Borobudur, Indonesia

We wanted to see Borobudur at sunrise, however the forecast predicted that it would be cloudy and rainy so we decided to leave at 9:00 AM instead. I was secretly relieved because I wasn’t relishing the thought of leaving at the unholy hour of 3:45 AM.

It took about an hour to get to Borobudur by car. On the way we saw numerous little mosques with shiny silver domes, testament to the fact that we were in an Islamic country. In many respect, life here seemed quite sedate.

The price of arriving at the temple at a more tolerable hour was the fact that it was inundated by tourists. It being Saturday, the place was full of locals as well as tourists. We saw many schoolkids walking in their uniforms in big groups. It was pretty cool to see hijab-wearing Muslims thronging to see a Buddhist site. Actually, what was even cooler was seeing hijab-wearing little girls laughing and taking selfies and asking us if we would take photos with their group (since we were “exotic looking” tourists to them). They seemed endlessly amused to get their picture taken with us. :P

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Yogyakarta, Indonesia

We got an early morning flight (a very, very, very early morning flight) to Yogyakarta on the island of Java. This little city is known as the cultural center of the island.

We landed at the airport and wandered around to find a taxi. Almost as one, we followed our noses to a wonderful fragrance emanating from a little stall that sold these fresh baked buns that were stuffed with butter and topped with some kind of coffee flavored cream. Yummy! At a princely sum of 9,000 rupiahs each (less than a dollar) they were delicious.

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