It was a busy day full of rich Indonesian culture! Kathleen and I are still travelling with our friends from the bus, Guillaume, Matthias, and Addowa. We hired a driver for the day, which was doable split between five people. He picked us up sometime between five and six in the morning and we set out for Borobudur, a Buddhist temple built in 750 CE. It’s massive, the stone walls are quite literally covered in beautiful relief sculptures, while Buddha sculptures in the round line the tops of the walls. There is no interior (that I’m aware of) but as you walk up the seven or so floors each offers the opportunity to walk a loop around the temple. The top, was decorated with massive stone bells and had a beautiful view of the grounds. It was awe inspiring.

I must now pause for a cultural side note. People love to take pictures with us. I bring this up because at the first temple alone we took hundreds of pictures. Literally, hundreds. It was no particular group of people either, male, female, children and adults alike. Most of them were incredibly polite, saying please, thanking us profusely and should their English allow- asking us all about where we’re from. Since our group included two Americans, a Frenchman, a German, and a beautiful dutch girl, those were not short conversations. I bring this up because in addition to inflating our egos- it also hindered our ability to fully enjoy the temple. We couldn’t walk five feet before hearing the “heelllloo misses!” that initiate each photo shoot.

Once we left, we ventured to a volcano, following rumours of lava. Deep in our minds I’m sure we all knew it wasn’t really liquid lava but our hearts would not let us admit it. Once we arrived and realized how much it was going to be to rent a jeep only to see igneous rocks, we opted to instead hike up the mountain for a bit to get a couple good pictures of the volcano. We were in and out in just over an hour.

We had to drop miss Addowa at the airport at three so we raced to Prambanan! A huge Hindu temple that was built in 850 CE, but unfortunately suffered a bit of damage in an earthquake and is currently being pieced back together. It was made up of five or so massive towers, each of which housed a huge sculpture. While still being quite impressive, we were a bit worn out. We had been awake, running about in the hot sun all day and our cheeks were tired from our picture faces. I’m afraid we found it a bit over priced and didn’t enjoy it as much as we did our other adventures. That being said, I’m still happy we went.

Now FOOD! For dinner it was only miss Kathleen, Guillaume and I. We have a method for choosing places to eat that so far, has worked flawlessly. We can ask a local or look for a place that has lots of locals and no tourists. And you really just can’t go wrong with street food. This place fits all of the above! It was a large room with no front wall. The left side was lined with tables to eat at and the right was lined with tables PILED with food. You serve yourself then pay based on what you got. I payed less than two USD for the best meal I’ve had in ages. I wish I could tell you what I ate but I haven’t the slightest idea.