Stupafied: dragonflies buzz Buddha's head

On the top of Borobudur
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I set my start time for the day at the reasonable hour of 8am with my driver Adi.  That gave me time to have the young fellow here at the hotel make me breakfast.  Did I tell you that is included in the $9 USD price per night?  His version of scrambled eggs was fried and chopped.  Still toast, egg, tea, and fruit is plenty for morning repast.

We drove first to Borobudur.  This is the largest Buddhist temple or is it the oldest.  It is some est.  After Angkor Wat I was expecting to be underwhelmed.  So I was pleasantly surprised to find it very engaging particularly in detail.  It is a large square which has ever decreasing layers as you go up to the crowning stupa.  Sort of a large stone wedding cake.  The sides are full of stories on right living and Buddha history and aspects of life at the time of it's creation.  The detail remains intact and is very interesting with facial detail.   The grounds which are vast are full of flowering trees, bushes and birds.  The air around the temple itself was full of large golden brown dragonflies.  Each layer of the cake has niches with Buddha statues inset.  In many cases the headless torsos are all that remain.

From one angle these faces looked almost Mayan
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I have left my large suitcase in Bali and have only my small backpack for the week.  One of my accomplishments of the morning had been to wash out some socks and t-shirts.  There is a convenient dipping bucket in the bathroom that is just right for doing a plunging type cleaning.  I even have hot water!  What a treat.  How this ties into Borobudur is I bought two T-shirts as extra wear here.  Emboidered with the stupa image and the name.  I paid $5 for both.

Playing with fire
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Next we headed to Mt Merapi.  The volcano that erupted just last year.  There is the remains of a small village buried by the flow.  Also the previous riverbed that now is clogged with ash, dust, sand and rock.  Merapi has been the source of material for construction and craft since ancient times.  The black color in batik in this area comes from the lava rock.

We drove a back way through the countryside which is full of rice fields and vegetables of many kinds.  The land is beautiful and the soils rich from the volcanic deposits.  We stopped for lunch at a warung which can be just about any little spot serving food.  Then we came to Prambaran.  This is the oldest (I know it ain't the largest) Hindu temple complex.  Unfortunately the area here was struck hard by the earthquake last year.  The main temple complex is now off limits and the structures are all a bit wee-waddle.  I was approached by two young kids who asked if they could practice their Tour guide lessons on me.  Soon I was being challenged to interpret their pronounciations.  It seems to me that many people here have studied English but in a rather formal style.  They come up with words that are relatively sophisticated and in context but with a Indonesian patois.  For example in explaining the reliefs on the temple my young guide Hati kept referring to the motives.....The motifs.

A full view
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I was quite templed out so I had Adi take me back to Yogyakarta with a quick stop at a cheap batik shirt place where I was physically molested by the very gay salesman.  He was showing me the material of a shirt hanging on the rack and I was standing next to the shirt and suddenly his hand was....well.  I was a bit shocked.  He just giggled and said 'sorry'  as if he couldn't help himself.  I did buy a shirt.

There are now four guests including me at the hotel.  A Dutch mom and daughter and a Brit living in Singapore.  I was leaving today for Mt Bromo but decided to stay one more day because of a possibility of a tour package that would take me exactly where I want to go vs. public transport.  I am hoping they can find one more tourist in order to make it affordable.