Central & East Java Trip - Day 5

--1st Stop: Singosari Temple--
Candi Singosari, located about 12 kilometres north of Malang, is one of the monuments built in memory of Kertanagara, last king of Singosari, who died when his palace was seized by a usurper in 1292. The temple was partially restored in the 1930's. The roof, in its original state, would have mirrored the cosmic Mt Mahameru of Hindu mythology, four lesser pinnacles on each side surrounding a taller, central 'peak'. Yet it seems that the temple was never completed. The impressive kala heads, highly detailed on the roof, become mere outlines above the entrance and wall niches lower down, showing that the fine carving was executed from the top downwards. For some unknown reasons, the artists appear to have abandoned their work. (credits: eastjava.com)

The temple is quite small. Only one structure standing in the compound.

A statue which was still kept in the temple.
--2nd Stop: Lunch--
Another vegetarian meal. Food was quite delicious, despite looking plain.
--3rd Stop: Madakaripura Waterfall--
Madakaripura waterfall is located in Sapih village, Lombang district, East Java, not far from Mount Bromo area. Madakaripura is a sacred visiting area comprising lines of waterfalls. its reaches a height of 200 meters from the bottom. This waterfall have a related history with a great Prime Ministry, Gajah Mada, who strongly struggled to unify the whole territory of Indonesia under span of control of Majapahit, and said as “the last residence for Gajah Mada”. This spectacular waterfall lies hidden at the end of a deep valley in the foothills of the Tengger range. The water has cascades from the dense forest above. The primary attraction is its natural environment that is encircled by 7 waterfalls and caves. (credits: Wikipedia)
I didn't not know the trek to the waterfall was so "exciting". I've read about walking under waterfalls, but I did not anticipate crossing rivers a few times....haha! This is the first part of the trek which we needed to cross the river. Why? Coz' the pavement was destroyed somehow.
It was difficult trying to cross the river with my flip-flop. In fact, I nearly lost one of my flip-flop for a few times. Lolz~ Gotta thank Anjar, the driver and a few local guys who helped us along the way. (Pic credits: Tuan)
Saw some small waterfalls along the way.
I forgot how many times we needed to cross the river. May be 3-4 times? Anyway, I was bad at balancing....hahaha! (Pic credits: KH)
This was quite scary!!! I gotta climb down that slippery small cliff and there was hardly any flat piece of land for me to step properly. I started to think how I am gg back later on. Hahaha! (Pic credits: KH)
Amazing waterfall.
There were about 3-4 smaller waterfalls here. We actually walked under them in order to see the big waterfall. Luckily E.W brought along our disposable raincoats, or else we wld be totally drenched.
A closer view of the big waterfall. Actually we cld still walk further down, as I believed there were a few more smaller waterfalls. However, we were told that the water wld much deeper (wld reach our waists) if we continue to trek. So, we decided to end our trek here and returned to starting point.
Walking back~~
--4th Stop: Cemara Indah Hotel--
My bermuda shorts was kinda wet, and with our flip-flops, we were going to our final destination of the day - Cemorolawang Village in Mount Bromo area. I thought it was a nice experience to wear so little at a super cold place. I think temp at night was about 10 degrees celcius?
We reached Cemara Indah at 6pm, but the whole area was pitch dark. It was very cold. Sorry to say, I think I am one of the two who brought winter jackets. Hahaha! Tuan said this kind of temp was only in Autumn!!! Terrible~ Can't imagine how cold it wld be during winter!
There were so many kiddos selling winter apparels, and E.W & I bought gloves. Very very cheap ok? May Leng lao shi bought quite a few things, and we gotta stop her from buying more. Lolz~
KH & my room. I've read a lot of reviews about the guest houses in Mount Bromo area. The good ones were expensive and located further away from the crater rim, while the average ones had better location, but with basic facilities. I decided to change the original guest house to Cemara Indah, simply because the toilet facilities in the former was quite bad. Haha! I did not make a wrong choice, Cemara Indah's location was bloody good. Stunning view of Mount Bromo (do check out Day 6 review).
The toilet was nt that bad la...phew~However, it was hard to get hot water. KH and I have to bathe separately in Aunt Jo & E.W's rooms. I heard KH's "screaming" for hot water....hahaha!
Dinner time! The ambience of the restaurant was quite nice, and we were the only Asian group there. Saw another Asian girl chatting away in French (i think). This is my java coffee.
My corn soup. Did not look appetizing here, but it tasted very different from the creamy corn soup we have in SG. I think there were egg & meat inside. Tasted a little salty, but it was quite delicious!
E.W's vegetable soup.
E.W's chap chai main course.
I regretted ordering this Chicken Mushroom main course. Shld have chose something else!!
We returned to our room, and KH tried to snap pics of the super bright full moon. It's a pity that my digi cam cld not capture a gd shot.
Gotta slp with my jacket & gloves. Have to wake up at 2.30am the next day!

