Epic Holiday: The Grand Temple

The Grand Temple: Candi Prambanan

Following the ride with the white horse, we proceeded with our plan for the day, which was to visit some of the areas of interest around the region, namely Candi Prambanan as well as the city of Yogyakarta. There are also some other temples around, including the famous Borobudur Temple, but since we started out late, we decided to just focus on one temple for the day.

Some people are of the opinion that this temple is one of the most beautiful Hindu temple in the world. I would so whole-heartedly agree to the assertion. With its beautifully carved stone structures rising majestically into the sky, the whole complex is easily recognizable from afar. Even the ruins around the perimeter of the central (fully renovated) temples served only to add to the whole mystique of the place.

Anyway, once we got there of course we started taking pictures, and that included Mama, Daddy and Tante Rina:

(Haha... as usual, while Mama likes to take pics of people taking picture, no pics of Mama taking pics. Maybe next time Mama will engage a professional second shooter, ya?)


After some wacky pictures, we moved on into the central part of the temple:

There are many pics of Tante, but surely there are also pics of Kecil and her Mama & Daddy:

We even went up into one of the temples, but there was no good pics of the dark interior. It did not quite show in the pics, but actually both Mama and Daddy were still suffering from a mild stomach bug that day, which made it a bit difficult for us to follow in the footsteps of the feisty Little One. Still, I think we managed to enjoy our time at the temple.

And on that high note, we'll end the post here to be continued next time. Cheers!

Sunday Hunting

Last Sunday, we went a-hunting.
Somehow, with all our loot from the holidays (and some that Mama and Daddy bought out of sheer necessity), Mama & Daddy's bedroom had become a dangerous place full of tangly mess of cables of various gadgets charging.
It was decided, then, that we should have a charging station to prevent any accident.
But of course, such a hunt cannot proceed on empty stomach, so... for our first stop that day... McDonald's!

Well, OK, so there was no pic of food except for Kecil's ice cream, but as usual, when food is on the table, Mama is usually too .. ahem... busy to be bothered with pics. Let's just say it was a good breakfast, yes? And as the first furniture shop did not yield anything interesting, we thought why not take a break by visiting the park full of airplanes, first?
And so we did.

The city of Clark, Pampanga, used to be a US Air Force base, back in the days before the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. Nowadays, it hosts the Clark International Airport, which is the base airport for many flights around the region including Singapore, Hongkong, Cebu, as well as Incheon (South Korea). There are still many signs of the Air Force presence there, including this park with many airplanes-turned-memorials.

There was even a helicopter there! But the biggest hit with Kecil was this airplane on the short stand that made it look as it it were flying. As you can see, Kecil soon pretended that she was flying as well!

And everybody else, including Mama and Daddy....

We also hit some of the playground facilities located around the park before we moved on with our search for the perfect charging station.
The search went on for the rest of the day and brought us to further places including San Fernando. But we did manage to find the perfect table/station that actually double up as a hidden laundry hamper.

And hence our laundry hamper cum charging station cum printer desk now proudly stands at one corner of Mama and Daddy's room.
T'was a good, productive, fun Sunday.

We do hope you had a good weekend too!

Epic Holiday:The Saga of the White Horses

The story was that, as we first arrived in Solo, right outside the train station, we were greeted with a sight of delman and its horse, one of them being the one pictured above. Not shown in the picture was actually another delman with two white horses strapped on. Somehow, these horses manage to 'haunt' us for the rest of our sojourn in Solo as Kecil insisted on a ride with "white horse!".

We actually did not find the said horses on the first day, but on the second day, we made a point of looking for one before we set off for the day's activities. And what do you know, we actually found PINK carriages pulled by a WHITE horse! It can't get better than that, and so Kecil set off for her ride with Mama.

And that was the end of it, right? Wrong.
We did continue with our plans for the day after the ride. But the saga did not end there. (It wouldn't be a saga were it be so short, no?)
The following day was a free and easy day, waiting for our scheduled flight to Jakarta, so we went to explore the city a bit on foot.

We tried the roadside delicacies, we walked under the sun (well, Mama and Daddy walked while Kecil sat on Daddy's shoulder), and we found ...

... a pair of statues Kecil declared to be her White Horses! Let's just say she was very happy with Mama's idea of taking her pic with the said statues. She wouldn't stop looking at the photo on our way back to the hotel.

