Yesterday I awoke very early for a pickup at 3:45 am to see the sunrise at the Borobudur temple. We weren't going to the temple at that early hour, but simply to watch the sunrise OVER the temple from a viewing site.
The bus picked myself and one other person up from the hostel at 4:00 am-so 15 min late. Others we're already on the bus who we're picked up at various hotels/hostels. We stopped at numerous other hotels/hostels on the way. The trip to the place to watch the sunrise was roughly 1 1/2 hours, including pickup.
When we we're dropped off at the spot, the sunrise over the temple was underwhelming for 3 reasons.
(A) The sun was already above the horizon
(B) The day wasn't THAT sunny-there was a lot of fog/haze.
(3) The top of the temple wasn't very obvious. It just looked the nipple of a woman's breast in the distance (shown in the far left in the above photo-taken with a zoom lens)
But other then that, the sky was pretty and it was nice to see.
After 1/2 an hour at the sunrise spot, the bus picked us up again and drove us to the Borobudur temple. The temple is a 9th century Buddhist place of worship, with 2672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. It took a long time to get to the temple, from the parking lot. We walked through a large grassy area and walked up the crowded steps. Along the way, folks approached us selling postcards, statues, and other memorabilia, Being friendly Indonesians-they weren't pushy. They even said "you come back later" if we didn't buy then,
While the temple was neat, what was more memorable we're the large crowds who wanted my (and my friends) picture. We we're besieged once again by college students who wanted to interview us, and many many many school kids who wanted their picture takes with us. We couldn't walk 10 feet without more people pulling out their cameras and Smart Phones taking our pictures. Sometimes kids would come over and take our pics-then their parents would come, and they would want their pics as well.
After walking around and taking lots of pics, we looked for the exit to meet the bus. Walking towards the exit, you come across a row of lots of people selling souvenirs, including post cards, wood pieces, food, etc. We would come to a clearing, and more stalls would sell the same things. Finally, as we we're getting closer to the exits, there we're more people in stalls selling the same thing.
Finally, we reached the exit and took the one hour 1/2 bus ride back to the hostel.
I rested in the afternoon, and took a short walk back towards the water castle, watching the people, and took a nap before movie night at the hostel.
