Mar 12 - The things we want to look at today are spread outside of town and there is no clear public transport options. Fortunately, Grab has a function on their app where you can choose to hire a car and driver for X number of hours at a set total price. We organize one for six hours and off we go.
First go east of town, across the flat valley floor. Flat, except I note that streams are cut steeply, at least ten meters, into the land surface. This is classic erosion through soft volcanics. There is almost no rock in Java that does not reflect the volcanic activity so prevalent here, and it has resulted in the riotous growth of vegetation we’ve seen. Today a volcano is erupting here, Merapi (north of Yogyakarta), and has closed off some roads due to heavy ash fall. Too far west for us to see evidence of.
I want to see a few old temple here from the Hindu part of Java’s history. On the side of the road, nestled in with a residential neighborhood and chicken farm, is Candi Kidal.
Candi Kidal was built in 1248 CE, during the time of Anusapati, second king of the Singasari Kingdom. It is a simple one-room structure made of basalt. It was renovated in 1990, though they used rocks that so well matched the originals that it is difficult to see the work from this distance.
This is almost certainly a rendition of Garuda.
The front entrance of the temple.
A few offerings have been left in the single, tiny room. The statue of Vishnu that used to be here is now in Amsterdam.
This stepped-in ceiling reminds me a lot of Egyptian pyramid tombs.
Another Garuda carved into the exterior wall.
Some detail artwork.
From here it is about ten minutes to another temple, Candi Jago, in the village of Toempang.
Candi Jago is another 13th century Hindu temple from the Singhasari Kingdom. The King Vishnuvardhana was deified as Shiva here after his death, in 1268 CE.
There was a dance troop there, being professionally filmed for some show. When we showed up, there was tremendous curiosity as to how we knew this place even existed. Everyone wanted pictures, and for us to see the dance they were doing.
Janet and Odette with one of the two dancing groups.
Since coming to Indonesia, I have been a little taken aback at how curious people are about us. Plenty of tourists come to this country.
Some wall carvings in Candi Jago.
Would like to say more about the content of these wall carvings but sadly there is very little information I could find on it.
A Garuda head very similar to the ones we saw at Candi Kidal.
This headless statue got some incense offerings, and has some Sanskrit written near the top.
Back across the valley to the west of Malang, up into the foothills of Gunung Arjuna. The traffic is terrible here, we crawl along the 20 km entrance road for an hour. Out here of interest is Coban (waterfall) Talun. It is next to a water park that we do not go to see. Normally, our trips to waterfalls are mostly about what little animals we can see on the way.
Nice caterpillar, though I think this one is listed as invasive to Java. Did not touch it to test if it is poisonous.
A common gliding lizard. I’m guessing it is still very young.
Coban Talun.
Crawl back to Malang and drop off at hotel. Go back to the ‘frog pond’ and dinner at a fairly fancy restaurant nearby.
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