Ancient temples

Yogyakarta, Indonesia. After travelling in train for 16 hours from Jaisalmer to Delhi, then fly for 5 hours from Delhi to Trivandrum, then sleeping in this airport overnight just to take the 8:00 am flight to Kuala Lumpur, then go to the city and pick some stuff I left with Angel, my couchsurfer host, go back to the airport and take the flight to Jakarta, Indonesia, and then sleep again in the airport, to take the 6:00 am flight to Yogyakarta!!! I loved it!!! Hahaha..

So, I arrived to Indonesia and suddenly I felt really good about this country.. is nothing like India, it is clean and organized.. the streets, and transport system, everything is quite better than I expected.. So I went to the Solriwajai Street, where all the guest houses are, and I let myself be guided for some guy, that might have gotten a comission, as they always do, and took me to a very nice guest house, located in one of the gangs (Gang is like a narrow alley, just for pedestrians, perpendicular to the streets, and I loved it, they are so peculiar with cafes, book stores, etc).. For my surpise, It was hosted by a catholic family.. There was a big statue of the Virgen de Lourdes, so that ringed the bell...

This first day I went to walk around town, specially around Maliuboro Street (yes like Marlboro)... it is the most famous street, because it has a market in all the sideways.. Its quite intersting, seeing all kinds of food and clothing articles.. I walked south, where it ends in the Palace, which was closed but some other backpackers told me it wasnt that good... Then at night I went to have dinner at some well placed restaurant in my gang, and eat some indonesian food: some rice with shrimp, and vegetables.. really spicy though..

The next morning I woke up at 5 am, because I went with a tour in a minibus to the ancient buddhist temple of Borobudur.. The monument is both a shrine to the Lord Buddha and a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. This was one of my main reasons to come to this remote island (Java Island).. We got to see the sunrise, and the scenery was breathtaking! I walked around the temple, which is really nice, with a lot of details in the reliefs and stupas. (bell shaped structures, with buddhas statues inside)... And the whole layout of the temple, has a deep metaphorical meaning to the Buddishm teaching and stages in life.

Then we head to another temple: Prambanan, which is a ninth century Hindu temple compound dedicated to Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Sustainer (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). The temple, as well as Borobudur, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, currently is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, and is one of the largest Hindu temples in south-east Asia. It is characterised by its tall and pointed architecture. When I was there, it started to rain!! But serious rain! We had to cover inside the temples and waited for more than 20 minutes.. It was a very emotional experience...

The next day I head to Bromo, a beautiful volcano on Java...


to be continued...