YY V: Massage & Ballet

Duta Garden II
Swiped from williamnyk.

On our last day in Jogjakarta, it was considered "free and easy day". We had breakfast as usual, but after that I roamed around with my camera. Bumped into the manager again, and he brought me to the new wing of the hotel that's still under construction. Another twelve villas were being constructed opposite the road. Garden concept, with slightly more floor space. At 11:00am, the masseur that we had booked the night before arrived. She started on POD first before working on KH. It was fun seeing him squirm and shout under her ministrations. The masseur was amused seeing that POD on the other hand managed to sleep through it. Traditional Javanese massage seems quite standard, with some minor variations. While she massaged, I observed and chatted with the masseur. According to POD and KH, her skill was good and her hands were strong.



We weren't keen on stopping at Malioboro St.. It looked no different from Jalan Petaling or the streets at Sala Daeng, so we gave it a miss. Nic, the city boy was missing civilization, so we asked Pak Gadot to send us to Ambarukkmo Mall. Quite a nice place with some decent retail space. Upon entering the mall, Nic was visibly more cheerful. Amazing. Pastello was the restaurant of choice for our lunch. The prices were quite fair when compared to the touristy places at Jalan Prawirotaman. I ordered a claypot beancurd dish with a minty drink. Walking around for a couple of hours did not yield much except for a couple of T-shirts.



By 3:00pm, Pak Gadot picked us up and we headed to Prambanan, a Hindu temple complex about 18km east of the city. The place is dedicated to the Trimurti-- Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Sustainer and Shiva the Destroyer. Shiva's shrine is the most prominent and all tree of the main shrines are flanked by the Vahana temples, the vehicle of the gods. Nandi for Shiva, Angsa for Brahma and Garuda for Vishnu. In 2009, the heritage site sustained damage from an earthquake and is still being restored. Our guide was quite informative and explained much of the symbolism. He was also very keen to show us a bas relief of a demon with "a third leg". LOL. According to our guide, the missing pieces of the temples were replaced with undecorated stones and marked with a nail. Acording to him, it was to avoid the originals from being unkowingly replaced with fakes. Much of the temple's still in ruins. It's several giant 3D jigsaw puzzles all mixed up. I don't know how the experts do it. A whole bunch of internation school students were there too. I was disappointed at the lack of quality-- no cuties at all! :P



For dinner, we requested Pak Gadot send us back to Ayam Goreng Suharti. POD had to taste her sambal one last time before leaving. This time round we ordered gudeg-- an interesting stew with eggs, fried cow skin, and young jackfruit. Being quite out of the way, we had to eat quickly and rush back to Prambanan to watch the Ramayana Ballet. Performed out in the open with the lighted Prambanan temples as a natural backdrop. An interesting tale of Rama's wife, Sita being kidnapped by Ravana, paving the way to war between them. Not all of the dancers were impressive. Interesting to note that the most of male dancers will flick the scarves at their waists on every move, and all of the female dancers flick their sarong tail. A graceful move. In the scene where Hanuman sets fire to Ravana's citadel, they actually set fire to the set! Unfortunately, we missed the last scene due to the rain. Oh well. It wasn't a total loss-- 2 cute Japanese boys were sitting in front of us. :P. POD took lots and lots of pictures until the clicking of his Nikon garnered stares from some of the audience. :S.



Just one more post and we're done! Stay tuned!