Madura: mosques, beaches and...bull races?

A couple weeks ago(sorry for the delayed post!), a group of students and teachers from my language school went on a trip to the island of Madura. Madura is just northeast of Java and is easily accessible because of the Bridge that's been built connecting it to Java. We rode a huge bus(there were about 30-40 of us!!) and went to a bunch of different places on Madura. One of the teachers and his wife are from Madura, so we started out by going to his wife's desa(village) and having lunch there. Her family prepared lunch for all of us! It was a fun time meeting them...there were probably about 25 family members there.


Some of our group and Pak Mafud's wife's family. They all live in the same area in the desa.

This is Pak Mafud's little girl. She is the cutest!!

We also went to Syaikhona Kholil, the famous mosque on Madura. It's well known, because it serves as the burial site of a holy person of Islam and because most of the materials to decorate it were imported from countries in Europe.

I was surprised I was allowed to take pictures inside, but because it's a famous mosque, I think most people who come to see take pictures.

The inside of the mosque was incredible and intricately decorated.

Me and my teacher, Ririn, with some girls that we met at the mosque.

We also went to a beach, but unfortunately I have no pictures of that...I was so so so excited to jump in the water, because Madura is one of the hottest places I have ever been. But, the water was warmer than bath water. Not very refreshing! But, it was still a lot of fun!
The next day, we went to a yearly event on Madura...cow racing!! This was an experience I will never forget for sure. These races are held once a year there.

As you can see, 2 cows are tied together and a jockey rides on something that looks like just a metal slab in the back

 They race down a field that's about the length of a football field going at incredible speed! The crazy part is the jockey isn't an adult, but a child, usually still in elementary school!

One of the jockeys after his race...I couldn't get over how small he was!

One of the races in action

A group of kids I met there who gave me the lowdown on the races...they were so cute! They said there's also goat and rabbit racing at the field here, but the cow racing is the biggest event.

It was a great weekend to be able to see different parts of Madura---to see the beauty that's there, interact with the people and to experience some of the strong culture from the island.