Daniel Young Travels: Borobudur

After flying from Denpassar, Bali to Yogyakarta, Java on our escape from Nyepi in Bali we tried to stop first at Prambanan, a famous Hindu temple 10 km from the airport but it was so mobbed due to the Nyepi holiday we couldn't get in - and it took an hour just to pass by in the traffic. So we put it off until the day of our departure and drove to the Manohara Hotel located right in the park next to the Borobudur temple.

Borobudur is about one city block square - made out of fitted stones, without any cement. Another testament to the energy generated by religion in its authentic developmental stages - that is to say, the time when it is really believed.

9th-century. Decorated with more than 2,600 stone relief panels and 500 Buddha statues. Largest Buddhist temple in the world.

Fortunately for us, although our first visit was on Nyepi, (celebrated more casually in Java) and hordes of visitors swarmed over it, most of them were just interested in climbing to the top, leaving us relatively undisturbed when we looked at the stone bas-reliefs which are its crowning glory. Interestingly, there is an entire series of reliefs unseen around the base. For structural stability reasons they had to be covered and, except for a few left exposed, the only way to see them is in photographs taken in 1890-1891 when they were temporarily uncovered during the process of restoration. http://masterpieces.asemus.museum/borobudur/index-2.html

We managed about five hours total on the temple, 1 1/2 in the late afternoon on the day we arrived, 2 in the early morning the next day (7 to 9) and another 1 1/2 that afternoon before closing at 5. Believe it or not, at 9 in the morning it is becoming unbearably hot and uncomfortable.