On my third day in Yogyakarta i decided to be a bit cultural and booked a trip to both Borobudur and Prabanam temples. It was only an extra 60pence to do both places so it made sense to do both. The 4:20am alarm wasn't much fun but i knew the afternoon would entail lots of swimming and lounging around so didn't mind too much.
On arrival at Borobudur, which is the most visited tourist attraction in Java, I met a lovely Australian girl and her Indonesian friend. I spent the next couple of hours with them and we climbed the the temple and wandered around. I thought that Borobudur would be much bigger than it actually was based on the pictures i had seen and what people had said - it was a bit disappointing but in reality it was pretty big! Borobudur is just one big structure and is about 1000 years old - it is a Muslim temple whereas Prabanam is a Hindu temple.
After a delicious banana pancake and sweet tea for breakfast, all of us piled back on the minibus and drove to Prabanam. I was far more impressed with Prabanam as it had 4 separate temples which were very big and had beautiful carving on them. The grounds were also beautiful and there was much more information to read than at Borobudur. I bumped into Paul at the temple (the guy i had met 2 days previously) so i spent some time having a look around with him and having a natter - was so nice to chat to someone English!
As planned, the afternoon was spent by the pool and i also popped into the town centre on the local bus.... it took forever! I had to go 7 stops, then change and go another 4 stops to get to the main high street. Madness! However, it was a good way to see some of the city... After a bit of shopping I headed back to my hotel and had some fruit and yoghurt for tea (its no fun eating out on your own) then had an early night.
The next morning i had booked to travel to Mount Bromo, a volcano south of Yogyakarta and en route to Bali. Paul was also on the minibus so again, it was nice to be able to chat with someone. All the drivers in Indonesia at pretty terrible and dangerous, but our driver was in a league of his own! I sat in the front as i get a bit travel sick and we had about 8 near head-on colissions! A couple of times i said out loud 'oh my god' because i thought we were going to crash! The driver literally got about 2 centimetres from the car/motorbike/lorry in front on us and would then lurch out and attempt to overtake - way more scary than my diving!
After our lunch stop and everyone talking about the scary driving the driver then started to smoke a joint! I wasn't too shocked when he was talking on his mobile, but smoking weed at the wheel was just something i never expected!! I can also assume that his crazy driving was to compensate for lacking in other areas...!
Somehow we got to Bromo in one piece after about 12 hours or so - we were all shattered. I went to bed at 9pm as we had to get up at 3:30am to climb the volcano - i had booked a horse so i could ride up and was really excited about it. I thought it was pricy - about 12 pounds - but thought it would be worth it... how wrong was i?!
I met my 'horse' at about 4am in the middle of a road in the pitch black. I hopped on and it was more like a donkey - my feet nearly touched the floor, the saddle was sooo uncomfortable and i simply could not ride the beast! A guide practically dragged the horse across the crator of the volcano until the part where i had to climb up. I was so mad at 1) being totally ripped off and 2) for having been so excited about riding and being given a bloody donkey! I told the man i would walk back... not a happy bunny!
The sunrise over the volcano was stunning and the volcano was blasting out a lovely sulphuric gas which stank to high heaven! After plenty of pictures i decided to head back down with a couple from France. I got back to the village and was met by the guide who i told in no uncertain terms that the horse was rubbish and i couldn't ride it!! We walked back to the hotel where i had a nice hot shower and looked forward to breakfast. Breakfast, it turns out was a hard boiled egg and two pieces of bread with a non-existant amount of jam inbetween them. I then managed to put salt (or maybe MSG) in my tea rather than sugar - this just topped off my day - i wanted to cry.
At 9:30am we left the mountain and continued on our journey to Bali... another 12 hours sat on a coach - not very appealing. I got chatting to a Canadian girl who was also travelling alone so we decided to spend the night together once we arrived in Bali. She said she would stay for a couple of days so we could have some fun and nights out...didn't quite work out! Will tell all in my next story!!
M xxxx
