Yogyakarta and Borobudur

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Yogyakarta and Borobudur
Leaving at the crack of dawn Mark and I hopped into Haidir’s van and off to Medan airport to Jakarta to Yogyakarta, aka; Jogja. We didn’t realize that there was a Christian holiday connected to a long weekend. Our taxi driver, whom we basically hired for a few days, drove us through the south of Yogyakarta into a hotel district but there were no rooms to be had and it was getting late. We decided to drive to Borobudur and try to catch a sunrise over the temple in the process. Happenstance clockwork; we got a place to stay and very close to the entrance of the Borobudur temple. There wasn’t a line right at sunrise. We got in and climbed up the levels. Looking at the entrance we saw mobs high school students and more people all heading up the stairs. We took photos as fast as we could before the photos fill up with people.


The temple is old; 8^th-9^th century Mahayana Buddhist monument. The reliefs remind me of Anchor Wat in Cambodia but with a different perspective of the story. And I’m pretty sure Maya, goddess of illusion, makes an appearance at both.  Somewhere around the 14^th century, the Javanese religious kingdoms wavered and broke down leading to the demise of Buddhism and Hinduism and mass conversion to Islam.


There are Buddha statues inside the stupas and stacks of good viewpoints of the nearby volcanoes and other features of town. Borobudur has undergone numerous restorations with the help of the Indonesian government and groups such as UNESCO; (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization). This is a unique branch of the U.N. supporting projects and tangible goals through education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture and communication and information.


The on slot of people hit like a swarm. In seconds we had high school students greeting us and practicing their English; lots of smiling faces, lots of laughs, and lots of questions. I must say, Indonesians seem to be the happiest people on the planet.


We wandered around the grounds for awhile trying to figure out if we could get passed the vendors without having to say, ‘Tidak, Teramakasi’.


Our taxi driver, same one was at our door at 11:30 and sped us off to the beach some 40 kilometers away. It wasn’t what we expected, but then again, we didn’t really have a plan, thats how adventure travel works.


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