Blogs from Borobudur, Java, Indonesia, Asia - page 3

BOROBUDUR: Universe on Earth. To reach enlightenment at Borobudur...claims to be the largest temple in the World... the largest Buddhist...the Universe on Earth...the pilgrim must cross a river...wading in waist deep water...visit a small temple...wade across a 2nd river...2nd temple...then Borobudur...the object of the quest. On entering the temple site...a ritual is to be followed. I had travelled from the land of Oz...but a few hours away...I knew I had problems...would I achieve my quest? The wading seemed out of the question..! On leaving Candi Sewu (see Previous blog), the only vendor within coo-ee, ...cold drinks...we sweating profusely...faces red as...iced tea for Den & Joe...Bintang for me...pulled from icy water under one of the piles of carved stones...I need this. This was only my second beer in Java...don't tell Cockle...but it ended up being my last. ... read more

We woke up at 6.30 in the morning... this doesn't happen very often since the start of our trip so it is good to mention it. There was a very good motivation behind this. The temples of Borobudur and Prambanan!!! We stepped in a mini bus full of dutch eating candies and started with the temple of Borobudur. Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world and is a UNESCO site. This site was in a very bad condition but the Indonesian Government with UNESCO have decided to refurbish the place from 1975 to 1982. It is now the number 1 attraction of Indonesia in terms of visitors!!! The views are totally amazing and made us take more then a 100 pictures... A few hours later our mini bus dropped us in front of the ... read more

Still continuing our previous two posting on the Indonesia trip in summer 2010, we were basically running out of time so that we had to eventually leave Bali for some other places we'd planned. We flew to Malang, my hometown, straight from Bali. Then we decided to do a road trip to Yogyakarta. My Dad insisted us to drive his huge SUV because it surprisingly consumes less gas than my own sedan that now is used by my little sister. Driving a big SUV in chaotic Javanese traffic on the narrow road from East Java to Yogyakarta was quite a problem for me. I did do that zillion times before, but having living and been used to European traffic made the whole Java road trip so scary. I came straight to Berlin you know, where the ... read more

See text in English below 22 de noviembre de 2009 Borobodur es el mapa del universo y es flor de loto. Borobodur es un lugar extraordinario. Borobodur es el monumento budista más grande del mundo y es lugar de peregrinación en el vesak, el día en que se celebra la existencia, iluminación (Nirvana) y muerte carnal (Parinirvana) de Siddharta Gautama, es decir, Buda. Es una estupa grandísima, y al mismo tiempo es una pirámide con forma de mandala, diagrama místico que refleja la imagen del cosmos y la naturaleza de la mente. Todos los que visitan Borobudur encuentran en el mandala de la pirámide, además de las enseñanzas de Buda, una guía para la meditación. El peregrino es ascendido a través de un sistemas de escaleras y corredores desde las cuadradas plataformas inferiores hasta las tres ... read more

Despite waking at 4am jumping in a mini-van before 4.30am and being at the temples before 6am - I missed dawn at the temple. The golden glowing images with silhouettes of Buddhas and stuppas stretching as far the eye could see - weren't waiting for me. Instead - thousands of bus loads of local tourists and school kids clambering around, loud speakers intermittently directing people not to climb on the fragile 1200 year old carvings. Thousands of hawkers selling every type of possible souvenir that crashed in price to below one third of the original asking price as you walked by. But I got to feel a little like a movie star by being asked to be in peoples photos, and a little less like a movie star when I realised that every western tourist was ... read more