After a recent overnight hiking trip was cancelled due to torrential rain, a friend and I sat to look at the optionals for the upcoming long weekend. But it was actually my wonderful husband who came up with this brilliant idea - Road Trip! Four days, no children let's just go. Destination - Yogyakarta! (Just a short 10 hour drive away - or so we thought!)
In fact the journey took us 16 hours, including a couple of stops, but it was amazing. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous and with the company of a fantastic friend of 20+ years, it was a perfect way to begin a long weekend. After a few issues at the hotel, I will not go into details, we headed to the bar for a relaxing drink.
The following day was Waisak (big Buddhist celebration day) so we headed for Borobudur. The temple is a spectacular monument that just appears as you walk up the path from the main gate. It is an amazing six levels complete with 2,672 relief panels showing the life lessons of Buddhism, 504 Buddhist statues, including 72 sitting inside stupas on the top levels.
This amazing monument is a shrine to the Lord Buddha and also a place for Buddhist pilgrimage. You follow a certain path, circumnavigating the different levels and ascending to the top three levels of Buddhist cosmology; Kamadhatu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness).
Buddhists reaching the top of the monument after ascending through the different levels are said to reach enlightenment. The history and spectacular beauty of this place is breathtaking. I thoroughly recommend going in the early morning, before the crowds and having a guide is truly a necessity if you wish to really understand and experience it properly. (Available for a flat rate - Rp.75,000)
The next day we headed for the Sultan's Palace, and to be honest a bit disappointing. The Sultan and his hundreds of relatives still live at the palace so there is only a very small portion open to the public. Again we opted for a guide and it would have been a complete loss if we hadn't. His stories and historical info were much better than the drab buildings and very poorly kept outer area of the palace.
After leaving the palace we drove out of town in search of Mt. Merapi. Without a map it was a case of following road signs (which were seriously scarce) and relying on the wonderful locals who pointed us in the right direction. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the Mt. Merapi but we did find some delicious Cap Cay at a local cafe before making it to the Japanese Caves.
The caves were huge holes cut into the side of the track, apparently left behind after the Japanese occupation on Indonesia in World War II. It is difficult to find information on this, but it was an excellent walk. Although, we were not in the good books because we arrived back after closing time to find security waiting for us! Actually found out later they were begin to become concerned that we might have been attacked by wild cats!!!! Still not sure if they were serious, surely if there were wild cats perhaps a warning sign to advise would be great.
For our final evening before heading back to the pollution and macet of Jakarta we decided to stay in the ground of Borobudur. After a wonderful dinner and a walk to enjoy the peacefulness of the area we headed to bed early in preparation for arising to watch the sunrise.
Watching the sunrise from the top of the monument or simply the grounds around it, it something every visitor should do. Spectacular doesn't cover it!
Unfortunately after breakfast it was time to hit the road again. This time travelling along a different route the journey took us 15 hours (but this also included long weekend traffic from Bandung).
Overall, a wonderful trip; great company, breathtaking scenery, fascinating history and lots and lots of laughs!