Central & East Java Trip - Day 4

Day 4 was actually quite a short day. We spent most of the time travelling, and there's only 1 place to visit on the itinerary.
--1st Stop: Lunch @ 金圆 restaurant--
After travelling for 3 hours, we reached Kediri. Had our lunch at this Chinese restaurant.
Know what's so interesting about the food here? We did not know that there's no meat in our food. Anjar told us that we actually had a vegetarian meal after we left the restaurant. Quite amazing as their 咕噜肉 really tasted like meat!
--2nd Stop: Mount Kelud--
After another 2 hours, we reached Mount Kelud. Unlike other volcanoes we saw at Central Java, we cld hardly see any villages around the Mount Kelud. There were pineapple plantations at the foot, but most parts of the volcano was kept "untouch".
It was raining quite heavily. The area was quite misty, so it was difficult to take clear shots.

This is the 110 metres Channel Tunnel built by the Japanese durign WW2.
While walking through the tunnel, we passed by this very small bunker. Lots of noise inside...Why? Coz' there were so many bats flying and hanging there!
Walking towards the end of the tunnel.

We reached the crater rim of Mount Kelud. The volcano's last eruption was in 2007. This is the lava dome. Initially this used to be the crater lake. The volcano spewed lava into the crater lake and the lava dome expanded till the size we saw now.
Volcanic activity is still quite evident here. Lots of smoke coming from the lava dome.

We decided to take a look at the natural sulphur hot spring. After walking down n steps of stairs, we finally reached the hot spring. I was too tired walking down the stairs, and I gotta climbed up after that!! (Btw, this is only less than 1/3 of the stairs we climbed!)
The sulphur hot spring.
Only May Leng lao shi went down to the hot spring. The rest of us did not want to climb down and get wet. Hahaha! May Leng lao shi said the water at the hot spring was both warm & cold.
--3rd Stop: Kartika Graha Hotel --
After a long long ride, we finally reached Malang, the 2nd biggest city in East Java.
KH & my room. The std room was small, but it was clean. Toilet facilities were great too.
It was quite late, and we did not want to spend time looking for a place to eat. So, we decided to have our dinner at the hotel's restaurant, Bamboo Coffee Shop. This is the restaurant view from 3rd level.
E.W's 罗汉斋.
Tuan's Kailan w/ prawns.
My super pathetic Marinara spaghetti. The tomato sauce was bad, and the noodles were overcooked.
KH's pathetic Seafood Mexicana. Initially I wanted to order it too! Luckily I didn't~ Haha! We thought it was spaghetti, but to our surprise, there's seafood but no noodles!

Central & East Java Trip - Day 3

--1st Stop: Bank & Post Office--
We're leaving Yogya today. Aunt Jo wanted to go to a bank to exchange old Rupiah notes, while KH wanted to send her post card.
Bank of Indonesia. Nice colonial building.
A monument across the street.
--2nd Stop: Sukuh Temple--
It's a 3 hours journey from Yogya to Sukuh. Passed by the famous Solo river (I bet most of you know the song "Bengawan Solo"). Well, it's just an ordinary river. We went uphill again. The temple is about 2840m above sea level. There was some slight drizzle when we reached. Temp was very cooling....just nice :)
The entrance.

