Off the beaten track in Indonesia.

by Christopher Kelly (United Kingdom (Great Britain))

A leap into the unknown Indonesia

A couple of years ago my wife and I spent a month travelling around Indonesia doing a little island hopping. We started our trip in Bali, doesn’t everyone, and then made our way to the Gili islands, relaxing, drinking and generally having a good time. But we wanted to get out and see a bit more of the country. We took a plane to Yogyakarta and then we took a trip to go and see the wonderful Buddhist pyramid at Borobudur, and to cycle around all of the wonderful little villages in the area. I love Historical monuments and places, a heck of a lot more than my wife does, so going to Borobudur was wonderful for me but it left me wanting more. I had heard about a site on the same island that was apparently much more ancient, so I decided that we should take a leap into the unknown and go to see this place. We took a flight to Bandung, an inland Asian mega-city, and found ourselves a hostel. It was pretty nice as Indonesian hostels go but half empty. We talked to the owner about the place we wanted to visit and he didn’t seem too sure but said he would organise a taxi for us to go the next day. So we went out to find ourselves something to eat, we were directed to a restaurant nearby that was famous for having a menu of over 1000 dishes. We walked around and sampled the smells and the menus before deciding this was too much choice and going to a small cafe nearby. I was very excited about our journey the next day, but my wife was less enthusiastic. I have a love for historical sites but while my wife finds them interesting it’s not her favourite thing. With no locals seeming to know where it was or much about it she was not very excited at the prospect. The next morning we had an early breakfast at the hostel and our taxi driver arrived, a short older Indonesian gentleman with a beaming smile and no English. We were on the road for over six hours and when we started to get to the region of our historic site our driver made a few stops to ask for directions, it seemed that even our taxi driver had no idea where he was going, but we continued on and found ourselves up a mountain taking a quick walk around a tea plantation before continuing upwards on our journey. At the top of the mountain the road ending in a row of small shops, a few parking spaces and what looked to be a ticket booth. This was Gunung Padang and we had arrived. Gunung Padang is known as Indonesia’s Stonehenge, it is a very ancient site which is essentially a hill built on top of a mountain made out of basalt columns (the same type of thing that the Giant's causeway in Ireland is made from.) It has three terraces and what seem to be buildings outlined too. This place was reputed to have a carbon date taken that gave an age of 20,000 years, this place was stunning. We entered the ticket booth and paid an entrance fee of less than a pound, Borobudur cost us £32 to enter, and washed our face, hands and feet in the well at the bottom of the steps as instructed by a sign at the bottom of the stairs. We walked up the long ancient staircase and came to the first terrace. This place was wonderful and a fantastic piece of history to see. However we were the only foreign people there and the locals seemed more interested in taking selfies with my wife than they did looking at the site. But this kept her entertained and I had a field day. But I think that my favourite part was when we came down from the site and our driver had bought the souvenir Tie Dye T shirt from one of the local shops. So I had to buy one too and get a picture. I still have that T shirt today.