Southward Bound, Java

After our national park experience we spent a couple of days in Pangkalan Bun, which was pretty forgettable to be honest. Not a great deal going on and no alcohol could be purchased which was a bit gutting as a celebratory beer would have been nice! Anyway, we had three days to kill here until our scheduled flight on the 19th. We were on a waiting list for an earlier flight, so it was good news when the agent called us and let us know we could be on a flight two days early. Nice! We made the trip to the airport and jumped on another ropey plane, waved goodbye to Kalimantan and headed to Java, the heart of Indonesia.
We only planned to spend a couple of days in Java, taking in a couple of sights and then travelling through to Bali. On arrival it was plain to see that we were now entering a completely different part of Indonesia. More tourists and more English being spoken with a better set up right from the off. We immediately grabbed a cab and headed towards our first stop which was Borobudur (home to the largest Buddhist monument in the world). After a three hour journey which included two near misses, we arrived in one piece at a pleasant guest house (Lotus II) which was within a stone’s throw of the temple. Our host Jack was a well spoken Muslim fella who had a very open mind and seemed like a decent sort. After some short instructions from him we headed straight for the monument to see what it was all about.

The monument itself is a massive construction formed from two million block stones which are literally wrapped around a small hill to create a symmetrical Stupa (something that looks like a big upside down bell). It has a 188m x 188m base (just to give you an idea of the size). The monument was conceived as a Buddhist vision of the cosmos, starting with the everyday world and spiralling up to Nirvana, the Buddhist Heaven. It consists of the base, four lower terraces, a plateau, three further terraces and a central Stupa. On each lower terrace the blocks are finely carved. There are 11 series of reliefs depicted on the monument with sometimes two or three stories running parallel to each other on a gallery wall (the stories are taken from several Sanskrit manuscripts that discuss the many lives of the Buddha). To follow a story from start to finish you must walk clockwise around one of the terraces. This process is called Pradakcina which is paying homage to the good spirits. To walk anti clockwise is to recognise the spirits of the dead. You should always walk clockwise round Buddhist temples!
The sight that greats you as you approach the temple.

Examples of the terraces. You can see the carvings on the walls.


Touching the Buddhas feet (for good luck!)

The amazing view with the stupas in the forground.

It has to be said the magnitude of the whole thing was very impressive!


On our return to the guest house we were met by Jack and we got chatting. He told us of his concern regarding Borobudur. To cut a long story short, the monument and the surrounding park is operated by a company based in Jakarta rather than by the locals, which means that the local community does not benefit from the tourist activity in Borobudur as it should. Its development into a park has seen the surrounding scenery change from lovely rice fields and a lake to landscaped gardens and a museum, which is a shame. He told us of his constant campaigns for the change of management and fairer handling of Borobudur to benefit locals and also for better management of tourism within Indonesia. He was a noble chap.
We also learnt from him that there was another temple close by called Candi Mendut that was also an impressive sight. Furthermore, we could, with a little help of a back hander to the security guards, visit the place after dark and have it to ourselves! So he leant us his motor bike and off we went. We arrived, paid the 10,000 rupiah (about 60p) and went into the temple.
Me infront of the main Buddha (im putting a lit inscense stick into a pot)

This is Dipi, trying to meditate! Without success as i got bored!


We also did the same at a monastery just along from the temple where the monks were chanting and praying.

This was really cool and more enjoyable than the main monument which was obviously more touristy.

We also borrowed the bike to go round the local area, here are a few snaps of what we saw.
Large Fig Tree

Some Workers in the Fields

Some nice views

Me and the charriot


After a couple of days here we headed off to Yogyakarta (or Yogya for short, pronounced Jogja) which is considered to be Java’s soul.

This was a very pleasant place to be for a couple of days with nice places to eat and decent places to stay. We chilled here for a couple of days (the place where we stayed had a pool, our first since Thailand!), and sorted our plans to get to Bali. As it turned out the cheapest way to do this was by coach, which would take 17 hours!!!