TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The journey to a destination often bump us into many unexpected experiences, especially if the destination is thick of historical traces like the Grobogan-Blora I traveled with three friends in early February. I traveled the 80-km Solo-Purwodadi road along the Kendeng mountain range and then continued to Blora, another 50 km to the North Limestone Mountain.

My destination was the childhood resident of Indonesian late famed writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer. We were invited by Pramoedya’s younger brother, Soesilo Toer to attend the launching of his book entitled ‘Pram dalam Kelambu’.

From Kartasura, I drove my car to the left in the direction to Adi Sumarmo airport and along the carpet of paddy fields. This area is known as the rice barn of Central Java.

Approximately one hour later, we reached Sumberlawang, a district belonging to Sragen Regency. In Pendem Village of the district, there was a signboard on the side of the road saying “Ziarah Gunung Kemukus” (Kemukus Mountain Pilgrimage). Ow, so this is the spot of the phenomenal philgrimage, I thought.

Kemukus Mountain is believed to be the resting place of Prince Samudro, a young nobleman of Majapahit kingdom era. Legend has it that he made love to his step mother, Dewi Ontrowulan and both of them were exiled to Mount Kemukus and died there. Many people are visiting the tomb of the couple to pay honor to the prince or in hope of getting rich.

But what strange is that the pilgrimage is mixed with adulterous sex rituals. Despite of local media had exposed this issue, many parties had only panicked once it is on the headline of Australian news portal Daily Mail.

We did not have time to stop by the pilgrimage site. The cloudy weather and the steeping road had claimed my attention to focus on the drive. On both sides of the road there were typical Javanese villages with traditional joglo houses.

Rows of teak trees stood up tall as if they were to reach the sky, unbroken by the storm. Some of their leaves fell down and blown by the wind on the asphalt road. This view of teak wood reminded me of our former prime minister Amir Syarifuddin who was arrested in the teak wood of Grobogan when in his way escaping to Pati after the Madiun affair. Later on, Amir was sentenced to death in Yogyakarta.

After the rest area full of food stalls offering coconut water, there is an intersection leading to Kedungombo Dam. Another chronicle passed my head about the controversial construction of this dam during the New Order era.

The 5,898-hectare (or 46 kilometer square) dam had drowned more than 37 villages around Boyolali Regency, Sragen, and Grobogan. It triggered movement of environmentalist and human right activists including the charismatic Romo Mangunwijaya. Then rain started to pour and we decided to skip visit to the dam.

After Gundig and Toroh villages, we entered the city gate of Purwodadi, the administration center of Grobogan. Grobogan is clean and the main road is straight under the shade of mahogany trees. Despite its remote location, the city is strategically passed by main road connectiing to important cities in Central Java such as Solo, Semarang, and Surabaya (via Blora). The city also has railway.

During the Revolution, the city was a base for independence fighters and vairous society-based independence movements. The Simpang Lima Purwodadi is a landmark that seems to reiterate its important role. The ‘simpang’ (road intersection) leads to Semarang, Demak, Kudus, Pati, Solo, and Blora. However, it’s small size is no comparison to Semarang’s Simpang Lima.

Not far from the landmark, there is Purwodadi’s city center with some food tents that caught our attention. The tents sell swikee, an extraordinary dish that use green frog as main ingredient. The frog is served in many choice of seasonings inlcuding rica-rica, pepes, crispy fried, and butter fried. Swikee is Purwodadi’s distinctive cullinary and served not only on the street but alos at restaurants specialized in frog menu around the city.

We, however, did not try out the frog dish because we already eaten earlier. We bought a bunch of rambutan that was sold by many street vendors alongwith durian.

We wanted to visit Purwodadi Botanical Gardens but when we asked a man how to reach it, he shrugged and said “It is an unsuccessful project”. So we have a rest on the side of the road and enjoyed our rambutan.

In 1926, Purwodadi is a base where ‘Pasukan Merah’ (Red Army) was formed. It is a branch of ISDV (Indische Sociaal-Democratische Vereeniging) and an embryo of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). Post assasination done by PKI members on September 30 (known as G30S PKI movement), a rumor blown that the remaining of the members gathered in Purwodadi to rebuild force. This rumor triggered the national army to attack the region and is known as “Purwodadi Tragedy”.

RAUDAL TANJUNG BANUA