2013 Indonesia, Java, Yogyakarta, Bhodobudur Temple

One of Siti and Marteen's friends Heri, had organised a tour to Bhodobudur temple for the following day after we'd talked to him about it in the pub, and he'd taken Eunmi down to an agent to get it booked. Eunmi hadn't realised until the last moment, but this meant we'd have to get up by 4 am and walk down to the main road outside the Brongto Hotel to meet the bus by 4.30 am! Luckily we did manage to wake up and got there on time, sneaking out of the house as quietly as possible, although the mosque was kicking off by this time which was much louder than us. 
As we walked along it was a bit misty and it was a strange kind of sight to see woman in full burka's emerging like some strange apparition from the mist, on their way to mosque.
Our mini bus turned up and took us to an area of the city to meet another minibus, a bit bigger, that already had several people in it. Loaded up we were soon moving through fairly quite but steadily increasing traffic of early morning.
It's amusing to watch the random nature of Indonesian driving. Even when it's dark they often don't bother to turn on their lights even on the motorway, and they'll pull out and change lanes without looking, or just straddle two lanes even when someone behind is tooting their horn and flashing their lights. There is no concept of staying left if driving slowly and not much concept of staying on the correct side of the road either, including on the motorways, so you have to be extremely vigilant at all times.
As we neared Bhodobudur we were passing Mt Merapi and I could see the sun rising through the heavy mist and cloud that surrounded it. Unfortunately it was behind us at that point which meant trying to photo it backwards through the window. Seems we would be a bit late for seeing the sunrise from the actual temple. It wasn't long before we arrived, and the driver explained where we'd get our lunch and organised the tickets. We donned the compulsory sarongs and entered the beautiful park that surrounds the temple complex, and negotiated through a small group of people touting various bits and pieces. Even though the sun had risen the top of the temple was still almost shrouded in the mist adding to the mystical effect of the setting.
The guide we'd taken talked us through various historical facts, from the 9th century origins to the later forced exile of the Bhuddhists to east Java as Islam take hold. He explained the scenes of Bhuddas life carved into the stone of the temple. The story is remarkably similar to Christian and other religions with talk of immaculate conception etc. The temple complex has several levels that step up, each representing different steps of enlightenment, with the seated Bhuddas having different hand positions at each level, or depending on the direction they're facing. At the upper levels there are large bell shaped structures under which the Bhuddas sit, and on the last two no more reliefs are carved into the stone, with the last level topped by a massive stupa being 'Nirvana'.
The base of the stupa is just under 10 metres to represent that it is not quite the perfection of 10. When we first started climbing up there hadn't been that many people, but as we reached the upper levels the crowds had really thronged in, and we had several of the obligatory photo opportunities with groups of locals.  
The view of the surrounding hills park and forest grew more and more beautiful as the sun rose and the mist lifted. It reached near 8 am when we were supposed to be back at the warung Rambutan near the entrance for our included breakfast. We were accosted by the same people touting little stone Bhuddas and copies of the bell like objects from the temple. I negotiated the price down a bit but I realised later I was still ripped off big time when offered the same thing for 1/4 of the price by another very persistent tout who followed us all the way to the exit.

After OK warung food we moved a short distance to another active temple where could walk around for free. It had nice gardens around it including pools with fish and lotus flowers and water lilies, and lovely old trees and bamboo. There were more little shops outside the temple, and I was annoyed to find their objects were much better quality and cheaper, so I had to buy one more of the bell and Bhuddas there for 20 k.

Later we arrived back at Hotel Brongto and walked back to Siti and Marteens' feeling a bit tired and caught up with a bit of sleep.

Later, outside Siti and Marteens place the girls play with some brightly dyed chicks that were from next door.