Mar 5: Borobudur, Java, Indonesia

Cognitive dissonance: the perception of contradictory information and the mental toll of it. This was much of my feeling today as we rode through the Island of Java. Last night, we had a magnificent culinary experience on our 5-star ship. Today, I witnessed poverty at a level that I've never seen before. The population of Java is 145 million, with over 10% living below the poverty line. Most live without fresh water, electricity, decent roads, and, education is grossly underfunded. Our tour guide talked about how joyful the population is when they see "white people" because "tourism brings us trickle down effect". Seven buses from a luxury cruise ship, carrying 200 people, were escorted for over 2 hours (each way) by local police in order to view the largest Buddhist temple in the world, Borobudur! It's very difficult to reconcile this in my heart. 😢 But tonight, on board our amazing ship, we will eat a marvelous dinner, drink our wine, and forget about the 3rd world countries we visited.Read more