Day 20: Borobudur

Yet another early start, as our alarms went off at 3:45! As I was waking up I could hear people in the corridor which seemed very strange, I'm so used to Australian and Western hotels being ultra quiet during the night (generally speaking at least). But I realised why when we got down to the lobby to meet our driver - the restaurant was packed, with more people than I'd ever seen in any of our hotel restaurants before! All the Muslim families were having their pre-fast meal, which is embarassingly obvious when you think about it.

Our driver was waiting so we hopped straight in - we were the last pick-up so we headed immediately for Borobudur temple, about an hour north-west of Jogja. Not much to report other than the food carts were all out in the street with people eating before sunrise, and it was busier out than I expected. Other than that I just dozed so I don't remember much of the actual trip.

Arrived at Borobudur by 5am and walked straight up to the top of the temple complex. Already plenty of people up there, but not too crowded thankfully. I think they only sell a limited number of tickets for the sunrise and it's much more expensive than the regular ticket, so it's probably out of reach for most Indonesians. Got a decent spot and settled in to watch the sunrise. It was probably a little underwhelming if I'm honest, as the horizon was a little hazy and the colours just weren't as vivid as they'd been at Bromo a few days earlier. I also had the shits a bit because I was trying to do a time-lapse video with the GoPro, but gormless idiots in flourescent outfits kept on standing in front of the camera! Overall it was a good experience and I'm glad we did it, but I wouldn't bother doing the sunrise again.

Once the sun was fully up we set about exploring the temple and surrounds. This was probably the best part, as only a couple of additional tours arrive after sunrise until after breakfast, and the sunrise crowd was now spread out over the whole temple rather than clustered at the pinnacle.

A bit of context - Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist temple, and was constructed in the 8th century! That makes it a similar age to the Hagia Sofia, and significantly older than most of the famous sights in Europe outside of Rome. It fell into disuse around the 14th century when most of Java converted to Islam and was mostly buried in volcanic ash and jungle, and it wasn't until the British ruled Java briefly in the 17th century that it was excavated. Hard to imagine what they must have felt on uncovering it, real Indiana Jones type stuff!

It's arranged into 9 levels, with the lower levels covered in inscriptions and bas-reliefs depicting various scenes from Buddha's life, along with examples of Buddhist laws and stories. We spent the better part of an hour wandering around the lower levels, marveling at the detail of the carvings and how well-preserved they were. We also returned to the top to look at the view in full daylight, and take a few photos of the bell-shaped stupas which Borobudur is most famous for.

We had to be back at the nearby cafe by 8-8:30 for a quick breakfast that we'd already paid for, as straight afterwards we were going on a cycling tour of the local area! We ate (nothing spectacular), and then waited. And waited. And waited. Our driver and the cycling guide were both nearby, but apparently there was another couple of the cycling tour that weren't ready yet. By 9:30 I was about to start convincing the guides to just start without them, but they finally showed up! Apparently their ride from Jogja had arrived quite late and they'd had to rush around the temple a bit. A young couple from Ireland; once I'd gotten over my annoyance at their lack of punctuality I warmed up to them and they were actually quite nice.

Cycling trip underway, we set off straight into traffic which was a little daunting! But despite the chaos, people are actually pretty reasonable - they don't give you much space but it's probably better than cycling in Sydney where bogans yell out the windows about how only faggots ride bikes and so on.

First stop was a local market in the nearby town of Borobudur (yes the temple takes its name from the nearby town). According to our guide the market was normally fairly quiet and sleepy, but as today is the last day of Ramadan it was absolutely packed with people buying produce and supplies for their feasts tonight and tomorrow. Sort of like taking someone to Myer a couple of days before Christmas I guess! The market was full of fruits and vegetables, "fresh" meat (in the sense that its been freshly killed) and plenty of still-clucking chickens. Several stalls where people were selling farmed catfish - they kept them alive in tubs of water so they don't just sit out in the heat. At one point a catfish jumped out of a tub and started crawling across the market street!

Very hot, very noisy, very crowded and very chaotic, but a great experience. Back on our bikes we turned down a few side streets and soon were in the rice fields that surround the temple. Fairly easy riding for the most part as it's on a flat plain, though there were a couple of small hills. Here we just around for a while, through little villages and along tiny streets, past the occasion shop and of course the always present rice fields. A few fields were growing other stuff too - tobacco, chillies, cabbages, papayas, bananas.

Next stop was a local pottery workshop where a family just made bowls, stupas and other pottery items in their home. We all had a go at making a stupa which proved amusing - I was very awful at it as you'd expect!

We stayed here for an hour or so chatting with the family and relaxing after our cycling exertions, but eventually got back on our bikes and headed back to Borobudur town to meet up again with the driver by around 2pm. We were all very tired by now but it had been a great ride. Hard to think of where all the time had gone, but we really enjoyed it!

Passed the time on the ride back to Jogja by chatting with the Irish couple, they were in Indonesia for a couple of weeks for a holiday but were living and working for a year teaching English in Dubai. They both seemed reasonably well-travelled and were good to chat to.

Back at the hotel we both showered and had a nap. We intended to go down to the Hotel Ibis rooftop bar on Malioboro Street to watch the sunset (and people launching end of Ramadan fireworks), but we woke up quite late and had to really hustle. Got a motorised pedalcab which was quite an experience since you sit in the front rather than behind the driver! Made it to the Ibis on Malioboro Street about 15 minutes before sunset, only to discover that the rooftop bar was actually in a different Hotel Ibis a couple of streets away! A very brisk walk and elevator ride, we made it to the other Hotel Ibis rooftop bar just in time to watch the sun set, though we needn't have bothered since it was hazy and the sun just sort of disappeared near the horizon.

But it was still a nice stop, and we had a cocktail each while watching random fireworks shoot off around the city and listening to the muezzins do their thing (allahu ackbah x 12 officially marks the end of Ramadan and the commencement of Eid-al-Fitr or Idul Fitre as it's called here).

Back out into the streets and the warm night air, neither of us were particularly hungry since we'd had a late room service lunch around 3pm. We contented ourselves with some satay sticks from a food cart (8 sticks for a dollar = bargain, though they aren't huge chunks of meat like you get in Australia) and then a pastry from a BreadTop imitation chain. Considered having an ice cream too, but the gelato place we'd seen a couple of days earlier was closed so we just walked back to the hotel, stopping briefly at a cafe for an iced tea/hot chocolate on the way.

Spent a bit of time doing some planning in the evening since we'd gotten back to the hotel by 8pm. Today is the 5th and we have one more full day here in Jogja before a day of train travel to Jakarta on the 7th. Originally we were only planning on spending two days in Jakarta (it's apparently a polluted concrete jungle) before heading elsewhere, but our flight from Jakarta to Singapore isn't until the 15th. We were hoping to head for Raja Ampat in West Papua for a few days in between, but according to the internet July/August is the worst time of year to head there (heaviest rainfall and strongest wind), so not great conditions for snorkelling. Decided to put it off for another time.

So we decided to just spend the full 7 nights in Jakarta, taking it easy. Although we've definitely done a lot of chilling out, Shandos has fallen well behind in her work and I've got enough footage for another two videos that I haven't had time to produce yet. So we booked a nice semi-fancy hotel in downtown Jakarta with good business facilities, and we'll just spend some time working and doing non-travelling things. I realise that taking a holiday from a holiday sounds ridiculous, but there aren't many things about this lifestyle that aren't ridiculous!Read more