Borobudur

From Borobudur

The temple at Borobodur is supposedly Indonesia's top tourist destination, with some justification I would say, based on our experience today. It is a Buddhist temple, built circa 800AD, on a massive scale. It has some passing resemblance with the features found at Ankor Wat, but is really totally unique.

We got up at dawn to see the temple at its best, without the crowds of tourists that crawl all over it later in the day. (For some reason, many of the 'must see' sights on this holiday require dawn viewing. Not something that I am particularity keen on as it leaves me feeling totally zonked for the rest of the day). Although there is no spectacular lighting effect from the dawn sun, the overall atmosphere was amazing, with a layer of mist lying over the surrounding jungle, and volcanic mountains jutting out on the horizon (see pictures). It is virtually impossible to capture the scale and extent of the temple with a camera. You have to experience it first hand.

We spent some time looking at the thousands of bas relief carvings that cover the walls of the 7 terraces that constitute the temple. It would take a good guide to explain all the stories behind these, but we made do with just taking in the overall feel of the place.

After a two hour dawn viewing, we had a breakfast break (and a short nap in my case) before returning for a second viewing session. The hotel we were staying at is actually in the temple grounds, with admission included in the price, so it was very convenient to come and go whenever we wanted.

At midday we headed back to our hotel in Yogyakarta for a lazy afternoon by the pool, in readiness for the train journey to Surabaya the next day.