Hari Ibu-Ibu (Girls' Day)

Last weekend my good friend Bu Ida invited me on a day trip with some of her friends, an event soon to be known as Girls' Day. We visited Kota Gede Royal Cemetery, Goa Cerme, and Parangritis beach. The first stop was the Royal Cemetery at Kota Gede, or silver town. To enter the Royal Cemetery one must wear traditional Javanese clothing known as a Kemben. It consists of a 2 pieces of Batik fabric, one worn as a dress and the other worn around the torso. Men also wear Batik skirts as well as a traditional Lurik Batik shirt and a head covering. Below are all the lovely ladies looking cantik sekali in their traditional attire. Photos are not permitted inside the cemetery, but the graves are actually small above-ground tombs made of stone or marble embellished with Javanese script or depictions of ancient monsters and spirits. Many people come to the cemetery to pray and pay respects to the founders of the community that are buried there. Kota Gede Cemetery is regarded as a very spiritual place and is highly revered.

The next stop was Goa Cerme, Goa meaning cave. The cave had a very different feel from the cemetery but it is also considered a very sacred place by the locals. We all had to wear shorts to the knee, t-shirts, and flip flops, and brought flashlights and one camera covered in plastic. I wondered why anyone would wear rubber flip flops into a cave but I soon found out why. The path through the cave consists of actually wading through water about 1 meter deep, so the flip flops turned out to make sense after all. Goa Cerme was an eerie yet awesome experience, I had never been in a cave quite like that before. Looking up at the walls and ceiling you could see the calcium carbonate stalactites that had formed over many years, some massive and some tiny, still with water dripping off their ends. Some parts of the cave were so low that we had to duck to walk through them, a claustrophobic's worst nightmare. I hadn't noticed, but our guide mentioned the large crack in the ceiling of the cave caused by the last major earthquake.

The next stop was Parangritis beach which lies about 30km south of Jogja. It is a beach with dark volcanic sand and a reef off shore and strong currents make the water too dangerous to swim in as the waves are huge and the undertow very powerful. Before going to the beach itself, we stopped at an overlook of Parangritis to enjoy the view and our lunch of Gudeg, a traditional food of Jogja made from jackfruit.

The weather was a overcast and also a little rainy, but I don't think I would have traded it for a sunny day. You could see the rain coming across the ocean from the overlook. It was pretty awesome to stand with my toes in the Indian Ocean. The water was incredibly warm actually. I still look at it on a map and think "Wow, I am actually on the other side of the Earth from anywhere I have ever been before." Very humbling indeed.

So Mom and Dad, I hope you think this little trip sounds like fun because I can't wait to take you on it when you get here. I miss you! More updates soon, take care over there in the other hemisphere.