?

It is Preah Khan.

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams

Unlike others which are mountain temples, Pheah Khan is a collection of chambers and open space. And unlike others which at once impose their presence upon sight, Preah Khan is unassuming. Its entrance is an open courtyard with statues of devas and demons lining up on both sides. That leads to an door or archway which in turn leads you to the temple itself.

You will only realize its vastness once you are inside. Indeed, I was lost within the temple ruins after wandering with my camera. Its greatness is subtle and I like subtlety.

Pheah Khan is also interesting to me because it is the clearest example of Hindu-Buddhist conflict in the past. The Khmer Empire was primarily a Hindu polity but for some decades, its rulers decided to adopt Buddhism. The Hindu reaction came later when its rulers embraced Hinduism again. It was during this time that various Buddhist images were vandalized or redone as Hindu icons. In fact, Hindu kings converted Buddhist temples into Hindu temples.

Here is an example of Hindu reaction to Buddhism in the Khmer empire; images of Buddha were chiseled out:

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams

Here is another where a Buddha image was remodeled as a Hindu holy man:

Some rights reserved. Creative Commons 3.0. Hafiz Noor Shams