Down to Indonesia and Borobudur

After spending more time than expected in Malaysia, I was finally ready to move on, so I booked an amazingly cheap flight on Air Asia and headed for Yogyakarta (also pronounced Jogjakarta). I had already decided that I didn't really care to see Jakarta, and the suicide bombing of two luxury hotels aimed at killing Westerners just four days before my arrival in Indonesia made me feel like I had made the right decision. I had a short, cramped flight, passed through a quick customs check with my Indonesian visa, and then I got a taxi to my hotel, wondering what this city and country would be like. I stayed in a popular area for backpackers, basically a main street with a few alleys alongside, filled with cheap hotels, a few restaurants, travel agents and internet cafes, along with the persistent becak (be-chak) drivers, sitting on their bicycle taxis, asking you if you need transport or just calling out 'be-cak.' The other striking feature of the city is the number of guitarists...everywhere you go, you see locals playing guitars, workers playing guitars in the back of pick up trucks on the way to and from work, people of all ages playing guitars (playing is debatable for some of them) at stop lights for tips from passing drivers and other random spots. With its mix of travellers, an arts scene, university students and cultural sights nearby, Yogyakarta served as a good introduction to the Indonesian culture. I also got a $3-4 hotel room for the night, obviously nothing more than a cement block with an attached toilet, but that's all I needed.

The next morning started quite early, as I joined a tour to Borobudur, a massive Buddhist shrine an hour or two outside of town, and we had to get up early in order to get to the site at sunrise. Along with some Dutch and French tourists, we piled into a cramped van, tried to sleep and made our way through the streets filled with cars, scooters and bicycles, each staking its claim to the tiny bit of pavement afforded to it by the crazy flow of traffic. Soon we arrived at the entrance to the temple, made our way through souvenir stalls and the ticket booth and started walking towards the silhouette on the top of the hill. The prodigious shrine was built sometime around 800 AD, though not too much is known about the true history, as it lay in ruins after the fall of the Buddhist empire until being re-discovered in the mid-1800s and restored beginning in the 1900s and finishing with a huge project from 1973 to 1983. Apparently parts of the top were also demolished by a bombing in 1985, but this has been fully restored, and the temple stands in a marvellous state today.

Climbing a long stairway to reach the base was just the beginning, as this only brought me to the base of the temple. From there, stone stairways lead up to each level of the temple. In true Buddhist form, you are instructed to walk clockwise around each level of the temple, following along with the story etched into the walls of walkways, eventually winding your way up a 5 km trail to the top and, conveniently, achieving enlightenment at the end of the quest, signifying the ascent from the ordinary world into heaven. However, in a hurry to reach the summit before sunrise, many of us circled just one or two of the approximately nine levels and then headed for the stairway, saving a lot of walking and significant amounts of time, as you can climb straight up the temple in just a few minutes. Passing under the stone arches at the top of the four stairways, one facing each direction, the temple opened up to its top three levels, filled with bell shaped stupas, large stone carvings that sort of resemble woven baskets turned upside down. The upper three levels blend together in a mass of stupas, finally topped by one central stupa, though nothing more significant than each of the other stupas along the way. One of two of the stupas were also intentionally left open during the restoration, leaving the Buddha statues hidden within exposed for all to see. Despite other tour groups on top, I was able to enjoy a few serene moments near the top of the temple, watching the misty horizon around the structure, giving way to mountains on one side and palm trees on the other. Seeing such an impressive, monumental palace on my first morning in the country was a pretty good beginning to this highly-anticipated trip through the varied islands of Indonesia, though the day was not over. As the second part of the tour, we'd stop in Prambanan, a massive Hindu temple also on the outskirts of the city.

(Just a few of the many stupas on the top levels of Borobudur.)

(One of the exposed Buddha, feeling a bit naked compared to the others enclosed in their shells.)

(That's the Buddha on the left and me on the right.)

(The lower levels of the temple contain extraordinarily intricate details with many Buddha hidden in nooks and crannies.)

(From the ground level, you can see that it's not really that long of a hike if you skip the whole quest for enlightenment and go straight to the top.)

(But you'd miss the stories carved into the walls along the way, stretching for 5 km of circuitous walking.)

(The Buddha gazing at the recently risen sun. Despite other tourists on top, this was a pretty amazing view.)

(More stupas. I told a French guy that he was stupa, but he didn't get it. Pfff. Speaking of that, there are so many French tourists in Indonesia. Also, everyone here (locals and foreigners) thinks that I'm Dutch. Some Dutch people even try to speak to me in Dutch and don't realize until I give them an extended blank stare.)

(Looking down on the misty mountain and forest below.)

(My first Indonesian meal -beef rendang - a sort of dark curry with coconut milk and some spices. Pretty good, though not as good as some of the Malaysian curries. Don't tell the Indonesians that I said that.)