Biking to Trowulan

This is the English version of this post. :)

BIKING TO TROWULAN

For those who have strong passion for ancient heritage from Grand Majapahit Kingdom, don’t ever pass up to visit Trowulan. Trowulan is a small town located in the west of of Mojokerto, on the border of Jombang regency. It is very conveniently located so that it is easy to visit: on the main road connecting Surabaya and Solo (Surakarta).

Trowulan is only around 100 kilometer acres. Although it is small, Trowulan is very rich with traces from Majapahit heritage, such as statues, temples, and some other archeological sites. Those sites are located closely from one and another so we do not need much time to visit all of them. One thing for sure: don’t forget to print the archeological site map of the location so it will be easy for us to find those sites.

Ranz – by biking soul mate – and I spared some time to bike to Trowulan from Solo two days before we attended the second folding bike national jamboree held on the 16th – 18th of November 2012. To prepare our journey, Ranz printed the map we needed, from Solo to Surabaya, also the map of Trowulan archeological sites.

We left Solo on Wednesday 14 November 2012. We needed approximately 20 hours to reach Jombang from Solo, and it was the first time for us to bike during the night. We arrived in Jombang on Thursday early morning around 5 am. We decided to take a rest in one gasoline station that provided toilet and prayer room. We spent around 2 hours here.

Around 7 am, we continued biking. On the way, in fact I was attacked by sleepiness so that I needed to take a nap around 15 minutes in front of one mini market where we dropped by to buy some bottles of mineral water. LOL. Ranz was sitting next to me nicely, taking care of me while sipping milk.

After 15 minutes, we continued our journey. This time, I talked to Ranz that I needed coffee so we dropped by at one simple food stall selling coffee, tea, instant noodles and some other refreshment. GIRAS was the name of the stall. GIRAS means healthy and energetic. And ... abracadabra, after drinking a glass of coffee, I felt energetic and really ‘awake’: ready to go on biking. LOL.

Not far from the stall, in fact we already entered the area of Trowulan. Ranz saw a name board of CANDI BRAHU (Brahu temple) on the left side of the street, so we turned left. However, before we arrived at Brahu temple, we saw a traffic sign of MAHA VIHARA MAJAPAHIT, so we followed the sign to visit it first.

at the front gate of Maha Vihara Majapahit

MAHA VIHARA MAJAPAHIT

Maha Vihara Majapahit (Grand Buddhist temple of Majapahit) is located in Bejijong village, Trowulan, Mojokerto. This temple is small, only one floor. The architecture of the building is the combination of Chinese and Javanese art. The temple is open for everyone and it is free to enter it. From the gate, we can directly see the main building of the temple. On the left and right side path, there are some statues in different poses. Unfortunately when Ranz and I went here, the door of the main building was close so we could not enter it. If one is lucky to be able to enter it. one can see three different shrines for three different sects in Buddhism: Hinayana, Mahayana dan Tantrayana.

From the main building, we chose to take the path on the right. There we found a giant statue of Buddha lying, it is 22 meter long, 6 meter wide and 4.5 meter high. The face of this statue shows Buddha when he was a child (young); different from the giant statue of Buddha lying that is located in Pagoda Avalokitesvara Watugong Semarang, his face was adult. In Maha Vihara Majapahit, the statue of Buddha’s color is golden yellow.

giant Buddha statue

From the location of the statue of Buddha, we went to the back of the main building, to the right path, where we found the miniature of Borobudur temple. We just followed the path, then we would go back to the front area of the main building.

Although it is located in Trowulan, and the name has ‘Majapahit’ in it, Maha Vihara Majapahit is not the heritage of Majapahit Kingdom. This temple was built by Banthe Viriyanadi Mahathera in 1985.

Going out of the temple, we turned left, then turned right again to go back to the ‘main route’. Not far from there, we would find one site named SITI INGGIL.

SITI INGGIL

Siti Inggil – or high land – was meant to be a sacred and respected land. It was said that in one point around this area, there was a place where Raden Wijaya – the name of the founder as well as the first king of Majapahit – meditated. Raden Wijaya ruled Majapahit from 1293 until 1309.

