This was our final accommodation for our time in Yogya.

Waking the guys up at 3.30am is no joke. With lots of swearing, I managed to roll them out of bed.

We met up at the reception just before 4 am for the Borobudur sunrise tour. Staying at the hotel gives us the advantage of avoiding the crowds by a special pre-dawn stroll through the hotel grounds and right up the UNESCO monument. Upon signing up at the counter, we were given a sticker to show that we came from the hotel and torch. Our guide for the day was Pak Fatah. A French lady joined us in our little tour.

The mist enveloped us as we walked along the trail to the entrance. Pak Fatah started his narration of the monument and how he came to be a tour guide. Before the hotel was built and the surrounding areas being designated as part of the UNESCO site for protection, he used to stay at the village that is right next to the ancient compound. When he was young, he didn't understand the hubbub about this temple. Tour buses used to deposited tourists right at the foot of the building.

The village has been there for ages. The temple was his playground. The village children found the place as an amazing place for a game of hide-n-seek.Tales were passed from the elders that the villagers used to be the labour force for the temple, centuries ago.

 The Indonesian government, realizing the value of tourism, decided to relocate their entire village. Although there was a tone of regret in his voice, Pak Fatah acknowledged that it was also for the greater good. However, he felt that the compensation could be have been better.

Stone steps leading upwards through the arches of Kala. I took this photo on the way down as the dawn light was too dark

Pak Fatah, although a Muslim, is very knowledgeable about Borobudur and its Buddhist teachings. He explained patiently to us the difference in design in every level. Borobudur was designed to reflect the road to enlightenment.As one discards away worldly needs and desires, the ascending design became simpler, without need of adornment.You can hear the passion about conservation in his voice.

At 5am

The morning mist lifting up

Every stupa had its own Buddha sitting in it.

As Borobudur is located quite near to Mount Merapi, an active volcano, the Borobudur park management has designated each stupa to a park official. When there is news of an eruption, the park official will run to his stupa with a "stupa cover" to secure it before the volcanic ash reaches the temple. The first incident they had with volcanic ash was very costly and time-consuming to clean. Each stone had to be removed, cleaned (vacuumed or jet-sprayed) and replaced.

Sun is coming up at 5.30pm. How many sunrises did this Buddha see since it was carved?

With Buddhas surrounding the main stupa, you would expect the main stupa to have some enormous statue. However, archaeologists found none within. It was just a large empty room. According to Pak Fatah, Buddhist monks have informed him that the room is empty to show that enlightenment. That there was no need for a statue of any sort.

Main Stupa in the back

There are no lions on the Java island. How did this fella end up here?

Bas relief depicting Buddha's past lives

The tour ended via another exit directly back into the hotel. That's when my spare shoe gave way. Sigh... of all the things that could have happened.

At the exit, there were lots of souvenir touts who lay in ambush. They are very persistent. Ignoring them would be your best option.

We returned our torch to the counter and received a nice scarf in exchange. Since we were hotel guests, we went to have our breakfast and had our tour snack delivered to us.

Fried banana fritters with cheese. Strange but yummy combination

We checked out after breakfast for the second part of the day's touring. We were headed for cave and river tubing! On the way there, we would make stops at the Pawon and Mendut Temple.

True to his word, Mr. Budi fixed my shoe too!

The Pawon temple lies in between Mendut and Borobudur. It's a small temple and empty inside. Some say it serves as a tomb.

Pawon Temple

We stopped 2km later at Mendut Temple. There was a huge crowd of students on excursions. The strange thing is that they kept trying to speak to us in Japanese O_o. I was tempted to yell back "日本人じゃありません".

Mendut Temple

Offering up a prayer

Students on excursion. You can see that parts of the area is still being excavated.

It was a 4 hour drive to Gua Pindul for cave and river tubing after the temples. Unfortunately we not able to capture any photos during the tubing session for fear of dropping our phones into the river. In short, it was a very long journey.

Tubing looks like this, minus the pina colada.

Credits to funny-pictures.picphotos.net

Gua Pindul is generally visited by the locals as a point for river sports. During the wet season, lots of white water rafting is done in this area. Cave and river tubing cost us IDR160,000 each. We started by changing into our swim gear at the rudimentary bath house (around IDR20,000 per entry), getting our tubes and getting an assigned guide.

As we slowly drifted into Gua Pindul, our guide explained the sights to us. In the wet season, cave tubing is usually off limits since water levels could rise dangerously high. There were many rowdy students in the cave doing cliff jumping. Although it was 7 metres to the bottom, our guide cautioned against it as it was still dangerous.

