Ancient Monuments

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Woke up with the call to prayer at 4.30am which was ok because my tour was off at 5am, the minivan turned up I crawled in and went to sleep. We arrived at Borobudor at about 6.30 as the sun began to rise, and were promptly jumped on by touts, they are really bad, its difficult not to be rude to them.

I was in a good mood I was about to behold a wonder and I was not disappointed in the least, it was a truly amazing site. As you can see from the pictures the temple has thousands of intricate carvings, I couldn’t believe it.

It took decades to build around the 8th century, and decorate yet the people who built it just packed up and left a century or two after completion it was then buried by volcanic debris and forest until the 19th century. It has twice been restored, once by the Dutch and the other time by Unesco, and was damaged again when JI tried to blow it up.

This is a wholly Buddhist temple and reminds me of one I saw once in Rangoon, I spent a few hours wandering around before having a couple of eggs for breakfast.
By the way in my opinion Ankhor is a little more impressive.

After this it was on too a number of lesser temple complexes around the country side some Hindu some Buddhist and some look like a mixture of both, Candi Sewa and Candi Prambanan were also pretty impress and quite massive, but they have been damaged by earthquake and unfortunately were off limits.

On the way out I bought a Kris the guy wanted 90 Euros I said you have to be kidding, he said 60 I laughed he said 60 USD, I told him I am not American he said Rupiah then I showed him my wallet, I ended up paying about $25 Australian which considering how much I was willing to pay is a bargain.

Let’s hope Customs don’t confiscate it, I am going to buy a mask and a Wayang puppet in a while then will eat and crash.

I have a 7 hour train ride in the morning; I still haven’t decided whether to go to Asia Cup final will decide tomorrow afternoon.

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Photos

Borobudor
That would be me

Mendut Temple
3 metre sitting Buddha

Borobudor
BHuddha contemp;ating the view

Borobudor
Buddha contemplates the view

Borobudor
Buddha in a stupor