View from the temple grounds.
Candi Sukuh is a fifteenth century Javanese-Hindu temple that is located on the western slope of Mount Lawu, Solo. Candi Sukuh has a distinctive thematic reliefs from other candi where life before birth and sexual education are its main theme. Its main monument is a simple pyramid structure with reliefs and statues in front of it, including three tortoises with flattened shells and a male figure grasping his penis. (credit: Wikipedia)

This is the male statue holding his private part. According to Anjar, the private part is actually much longer than what we saw. Think the Muslims destroyed it for some reasons...
The temple rocks...


Climbing up to the top of the temple.



--3rd Stop: Lunch @ Sapto Argo--
On our way to Tawangmangu Waterfall, we stopped by a local eating house for lunch.

Satay Kelinci. Do you know what meat is that? Rabbit meat. Rabbit meat is a local delicacy found ard Central Java. However, only Aunt Jo ate a few sticks. We decided to give the rest to Anjar and the driver. Really can't eat it....
This vegetable soup looked simple. However, the taste of the soup was heavenly. Thanks to the chili, the soup had a little spicy taste, but blended well with the veggies.
The mountain road beside the eating house. You might think this is an ulu village, but some of the houses there were damn big, modern & posh. Can't imagine you live in a bungalow in the middle of the mountains. Haha!
--4th Stop: Tawangmangu Waterfall--
Tawangmangu is located 40 km east of Solo, and it is a recreational resort area for the locals. It lies on the slopes of Mt.Lawu, at an elevation of 1300 m above sea level. This is one of the two waterfalls we visited during the trip.
We gotta walked down about 500 m to reach the waterfall. I hate the stairs~ Lolz! There were quite a few wild monkeys, and we were warned to keep our distances from them.
What do we do here? Wash our hands.
We decided to take a closer look at the waterfall. Reminded me of my experience at Kbal Spean (Climbing rocks). This one was fairly easy, but we were still very careful. Did not want to go any further as water splashed against the rocks. Have to protect our vulnerable cams leh.
The cliff area...
The water was cooling...
I thought the waterfall was going to be a plain one, but I was quite wrong. It's still quite spectacular, though it looked typical.
--5th Stop: Hotel Sarangan--
I'm worried about the hotels located at the mountain areas. Why? First, no websites, cld not see how the hotel looked like. Second, the facilities in the rooms might be very basic. As for this hotel, I knew it was quite old, but I never knew it looked SO OLD & rundown. Haha! We were supposed to get 3 std rooms, but we got 2 family rooms and 1 std room instead. The family room can slp at least 5 person, while std room was for 2 ppl.
Hotel Sarangan.
Our balcony...
Our living room with a fireplace. The furnitures were very old and there's this smell of very old houses in the room. It's seemed like hardly anyone stayed in the room before. I thought I was transported back to the 60s or 70s.
This was the first bedroom behind the living room.
This is the smaller bedroom. I did not like this room, as I felt kinda uncomfortable (not to the extent of spooky la). We were even considering of moving over to Aunt Jo's room, but forfeited the idea as that was rather unnecessary.
The view of the hotel. There were a few groups of Caucasian tourists too. So, at least there were other souls ard. Haha!

The rooms were nt good, but lake Sarangan was beautiful. This is the only reason why you wld want to stay at this hotel. However, if I knew the hotel was so old and rundown, I might have requested a change liao. Problem is, I cld not find hotels ard this area too....
The super old playground...
We ordered Satay from this man....
Their satay tasted different from ours, but it's just a matter of time before you got used to it. I still prefer our Ketupat though.
Sky started to turn dark. Sarangan is a hill station favoured by the Dutch during colonial days. The village lies on the slopes of Mt. Lawu too, and it is about 1287 m above sea level. It was quite chilly as night fell.
We had our dinner at Aunt Jo's balcony and chatted till 11pm plus. There was a Ang moh family who stayed beside my room, and you know old rooms had lousy soundproof walls. So, we were happily chatting at Aunt Jo's room and they were disturbed from their sleep. (It was still early for us...9 or 10pm). I wondered if the dad or the son banged our connecting door, but that was a very rude way of informing your neighbour to be considerate. After the loud bang, the dad came over to Aunt Jo's room and told us to lower down our voices. I knew ang mohs sleep early, so it was quite sian to have them around you....