Wandering and Wondering

Kuningan in Bali

2016-02-29T22:08:00.003+07:00

Piodalan at Pura Sakenan

Balinese Dancers prepare at the Piodalan during Kuningan in Bali

Kuningan on the Indonesian Hindu Island of Bali is a time of great Celebration and a Balinese holiday. It is part of the Galungan Festival which takes place every 210 days according to the Balinese Calendar and is of great religious importance to the Hindu's because Hinduism is Bali's predominant Religion.

Kuningan falls on the tenth day of Galungan and at Pura Sakenan or Sakenan Temple on Serangan Island (Pulau Serangan) it coincides with the Temple Anniversary known as Piodalan.

Balinese Hindu's Pray at Pura Sakenan for the Piodalan or Temple Anniversary

during Kuningan

Galungan itself marks the most important time of religious ceremonies for Balinese Hindu's, it is a time to celebrate the victory of Dharma over Adharma. Dharma in Hindu or Buddhist religion can be roughly translated as the right way of living or conduct according to universal laws. Adharma which is the antonym of dharma means that which is "not dharma" or that which goes against nature, unethical, immoral and wrong doing or unlawful acts.

Kuningan is one of the most important Religious days in the Balinese Calendar

If anybody has been to Bali during Galungan and Kuningan they would notice lining the streets of villages, towns and cities what is known as Penjor, which can be extremely long lengths of Bamboo hand crafted with offerings suspended at the tips, the weight usually causes the bamboo poles to droop at the top which makes them aesthetically pleasing and a sure sign that the celebratory time is in full swing.

Penjor at Galungan in Bali

A few days prior to Galungan there are a number of activities that take place.

3 days before	Penyekeban	Cooking of bananas for offerings
2 days before	Penyajaan	Making of jaja (fried rice cakes)
1 day before	Penampahan	Slaughtering of pigs or turtles for feasts
1 day after	Manis Galungan	Visiting family
10 days after	Kuningan	Prayers, offerings - spirits return to heaven

Kuningan which falls 10 Days after the beginning of Galungan is a special day for Hindu's and most will dress up in their finest traditional clothes and visit their local temple to pray and give offerings. At some temples it will be a small scale affair but at others such as Pura Sakenan celebrations can last for 3 days.

Kuningan day is when the Balinese believe their ancestors return to heaven after visiting the earth during Galungan. offerings are given to the ancestors on Kuningan the farewell day and usually consist of Yellow rice (Kuning means yellow in the Indonesian language), fruit, fish, and flowers all contained in a small bowl made of coconut palm leaves. This all amounts to a very colourful aromatic display when stacked lovingly on the temple altar with smoke from sticks of incense permeating the air.

Offerings placed at the front of the Temple Altar

What makes Sakenan Temple so special is that it holds its Piodalan or Temple Anniversary on the day of Kuningan which itself is a hugely celebrated day. Add to that the Temple Anniversary and we have one heck of an event! People flock not only from Pulau Serangan itself ie. the locals but they also come from much further afield within the island of Bali. The Piodalan which coincides with Kuningan last for 3 days, the first two being the most eventful. The day celebrations at the temple include traditional music, Tari Topeng (Balinese Mask Dance) and Beautiful Balinese girls in traditional costume performing a cultural dance.

Balinese Mask Dancer prepares for the show

Another Mask another character at Tari Topeng

Tari Topeng or Balinese Mask Dance

With hundreds of people pouring in to Sakenan Temple throughout the day carrying offerings (the women normally carry colourful woven baskets on the head) it is also a glorious day for paying respects to their ancestors and for a family outing with warungs (local eateries) set up on the roads leading to the temple selling all manner of food and gifts, fresh barbecued fish being a popular eat due to this small Balinese island's proximity to the sea.

Balinese girls perform a traditional cultural dance

The Troupe of traditional Balinese Dancing Girls

The third day is much less active and is more of a winding down day with the final Hindu Worshipers down to a trickle, the last vestige of traditional music rings fading off into the distance as Pura Sakenan begins to look like its old calm and tranquil self, until the next event of course!

Location of Pura Dalem Sakenan in Bali, Indonesia

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Gunung Bromo Eruptions

2016-01-22T19:31:00.000+07:00

The Indonesian Volcano that will not sleep!

Gunung Bromo (Mount Bromo) at sunrise during a magnificent eruption

This has been going on for sometime now, since mid December 2015 and still continues to this day which is mid January 2016, the time of writing.