Siti Inggil

There are two sacred graveyards in this area, of Sapu Angin and Sapu Jagat. Many people – not only from neighboring places but also from distant places – come here to pray in order to get blessings.  Outside the graveyards, there is a fountain where people believe that the water is sacred too. After praying inside the graveyard area, the pilgrim then drink one or two sips of water from the fountain.

It is free to enter “Maha Vihara Majapahit”, but to enter “Siti Inggil” we have to pay one thousand rupiahs per person.

From Siti Inggil we continued our journey to CANDI BRAHU.

CANDI BRAHU

Candi Brahu is located in Bejijong village Trowulan, around 2 kilometers from the main road connecting Mojokerto – Jombang. It is said that the name of ‘Brahu’ is taken from word wanaru or warahu that means sacred place. The word was found in Alasantan manuscript collected not far from Candi Brahu’s location.

Brahu temple

Candi Brahu was made of red bricks (different from temples located in Central Java whose color is black or grey). It faces west, 22,5 meter long, 18 meter wide, and 20 meter high. It was allegedly built in the 15th century, with Buddhist influence. When paying a close attention to the temple, one will easily find that the temple is no longer original, there were some new bricks added in order to renovate it to look like it used to be. To avoid it to get more damaged, visitors are not allowed to step on the temple, moreover to climb it.

Visitors do not need to buy any entrance ticket. They just have to pay the parking fee, but for cyclists, it is free for them to park their bikes. From the friendly parking man, I got information where to go to CANDI GENTONG, and how to go back to the main road from there.

CANDI GENTONG

Candi Gentong (Gentong temple) is located around 360 meter to the east of Candi Brahu. People say that in 1889 the building of Candi Gentong was still complete. However, in 1907, the area was just full of a big piles of bricks. in 1995, an exvacation done showed traces of old building of walls made from bricks. The building was square, around 14,25 x 14,25 meter and 2,45 high, and the wall was 1,9 meter wide.

Gentong temple

Ranz and I didn’t stay long here. We only took less than 10 pictures then we continued to go to the main road. Coming to the main road, we found an intersection; we crossed the intersection to come to KOLAM SEGARAN (Segaran Pool).

It was still 10 am when we arrived there, however, it was very sunny and hot. We were very thirsty. Luckily outside the Segaran Pool, there were many people selling iced young coconut. We bought two glasses.

KOLAM SEGARAN

Segaran Pool is located around one kilometer from the intersection I mentioned above. This pool was discovered in 1926 where it was full of soil. The site was renovated in 1966 then again in 1974. It is around 6,5 hectare acres, from north to south 375 meter long and 175 wide. Around the pool, there is a wall of 1,6 meter wide. Outside the dry season, the water in the pool can reach 2,88 meter deep. Unfortunately when Ranz and I went there, the water inside the pool was only little.

Segaran Pool

Segaran Pool is allegedly the only ancient pool discovered in Indonesia. Historians say that in the past, Majapahit royal family used the pool to serve foreign guests around the pool, while the water was used as dam.

From Segaran Pool, we continued our exploration to Trowulan Museum.

MUSEUM TROWULAN

This museum is located across from Segaran Pool, a bit to the left. Visitors do not need to buy any entrance ticket.  The museum was built by Kanjeng Adipati Aria Kramadjaja, one regent of Mojokerto. He was helped by one Dutch archeologist,  Henry Maclaine Pont. The museum was built to keep and display ancient arheological things discovered around Trowulan.

Trowulan Museum building

Visitors, however, are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum. Therefore, Ranz and I didn’t stay long either here.

Leaving the museum, it was almost noon, we dropped by at one modest food stall located across from the museum. We ordered one portion of ‘nasi pecel’ for both of us (we both were not that hungry) but we were very thirsty! We ordered three glasses of iced tea. J

After brunch, we continued exploring to SITUS LANTAI SEGIENAM or “Hexagone tile site”.

hexagone tile site

SITUS LANTAI SEGIENAM

The site constitute traces of a house having hexagone tiles. This is interesting because from this site one can see that hexagone tiles were already used during Majapahit Kingdom. Here one can also find pots made of clay. Perhaps those pots were used by people in that era.

Umpak Sentonorejo site

SITUS UMPAK SENTONOREJO

I don’t know how to say it in English. LOL. This site constitues an open area with rocks lining up neatly. The site was discovered in 1982. Archeologists said that perhaps this site used to be a foundation of a building, that was closely related to SITUS LANTAI SEGIENAM. Both sites are located in Kedation, Sentonorejo village, Trowulan.

