Borobudur                                                                 Back

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My stay in Yogya wasn't all work, I mean most of the time I was there was spent either making contacts or learning about the local handicrafts. As in most of Indonesia the exportable merchandise was extremely abundant, however you have to be sure your buying quality items which means going where the items are made, watching the process & talking to the workers & owners of the companies. You have to make arrangements with shippers & if your going to do repeat business you'll need a local representative. So Importing isn't all fun & games. It is however interesting & you do have some time to enjoy yourself.

On one of my non-business excursions I went to Borobudur. I met a guy ( Michael Geary) from Ireland who was working in Borneo with the World Wildlife Fund helping to develop eco-tourism as a way to save the orangutans & other endangered flora & fauna. I had stopped for breakfast & all the tables were taken. Geary was alone so I asked if it would be alright if I joined him. He agreed and while talking over breakfast he said he had decided to spend his vacation in Yogya as he had been to Angkor Wat in Cambodia & wanted to see Borobudur. I also wanted to see Borobudur & figured we could split the cost so after we finished eating we negotiated with a driver with a van for ride up to  Surakarta  (Solo) where I wanted to see some Batik manufactures, then on to Borobudor. It ended up being a full day (We didn't get back till about 11:00 p.m.) but believe me it was a day well spent. Borobudur was incredible. (The entire day cost us U.S.$30.00 each, that included meals.

Built sometime between 750 & 850 AD. Borodudur see (plan & cross sections) was abandoned shortly after it's completion because of the decline of Buddhism on Java. It lay for centuries, buried under volcanic ash. In 1815, while Raffles governed Java, The site was cleared & the magnitude & Beauty of Borobudur was once again revealed to the eyes of man. 1973 - 1984 a U.S. 21 million dollar restoration project was completed.

If you ever get to Borobubur Start at the main eastern gateway and go clockwise around the walkway. The pilgrim's walk is about 5 km long  & you'll pass about 1,500 decorative relief panels (a virtual textbook of Buddhism.) plus elephants, dancing girls & many other aspects of life on Java 1,000 years ago. you also see large stone Buddhas about 500 of them. Touching them on the fingers or foot is believed to bring good luck.

Try to make your trip end after sunset. From the top of Borobudur the sunset was fantastic. We shared it with a group of girls from Jakarta & a family from Australia. It is another of those places where romance lingers in the air. I thought of an old love and later wrote this.

Another day. Another Paradise. Ah! Indonesia.