My, But Where Did All This Rain Come From Borobudur??

After the beautiful Mount Bromo I was packed straight on a bus to Yogyakarta, or Jogja as the locals call it. It was actually a lovely bus (for most of us, my mate Marie had a seat right at the front with almost zero legroom and was half sat on the gear shift), the only problem being that my arse has taken to complaining at even the shortest sit-down journies. I think that last epic trip did me in. All was good, we were on our way to Jogja, a cultural epicentre of Java.

Once we arrived we checked in at one of the only places with any room left, a tiny place called Losmen Anda. I initially balked at the room, it looked filthy, but upon further inspection, the sheets and mattresses were clean, the bathroom was clean, it could just have done with a bit of a spruce up really. The staff didn't speak much english, but were really lovely and helpful, plus it was down a little alleyway and quite enclosed, so you felt very safe at night.

Jogja is where most people come to to visit Borobudur. The standard set up is that people go for either a sunrise or sunset trip, a few hours in total as Borobudur is only an hour from Jogja. Marie and I decided we'd quite like to stay overnight and explore the town a little bit. We managed to nab our own private minibus for less than a fiver each by wandering around the small tourist offices until one guy just offered to take us in his little van. WIN!

We stayed in a really cute and quiet place right opposite Candi Borobudur. It's a buddhist temple built during the 9th century, but it's use declined as Islam took over throughout the 14th century. It was only really rediscovered in 1814 by Sir Stamford Raffles (London Zoo anyone??), who then brought it to the attention of the world. A huge restoration project was undertaken in 1975, finishing in 1983, and Borobudur is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Quite deservedly, though I'm glad I didn't go for either of the sunrise or sunset tours...I was there for both and the weather prevented any decent shots. Indeed, sunset was a complete loss with an epic storm starting about half an hour beforehand. RUN!!!
Still, Candi Borobudur is an amazing temple, rivalling Angkor Wat as a major temple attraction in SE Asia. I'd apologise for the mistiness of the pictures but IT'S NOT MAH FAULT!! So there :o)

Gorgeous carvings on the galleries of the temple

These bells along the top of the temple each contain a buddha image

See! You have to reach in and touch his toes or hands for good luck

The only thing that slightly interfered with the experience was the hundreds of photographs I was asked to pose for. I'm not entirely sure how many schoolgroups were there, but it seemed like thousands to me, after I'd been asked to pose for photos with at least half of them. At one point I was sat down with a videocamera stuck in my face and 30 screaming children jumping around me. I couldn't help but laugh when I was stopped by a group of 2o kids who had a group photo taken with me, and then passed their mobiles to their mates to get a pic by themselves....THEN took their mobiles back and took a pic of me by myself. I felt like a zoo exhibit. Those guys at the end of the video above were the first to ask me for a picture.

As if the temple itself wasn't enough, we went for a wee wander in the afternoon whilst waiting for 'sunset'. At one point we stood around wondering if there was anything else to see, we spotted a building over to the left and I thought I could see some people inside. Marie thought it was an animal. We got a bit closer and we realised that it was an elephant. An Olifant!

Of course we crept closer, not seeing anyone nearby, and stood posing for pics in front of the gated complex with the elephants in the background. Then we heard a voice calling hello, and a guy appeared from around the corner. Far from being in trouble, he actually invited us in to feed the elephants bananas, whoop! Believe it or not, in the 3 months I've been travelling around Asia, this is the closest I've gotten to an elephant. *How much will THIS cost us?* I thought. But afterwards, as we chatted, said thank you and goodbye, they didn't ask for a thing.

Genuine human kindness does exist :D