From the two sites above, we continued our journey to CANDI BAJANG RATU and CANDI TIKUS. (Thanks to the map of Trowulan archeological sites that Ranz printed so we didn’t find it difficult to find those sites.)

CANDI BAJANG RATU (Child King Temple)

Candi Bajangratu is located in Kraton, Temon village, Trowulan. Name of ‘Bajangratu’ for the first time was written in Oudheidkunding Verslag (OV) in 1915. An archeologist, Sri Soeyatmi Satari said that the name of ‘Bajangratu’ referred to King Jayanegara from Majapahit Kingdom. Word ‘bajang’ means ‘small’ (or ‘kid’) because in a book titled Pararaton Jayanegara was said to be crowned as a king when he was a child so he got title “Ratu Bajang” or ‘child king.

Bajangratu temple

Candi Bajangratu is believed to have been renovated several times since Dutch colonial government. To keep it in a good shape, visitors are not allowed to step on the stairs and enter the temple.

CANDI TIKUS (Rat temple)

From Candi Bajangratu, Ranz and I continued biking to Candi Tikus. This temple is located Dinuk, Temon village, Trowulan. The size is 29,5 meter long, 28,25 meter length and 5,2 height. This temple is called Candi Tikus (rat) because when it was the first time discovered in 1914, the area was full of rats that ruined the ricefields around the area. It was renovated in 1983 – 1986.

Rat temple

It is stated that Candi Tikus is the replica of Mahameru – one mountain located on top of Semeru mountain in East Java because there are four small temple miniatures where gods stay and it is the life source in a form of showers along the foot of the temple. This temple is built underground. In the past this temple probably was the place to take a shower for royal princess.

As other temples, visitors are forbidden to step on the temple. They do not need to buy any entrance ticket though, just to pay the parking area to park cars/motorcycles. It is free for bicycles.

From Candi Tikus, we went back biking to the main road connecting Jombang – Sidoarjo/Surabaya. Before leaving Trowulan, we dropped by at Gapura Wringin Lawang (door oak gate) located on the right of the road from Trowulan.

GAPURA WRINGIN LAWANG (Door Oak Gate)

Gapura (gate) or Candi Wringin Lawang is located in Wringin Lawang, Jati Pasar villate, Trowulan, around 11 kiloeter from Mojokerto to Jombang. Once it was said that there was one temple near a big oak tree therefore this temple/gate is called Candi Wringinlawang (‘wringin’ means oak tree, ‘lawang’ means door).

Wringinlawang gate

The shape of Wringinlawang is ‘bentar’ temple, that is a gate without roof. ‘Bentar’ temple usually has function as the most outside gate of one building complex.  This gate/temple was renovated in 1991 – 1995, it was made of red bricks.

Wringinlawang gate was the last spot we visited in Trowulan. From there, we soon continued our journey biking to Sidoarjo to stay a night there. The following day we continued biking to Surabaya to attend the second folding bike jamboree.

PT56 ~ GG August 2013

B2W : biking with confidence

Entering the sixth year of my biking to work

This July 2013 I have been doing the so-called ‘saving environment’ effort : bike to work for more than five years! This writing is, in fact, the English version of my writing a year ago. You can click the Bahasa Indonesia version here. :)

It all started on 26 June 2008 where some people including me gathered together at Budianto’s (also nicknamed ‘Budenk’) house, not far from my dwelling. There were around 10 people at that time, but I don’t really remember who they were. Some people I remember were Budianto, Triyono, Nasir, Firman, my sister, and me. I didn’t have my own bike yet, just a bike given by my brother in the beginning of 1990s.

