December 16, 2003

Je suis un rock star

Borobudur, Java, Indonesia.

Another early morning rise to visit Borobudur, the Buddhist temple in Central Java and probably Indonesia's biggest tourist site.

Ideal would have been to have climbed the temple for sunrise but that was at 5:15am and the site doesn't open until 6. I met a Canadian guy who was travelling a little in Indonesia before heading to Australia and we both waited for the gates to open. A handful of other foreigners could be seen here and there. The occupants of five tour coaches outside were nowhere to be seen.

Once inside we headed straight for the temple and climbed to the top to see some of the classic angles whilst the sun was still low in the sky and the mist was thick on the ground in the distance. Given the large number of stalls outside we expected to see a lot more people but, like most places I had visited, tourist numbers seem to be very low at present.

We enjoyed the quiet and the changing light for a time, with only a few other people around, before descended to the ground to check out the whole structure. The temple is built as a sort of pyramid, with nine levels in total describing the route from earthly imperfection at the base, to heavenly nirvana at the top, by way of a series of detailed reliefs. We circled each level, admiring the reliefs and the myriad Buddha sculptures as we went.

It was now getting a little later, may 9am, and the occupants of the tour buses were revealed to be a large number of Indonesian high school students, out on an excursion. It wasn't long before one asked if we could pose with a group of them in a photo. Sure, we said. No problem. Of course then multiple cameras are produced and a huge photo shoot ensues. No sooner is that one finished and we start to go our separate ways than another group emerges from around a corner and the whole thing is repeated. We would sometimes see a group slowly coming in the distance, quietly practising amongst themselves "Can we take your photo?", only to collapse in fits of giggling once the question had to be posed for real. In the end we must have been in 20 or 30 photos and the students would have something really exotic to show their friends back home. Much better than a dull temple.

Posted by David at December 16, 2003 07:21 PM