I decided to go and take a look and see just how bad it was. It turned out to be a highly rewarding experience, with constant eruptions which can be viewed at a safe distance over at the village of Cemoro Lawang which is about 2 to 3 Km's away over the Sea of Sand (Pasir Laut). Cemoro Lawang sits on the ancient caldera rim which in itself is the crater rim of the original long forgotten Volcano that is now home to Gunung Bromo and Gunung Batok with Gunung Semeru just beyond the ancient caldera crater in the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park.

Long Exposure of the volcanic ash being emitted from Gunung Bromo

At the moment the area is seeing very few visitors be it local or international due to television reports of the ongoing eruptions. It is true that Cemoro itself is covered in a faint layer of ash, around the built up areas of the village and out in the fields. (Cemoro Lawang has seriously fertile soil hence it has long been associated with farming all sorts of food crops).

Indeed the first morning I went to shoot the sunrise the volcanic ash was falling quite heavily as the winds weren't particularly favourable and the DSLR camera and tripod got pretty well covered (dust mask does help in these conditions)!

The following day the winds were being more kind and the wind as can be seen from the image above were blowing the volcanic ash cloud towards Malang City in the west. No masker needed, no covering head to toe in volcanic ash!

As Gunung Bromo volcano erupts in the background a local guy sits patiently waiting for business with his horse, a four legged taxi with which to ferry visitors to the Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park viewpoint on top of a nearby hillside.

Due to these eruptions which for the most part pose no serious threat to visitors and will continue to remain the same with entry onto the Sea of Sand (Pasir Laut) and the way over to Gunung Bromo craters edge in lock down visitors are still keeping away. For me this was a huge benefit regarding a tranquil uncrowded experience there but I did feel for the locals who not only rely on their crops flourishing for survival but also on tourism to the area.

With visitor numbers down by 90% it was recently reported on the television they don't have a lot of tourist revenue coming in. The image above is what you see a lot of, local guys with horses who are usually busy taking visitors by horseback up the hillside to the viewpoint (Gunung Penanjakan) at 4am to watch the spectacular sunrise made more or less redundant, yet they continue to rise early every morning and go through the motions of heading to the hillside hoping for a paying customer.

Scale of the Volcanic Eruption at Gunung Bromo

So other than that I would say if you want to see a large scale eruption at a safe distance and get some great images as I did doing a lot of Long Exposure Photography get yourselves over there but please be aware of the transport costs to reach Cemoro Lawang from Probolinggo the only entry point up to Bromo due to Tosari and the route from Tumpang near Malang which goes via the Savannah being closed off.

As there aren't many visitors the minibuses (bemo's) outside Probolinggo bus terminal are waiting all day to try and fill their vans to make the 1 and half hour trip up to Bromo worthwhile so serious negotiations are in order unless you want to pay for a minibus taxi at quite a high price for the relatively short journey.

Long Exposure Image of Gunung Bromo Ash Cloud

Active Volcano of Gunung Bromo

Google Map Location Of Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park

East Java, Indonesia

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Indonesian Beaches

2015-12-28T23:07:00.000+07:00

Incredible Java Coastline

During a recent trip to the south coast of East Java I was unexpectedly impressed by its stunning coastline in the vicinity of Pacitan Regency. Quite popular and well known with local Javanese tourists but much less known by International tourists or visitors.

Karang Bolong Natural Rock Arch

Above is a wonderful example of coastal features you have in store for yourselves if you take a trip to this part of the extensive South Java Coastline! Not only will you find beautiful beaches but also scenic natural wonders such as Karang Bolong Natural Rock Arch. In Javanese language Karang can mean Coral or Rock and Bolong means Hole.

This is in the region of Pantai Klayar otherwise known as Klayar Beach, (in the Indonesian language Pantai means Beach). A relatively undiscovered wild beach revealing an almost untouched beauty in nature with rocky protrusions, immaculate headland and idyllic white sand beaches.

Pantai Klayar (Klayar Beach - Pacitan)

This area of the South Coast of Java in Jawa Timor is still relatively undeveloped and receives a lot of local tourists during the weekends when it can be rather crowded. During the week less so. It's not one of the easier accessible beach areas due to the rugged terrain anywhere south of Pracimontoro and the coast itself. When you get into this region you will find a stark change in landscape from the regular plains of Java where rice paddies are in abundance and the land quite flat if not undulating.