To get to the river tubing portion, we loaded up our tubes into the back of the truck and headed out. The truck stopped us sorta like in the middle of the field and we lugged our tubes down to the river. As it was the dry season, the water currents were really slow and our guide had to pull us along. It was a slow float along the 5km stretch. He told us that the best time to do river tubing is right after the monsoons, around June. Then the swollen river would have receded a little and the currents would be able to push us along at a nice steady pace.

We did a quick kampung style shower after tubing i.e. using a bucket and scooping out frigid water to rinse off the river water. As there is really a lack of space to hang your belongings within the cubicles, best to just put everything into a plastic bag and sort it out later.

For dinner we headed to Yogyakarta for Nasi Gudeg. Mr. Budi brought us to a street in Yogyakarta that specialised in this local dish. We ended up at warung Yu Djum. We sat cross-legged on the floor as Mr. Budi ordered for us.
 
This place seemed quite well-known. Never ending streams of people stopped by to do takeaways.

Nasi Gudeg - boiled jackfruit in coconut milk, boiled egg, buffalo skin, soya cake(tempe) and chicken

Portions were on the small side. It has a sweetish taste to it, probably attributed to the palm sugar involved in the cooking. If you are a big eater, you may need 2 portions of this.

Borobudur Sunrise Tour
Inhouse Price: IDR230,000
Foreign Visitor Price : IDR380,000
Registration : Front desk of Manohara Borobudur Hotel

Gudeg Yu Djum
Address: Kaliurang Street Km 4,5 Karang Asem CT III/22
Tel:+62 274 515968

When you travel to a new place, distance can be pretty tricky. Google Map can tell you one thing, but it doesn't let you know if you would be stuck behind a motorbike pulling a hog cage.

Had shakey hands that day. This is the reception area

To be exact it was a 3 days 2 nights trip with my college besties. We have been talking about going on a trip together, just me and the guys, for ages. With the crazy timelines we keep in our careers, we took the leap when a window opened.

Airasia flies directly to Yogyakarta once a day and it takes about 2 and a half hours. The plane was almost empty. That's really rare for a low budget carrier. When the plane landed in Adisucipto, I was surprised at the size of the airport considering that it supported international flights.

There are 2 lines for immigration. Yup, TWO! For ASEAN travelers, a visa upon arrival is not required. However if you are coming in from other countries, there is a small visa counter on your right once you step into the terminal before immigration wooden counters.

The luggage conveyor belt comes after that. At Adisucipto International Airport, its not a luggage carousel. The luggage rolls out and lands with a plop on the floor. Passengers will surge in to grab there bags. If there are a few flights coming in at the same time, it is just mayhem. Try to get there as soon as possible after immigration to avoid someone accidentally taking your luggage away. I tried to take a photo the conveyor belt but every couple seconds or so, someone trying to get to their luggage, would bump into me.

My friends who had arrived 30 minutes earlier were waiting for me outside. Since we live in different countries, we decided to fly in separately and meet upon arrival. Our assigned tour driver, Mr. Budi, was waiting for us patiently. He's a nice, quiet and kind chap (I somehow always find myself with quiet drivers) who practices safe driving.

*short initial review on my tour guide*

If anyone wants a safe, reliable tour operator, contact Borobudur Tours & Travel, Pak Wiedy Antara. He is very professional in handling my multiple changes in itinerary (I blame the indecisive male company of my group),  answered my emails and paranoid questions promptly and basically assured us that everything would be taken care of. I have to admit, I had my reservations based my last experience with a tour/driver agency. Although Borobudur Tours prices are not the cheapest around, but it was definitely worth it.

*end of review*

Since the itinerary has already been sorted out, we headed off to Prambanan Temple - one of the largest Hindu temple complex within South East Asia. On the way there, Mr. Budi put in a call to Pak Wiedy and passed me the phone. Pak Wiedy assured us again that everything was planned and wished us a pleasant time in Yogyakarta.

The Prambanan Temples were half an hour away from the airport. Mr Budi parked the car and led us to a air-conditioned building to meet our guide, a jovial elderly man.When we were ready, he led the way in. We were just in awe.

9th century architecture. How did they get the stones way up there?!

It dawned on us that we would be travelling to UNESCO sites learnt during high school.

There are over 500 temples within the Prambanan Temple compounds and 240 temples at the Prambanan Temple. The 3 main temples within the central compound represent the Trimurthi, dedicated to Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Keeper) and Shiva (the Destroyer).

Our guide told us that we came at the right time as the Shiva Temple had just finished its restoration works from the previous volcano ash debris.Restoration works has been on-going on these 9th century mega structures since 1918. As an earthquake and volcano prone area, the conservation team have to be on their toes to make sure these buildings will continue the test of time and elements. If you see a white dot, that means the stone was not part of the original structure and was placed to replace broken ones.