(and the saga continues...)


As it turn out, however, the statues were in place as the city was hosting the 2011 ASEAN Para Games. In fact, the games were held exactly at the sport facilities that we circled around as we rode the horse carriage the day before. The statues are actually the mascot for the games, AND they are NOT horses, but komodos!

Image from here

Hilarity ensues as Mama and the Tantes figured out the ... ahem... misconception. But I guess we are still keeping Kecil in the dark and let her be with her interpretation. Perhaps someday in the future we will correct the story for her, but in the meantime, I will let her cherish her time with the Horses.

And so ends the Saga. I hope you enjoy it!

Epic Holiday: Solo

Kecil & Daddy looking out the hotel window

At the end of our train trip, we arrived at the City of Batik, Solo. We were picked up and sent promptly to the hotel. It was an interesting hotel, with ornate decorations that befit its location in the city of Batik. Check out the lobby and the decorations on the wall:

Hotel Lobby

Mama making use of one of the many mirrors in the room

The hotel even boast a Christmas tree since it was shortly before Christmas. The tree sure captivated the Little One.

'Teddy Bear' Tree

As we arrived shortly before lunch, we spent the day checking out the city, which include a tour into one of the keraton (palace) in the city.

Serene courtyard with trees planted in geometric symmetry

Three of us in front of the reception hall

Visitors going into the courtyard are actually required to either wear proper shoes or go barefoot. Since Mama did not wear shoes (on holiday, yes?), we all went barefoot. But actually Kecil cheated, since she only wanted to be carried around rather than walking on her own.

We took it light that first day, due to the morning train as well as our plan for the following day. So, other than going out for dinner and checking out the new (and only) mall in town, we did not go anywhere else that day.

We'll continue on the next part of the holiday in the next post. Cheers!

Photobooth

*Taking a break from holiday reporting...


As part of our extensive list of loot from the holiday (which we are going to cover some other day), Mama actually ended up with a working webcam and a Photobooth application.
And somehow, suddenly, the computer is full of photos like these:

... as Kecil delighted at finding herself directly on screen. She started with bugging Mama for more 'taking photos', but she soon graduated to taking photos herself.

I foresee Mama's harddisk filling up rapidly unless Mama stays vigilant in guarding her computer. Still... I'd  say I should enjoy it while I can.

Epic Holiday: 2nd Stop

As part of our extensive itinerary this holiday, we were invited to tag along Eyang Putri who is teaching in a conference in the city of Solo, about an hour flight from Surabaya. Given the availability of an extensive rail network, as well as Kecil's fascination for choo choo trains, we decided to take the train instead.
Along with Mama and Daddy, we also have with us Tante  and  Eyang Kakung for the ride.

It can get pretty overwhelmingly crowded, especially during boarding the train, so Kecil was come prepared... with a matching T-shirt with Tante, just in case she get lost or something, you know?
Don't they look adorable?

We arrived early at the station, just because we would not want to miss the train. Trains, as you know, often only stops at a particular station for mere minutes before it continues its journey onward. So... it's best not to take chances. In the meantime, we had fun admiring the station architecture, as well as a fuel train passing by.

The station, one of the two(!) train station in Surabaya, serves quite a few train network, hence the multiple rail lines.It looks beautiful in the morning.
There was a rush once the train arrived and people hurried to board the train and take their seats. Here's the inside of the executive car:

It's a bit old and not quite state of the art, but hey... it's pretty comfortable, and Kecil got to ride in a choo choo, no? There are food that you can buy from the restaurant staff. Unfortunately for Kecil, true to Indonesian taste, most of them are a tad to spicy for her!

The ride last about 4 hours from Surabaya to Solo. With no electronic entertainment provided in the train, we all resorted to our own stuff:

Like Daddy's and Eyang's iPad! It was certainly a hit with Kecil. Later on, Kecil did manage to fall asleep (we woke her up very early to catch the train, so I guess she was sleepy) and Mama sorted some photos on the computer.
We'll continue with our sojourn in Solo in the next post. In the meantime, should you notice, yeah, Mama seems to be missing from all the pics. I'd say! But Mama was there, really. Next time I really should try better to be in the pics. Haha...

Cheers!