Here we have for the Geologist especially a Geological wonderland! At first it seemed to me to be either Volcanic Tuff or Tufa or ancient remains of dead Coral strewn everywhere. Huge Pyramids of it can be seen, piles of this strange but somehow familiar rock making up the landscape. It's a hilly region with many trees and the local tradition as can bee seen everywhere has been to use this rock to build walls for partitioning agricultural fields a bit like the English Dry Stone Wall technique or for surrounding their land and houses.

This quite intriguing landscape caused me to do some research where I discovered that sure enough we have Calcareous Sandstone and Tuffaceous Sandstone, and Limestone Karst which explains the incredible rock formations on the coast and at the beaches along with an abundance of the sedimentary rock Lignite.

Regional rock being used for field partitioning

Aside from the interesting Geology that creates the landscape the area is extremely rural in most part probably due to the terrain and this has its positives. Beautiful scenic countryside which is peppered with delightfully beautiful and peaceful villages, road traffic is kept to a minimum and generally you will feel as if you are in a different world when comparing to the hustle and bustle of the big towns and cities and of course the major highways that link them.

Klayar Beach at the end of the day

The above shot is a Long Exposure (Slow Shutter Speed) image taken at Sunset which is a good example of how creative techniques can be used in Photography creating a very different image of Pantai Klayar than the daylight image seen earlier in this post which was taken with a Fast Shutter Speed. Photography is another good reason to head down to this region of the Javanese Coastline!

Rocky cliff strewn Coastline stretches off into the distance

Pantai Klayar (Klayar Beach) is now at the point where serious development has started to take place and I guess looking back on this post in a few years time things will have changed immensely, something I have witnessed time and again in many developing countries over the many moons I have been travelling!

At the moment during my visit road widening was taking place on quite a war footing! Down at the beach there are warungs for food and drink as on top of the headland which overlooks the beach but still quite simple. One thing to mention at the bottom of the steep hill that runs down to the beach is a small area under construction (concrete) which looks like it will be buildings for a number of more modern shops or warungs unlike the present eco-type basic wood/bamboo structures.

Road widening at Pantai Klayar

Signpost at Kalak

Not far away from Pantai Klayar venturing along the coast to the east from Kalak there are a few more interesting beaches and headland. Pantai Mbuyutan, Pantai Banyu Tibo and further still one can reach Pantai Nampu. All of which are worth a visit if Pantai Klayar with its astonishing rock formations and Blow Hole (which I almost forgot to mention) aren't enough for you!

Pantai Mbuyutan Beach

So how do we get there and where exactly is it?

The nearest big cities are Yogyakarta (Jogja) and Surakarta (Solo).

From Solo it's around 2 to 3 hours drive depending on traffic to cover the almost 100km.

Directly south of the city the most direct route avoiding any unwanted hilly regions head through the town of Sukoharjo to Pracimontoro and from there continue east along National Highway 3 until you hit a crossroads. There is an alternative route from there which is very hilly running through beautiful small villages and rural countryside which goes directly south to the very small town of Kalak to Pantai Klayar or you can continue along National Highway 3 to the village of Batu Akik which is known for selling Gemstones (if you are lucky you may be there on a day when the Gemstone market is on)!

From Desa Batu Akik there is a turn off on the road to the right which goes to Kalak and Pantai Klayar via Goa Gong another popular visitor attraction (Gong Cave). This route takes you out of your way a little but the roads are better and even though it is a few kilometers further you will reach your destination much faster due to the road surfaces being better and less hairpin bends and hills to climb and descend.

From Jogja it's around 2 to 3 hours drive depending on traffic to cover the almost 100km

Head out of Jogja travelling southwest to Wonosari and on to Pracimontoro and then the remainder of the directions from Praci (Pracimontoro) to Klayar are as mentioned above in the Solo-Klayar info.

Places to Stay

There is enough accommodation at Pantai Klayar certainly during weekdays as I discovered with simple and comfortable Homestay accommodation above the Beach on the raised headland around the entrance gate. Entry fee costs 7000 idr (Indonesian Rupiah) per person for entering the area and 2000 idr for parking. I couldn't comment about the weekends though regarding accommodation but all the locals mentioned just how busy it does get!

There is also a Homestay down on the beach itself about half way towards the blow hole.
I'm sure low season would be different as I was there at the start of the rainy season and the roads, steep in places, some covered in grit and mud can be quite treacherous when wet! Hence I imagine there would be a lack of visitors and maybe a limited number of open homestays to choose from.

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