i have picked this 3-day itinerary from discoveryourindonesia where the first day of tour would be a visit to 3 temples. we were promptly picked up by our driver dodi at 8am and i immediately had a good feeling about him. he's a jolly fella.
the first temple we visited was candi sambisari. it's a tiny 9th century hindu temple that was accidentally discovered by a farmer when he was working the land and his hoe his a carved stone. the temple is buried 5 meters down and was suspected so as a result of mount merapi's volcanic eruption.
we did not spend a lot of time here because it was so small, and by 9:30am we were already on our way to the next one.
that next temple is prambanan temple complex. most people visit both prambanan and borobodur and there is a package price for it. dodi said that the price in IDR fluctuates because it is pegged at 40USD, and so depending on the exchange rate, the price in local currency can only be determined in the morning of that day. today it was 550.000IDR. "do you want to pay only 500.000IDR?", he asked. it took us a moment and then we agreed. of course, who doesn't want to pay less? :-D it helps when your driver has serious connections!
prambanan is a lot more impressive, being the largest hindu temple in indonesia. it is a UNESCO world heritage site. even with a discounted price, 40USD is still quite a lot to pay for visiting this temple and borobudur. hopefully all that money is funding the restoration and rehabilitation of the temples. the complex is quite clean and orderly, so the people in charge must be doing it right. it is definitely worth visiting even for that much.
we spent quite a considerable amount of time here because there was a lot of temples and each one contains different hindu gods. jasmine and i went different ways to explore so we could both take our time. it was quite sunny then, but as i went up the temples there was a gentle breeze and it was lovely. i didn't even need to put the auntie towel on my back, i wasn't sweating so much! ha!
there is a lot going on in this place. as i exited the temple compound, i've seen that there were a lot of activities available for visitors such as horse-riding, archery and a mini amusement park for kids. there are picnic areas too, and even deer and birds enclosures. there's something for everyone!
we were parched after this visit so we headed for lunch. the next item in the itinerary was borobodur, but that was supposed to be for sunset viewing and it was just past noon. so post lunch we asked dodi if he can squeeze in another destination that is along the way to borobodur. he suggested tebing breksi. jasmine looked it up and the pictures looked good, so we went. haha.
tebing (cliff) breksi is a relatively new attraction, inaugurated in 2015. there is no entrance fee per se, it is by donation basis. dodi just had to pay 5000 IDR for parking.
the place itself was not as astonishing as the temples, but it was a nice break from the long drive from prambanan to borobodur and also, the views of jogja city and the temples was quite nice. and then there's the familiar breeze that was totally welcomed on a hot afternoon.
we left after maybe half an hour and headed to our final temple destination: borobodur temple. of course, this needs no introduction. the largest buddhist temple in the world, another UNESCO world heritage site, the pride of yogyakarta. understandably, there were a lot of visitors.
we arrived around 4pm so it was only about an hour until sunset. even though the temple is huge, it is all sitting on one giant platform, unlike in prambanan where the temples were scattered, so navigating around was easier. an hour was more than enough time to take photos and also sit and enjoy the views as the sun was getting ready to set.
borobodur closed at 5pm, which was just around sunset time, and the guards had to persuade everyone to start walking towards the exit. the funny thing was, as people were leaving, the temptation to stay a little bit was stronger, because there was less likelihood of people photo-bombing.
like when we put on a timer and took this photo :-D i was giggling because the guard was standing and looking at the camera timer, as if begging for it to snap already haha
as it got dark we hopped back into the car, and dodi delivered us to cempaka villa where we arranged for a massage to prepare us for the overnight hike to mount merapi. and that ended up to be quite an adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment