Late night visit to the tomb of Sunan Ampel

Continued from Flying from Sepang to Surabaya.

From the airport we entered the city of Surabaya where we stopped by at the tomb of person known as Sunan Bungkul. But our main destination in Surabaya lies at its northern outskirts, at place called Ampel. That's where we decided to check in at a budget vintage hotel. Late at night I decided to take a walk while the wife and kids rest.

You see Ampel is very famous due to a certain major saintly figure.

Unlike Sunan Bungkul, his name is so well-known throughout South East Asia.

But like Sunan Bungkul, he is also known after a place, in this case Ampel.

Notice the list of tombs? Tombs are called makam in Malay. Guess which one I was headed for...

First a quick look at the mosque.

The mosque was built when the personality concerned was alive some 600 years ago.

Entering the compound of the tomb of Sunan Ampel...

He is known as the leader of the group of 9 major saints of Jawa called the Wali Songo.

Upon entering the gates that's when I realised how alive this place is.

There's still another gate to go. That's when I realised that the tombs of well-known major saints in Java especially that of Wali Songo are visited 24 hours round the clock.

I decided to find a quieter corner first. Here is the tomb of a follower of Sunan Ampel who became a saint himself!

Inside the main area which contains the tomb of Sunan Ampel. Notice the people facing the tomb ahead.

Going outside again I noticed these crocks for drinking water.

The water came from a well dug by Sunan Ampel.

Sunan Ampel is known for many miracles. But I won't list that here. Find out yourself...

A look inside the main area again. This is the best picture I could get of the tomb area as whenever I tried to take pictures pointing at the tomb I was stopped by the caretakers.

No one is allowed to take pictures of tomb of Sunan Ampel, not even from far away. With that I decided to head back to the nearby mosque.

At the opposite side lies the tomb of another follower of Sunan Ampel. This is the tomb of Mbah Sholeh the caretaker of the mosque who is said to have lived and died nine times! It is said that the first time he died no one could take care of the mosque the way he did. This lead to Sunan Ampel wishing out loudly for Mbah Sholeh to be around.  By God's will immediately the caretaker reappeared and did his job.

After a time Mbah Sholeh died again and the mosque became unkempt. Again Sunan Ampel wished the man was around and again he reappeared. This happened for a total of nine times, until Sunan Ampel himself passed away and the miracle just disappeared. For the record this is the 949th article in this blogspot.

Flying from Sepang to Surabaya

Peace be upon you all. While the storytelling for the East Coast trip made 26 March-4 April has entered its middle phase I've already started a new series in my main blogspot CATATAN SI MERAH SILU. It is about a more recent trip where me and family went round the Indonesia island of Java 1-14 May. So now I'm starting the supporting articles here.

Afternoon Tuesday 1st May. It was Labour Day holiday. Me and family embarked on the aircraft that would take us from the Kuala Lumpur LCCT in Sepang to the Eastern Java city of Surabaya in Indonesia.

The trip has been booked and planned since a year before. For our two and half year old son Muhammad Al-Aminul Rasyid this is his 9th trip overseas (or anywhere for that matter) by plane. 

But it seems to me that it was only starting with this trip that he realised he was riding a plane. His previous flight,  Banda Aceh to Sepang was made when he was just over 2 years old.

Unlike that flight and before this one has our new addition to the family, baby Muhammad Alauddin Johan who was then just two and a half-month old. Here we should be looking at the Melaka coastline.

I'm very sure of the location as I recognise the shape of the island called Pulau Besar situated off the Melaka coast.

I can see that the flight path followed the Straits of Melaka between the island of Sumatera and Peninsular Malaysia...

Soon we were in a part of water I could not recognise. But a check using Google Earth, time during flight and estimated speed shows this should be above the part of the Riau archipelago of Indonesia between Singapura (I prefer this spelling rather than the Anglicised Singapore) and mainland Riau, at the island of Sumatera.

This is Sumatera 27 minutes later. I almost lost where I was until I noticed the location of the jet engine to the right which is enough to show that I took this picture on the right side of the plane.

For the record most pictures here were taken from the left side as that was where we were seated at.

 Soon heavy cloud began to obscure the view. Time then was 6.04 (Malaysian time).

Still I could surmise where we were. You see the flight was on schedule to land in Surabaya at 5.25 pm local time which is equivalent to 6.25 pm Malaysian time. So I know we have arrived at the island of Java (pronounced Jawa by the locals and also people of Malaysia).

 

I decided to take a snooze. Upon waking up I could see the plane flying low.

Soon the city of Surabaya came into view. In the background should be the island of Madura...

Time to land.

Welcome to Juanda airport. We have arrived in Surabaya. :]