Yogyakarta (May 20-22): Temples galore

As I said, bed around midnight (on May 19) to get up and head to the airport. Next morning, left the hostel, uneventful trip on the MRT to Changi Airport. Which, by the way, is awesome. Spent morning there having a little food, watching a little TV while sitting on comfy easy chairs each with their own speakers (Nexus Lounge)! They even have a “resting area” with chaise lounges to sleep on.

I arrived in Yogyakarta and headed to the hotel which had been recommended to me: Setia Kawan. It was a beautiful little place owned by a painter. The walls were covered in gorgeous paintings in bright hues. Pictures on flickr when possible...

4:30 on Saturday May 21, wake up, shower, headed out on my tour to Borobudur and Prambanan.

As I boarded the minibus, I met my traveling companions: Julia, from Germany, Ariane, from Switzerland, Jun, from Japan, Alan, from Malaysia, and two more people whose names I never got, one from Italy and one from Indonesia. We headed out to Borobudur, catching a glimpse of erupting Merapi in the distance. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was too cloudy to get a good look or picture. Oh well.

Borobudur: beautiful, impressive Buddhas everywhere. See pictures. At Borobudur, constantly harassed by touts selling random crap.

Then a quick stop to see a nearby temple with the largest Buddha in Indonesia. He wasn’t really that big.

Then on to Prambanan, the highlight of the day. As we walked towards the temple, we saw a large gathering of locals – apparently we had stumbled onto some festival. Marching bands made up of little kids (no older than 6 or 8) were performing with great concentration. These kids were dedicated. And quite good considering their age. And the crowds really got into their performances. Also at the festival was an Indonesian rock band, which we watched for a couple minutes.

The temple itself was much more interesting than Borobudur, at least for me. It was actually many small temples to Hindu gods: got some good pictures of Ganesh and Vishnu. While there, was attacked by hordes of Indo schoolchildren looking to practice their English. It was cute for a while, but then got old. Ariane and Julia apparently got some good pictures of me being mobbed. Oh, and many, many Indonesians asked if I would take a photo with them. Which I did.