Day 2: Part I - Borobudur & the Worst Day Ever!

Happy December, everyone!  And here I am still recounting my stories from this past summer.  I'm very behind.  Anyway, shall we continue? 

Because we didn't have much time in Yogyakarta, I wanted to make sure we did the most important thing there: visit Borobodur, Indonesia's #1 tourist attraction.  Of all the trips we've taken to Indonesia in the years past and we've not been to this beautiful place ... we were finally going to see it. 

I booked a full-day tour with Great Tours of Yogyakarta, which included Borobudur and a visit to the Dieng Plateau, a volcanic hilltop with a gorgeous view of the landscape below, a crater lake the color of aquamarine, and small, ancient Hindu temples abound. 

I got up at 3 AM with an upset stomach.  I immediately rushed to the bathroom, but the discomfort didn't end there.  In fact, this was the beginning of a very long bout of food poisoning.  More on this later.  We all officially got out of bed around 5 AM because our tour guide was scheduled to meet us at our hotel at 7 AM.  Unfortunately for him, 7 AM is the start of the hotel complimentary breakfast, and everyone but me wanted breakfast.  My mom forced me to eat and I believe bread & chocolate sprinkles and bowls of soto ayam were served -- one of my favorite Indonesian dishes, and yet I had no appetite.  We apologized to our tour guide, Mas Maralewa, who was already waiting for us in the lobby, for being a few minutes late.  Mas was young, probably early 30s, with a friendly face.  He was cheery.  Guess that's always a good sign.  He introduced us to our driver, whose name I've sadly forgotten, and we were on our way.  Little did we know, we were doomed the moment we got inside the van.  No, nothing terrible happened to us, but you'll find out soon enough.

Mawar Asri's Breakfast Room

My sisters' favorite: bread, butter & chocolate sprinkles -- it's actually pretty good.

When I first booked the tour, it was agreed that we'd see Dieng Plateau first and save Borobudur for the trip back to Yogyakarta.  The reason being is if you wait to visit Dieng in the afternoon, you risk not seeing a darn thing because of the afternoon mist that rolls in.  It would defeat the whole point of driving up there and I didn't want to chance it, so I told the tour operator Dieng first, Borobudur second.  However, Mas thought it would be better if we saw Borobudur now and Dieng later.  I can't remember what his reason for this was -- maybe something to do with the crowds being a little more rowdy at Borobudur in the afternoon, or the long drive to Dieng?  I knew it was going to be a long drive to Dieng either way; the plateau from Yogyakarta is a 4-hour drive.  But I was outnumbered.  My family wanted to see Borobudur first and couldn't care less for Dieng ... mostly because they didn't know what to expect from Dieng, and when I tried to explain what we'd see there, they still wanted to see Borobudur first.  Majority rule.  To Borobudur we went, which was about an hour's drive from Yogyakarta.

Officially at Borobudur, dressed in our best sarong!

The leisurely stroll to the temple, along with everyone else

The sign translates: Place of batik clothing

Mas and the driver dropped us off near the main entrance, which was a visitor information office, where he got us in and outfitted in black and white batik sarong.  Only a few people were being outfitted by the office women when we arrived.  I felt bulky and silly with the sarong on as I was wearing jean capris underneath, but out of respect the piece of cloth was required when setting foot inside a temple.  No exceptions.  Sacrifice a little comfort for a once-in-a-life-time opportunity.  Plus, the sarong was included in our admission ticket.  As we made our way towards the temple, we saw many people getting dressed in their sarongs.  Hmm ... I think I like our black & white sarong better! 

As expected, there were a lot of people -- mainly Indonesians from other cities.  Interestingly I don't recall seeing tourists from anywhere else. 

Proof that I was here! And boy does that banner in the back take away from it all. :(

My beautiful mom donning her beloved straw hat

We made it to the first landing and stood there to take in everything.  What a sight, Borobudur is simply beautiful, and exquisitely detailed.  The carvings were quite something.

Borobudur has licensed tour guides to explain the stories behind the many carvings.  There's a fee -- I can't remember how much -- we decided to forgo the guide because we only had two hours to spend here and really just wanted to explore on our own.  Check out the headless statue above.  We found many of them headless.

Sahara enjoying her time at Borobudur

Sahara asked someone to snap a photo of us with the temple behind us, and the above photo was the end result.  She was very annoyed because it wasn't what she had in mind.  Regardless, I think it's still a nice family photo!

After many photos on the first landing, we then made our way up the long, narrow staircase to the top, the steps themselves were very thick.  You had to literally hike up the stairs.  It was quite a work-out, but worth the effort. 

Love this photo of my sisters!

We spent a lot of time wandering and taking pictures here, and taking pictures with people we didn't know!  So many Indonesian tourists asked us to get in their photos with them.  Here you are walking minding your own business when suddenly you're being asked to take a picture here, and a picture there, and a picture with this person and a picture with that person, and how about one with the whole family!  We couldn't say no, because in Indonesia that would mean arrogance.  It was like being chased by the paparazzi (not that I know what that's like), but I can only imagine. 

We had even asked someone to take a family photo of us, just us when out of nowhere, this random girl jumped in to take Sahara's place next to mom.  Sahara was once again, very annoyed.  Umm ... excuse me? This is a family photo.  You're not a member of our family.  Please step aside.  Of course, none of us said anything.  It was funny though.  See below.

Photoshop this random girl out? 

But we did get our family photo in eventually ...

Along with more beautiful photos of Borobudur ...

My best attempt to get a photo of the stupas with as little people in it as possible -- not bad, eh?

After two hours on the grounds, we returned to our van for the next segment of our tour, which went downhill from here.  Check back soon to find out what went wrong ...