Using that bike – brand ‘winner’, produced around the same era when ‘federal’ bike was booming in Indonesia – I started my ‘history’ to bike to work. It was not an easy decision to make though since I thought biking to work was a not popular thing to do (yet). It would be a ridiculous thing to do for a teacher, like me. :( However, since biking to work was an obligatory for someone who joined a ‘bike to work community (so I thought), I decided to do it. It was not easy for the very first time, having to answer people’s questions why I did that, having to bear people’s looking at me weirdly, and stuff like that. J I felt a bit shy if my students asked me, “why biking to work?” J

first time joining offroad biking 

In the middle of November 2008, I got a loving surprise from my buddies in B2W Semarang community: a mountain bike made by wimcycle! Wow! (Read the post here, n bahasa Indonesia) They had two reasons to buy this cute bike I nicknamed ‘Orange’ at the beginning then I changed it into ‘Orenj’ (just exactly like the pronunciation of ‘orange’ LOL) because I wanted to avoid the confusion of the meaning of ‘Orange’. In English ‘orange’ means the color of orange, just like the color of the bike. However, in informal Bahasa Indonesia, ‘orange’ means ‘the person’. The first reason was the ‘winner’ bike was too high for me who is only 150 cm tall. J The second reason was they wanted me to be able to join them in offroad adventure since ‘winner’ was no longer in good condition. At that time, spending Sundays going offroad biking was the favorite thing to do.

You can say maybe because I got a new bike, I got more enthusiastic to bike to work! With ‘bike-to-work’ tag under the seatpost, I felt like I was one heroine to save the environment since I tried reducing the pollution as well as the dependency on the fossil fuel. I should be proud to do that, shouldn’t I? J I didn’t need to feel shy to bike to work, did I?

FYI, I work for two institutions. In the morning, I work for a Permata Bangsa International School. The school is located quite far from my house, around 9 kilometer, and the location is around 190 m above sea level. In the evening, I work for LIA English course. The course is located very close to my house, only around 2,5 kilometer and the track is flat. As a newbie, I could not easily bike to the school due to the location which is 190 m above sea level. As a result, I biked to work only in the evening, only to the English course.

B2W Semarang community became more active in making Semarang roads be more friendly toward cyclists since we saw that there were more and more cyclists. It means more and more people realized to participate in reducing pollution and using fossil fuel. We proved it by having talk show to force Semarang municipal government to have bike lanes. We did it twice in 2010. Finally we proudly announced that the bike lanes were indeed made come true in the end of 2011.

Meanwhile, I started being challenged to bike long distance. With more people joining B2W Semarang community – with its new division ‘Komselis’ (folding bike cyclists Semarang community) – I participated in some events held out of town. Let us say JOGJA ATTACK event held 5-6 March 2011 where the participants biked from Jogja to Borobudur temple Magelang.  Then, B2W Semarang community itself held long distance biking, such as biking from Semarang to Kudus (April 2011) and Semarang to Jepara (May 2011).

By joining some events I mentioned above, I met a ‘partner’ in biking: Ananda Ranz from Solo. With Ranz, since June 2011, we biked from one town to another, only both of us. Since we did it for days, we called our experience as ‘bikepacking’ (‘quoting’ from backpacking traveler). We went bikepacking from Solo – Jogja; Semarang – Jepara – Karimun Jawa – Jepara – Semarang; Solo – Wonogiri – Nampu beach – Solo, Semarang – Tuban, etc.

With more experiences in biking, I challenged myself to – eventually – bike to work to the school where I work in the morning! In the middle of 2012, I started challenging myself to do it around twice until three times a week. Biking for 9 kilometer and going uphill until 190 m above sea level (now 230 m above sea level after the school moved to the new location which is higher than the previous one) to go to work is no longer impossible to do. Hope I can inspire more people to bike to work despite the track!

This is my second writing to celebrate my biking to work ‘anniversary’. Keep biking. Keep the environment clean. Keep being healthy.

GG – IB 15.55 10/07/13

P.S.:

Versi Bahasa Indonesia bisa dilihat di link ini. 

Cycling Eurasia – cycling along Europe and Asia

Cycling Eurasia – cycling along Europe and Asia

Cycling Eurasia is the theme of Stephan – a bikepacker from Germany I met when I was on the way from Borobudur temple to Jogja. At that time I was still riding my bike when I saw a bikepacker riding his bike full of luggage in front of me. I greeted him without thinking that he was a foreigner. He in fact is from Germany and has been travelling by bike around some countries such as China, Thailand. Before arriving in Java island, he spent some weeks to explore along the coast of Sumatra island. Since he was heading for Jogja, I offered him to bike together with me and Nana, my biking mate. The first place we visited together was Mendut temple.

on our way to Ngawen temple

In Mendut, Stephan seemed to enjoy the exotic temple that was still full of visitors – both from Indonesia and abroad. Stephan was excited to see those foreign tourists since he said that he saw only one foreigner during his journey along Sumatra for weeks. In Sumatra he also hardly saw cyclists while in Java island he often found villagers riding bicycles in villages he passed by.

