Jaunting around Java

We are spending 2 weeks in Indonesia for partly for a conference and partly for a holiday and we fly first to Bali and have a horrible moment trying to push through crowds of people to buy our visas and then join an enormous crowd to be processed. The lines do not seem to move at all but people keep disappearing strangely behind us. We find out later that someone from the conference waited for 2 hours but we are worried about our connecting flight. After some fruitless fretting we are approached by an official, who spoke of an “express” lane, and then with our first ever bribe we are whisked through immigration. Very dodgy. Rather flustered, we catch a connecting flight to Yogyakarta in Java, a short 1 hour flight and check into the beautiful Hotel Phoenix, which was built in 1918 and has a very Dutch colonial feel. It is a lovely hotel with delightful friendly staff and we begin to relax.

In the morning we catch a taxi to the town of Borobudur, which is home to the UNESCO world heritage listed 8th century Buddhist temple that from the air resembles a huge mandala. After checking in to another beautiful hotel, the Saraswati, where we lolled by the lush pool for a while, we walked to the temple. Luckily it was overcast and not so hot by then as the temple has three terraces which you walk around clockwise in order to leave the world of passion and earthly pleasures behind to reach the summit and experience Nirvana with many stupas containing seated buddhas. I stalked a monk who was doing the real thing as the photograph shows. The views of the surrounding Javanese countryside from the top are breath-taking and we are able to see the huge volcano Mt Merapi in the distance. The funniest thing that happened as you can see is that Hugh became very popular as many people wanted to have their photos taken with him. We couldn’t really understand why! So we joined in the fun and took pictures of his fan club too.

The next day we had a wonderful buffet breakfast with the most delicious coconut pancakes and other yummy Indonesian treats which the manager assured me were vegetarian. Actually the food has been surprisingly good for me with lots of spicy tofu curries, fried tempeh and gado-gado. Hugh and I got up early and walked a few kilometres to the temple of Mendut which was quite tricky as there was not much in the way of footpaths and much in the way of traffic. The temple is small but quite atmospheric and is one of the few temples in Java with its original statue still inside. The monks from the nearby monastery walk from this temple to another even smaller temple we visited, called Candi Pawon and then onto Borobudur. The monastery is very tranquil and peaceful compared to the chaotic traffic outside.

Later, Alex and I decide to hire a horse and cart and explore the surrounding countryside. We left the motorcycle filled bustle of Borobudur and soon it was lovely and quiet and we passed rice paddies and fertile fields and quaint villages. The little kids are so cute and always smile and wave to us. We stoped to see how tofu was made in one village and how clay-pots were made in another. Quite fascinating. We love watching a whole family on a motorbike with one kid at the front, a dad, then another small child either standing or on his father’s shoulders and then a mum. Often with no helmets! Luckily people are very good drivers.