Interlocking stones

Replacement stones are either obtained the smaller temples destroyed by earthquake or new volcanic stones cut to fit. With the numerous temples and missing parts, the Indonesian government has decreed that only temples with 75% of its original masonry will be restored. Some damage left from the May 2006 earthquake has been left untouched as a reminder that day.

This is supposed to be a mythical creature but it looks like a smiling shih tzu

4 chambers within the Shiva temple house Shiva as Mahadeva, his consort Durga, Agastya and Ganesha. Under the Shiva statue, archaeologists found a well which would provided some sort of water feature for the statue.

In front of the Shiva temple, the Nandi bull, Lord Shiva's vehicle has a temple of its own. Flanking it are the statues of Chandra, the sun god with his 10 horses and Sundra, the moon god on a carriage with 7 horses. The temples housing Brahma's and Vishnu's vehicles, Hamsa (a swan) and Garuda, were empty. I guess looters have a more difficult time moving out a bull that weights a few tonnes.

Bas reliefs depicting scenes from Ramayana covered the temples. It was really like a reading a picture book. The story starts at the east entrance and it goes around clockwise.

Our guide informed us that there were stories about the stone carvers chipping away at their assigned blocks of stone, and there was an inspector who went around checking on the finished work. Any imperfections were discarded and the carvers would have to start over.

He lead us to another temple *ahem* that is more suited to the mature audience. Instead of carvings of heroes, we were presented with scenes of the bedroom and sexual preferences. Passages from the Kama Sutra were etched into the temple walls. I'm not a prude but I didn't think it was right to photoraph veyouristic acts, no matter how old they are or how bizarre. Imagine huge appendages, male-male, male-female, 1 male - multiple females, male with animals. Yup, someone sure had a kinky imagination. PC made a comment that this is an ancient porn manual.

View of the temples from the garden grounds After the temple tours, our guide lead us through the temple gardens. The shade was welcome after the sweltering heat. The rains had not come for the year.  We chatted with him as we walked along. Most Prambanan temple guides are not rookies. The guide we were with has been doing this job for the past 15 years! No wonder his presentation and photo skills were good. During our tour there, we saw other guides conversant in Japanese, Spanish and German. After the gardens, we had to pass by a tourist market to get to the exit. We ignored them and power-walked our way to the exit. Luckily my sneaker sole held out until we reached the entrance. It started coming off when we were climbing up and down the stone stairs at the Prambanan temples. Mr. Budi was waiting for in the the car. I asked him to stop by a convenience store or something for me to buy super glue. He asked what was the matter and offered to fix my shoe for me. Luck had it that his brother was a cobbler! *thumbs up for Budi!* It was very nice of him to make that offer. On the way to our hotel, we stopped by a local warung to have lunch. I think it was meant for tourists based on the scenic rice field set behind the dining area and the price it cost. It was still affordable for us but definitely pricey in IDR. Portions were small and at best I would say that's more of a light in between meal snack rather than a full lunch. We had bebek goreng (it wasn't plucked properly!) fried eel with chili and stir fried kangkong.

If you see this view, give this eatery a miss.

We passed Ultimo every night on our way back to the hotel. Long queues would snake the front. On our final night there, which happened to be Sunday, I decided to try out luck. By doing a bit of shopping and having a later dinner, we hoped the Sunday diners would have thinned out.

The car was a cool respite after being toasted in the sun at Tanah Lot. We settled in to a long 1 1/2 drive to the shores of Danau Bratan up north. We are going to for a property exhibition. The Mengwi Royal Family's property exhibition,

Going to a temple located at 1239 meters, means lots of narrow and windy roads. It isn't as bad as the Cameron Highlands old roads because I did not get motion sickness. Yay! We asked Pak Made to turn the air-con off and wind the windows for the cooling winds. He was surprised that we preferred the air from outside than the air-con as he said many tourists firmly keep their windows shut. Well, they don't know what they are missing.

We stopped halfway up to have lunch at a restaurant located in Pacung, Baturiti. Pak Made said that the restaurant had views overlooking UNESCO certified subak rice fields. Coming from a land where paddy is cultivalted as far as the eye can see, the way the Balinese farmers terraced their fields is interesting. Paddy is grown in flooded fields. It's interesting that the hills can hold up here without erosion.

The restaurant at Pacung seemed to be a famous tour stop. There is a ala carte and buffet option available. The Western folk all opted for the ala carte Western meals, like salads, fish and chips, fires and burger. We Asians stuck with cooked local food. You never know how long where those chips refrigerated. It cost a little more than the ala carte but cold weather and hot local vegetable soup was super!

Views from the restaurant balcony

After lunch we continued driving upwards until we reached the overcast Lake Bratan. The lake is actually a crater of an ancient volcano.

We have arrived at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan, built by the Mengwi Royal Family circa 1633, dedicated to the lady/goddeess of the lake to ensure plentiful water and bountiful crops.

