Once on the plane from Bali to Yogyakarta, we all managed to catch a little extra sleep, but Eunmi woke me just as we approch Jogja, to see an alsolutely stunning sunrise over the series of volcanoes that surround the area. Mt Merapi, the largest, loomed above the others that were a bit more distant and all were surrounded by very pretty cloud formations backlit by the sun. It must be one of the most beautiful views I'd seen,but Mt Merapi had a recent years had lethal eruptions so is very much on active volcanoes, deserving of respect.
Soon we were over very lush hills dotted with small villages and an lovely lake set in low part of a plateau area. It had an unusual shape looking a bit like an airplane in flight due to the myriad valleys and spurs surrounding it, and the strong reflection from its surface.
We exited Jogja airport which is quite tiny really and has a very relaxed feel to it, partly due to the very relaxed looking people everwhere. After grabbing something to eat and dropping our bags at a left-luggage place, we found the bus sation and headed for the Prambanan temple.
Our couch host Siti had recomended this as the temple is close to the airport, and would save us going all the way out there again later.
The bus stops on Jogja are funny little hut like structures that are raised about 1 m. You enter one door from the end by a ticket, which is a plastic card, and you put the ticket into a turnstyle to allow you to enter.
There are two doors on one side, one is for people to leave the bus, and the other to enter it, with the bus being quite small, for around 20-25 people or so. This is a metro-bus so only stops at assigned stops, which seem to be quite a long distance apart, perhaps 3-4 km or more, so we were at the temple stop quite quickly.
From there it's about 10-15 mins walk to the entrance of the temple gardens which are very pretty in their own right. We bought tickets, which are quite expensive in order to help maintain the huge temple area, donned the sarongs supplied, and wandered off towards the first temple complex.
A great variety of pretty butterflies fluttered about the flowering hedges but always seemed too elusive to capture on photo.
The temple actually consisted of many temples each dedicated to main characters of the Hindu story, with Siva being the largest, strange to us as he is the god of destruction, vs Bramha the creator.
We had chosen not to take a guide, but as we approached the temple two young female students asked if they could guide us, so we accepted and they led us around each temple building and explained very well the meaning of each god and the stories detailed in the elaborately carved stone.
Even though it was still only around 7.30 am it was already very warm, as we sat for a while on a bench to have some water. It wasn't long before we had people approach us for photos, which seems to happen a lot, so we happily obliged.
Restored a bit by some waer and snacks we moved on toward the next temple, Sewa which is Buddhist. We managed a really nice shot back towards the temple we'd just left with it beautifully lit in the early morning light and contrasting green of surrounding trees and bamboo. It was about 1/2 km walk to the next temple, which is actually a series of three increasingly larger ones in a line, with only the larger one having been restored after the 2006 earthquake.
Ellie wasn't too happy as it was already pretty hot despite being mostly under tree cover.
We finally reached the big Buddhist temple which is partially restored but as with the previous one there was a massive pole of jigsaw stones surrounding it that may never be put back into place compeletely.
Unfortunately virtually every Buddha figure was headless, a legacy of vandalism, trophy hunting by the colonials or earthquake damage. But it is still an impressive temple nonetheless.
So Ruby and I made our way round the main parts of it while Eunmi and Ellie relaxed near the entrance, finding it a bit too hot to make the effort.
We decided to start heading back to the airport to pick up our bags, but by about half way back through the temple grounds the heat reached that point where the clouds can no longer hole the rain and was released in the typically heavy rain of the tropics.
Just before it rained we had a look around the new museum which showed how the stone carving was done. There were some impressive pieces of worked gold, and pictures from the late 1800s which were interesting as the local people appeared to be largely naked, in contrast to their modern conservative and modest mode of dress. There was also a massive fossilised skull of some sort of bovine creature, perhaps a buffalo, with the horn based being a good 6 inches in diameter at the base. The signs weren't in English so I couldn't be sure what it was. There was also a full gamelan orchestra set there which was interesting to see close up.
The rain really started coming down as we came out, so we had to quickly run to a nearby restaurant for some chicken noodle soup etc. until the rain let up a bit.
Ruby and Ellie discovered a pen full of deer just next door we found there was also cassowary in there marching around in their purposed way with large glaring eyes and the comical bony bit on their head, which gives them a very prehistoric look.
We soon reached the airport and retrieved our bags.
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