Vertical Caving & Heritage Story

Jomblang Cave & Sendratari Ramayana Theatre– September 2014

Yeay I was back again to Yogyakarta. This time’s plans were to visit Jomblang Cave and watch Sendratari Ramayana in Prambanan temple.

So, who was your travel friend this time, Ri? Mmhm seriously? Are you asking me this question? I think that was rhetorical statement, you guys know lha with whom I traveled. Bwhahahhaha :P

As usual we were going to take train again and again (kere apa gimana sih gak pernah naik pesawat ke Yogya ;P). Taking Senja Utama Solo on September 12, 2014 from Pasar Senen Station, we left at 20.55 and arrived at 6 o’clock in the morning at Yogyakarta Station on September 13, 2014.

Goa Jomblang is a vertical cave with the forest inside, and located around the Kidul mountain area. It links to Grubug cave which has a “ray of light” or “Heaven Light” when you come before noon. It wasn’t easy to visit Goa Jomblang alone; we needed to book the agent to prepare us for everything needed such as rope and safety stuff to touch the ground of Jomblang Cave. It cost us 450k IDR per person (including lunch). Expensive huh, yet it was worth the price later on.

Being picked up by our driver early in the morning, we directly headed to Jomblang Cave. The directions from the agent weren’t clear enough. There’s also no sign on the way to get there. Fortunately our driver knew the area although we still needed to asked local people to find the place. We needed to turn right after the school, said the agent, and you know what? The road was really bad! Extremely bad! The agent said it was only one kilometre after the school, yet it turned out more than 1 km. We needed to drive over the cashew farm with the broken road. It took around 2 hours and half to get Jomblang Cave from station.

When we arrived, the agent asked us to take a rest first. We actually had no idea about the place, so we didn’t prepare for snacks and there was no store near there, huhuhu it made us starving while waiting. Yet the good thing was they gave us a local tea called “teh poci” as welcoming drink. (Tips: you’re better to bring snacks from city to accompany you waiting).

Pot Tea

After we changing clothes, the agent gave us boots and helmet for our safety. They bind us with safety ropes and ready to drop us down the cave. There were several people who helped us doing this. It took two persons to go down as well as to go up.  It quite made my heart beat faster; a little bit scared me, yet that was cool. The height was about 60 meter from the surface. Can you imagine that you went down to the ground only by ropes? I was screaming, laughing, and holding the rope tightly. Hahaha. It relieved when you touch the ground, anyway.

We needed to wait until about 10 people who went down before we continue the journey. Then, one guide would lead the way along the cave for about 250 meters to Grubung cave. It’s not literally a vertical cave, it’s slightly has a slope. Just in time we arrived before noon at around 11.30 p.m to see what they called “Heaven light”. All I could say just “Subhanallah that was enchantingly amazing”. Speechless indeed. Bear in mind to get in time to the place or you will miss the light. We took pictures for about 30 minutes before the light off at noon.

Having satisfied to take many pictures, we headed back to go up to the surface. As per my experience, it was scarier to go up than to go down. Hohoho.

After we took a bath, changed clothes and had our lunch, we continued our journey to Purba Mountain. We had to hiking for almost 30 minutes to get the best spot seeing Yogya from above. We didn’t spend much time in here since we need to catch sunset in Ratu Boko Temple.

It has different color of stones

The area of Ratu Boko Temple was quite wide This was my first time visiting Ratu Boko, yet a friend of mine who had ever come to here before said that he was disappointed by the redecorate of this place. The story said that Ratu Boko wasn’t a finished temple, so it didn’t need to redecorate into what had been planned before; it was better left as it was. As the first timer, I just nod my head acting like I understood. Hihihi. That was a gloomy sunset at that day, yet having a glimpse of sunset over the temple made us smile. We do always love the moment when the Sun went down.  (I felt like dejavu writing this .. Hahaha )

Then here we go……….Sendratari Ramayana Theatre in Prambanan temple. I have been dreaming about this for long. Finally!

We booked the tickets a month in advance; the fee was 175k IDR for the first class. It wasn’t directly straight to the stage, but it still in front of the stage, not in the left or right of the stage.

I loveeeeeeee it. I love the story, the plot, the culture, the dress, and the light, almost everything. The only missed was they didn’t introduce us the cast, so there was a moment when I said, “who is A, who is B, or who is C”. Hahahaha. Well, Prambanan Temple looks stunning at night (^__^), been thinking to have a wedding reception in here #lha :P

Since we were absolutely exhausted, we didn’t have many plans the next day. All we wanted to do just sleep and sleep and sleep. Thus, after having lunch with my friends who lived in here, we decided to go back to hostel and sleep, like literally sleep. Hahaha. Me? Still craving for “pecel”, so I went to Bringharjo market to find it; of course after woke up from a short sleep. Hehehe.

Time go home, we didn’t take the last train because we wanted to have a good sleep before came to the office. Taking Senja Utama Yogya, we left Yogya at 6 a.m.

A handmade birthday gift, and a letter were handed over. It didn’t make me cry although I though it was done.

Yogyakarta! It started here and it’s done here. Done? Really? It’s suppose to be done, yet it still continues…