From Mendut temple, Stephan said he planned to search Ngawen temple he saw in his map. Nana and I agreed to accompany him to find it. Ngawen temple is located around 6 kilometers from Borobudur and to find it, we had to ask some people we met on the way because we didn’t find any sign to go there.

We spent around 20 minutes in Ngawen, then we continued our journey to Jogja. A friend gave me an address of Pak Jo, someone whose house was made as a homebase for bikepackers around Indonesia. Unfortunately when we arrived there, Pak Jo was not at home. This time we could no longer accompany Stephan because we had to continue our journey to Solo. We had to leave Stephan around Malioboro.

I thought it would be the last minute to spend with Stephan. In fact I was wrong.

**********

Two days later, Stephan called me to tell me that he would come the following morning and stay a night in Solo. I was happy to hear that because I thought there were some similarities between us: we both like cycling; during our journey, we both like any cultural events we find, nd we both also like tourist places in any city we visit: bikepacking is not just a matter of biking long journey without enjoying other things but biking itself. “There are many interesting places in Indonesia,” he said. I remember when we were at Mendut, Stephan asked me some questions about a parade he saw in Kutoarjo – one small town he passed from Jakarta to Magelang. At that time he asked someone about the parade and that person wrote in his small notebook, “khotmil quran”, “Isra’ mi’raj”. He then would ask someone else who can explain what those words mean.

Stephan's bike without the luggage :)

As a bikepacker who has travelled more than 17.000 kilometers, Stephan is a modest one: his bike is not ‘heavily’ upgraded, it is just a ‘standard’ one. no accessories in it. Stephan even ‘only’ wears sandals, not those shoes/sneakers made especially for cyclists. He just wears simple helmet, without gloves, buffs, or any other accessories/equipment.

preparing his luggage on his bike

Stephan checking his bike

When he arrived in Solo, I let him stay a night in my house. He seemed interested in some household equipment made of bamboos; he was also attracted at the pictures of my sister’s wedding party since in the pictures, my sister and her husband were wearing costumes that made them look like a king and a queen. The fact that there are 11 people of Ranz’s (extended) living together in 2 houses attched to each other was also interesting for Stephan to know.  

That night, after having dinner together (he ate 3 portions of fried rice! wow! LOL), Stephan told me that he wanted to go climbing Merapi mountain, but due to the changeable weather, he had to cancel that plan. Then we talked about the route he would take the following day. He would continue to East Java but he had to choose whether he would take the route in the middle (Ngawi and so on) or to the South (Sukoharjo – Wonogiri – Pacitan and so on). In fact I suggested him to visit Trowulan archeological sites. However, he chose to take the South route. FYI, he wanted to go to Malang and climb Bromo mountain. He also told me that he wanted to stay longer in Indonesia since, “There are many interesting places to visit here,” he said. J

at the parking lot of Kraton

The following morning, I accompanied him to go to a bookstore; he wanted to buy a map of Lombok island. Unfortunately we didn’t find one. Then I took him to Kraton Surakarta (the king’s palace. Arriving there, we were warmly welcome by the ‘abdi dalem’ (‘helpers’ of the king of Surakarta). They almost didn’t believe to see Stephan’s fully-loaded bike and his story that he arrived in Indonesia by bike all the way from Germany. They even gave us a special place to park our bikes. J Another nice thing was Stephan could ‘just’ buy a ticket for local people (not for foreign tourists).

before entering the gate of Kraton Surakarta

Stephan taking picture of one statue

From Kraton, I accompanied him biking to Sukoharjo, one small town, already out of Solo’s city. I gave him a phone number of a friend of mine living in East Java in case he needs a guide on his way to Bromo mountain.

about to leave Kraton

on one main road of Solo

Meeting Stephan – who has travelled more than 19000 kilometers along his journey around Europe and Asia – reminded me that biking long distance is a luxury to spoil ourselves, to enjoy the beauty of the world with its various rich different cultures. It is a big dream for me to travel abroad by bike; however it means nothing if we even do not know the beauty of our own country: by visiting those places by bike of course!.

