Indonesia – Borobudur and Yogya

After Uluwatu, it was time to bid Bali farewell and hopped onto a quick flight up to Yogyakarta in central Java.  Without delay we were enroute to the Manohara Hotel at Borobudur which is situated inside the UNESCO World Heritage grounds and does a special sunrise tour for guests.  Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It was constructed during the 9th Century and was only “rediscovered” in 1814.  Since that time, the temple and grounds have seen several stages of restoration with the last round concluding in the 1980s – today the temple and grounds are spectacular.

After settling in, we wandered across the grounds to explore Borobudur with a local guide and spent several hours learning about the story of the Buddha depicted on some of the temples 2,500 stone, relief panels.  Our guide also was incredibly knowledgeable about the numeric symbolism and geometry of the temple.

During the time of our visit, we were at the tail of the rainy season and tourists still far and few between. There were periods of time where it was just the four of us and the guide alone on the temple.  However, when we were ready to leave the temple and return to the hotel, we were directed to the “exit” where we were the lone targets of no fewer than hundreds of vendors all selling the same awful tourist wares.  Literally the alleys went on for over a kilometer and it was exhausting to say “no thank you” so many times.  Exhausting and puzzling – this seemed to us the most inefficient marketplace we could imagine: how can so many sellers, all with the same merchandise, exist to serve so few customers? We all agreed it would make a great Planet Money segment if you are reading this David Kestenbaum…

That night it was early to bed for our 4:00am wake up.  In the dark of the pre-dawn we quietly climbed to the top of the temple and were all rewarded an hour later with a spectacular show.  Our expectations for this event were dangerously high as one of the adages we have adopted for this trip is low expectations are the key to happiness. In this instance however, it did not disappoint.

Sunrise on the stupas

Later that afternoon, we left the relatively expensive Manohara Hotel and found the craziest guest/art house nearby.  Art house is really the more apropos name for it as nearly every surface of the hotel has been hand painted in quite amazing murals.  We were their only quests that night and spent a quiet evening searching for good street food. We were rewarded with the most delicious fried “Twinkie and jam loaf” for our dessert.

The roof of the Eloprogo Art House common space.

C and G chillin.

The next morning we rented two scooters which meant Kim had to join in the scooter driving melee.  Luckily, the back roads of Borobodur’s quiet village and open rice paddy fields were the perfect Asian scooter training grounds.  Campbell even took a turn scootering around, much to her delight as her first real motorized driving experience. We spent several hours truly exploring with no agenda, and as I write this nearly two weeks later, it remains our favorite afternoon of the trip so far.

Scooter exploring

Next up on our itinerary was some time in Yogyakarta which is only an hour taxi from Borobudur.  Our intention was to explore the nearby Hindu temple of Prambanan but after nearly two weeks in Indonesia with just a shower or two, the skies opened up to an unbelievable deluge and our plans for a sunset tour on our second evening were jettisoned.  Campbell and Kim were caught out in the rain and made it home by fording the ankle deep rivers that had only minutes before been city streets.  The current was so strong that Campbell’s flip flop was a casualty of the weather.

The rain was the perfect excuse for a family swim in the hotel pool and we swam alone in the monsoon rains until the lightning strikes and thunder were just seconds apart overhead.

Other highlights from our time in Yogya include our tuk tuk rides through the city to watch the local batik and shadow puppet artisans practice their centuries old trades.  We also ventured to the city’s Bird Market to view the thousands of birds, fish, bats, cats, squirrels and other animals for sale or trade.  We desperately wanted to purchase one of the beautiful handmade bird cages being made on site for our pet Thor, and while the cages were a bargain at only $5 USD, the logistics of shipping them home were too daunting.  Especially since Gil’s contact lenses never made it through the Indonesian gauntlet of customs – we are still trying to get them shipped home…

As we depart Indonesia for our time in Thailand, we carry with us a lasting impression of how kind the Indonesian people were during our travels.  We never sensed the tourist fatigue, sometimes rightly so, that is an undercurrent in some places.   Everywhere the people were patient and always genuinely happy to share a small bit of their country with us.  And above all they drive like maniacs and don’t have a scratch or any feelings of road rage.

Terima Kasih for the memories Indonesia!