The alarm went off at 5:45 am and as pre arranged by the hotel, we went to the restaurant where we had a simple breakfast. Then we went to reception where we found that our pre-booked transport (which we expected to be motorised) was actually a small Indonesian man with a tiny cycle rickshaw (becak) which we both had to somehow fit into. It was hard work for the rickshaw driver as he had to push our combined weight plus his own weight and the journey seemed to take an age.
At the entrance gate we were issued with a Borobudur sarong and passed through a metal detector before entering the temple complex.
Our first sight of the temple was from the east side - the temple was surrounded by beautiful lush green gardens with the Mount Merapi volcano providing a spectacular backdrop. Borobudur Temple seemed to be an enormous sprawling structure – made up of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms. We spent the next three hours climbing up the stairs and walking around each platform admiring the reliefs and Buddha statues which were housed in alcoves. The top three circular platforms held 72 Buddha statues housed in perforated stupas. The whole monument was constructed from black andesite volcanic stone which had to be hauled up the hill from the surrounding rivers.
Later on the site started to get busy with hordes of Indonesian school kids wanting signatures and photos. In the beginning we found this quite amusing as we were mildly flattered by our newfound celebrity status, but this rapidly transitioned to mild annoyance and finally to our complete refusal to cooperate.
We found our rickshaw driver and he took us to Mendut Temple after changing from pedal power to a motorised rickshaw – much to our relief.
Mendut Temple was the starting point for the Waisak (Buddha’s birthday celebration) procession which would ultimately finish at Borobudur. It was much smaller and contained a bronze Buddha which was being decorated with garlands of flowers for Waisak.
Outside Mendut temple, we had a coconut rice and palm sugar snack which was heated in an improvised steamer contraption held in some panniers on the back of a scooter.
After getting back to the hotel we went out for a walk around the nearby village. We took photos of green rice paddies and papaya plantations. There were baskets of peanuts, cloves and orange corn drying in the sun by the roadside.
its just awesome! thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteand steve, love your shoes ;-)