Let us pedal our bike while enjoying the beauty of our world.

translated into English by Nana Podungge From Ananda Ranz' post. 

Tembalang 11.41 080613

B2WC - Bike to Waisak Ceremony (day 3)

This is the English version of this post.

The heavy rain that fell the night before (that made the Vesak ceremony a bit chaotic) and fatigue made Ranz and me cancel our plan to ride uphill Punthuk Setumbu again to enjoy the spectacular scene of the sunrise. Our main reason was very clear: we were lazy to wake up early and climbed uphill by bike while the weather was still cool and sleepy eyes. LOL.

in front of the board name TAMAN WISATA CANDI BOROBUDUR

after our morning “ritual” (in the bathroom LOL) and packing our luggage, plus having yummy breakfast from the landlady of the guest house where we stayed for a night, we left the house around 07.30. We spent some time to take our own pictures in front of the board’s name TAMAN WISATA CANDI BOROBUDUR – for our documentation – we dropped by at one shop to buy a pair of legging for me (my only legging were wet due to the rain last night and I did not want to wear shorts biking hundreds of kilometers.) After buying some bottles of mineral water, we directly moved on to Mendut temple.

Ranz greeted Stephan without realizing that he was a foreigner :)

three of us at Mendut temple, photo taken by one security guard

continuing our trip

What a surprise for us on our way, we met a bikepacker from Germany named Stephan. Then three of us continued our trip together, luckily Stephan hadn’t visited Mendut temple. There, we still could find some offerings and some other ‘traces’ of religious ritual ceremony done one or two days before. Stephan found it interesting when he saw many foreign tourists there while during his trip along Sumatra island for some weeks, he only saw one foreigner.

From Mendut temple, Ranz and I accompanied Stephan to look for the location of Ngawen temple located in Ngawen village, Muntilan, around 6 kilometers from Borobudur temple. Honestly, we never heard about Ngawen temple yet, we knew it from the map brought by Stephan. In fact, it was not that easy to find the location of the temple, we had to ask some villagers several times till we arrived there. Fortunately Ranz and I always love visiting temples so we were just happy to look for Ngawen temple’s location.

the only complete building of Ngawen temple

one ruin 

the sewage, the water is from below the temple

Ngawen temple is a Buddha temple, built by Syailendra dynasty (the same as the dynasty building Borobudur temple) in the ninth century. There are supposed to be 5 small temples in that area, but when we went there, we only found one complete temple, the others were just ruins. One unique thing from this temple is there is water source below the ground.

Stephan enjoyed eating Indonesian cuisine

both Stephan and me in front of the food stall

From Ngawen temple, we continued our journey, biking to the main road connecting Magelang and Jogjakarta. On our way, we dropped by at one modest food stall with Padang food as the main menu. (Padang food is a kind of food with cassava leaves as vegetables cooked with coconut sauce plus chillies.) The price here was quite cheap, one meal only cost Rp. 7000,00. Stephan in fact enjoys eating Indonesian cuisine so he didn’t find it difficult to eat in Indonesia. He also found it surprisingly cheap and he said, “Perhaps because I eat it together with you guys. If I come here to eat alone, perhaps I would have to pay more expensive. I have experienced it several times.” I found it funny but I also felt uncomfortable to hear that. :(

entering a bridge connecting Muntilan (one small town between Magelang and Jogja)

Stephan in action while stopping at one traffic light

We were lucky since our following trip to Jogja, the track was going down so we didn’t have to pedal hard. One friend informed us to take Stephan to a place where bikepackers in Indonesia like to visit when they come to Jogja – Pak Jo. His house is located near Malioboro, one most well-known road in Indonesia. We arrived at Pak Jo’s house at 14.30. Unfortunately Pak Jo was not at home. Since Ranz and I had to be in a hurry to continue our trip to Solo, we had to leave Stephan around Malioboro. It is one most visited tourist resort so it would be easy for him to find a room to stay nights.

arriving at Pak Jo's house

Ranz and I planned to continue our trip to Solo by train unfortunately we missed it. In order not to arrive home too late, we went to Solo by taxi (thank god we rode folding bikes). From Solo, I took a bus to go back to Semarang.

*This article was translated so that the story could be read by Stephan and his family members/friends.

GL7 15.00 050613