We got up early to ensure that we had the whole day to visit the temples but when I woke up I realised I had somehow got conjunctivitis! This didn't stop me from going to see the temples though. Both temple complexes had a very Angkor Wat feel to them and being as they were both built in the 9th century it wasn't suprising that they were mostly either in ruins or rebuilt.
Borobudur is made up of 6 square platforms and three circular platforms that you can climb to, to reach the top. It has over 2,500 bas relief panels and over 500 Buddha images - so you can guess the scale of this monument! The relief panels depicted many stories and myths, one of which was about a Prince who having been brought up in the palace had not seen the outside world. When he saw death and poverty outside the palace he decided to become a hermit and was taught about the world, eventually achieving enlightenment. We took our time in climbing to the top, encircling the platforms as we went up. When we eventually reached the top, which comprised of a huge dome in the middle and many more bell shaped stupas protecting Buddha images inside, we were greeted with loads of groups of students from a nearby school who were learning English. The idea was to introduce themselves and ask us questions about us, even giving some information on the monument and Indonesia itself. It was great and really good fun to talk to them at first, but with my eyes playing up and after finding it very difficult to get some space I decided to scarper. I did get some good pictures though and from the top you can see surrounding volcanoes which look spectacular.
The minibus man was waiting for us to have breakfast and take us to Prambanan. It didn't take too long to reach there and it was a lot quieter than Borobudur. Prambanan was made up of one main temple complex with images of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma inside, the Shiva temple being the tallest at 47m. There were many more temples around the main site but most (similarly to the temples around Angkor Wat) were still in ruins and awaiting redevelopment. Having seen mostly Buddhist temples in South East Asia, it was really interesting to see a Hindu temple and to learn about the struggle between the two religions vying for their dominance.
Back in Jogja for the third day there we decided to explore the city some. The 'kraton', which was the sultans palace in Jogja was nice though there wasn't much to see. The guide though was very interesting and taught us a lot about Indonesian family life. He also showed us a good place to buy batik art. We learned about the laborious making of batik art and I even bought some. Later on we walked the the water palace. It was being completely re-done and so there wasn't much to see. It will be very interesting to see the completed palace though. We also got taught about the making of Javanese marionettes and how they are used in performance.
We left Jogja for Pangandaran (still can't say it right) by public bus despite the insistence of tour agencies to take us by minibus. It worked out a lot cheaper though we did get stranded in a place called Cilicap for a night. It wasn't bad though. There wasn't anything there but we did get a chance to try deep fried catfish! Yum. The next morning we went to Pangandaran, a place famed for its beaches and the nearby national park. We had learned that there had been a few drownings in the sea recently and once we went for a swim it was very easy to see why. The current is the strongest I've been in and the waves get very sizable. We hitched a boat to the white sand beaches, where we were attacked by wild monkeys trying to snatch our bags. Other than trying to keep our belongings away from monkeys it was an incredibly beautiful place. The water was so blue and the beach lined with the edges of jungle.
We stayed in Pangandaran for a few days, relaxing and soaking in the sun. Briony's surfer friend from home joined us as well and the four of us shared a really nice room near the beach. It was nice having a few days of not worrying about getting up early and filling the days with activities. We had one very funny night out with one of the locals we made friends with - Cornea. We went through a lot of the local favourite - arak (rice wine) - and beer. From Pangandaran we got a bus up to Jakarta where we went straight to the airport for our flight to Sumatra.
Medan in Sumatra was our next destination though we didn't stay there. I am very glad we didn't because it was extremely busy and the roads very polluted. We got across the other side of town and got a bus to Bukit Lawang. BK was an incredible place. Little more than a village with a wide river running through the middle, BK's residents were really fun and it was funny watching the kids jumping off rocks and playing in the river on large rubber tubes. We were greeted in BK by some of the many trekking guides that the place offers. Amar convinced us to take a 3 day trek into the jungle and the trek itself was absolutely brilliant! The orangutans we saw were semi-wild and brought there as orphans or from captivity and nursed back to health.
As we were getting reading in the morning before we left we foudn a scorpion in our room!! It was pretty big as well and moved very fast. It stayed by the wall with it's tail up in the air ready to strike if we went near. It was really scary and we had to keep a constant eye on it as we packed our stuff up. We left around 9am on the first day and within an hour we caught sight of our first orangutan. Sandra (the orangutan) and her baby came down to greet us as the guide gave her some food. It was quite incredible to see the great ape and you could simply watch them for hours. That isn't advisable to do so, especially if you have food on you! We saw one of the male orangutans soon after. The guide told us it was one of the biggest in the jungle. He didn't come down as the other one had but we watched him high up in the canopy, languidly moving form one tree to the next. On the first day in the jungle we spotted 12 orangutans in total, which we were really lucky to do so, giant ants and monitor lizards. The walk on the first day totaled around 6 hours and we camped the first night by a really nice waterfall and played card games until we eventually decided to sleep on the hard ground. In the morning with no one getting much sleep we took our time in getting ready, having a shower in the waterfall and watching one of the orangutans as it came down to see if we had anything for her. She stole someones tea and gave the empty cup to her baby, who played with it like a human child would.
On the second day the walk was shorter though a lot harder involving almost vertical climbs and descents. I had a lot of fun on this walk and when we found some vines we started copying the orangutans and leaping about on them. The walk took us to the big river where we swam about and jumped off a huge rock. We then walked up river, crossing it 4 times which wasn't easy! We arrived at camp for the second night at about 3pm which gave us time to explore along the river for a bit where we had a swim and found another, smaller waterfall. Dinner that night consisted of fern leaves and banana tree with tempe, tofu and sardines. It was really nice, though it didn't look too appetizing. The third day we 'rafted' down the river back to BK. The raft was 6 tubes tied together with one guide on the front and one on the back wielding big sticks to guide us over the rapids. It was great fun but not very comfortable!
Back in BK we stayed another day to recuperate and explore a bit. After that we went back to Medan to get on a bus to Lake Toba. We arrived in Lake Toba yesterday where we got a ferry across to the huge island that sits in the middle. Toba is a volcanic lake and all around us are huge mountains. It's very pretty and although the sky is quite gray, I am very much looking forward to exploring it!
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