Yogyakarta

We went to Yogyakarta to visit two places, Borobudur and Prambanan. Built in the 9th Century, Borobudur is a Mahayana Buddist monument and is considered one of the best Buddhist religious sites in the world. After an eruption from a nearby volcano, it lay hidden under volcanic ash for thousands of years before being discovered in the 1800s. Prambanan is a collection of Hindu temples, also built in the 9th Century, many of which were unfortunately badly damaged by an earthquake in 2006. We had a driver to take us to both places. On the way we drove through beautiful countryside, past fields of chillies, peanuts and tobacco. The monument at Borobudur has steps up to all the levels, where you can walk all the way around. There are lots of detailed carvings on the walls and at the top are lots of big bell shapes built with stones. As Prambanan was going to cost the same as Borobudur, and since it isn’t considered as highly, as well as being told by our driver that the temples could be seen from the roadside, it was decided that that is what we would do. We stopped outside the temples and could immediately see that damage that had been done to them by the earthquake. Some just look like ruins which is such a shame, as Mum showed me images online of how they used to look. The central building, which appears to have escaped damage, stands at 47 meters high and looks amazing. The driver told us there is a outdoor Ballet performed at night with fire and monkeys, but we couldn’t go to it as we were leaving on the overnight train to Jakarta.