As usual most of the main complex is closed if there are no ceremonies going on. 

It's gold on 'em doors

Around the lake, if you can bear icy cold mountain waters, there is a selection of some water sports. However it feels sacrilegious to me. It's a place to pray yet, commercialized tourism turned it into a amusement park. You can take a slow paddle out if you want to enjoy the lake in their traditional boats or Jukung. 

Part of the temple complex seems to "float" on the water as it's built on the waterfront. You have to get just the right camera angel for that one. However throngs of tourist made it difficult to get a good shot. The day was pretty cloudy with strong winds, as well. So we decided to follow the paths.

Pura Teratai Bang

There were some workers who were cutting bamboo from a sacred bamboo grove in preparation of ceremonies. The bamboos were very tall and thick. I think it may be used to hand their ceremonial flags.

After touring the temple complex (which isn't very large), we went around the gardens. The manicured lawns invites a person to just sprawl and look up into the cloudy skies. There is a sideshow thing going on at the end of one of the gardens, where you can take photo with phytons, minature owls, barn owls, giant fruit bats etc. The owls are plenty cute but I just thought that forceably spreading the fruit bats wings were just a big N-O.

We headed back to the lowlands which a quick stop over at Candi Kuning Traditional Market. I would say that if you are not acquainted with Asian highland markets, it would be interesting. However coming from an Asian country where there there is a highland market at 1,450m above sea levels, it looks almost the same.

The vegetables did look fresh, but it's not like I'm going to cook lettuce during this trip . Ant and I, on hindsight realized that this market is great to pick up small souvenirs if you are on a whirlwind trip like ours.

As we drove back to town, Pak Made asked if we wanted to go a Monkey Forest before Pura Taman Ayun. There was still quite some time before sunset so we decided to let him lead the way. 
Rows of ladies in pink were waiting for tourist vans to pull up. At first, we thought they were assigned guides. We found out during our conversations that there are no guides for Alas Kedaton, the ladies in pink were shopkeepers who would bring the tourists around and the last stop of the tour is their shops.

Our "guide" was pretty nice all the same. She was quite knowledgeable as she gave us the run down about the history of the temple on the grounds, the area and 101 on monkey. There were macaque monkeys everywhere! She advised not to take the camera out as it could be snatched away so the camera went back into the bag. Alas Kedaton forests probably stretches quite a bit to the back but the human route could be finished in half an hour.

We made a stop at the temple, but as usual, the gates were locked. The Alas Kedaton temple, built 1178AD,  is one of the more unusual temples in the region where no incense or light could be used in certain ceremonies. It looked a little lonely out here in the dark forest.

We bought a pack of peanuts for IDR1,000 to feed the monkeys. Our guide hid the packet in her shirt as she said that the monkeys would grab the packet if we held it.Apparently the monkeys recognized the guides.

According to our guide, the monkeys here were tamer as they are used to humans and were fed by were the guides. She said that monkeys who were fed bananas are more aggressive so the guides keep the monkeys to a diet of fruits and peanuts. As she passed some peanuts to Ant, a monkey appeared out of nowhere and sat on his shoulder! She quickly told him not to panic while passing the peanut along. The monkey hopped off after getting the treat.

She told us that many years ago there were a few monkey forests such as Alas Kedaton but tourism dwindled. Alas Kedaton stayed open as the temple was housed within the monkey forest. Local businesses have been sponsoring the upkeep of the place.

We passed another giant fruit bat show on the way to the shops. She told us that the fruit bats were hand raised. The forest is home to thousands of bats. Sometimes the villagers come across baby bats on the forest floor and would take them home as pets. After picking up a couple of souvenirs from her shop, she walked us to our car.

Our last stop of the day was another temple by the Mengwi Royal Family - Pura Taman Ayun. It has the reputation of one of more attractive temples in Bali. The decendents of the Mengwi royal family still attends to this temple, which also serves as a clan temple. It's quite amazing that a UNESCO heritage site sits right here.

The temple grounds gave off a serene vibe. There weren't many people around since it was near closing time, but that added on to the charm of the place.

Main temple gates

The temple complex is closed but there visitors can walk around the moat to peer into the temple grounds. The temple was designed to symbolize the mythological home of the goods on Mt. Meru, floating in the sea of eternity.

The front courtyard

The area is very small compared to all the other temples we have visited. However it was the first place that actually felt like a place of worship.

The inner temples

There was a tower used by the astrologers on the grounds. I decided to go up for a better view.

The setting sun closed the day for us. It's off to dinner.

Restaurant at Pacung
Buffet Price IDR:150,000

Pura Ulun Danu Bratan
Price: IDR30,000

Alas Kedaton
Price: IDR15,000

Pura Taman Ayun
Price:IDR15,000