Ride and travel back time to Ancient Hindu Buhhda Temples of the Archipelago

[mujiburrahman]

For my love of riding a cross the tropical country side of Indonesia and also my fascination of History i dedicated this thread to doing a time travel to the temples in Yogyakarta and Central Java.

There are hundreds of temples scarred through out the regions, only few are fully restored, most under restoration, other are still in the process of being dug up and the remaining under thick volcanic lava (who how much are actually there). In the Archipelago the temples are only located in Yogyakrta dan Central java but also through out the region from Sumatra to other regions.

Most of the latest rides i used a KLX 150s to visit the temples but on the rides prior to the 2011 i used a small Honda scooter such as the Honda Supra Fit 125cc, also the Honda Grand Impressa 100cc and Grand Astrea 100cc

I hope you enjoy the my ride of which spans to 10 years riding around Yogyakarta and Central Java in search of temples.

If you have had an experience traveling on a motorbike visiting temples hope you can share your experience here.

Cheers Hope you Enjoy :)

[mujiburrahman]

I was planning to leave the house at 4 am in the morning so i could see the sun rise. I already set the alarm at 3.30am having enough time to prepare and go. It turns out that woke up at 7am missed the sunset so did a quick shower and went.

I started from Semarang the capital city of Java and continued to exit out of Semarang, a large busy roads with trucks heading in and out of the port harbor, buses connecting one city of java to the other and the locals on cars and motorbikes.

After 30 minutes of I reach the the turn to Bandungan, turn right and headed up the mountain of Bandungan to Home of Mount Ungaran and the Gedang Songo Temple. The road up hill is fill with good scenery with rices paddies on terraces, then you reach an area where on the left and right are filled with Karaoke Bars and Hotels. The karaoke bars and hotels are covering the terraces and blocking the good view.

The air is getting colder since getting higher on the mountain and still in early in the morning. after an hour rides we reach the turn up higher up the mountain. the roads are getting smaller but still good smooth black and hard.

At 8am arrived parked the motorbike. I asked the person at the place to pay the entrance fee weather motorbikes can go up the mountain to the temples? He said you can but must go through the horse track and must help out the locals and carrying food drinks and construction material. If just for fun you cant. better to ride the locals horses in stead.

So i left my motor and start hiking up to the temples.

[mujiburrahman]

[Wolfgang55]

Good start, looking for move

[Edmond Dantès]

Keep it coming. It's always interesting to see how people enjoy two-wheeled travel in their respective countries

[mujiburrahman]

Walking to all the sites of the temple takes a full hour. I would recommend on horse back to save time and energy. The temples here. Are small and not huge compared to the borobudur temple.

Besides temple there is a hot water spring in the lower valleys.

The final temples are on another hike up. Walking up through pine trees the steps are getting steeper and steeper.

The long walk down. Back to car park to get the motorbike and next heading to the dieng plateau where there are temples similar to the ones in gedong songo.

Heading to temanggung then to wonosobo. Then up to dieng.

Hope you enjoy the fotos up the temple of candi gedang songo

Cheers

[mujiburrahman]

the long walk down

[mujiburrahman]

mount ungaran from below

[mujiburrahman]

horse track

[mujiburrahman]

Out we go

[mujiburrahman]

From the peaks of mount ungaran we slide all the down the mountain side back to the main road heading to temanggung. The time is 10am the air still cold after last night rain. The road to temanggung is great ups and downs and twisting side to side. Passing through rice fields then to bamboo and hardwood timber. Passing by markets by the road. The road here is quiet not to many vehicles passing by. This is a recommended ride fresh air, good roads and very light traffic.

Reaching temanggung the traffic increase more and more vehicles. There is quite a tarrif trying to pass cars trucks and other motorbike. Temanggung is a city run by tobacco vast fields planting tobacco. When I past the countryside of temanggung the smell is very sweet. It is harvesting month. After harvesting the tobacco leaf it is cut up into small pieces and dried.

On the side of the road are plates of dried tobacco and even on soccer fields tobacco are being dried. The sun starts to hide behind clouds and small droplets of rain starts to pour. We are cross a path between two large mountains one is mount sindoro and the other is mount sumbing I think. Here we pass a tea plantations similar to the ones in west java in bogor.

Reaching to wonosobo feeling cold due to the light rain after 1 hour of riding up and in between mountains it is getting tired. The rain is also starting to be picking up. in wonosobo went passed the northen alternative route to dieng better scene rather than passing through wonosobo the city. Passed by a wood mills and also place to mine rocks. More rices fields and less of the tobacco fields. Heavy rain start to go down so I rest at a near by mosque getting ready to up on the rain coat.

It is 12 noon and it looks like it is already late in the afternoon. Hardly any sunlight. After a raining gear on headed up to the dieng temples. It rained harder and harder. Then the roads getting slippery and now the fog is very where and only 5 meter viewing distance. Very dangerous considering that it is a steep slope and a wrong move you will fall of the cliff.

We reach a look out post to see the valley from the top still covered by fog and still raining. After 10 minutes rest we continue to move on.

After another 15 minutes of riding we reach the temple site. Still raining I parked the motobike under a tree then waited the rain out.

Here are the photos of the ride to dieng.

Cheers

[mujiburrahman]

the road to Temanggung

[mujiburrahman]

the ride to wonosobo

[mujiburrahman]

pass the hiking path

[mujiburrahman]

the tea plantation