Making A Wish At Prambanan
By Lothar. Filed in Indonesia |
On Wednesday, August 5, we are again up in the air. We are flying from Singapore to Yogyakarta on the island of Java. As we are getting off our Air Asia jet, it does not feel quite as hot here, until I feel the jet blast from another plane, taxiing right next to us, warming up my back! We pay our 25 USD per person visa fee and are allowed to enter Indonesia.
On Thursday, the call for prayer wakes us at 5AM. Now I also understand the reason for the arrow, which is glued to our Novotel hotel room’s ceiling. It is pointing west toward Mecca, so the faithful know which way to turn for prayer.
We explore Yogyakarta and have to spend only a few Rupiahs. A 15 minute taxi ride costs USD 1.20, a 400ml bottle of water is 12 cents and a one hour becak tour (bicycle rickshaw) with “Dr.J”, our human pedal power, is costing us the equivalent of 50 US cent.
We keep taking our meals in our base camp, the Novotel. The food is tasty and we do not get sick!
On Friday, August 7, we have a private Taxi for the whole day. Our driver takes us to Prambanan Temples. This is an impressive complex of Hindu and Buddhist temples, built between the 8th and 10th century.
Afterward, we enjoy a trip into the countryside and get to see how the village people live here. We stay at some distance from the Merapi volcano, after I have read about lava flows with a speed of up to 300kmh possibly coming down the mountain. At the end of the day is a visit to Borobudur, a big Buddhist temple, built on a hill around 800 AD with 2 Million stone blocks. We enjoy the impressive, multi-story temple in the late afternoon sunlight, minus the tour bus tourist hordes.
Today, I whisper a wish into a holy stone-cow’s ear at Prambanan temple and touch the stone foot of a Buddha statue at Borobudur.
Hopefully, this will give us some good Karma.