On Monday I woke up to my alarm going off at 3:30am — I was getting up early for a sunrise tour of two temples in the area, Borobudur and Prambanan.\u00a0 As Borobudur is one of the few regions in Indonesia with maleria, I was wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt despite a very hot weather forecast.\u00a0 A German couple I met who was staying at my hostel were also on the tour, and we sat around complaining about it being early until our driver came.\u00a0 Upon getting picked up we drove out to a view point looking out over Borobudur at a few of the many mountains and volcanoes on Indonesia, but it was unfortunately very foggy so we didn’t get much of a view.\u00a0 It was still very pretty and quite serene, though.<\/p>\n
From there, we drove over to Borobudur, a buddhist temple – the main reason I had decided to come to Yogyakarta.\u00a0 Built over the course of 50 years and finished in 825 AD, Borobudur is an architectural marval considering how well preserved it is today.\u00a0 It is made up of 6 different square levels and topped by 3 more cocentric circular levels populated with 72 Buddha statues, each roughly 5-10 m high, symetrically spaced and seated inside stupas (which look like large bells).\u00a0 In total it has over 500 Buddha statues and over 2,500 relief panels depiting very scenes in extenuating detail.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 When getting our tickets, we were required to put on a sarong as a symbolic show of respect for this historical religious artifact.\u00a0 Walking towards Borobudur, it was very foggy, with Buddha statues looking peacefully out into the distance, adding to the mysteriousness of the temple.\u00a0 Comprised of about 2 million stones and situated amongst mountains and palm trees, the compound was amazing to see.<\/p>\n
I was struck by the detail of the relief panels at a micro level, thinking about how long it must have taken to make the whole temple.\u00a0 It really did show the power of teamwork when a collection of people feel strongly about a goal — in this case a goal which was only realized after 50 years of work by thousands.\u00a0 That really shows devotion.<\/p>\n
Interestingly, the temple was forgotten and abandoned in the 14th century and only rediscovered in 1814, when a British man was advised of its location by a native Indonesian.\u00a0 From then, it has grown in popularity and is now Indonesia’s single most visited tourist attraction.<\/p>\n
After touring around the site and checking out a few neighboring museums, we met back up with our tour group and headed to the other major temple site in the area, Prambanan.\u00a0 In constrast with Borobudur, which is a single Buddhist temple, Prambanan is a collection of Hindu temples.\u00a0 It is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia, with its distinctive tall and pointed architecture and buildings towering at over 150 ft.\u00a0 It was built around the same time, in the 9th century.<\/p>\n
While touring around the compounds with the German temple we were stopped frequently by local tourists who wanted to take pictures with us.\u00a0 Why I do not know, but we quickly got used to it and were quick to agree to the pictures seeing how happy it made the locals.\u00a0 This by the way was not them taking pictures of us, but rather with us, whether it be with children, adults, or even whole families.\u00a0 After speaking with some locals later during my time in Indonesia, my only guess is that given the wealth they associate with foreigners and importance of status within their culture, taking pictures with us is sort of like meeting a celebrity?\u00a0 (Note:\u00a0 if you have further knowledge behind the picture taking with tourists in Indonesia, I would love to hear from you in the comment section below).<\/p>\n
Finally, we returned back to our lodging.\u00a0 Tired from a day in the sun, I booked a traditional Javanese massage.\u00a0 I do not have much experience with massages in general, but the Java massage was quite a unique experience.\u00a0 80% of it was great and what you would expect from a massage, with the other 20% comprised of what I can only describe as punching and slapping.\u00a0 It was literally painful, but somehow afterwards makes me feel quite relaxed.\u00a0 Go figure.<\/p>\n
That evening I went for Italian food again – I was leaving on a 12 hour bus ride the next day and did not want to introduce any troublesome stomach issues in advance \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Itinerary Highlights<\/span> Lessons Learned<\/span> What is the most amazing thing you can think of that was accomplished by a team of people working towards a common goal?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Monday I woke up to my alarm going off at 3:30am — I was getting up early for a sunrise tour of two temples in the area, Borobudur and Prambanan.\u00a0 As Borobudur is one of the few regions in Indonesia with maleria, I was wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt despite a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indonesia","category-itinerary","category-touring-around","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\n
\n–Borobudur
\n–Prambanan
\n–Traditional Javanese massage<\/p>\n
\n–Through the power of a collective team and dedication towards a goal, amazing things can be accomplished
\n–You can develop meaningful friendships in a short amount of time through shared experiences.\u00a0 Meeting people on the road is fun, and it is more enjoyable to experience travel with others — even if you just met them yesterday!<\/p>\n