Sunburnt at Borobodur

Big day today, the trip to Yogyakarta (Jogjakarta, or plain Jogja) to see its world famous and heritage listed Borobudor temple, located about40 kilometres west of the city, itself known as the centre of Javanese culture. The trip marks the halfway point of my stay in Indonesia, so will spoil myself. Tossed up whether to take the iPod - chose to leave it home. Thought about a long-sleeve shirt - decided against it, much to my regret later on in the day. Was using sopir pribadi, a private driver, who would pick me up at Salatiga at 9am and drop me off in Yogya late in the afternoon. To get to Borobudor, we'd be passing through Ketep Pass, a tourist stop situated near Gunung Merapi, which has a history of exploding, the most recent being in 2006.

Roni, my driver, arrived on time. Established that he could speak bahasa Inggris sedikit (a little), so I knew I was in for a day of bahasa. Off we went, through Salatiga, Kopeng (the area where Pak Agna has his farm), and up and around the mountains. Market day, according to the Javanese calendar, lots of activity on the side of the road. Workers were harvesting bamboo. Lots of vegetable farms (corn, cauliflower, strawberry). No rice fields, as it was too high up the mountain. Families of four on their motorbikes. Children live on them. Felt a bit carsick, with the windy roads, abrupt turns, and offhand overtaking. Mount Merapi is hard to see at this time of year, clouds, mist and smoke shielding it from view.

At Ketep Pass, many tourist buses were offloading their human cargo. Inside the tourist centre, the history of Mount Merapi was explained. Above, I'm pointing to Salatiga (at the top), and Mount Merapi. We'd skirted the local volcano, Mount Merbabu, to get here. This was one of the better tourist displays I've seen: informative and spectactular images, reasonable text, and a large model of the mountain itself.

This is a map of how the lava and explosions have flowed this last century. Salatiga sits above this activity, and there's its own volcano offers some form of protection from Merapi.

The model mountain was the only way to see Merapi today!

Outside, panas sekali. Time for water and then onto the main destination: Borobudur. Tree-lined streets, beautifully maintained, greeted us, when we arrived just after midday. In Salatiga, locals continually warn, "Yogya panas sekali," much as everyone outside of Canberra says, "It's cold in Canberra." It's true. Blistering, sulky, sultry heat. Once outside, it hits you.

A sea of markets are arrayed before the main entrance. Hassled by touts from the outset, their relentless quite amazing given the intensity of the heat and my indifference to their shouts to buy some trinket murah sekali - really cheap. All visitors here have to deal with touts, but we bule seem to have to deal with more than our fair share! Great to get to the ticket area, fewer touts, crowded with visitors. Joined the queue. Informed with a hand gesture to move to the queue on the right. Did so. The next teller also declined to serve me, pointing towards another building, a special ticketing area for international tourists. Special because the price was in US dollars. Unlike the other ticketing area for locals, this area is indoors and cool. Got Roni's ticket, much cheaper. Mine was about 120.000 rupiah, his 15.000! Entered the park, walked some way, dragged down by the heat. Other than those hiring out umbrellas or offering to take your photograph, the park itself is almost tout-free. Paradise, a hot one at that.

A popular tourist destination, as can be seen by the number of people. Haven't seen anything like this type of architecture in Indonesia. Truly magnificent, and deserving of its status as a must-see for tourists. The temple faces north, south, east, and west, and we entered through the east and exited through the west. On all sides, a monumental narrative carved into stone is there to be read. Images and symbols are richly detailed, the narrative too vast to take in in one day, let alone an hour or so. Giddy from looking up and around at the story. Each level represents something different, at the base of the temple the story concentrates more on human desires, while at the other levels, the higher you go, the more spiritual the narrative.



On the second level, approached by students from Universitas Sebelas Maret, Solo, for an interview. English language students, they were on an excursion and had to do an assignment: interview a foreign tourist and ask them questions about their views on Indonesian culture. Fielded their 5-6 questions (Where are you from? What do you know about Indonesia? Do you like Indonesian culture? How long have you been in Indonesia? etc.) and accepted their compliments about the fluency of my bahasa. Very pleasant.


But as I kept going up to a higher level, I kept getting requests from other groups of students for an interview! The closer to the top, as space shrank, I was being approached constantly - educational touts! I agreed to a number of interviews, each one progressively shorter, and to being photographed, but in the end, as I neared the final level, I had to refuse, "Maaf, sudah empat kali" (Sorry, but I've already done four!). As one of the more obvious tourists, I was a populer target. Did a quick circuit of the top, but it was like Jawa itself - crowded, full, a sprawl of bodies. Beautiful views. Retreated to the lower levels. Still breathtakingly hot, but on the eastern side a breeze provided relief. Fewer people at the lower levels, could walk as if on a boulevard.



Roni.


Oblivious to the sunburn that was to come.
Left after an hour. Water finished. Braved the touts. Haggled over some postcards. Got what he called harga lokal ("local price"). Has the time of the postcard come? Seems such a quaint way to communicate, given the ease of email and blogs. Relieved to have the shade of the warung. Fruit and more water for lunch. That I was eating did not stop the touts and beggars from approaching.