Indonesia is known for its batik (a process of using wax to dye patterns
into fabric). The train curtains had little locomotives batiked on
them! W
e enjoyed the beautiful tropical vistas of volcanoes, some
active, and some less so.
There were rice paddies that stretched into the
distance, as well as crops like papayas, Taro, and sugar cane -- it is amazing
what views a train window can hold.
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All visitors don a short sarong over their clothes and around their waists as a sign of religious respect before making the climb to the top of the temple. Most of the visitors were Indonesian Muslims and there were LOTS of school tours there on field trips.
Each level is intricately carved in hundreds of stories from the Buddha's lives and you could spend all day examining them.
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| Mt. Merapi smokes over Borobudur |
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| Two ladies selling umbrellas under an arborescent Pandanus |
Borobudur temple is surrounded by a large pleasant park area with interesting trees as well. I saw one of them that I thought Mas Edi at Purwodadi Botanical Garden had taught me, and we went to touch it and look at the fruit.
Diospyros blancoi is the scientific name. Its peel is brownish and fuzzier than a peach, its pulp is sweet, but not too sweet -- but it is rich, hence the buttery common name. The guard who gave it to us was also kind enough to pose for the demonstration pix in the blog!
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| The buttery Diospyros blancoi |
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It's a delicious fruit in the St Johnswort family.
In this case, the seven stigma lobes on the outside of the skin indicate how many sections of edible white fruit there will be within.
It is sweet & tart and looks a little like an English cricket
ball. Queen Victoria once tried, in vain, to have her gardeners cultivate
mangosteen (presumably to eat rather than for sport!) I can't blame her -- they are really wonderful!
We also bought another native Javanese fruit guaranteed to delight any herpetologist! It is Snake Fruit, Salacca zalacca, a very fierce short palm bearing gazillions of long spines at the base of the leaf blade. The fruit is a dormant Pokeman come to life -- a tear-drop shape with the shiny brown scales of a reptile. Inside it has 2 or 3 lobes resembling cloves of garlic, but tasting similar to an aged, dried apple.
We also bought another native Javanese fruit guaranteed to delight any herpetologist! It is Snake Fruit, Salacca zalacca, a very fierce short palm bearing gazillions of long spines at the base of the leaf blade. The fruit is a dormant Pokeman come to life -- a tear-drop shape with the shiny brown scales of a reptile. Inside it has 2 or 3 lobes resembling cloves of garlic, but tasting similar to an aged, dried apple.
Back in Jogja, it was the evening of the partial lunar eclipse as well as the spring equinox when we decided to walk into town from our hotel, called the Ministry of Coffee. What is an evening walk like? After dodging bicycle rickshaws and more motorcycles than you have ever seen, you pass little food stalls selling every manner of food, along with toy stores, casket makers (who seem uncomfortably friendly), every kind of household amenity, fruit stands worthy of any still-life artist's attention, and passing cars bearing all sort of surprises (like a load of Jackfruit, Artocarpus heterophyllus on the way to market).
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| Artocarpus wagon! |
One of the bad guys, Marica,
preparing to transform himself
into a Golden Deer.
preparing to transform himself
into a Golden Deer.
This gorgeous and complex-looking flower gives rise to a fairly large, woody round fruit, shaped like a cannonball.
We found it while visiting a Buddhist monastery established by a Zen order from Japan. The monastery garden was shady, tranquil and charming.
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| A Staghorn Fern (Platycerium sp.) and a stag with horns in a meditation garden -- something for a botanist to contemplate! |
