I had a couple of days back in Bali. One I spent playing golf with Jim and the next I relaxed hard and caught some small waves before I jumped on a flight to Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta is a 'special area' in Indonesia, a university town - it contains a lot of history and also 2 huge temples which are the governments first 'restoration for tourism' projects.
I felt pretty drawn to Borobudur since I have been travelling and heard about it. It is the largest Buddhist Stupa in the world, a UNESCO site and I was planning on heading out there on my 3rd day here. I got up on the second morning and hired a motor scooter and headed out on the 45km journey - I couldn't wait! Of course I got a bit lost on the way but that's half the fun and a good way to have a look around central Java. It is so lush and green here and the area is surrounded by volcanoes so it's very spectacular. Being the wet season its very green but getting caught in a downpour makes you very wet as I learnt walking around on my first day.
Eventually I made it to the temple and it is huge. There were lots of tourists there but the hardest part of looking around was trying to make your way through the maze of Batik and souvenir stalls to the parking area. I got some good photo's but Internet connections are not great here either so I have to limit what I upload.. Check out Borobudur on the web.
It's really hot here and I've been having quiet nights and reading lots...
So my third day I first went to the Sultans palace which is in jogja itself before heading out to Prambanan temple - the other large temple nearby - this one is Hindu and not Buddhist but there are also Buddhist temples in the same park/area. This temple is also a UNESCO Site - it is also spectacular but unfortunately due to the large earthquake in 2006 much of the site was closed off and had scaffolding on it. It was very worthwhile.
I had the motor scooter for 2 days here and it was a great way to look around both the city and the surrounding areas and meet some local people. It's been great to be eating street food again - and I think one of the only ways to eat Indonesian food as all the restaurants are western or Chinese..
I'm really glad I made it to Indonesia outside of Bali and are really impressed by it. I saw all these signs saying 'tempel' which I thought would be more temples abut after driving through a few it seems that they are villages or communities and they are all clean and beautiful amongst the lush green forest/jungle.
One thing that being back in travelling mode has reminded me of is that everyone wants to sell you something and they try very hard to do so.. They're just making a living but I have had to book my ticket home because I'm getting worried about my reaction to some of these sellers!! So it's a week in Bali, hopefully body surfing some nice waves and relaxing big time before I am back in Melbourne next week. It's been a long trip and excellent but I think I need to centre myself a bit with some routine and it will be great to see my family and friends. I've put some different pictures up this time.
One is a traditional local house in Timor Leste, one of my mate Jim and his family in Bali and a couple of Jogja..
Thanks to all the people who sent me support to keep my blog going. I think this will be the end of it as I don't think I'll have much to report over the next week or so. I'll see most of you back in Melbourne after next week - and to my overseas friends - I'll hopefully see you back on the road again sometime not to far away!
