I was overwhelmed and excited to pick up a call from Class 95 telling me that I was the 18 th winner of the “20 Destinations in 20 Weeks, Class95 Discovers Asia with SilkAir” contest. My hubby Adrian and myself more than ready to explore Solo Indonesia, the City of Batik.

Day 1 (Free & Easy)

We took the first flight to Solo Indonesia with SilkAir. The warm and excellent service given to us by Captain Sam, Senior Air stewardess Siti and her cabin crew of MI 112. They congratulated us with big smiles and the cabin crew shared with us about various attractions that we should visit in Solo Indonesia.

As the first day was scheduled as free and easy, we decided to create our own itinerary and started by visiting Puri Mangkunegaran; a Palace cum museum where royal jewellery, cutlery, portraits and other artefacts of the King and Queen of Mangkunegaran from the 17 th century were housed. We were shocked to learn from the tour guide that King Mangkunegaran the second had 27 wives! We saw many different kinds of head dresses and waist jewelleries worn by the virgin wayang dancers who performed for the King in those days. These virgin dancers were related to the royal family and tried to mesmerize the King, in hope of being chosen as one of his wives. It is believed that all the wives of the king were great dancers.

Before heading to Sahasra Adhi Pura in the Majolaban village to attend a fire ceremony of Lord Ganesha, we made a stop at the famous Triwindu Antiques Market to view the batik, antiques and sculptures that they sold there.

Sahasra Adhi Pura in the Majolaban village has scaled down replicas of fifty sacred sites from all around the world brought together in order to preserve this ancient wisdom for future generations. Kjartan, the person in-charge of the temple, and his staff, explained to us and showed us around all the sacred sites and deities in the temple. We gained so much knowledge and insight during this visit.

We headed back to Solo Grand Mall for dinner and were taken by surprise to see teenagers in colourful batik costumes. They were participating in the Batik carnival! It was an exciting sight and we forgot about dinner as we went around the mall looking at the costumes. It was almost similar to the Chingay procession in Singapore.

We ended our first day in Solo with a relaxing spa massage in Novotel Spa.

Day 2 – Tour to Temples

The travelling time between Novotel to Borobudur temple was about 2 hours. Along the way to Jogyakarta town, we saw the magnificent twin sisters, the Merapi (Red Fire) and Merbabu volcanoes. The active Merapi volcano will erupt once in every 4 years; the last eruption being in 2006. According to our tour agent, Harry, the red lava flow down to the south, creates a pinkish reflection in the sky every 4 years. During the last eruption, Merapi killed 18 innocent villagers living around the southern side of the volcano.

Borobudur temple was rediscovered by Sir Stamford Raffles in the year 1819. It was purely built with lava stones interlocking each other. Built in the 17 th century within a ring of mountains and volcanoes; it is also named as the “Belly Button Of Java”. The original height of this temple was 42 metres but has now decreased to 35 metres due to daily heavy human visitation and constant volcano eruptions.

The walls of the temple were covered with sculptures telling stories before the birth of Buddha to the day he achieved enlightenment. There are 73 stupas in the temple with 4 statues of Buddha facing in 4 directions. The Buddha facing east symbolises the beginning of life while the Buddha facing west symbolises the ending of life. This amazing structure is protected under the UNESCO World heritage Centre to preserve one of the world’s greatest landmark.

Along the way, we visited Mendut temple. This temple housed a 3-metre Buddha statue with 2 other statues of 2-metres in height flanking the right and left. The temple is also made from lava stones and was restored in 1904.

Shopping for batik was the last thing in our itinerary beforereturning back to Novotel Hotel. Along the way, we had a first-hand experience of eating local satay ayam at a road side stall.

Day 3 – Time to Go Home

After breakfast, we headed to a souvenir shop to purchase gifts for our family and friends before departing Solo.

We took SilkAir MI 115 back to Singapore and were once again pampered by the cabin crew.

We would like to take this chance to thank Class 95 and SilkAir for letting us discover such a wonderful place – Solo Indonesia, the spirit of Java!

HAPPY 20 TH BIRTHDAY CLASS 95 !!!