I did get away to Prambanan this morning, leaving as early as possible so as to overcome the sluggishness that comes upon me with the heat of the day. The bemo dropped me just a couple of hundred yards away from the temple, + at first view it certainly was impressive, a large tower rising above the roofs of the dingy houses surrounding it. And even tho’ being a religious shrine, it was not free from commercial implications – one had to walk past a busy market on one’s way to the entrance, + the usual tourist paraphernalia – postcards, bamboo carvings, puppets – were thrust at one. I made my way thro’ to the relative security + peace of the temple compound – relative, not absolute, since I had chosen to visit on the same day as a large party of Boy + Girl Scouts. I think it’s a knack I have. Nonetheless, I was impressed by the temple + surroundings. There is one large, completely reconstructed temple, Shiva’s I believe, in the centre. Thus is flanked by 2 others, one now being rebuilt, the other close to what must have been its lowest point. And around these 3 are another set of smaller shrines in various stages of repair. Then around these, like some wholesale stonemason’s warehouse, are hundreds and hundreds of large granite blocks, the remains of the flattened temples, + the raw material for reconstructing them. Quite some archaeological jigsaw, I should imagine, even deciding which temple a stone would come from, let alone in what order. Yet looking at the Shiva temple, they’d been remarkably successful.
While I was looking over the temple, I somehow allowed myself to be taken on a guided tour. Carved panels around the walls tell the story of the Ramayana, the Hindu folk ballad, + it was good to have someone explain it to me, as well as answer other questions. People had used to take the stones, he said, until the government had explained their importance. A faintly unbelievable demonstration of the power of education. Once my guide had finished, I was clearly expected to give him something for his trouble, but I was most annoyed with myself when I discovered that my smallest note was a 500, + so was forced to give it to him – a rather inflated price for his value. I was even more annoyed when a few minutes later I discovered a number of Rp100 coins loose in my pocket.
I took a few pictures, of course, + then headed straight back. By the time I arrived back, it was still fairly early, + I did, for a while consider trying the swimming pool again, even checking out the afternoon opening times. But eventually I abandoned that idea. In this heat, one outing per day is usually enough. Besides, I decided on reflection that a pool full of screaming, pissing, spitting kids was more than I wanted to cope with. In any case, any doubts I had about it were soon resolved when the skies opened up + the rain poured down. It was about time – the heat had been building up + up, + the streets were in dire need of a wash.
Val was busily trying to complete her batik, + I whiled away some time when I ran into John, the Kiwi we’d met in Ubud, + he invited me in for a game of chess. He beat me too, which annoyed me slightly. I tried to buy Val’s first Christmas present, but it wasn’t very successful. There are quite a few stalls – only that’s too grand a word – along Malloboro who make their living engraving brass plates + fixing them to leather strips to make key-rings etc, so I commissioned one for Val, with her Cornish address on it. It only took an hour, but I should have known that “Tregadillett” was too much for them. Their version was “Tengadiliett, which I suppose is close enough to an Indonesian mind. It was a pity, since otherwise they’d made a good job of it, but it only served to deepen my depression. And so was a contributing factor to a row Val + I had. I was moping, bored + boring, + Val was ratty, so we snapped at one another. Soon over tho’ – most of our rows are.
Killed the time successfully, though actually I would have preferred to have Val with me, as it did seem rather like I was going through the motions. But it was interesting enough.
