I Want Candi

This weekend we did a little more touring around Jogja. Saturday the three of us went downtown to tour the water castle. Also known as Taman Sari, it was built by the first Sultan of Yogyakarta and was used as a resting area, meditation area, defense area, and hiding place. So welcome to Cribs: Javanese Royalty Edition.

At the ruins of the watercastle.

The three of us at the center of the underground mosque, where the azan used to be performed.

Some local kids were flying kites on the roof of the structure leading to the mosque.... so our guide showed us where they climb up and we went up too!

The entrance to the sultan's pool.

So the story goes that the balcony was for the sultan to watch his multitude of women essentially strut their stuff to the pool. He'd fill his pool with concubines and then toss a single flower from the balcony into the pool. The girl who was able to get it would be taken into his "final room".

The bedroom that the sultan would bring the winning concubine to. And you know, me just being my casual self.

Outside of one of the sultan's guest houses with our adoring fans *cough* personal male concubines *cough*.

And Sunday was no less exciting. Ayu took us to Prambanan. At this point I feel like I'm racking up UNESCO World Heritage Sites, but Prambanan held its own amongst the others. It is a Hindu temple compound originally built around 850 CE but has had an interesting history of natural disasters and historical take overs between now and then that has influenced the current appearance. Now only a few temples have actually been reconstructed. Hundreds more lay in rubble in the surrounding area.

The main temples dedicated to Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva surrounded by the rubble of other temples.

The three of us in front of Prambanan.

A statue of the god Brahma inside one of the temples.

Also, as usual, we were more exciting to the local students than the actual temples. (Shout out to my parents: hundreds of Indonesians apparently think you created something cooler than UNESCO Heritage Sites that took centuries and dynasties to create. So I guess props to you.) This is a picture of students taking pictures of us.

We managed to avoid the paparazzi every now and then for a photo of our own though.

Not too far off from the main Prambanan temple complex are ruins of some other Buddhist temples that we got to visit as well.

One of the Buddhist temples.

Also if you're worn out from all the touring you could buy an iced cold Bintang (or mineral water, if you're into that) from this guy.

Overall it was a fantastic (and exhausting) weekend. My next few days are full of other adventures... just of the more mundane variety. Tomorrow I'm off to the immigration office to renew my visa. Also, I'm going to try and apply for an Indonesian drivers licence... so, that could end well....

A few after-notes...

1. The title is something that popped into my head as we were touring Prambanan. "Candi" (actually pronounced ch-andy) is the Indonesian word for temple. But the chorus of "I Want Candy" wouldn't get out of my head after I thought of it.

2. Happy father's day Dad!

3. The caption on the last photo is a joke. I'm being sarcastic about alcohol being sold at such a prestegious religious site. I don't support drinking... particularly at such locations (unless it is mineral water).