"Borobudur" by rosie_b

Suddenly the phone rang and it was really early in the morning. For a few seconds before I picked it up, I was wondering why I had an early call, then I remember ... I'm going to the Borobudur temple. This is one of the most exciting parts of my travelling in Java. I have been to Borobudur for many times when I was a kid, but I never felt excited as this before.
The hotel staff who called us was offering breakfast before going to the temple. But I and my husband prefer to have coffee instead, because the night before we had such huge dinner, we literally were stuffed like a turkey. After having our coffee, we went on a "kijang" to the famous Borobudur temple. It was still dark outside and we couldn't believe that we were actually awake at 4:30 in the morning to see the sunrise from the temple.

We climbed up to the second from the highest level of the temple. The stairs were high, making me wonder as a Javanese descent and just finished having a Javanese style wedding, with all the traditional clothing, how they could climb all these stairs. There are a lot of them too, which is alright for me. As we got to the most strategic place to have pictures taken, it was still a bit dark, although the sky was a little bit more light in color than a few minutes before. We were waiting for approximately about 45 minutes before the sun starts to rise. At this point we were not alone. There were some photographers started taking pictures and running around to get the best shot and some other tourists who were still half asleep taking pictures as well. So, it was kind of hard to keep the people from my sight. My tour guide said to me," You are very fortunate to take a picture when the position of the sun is exactly in the middle of those two mountains." In different times of the year, as the seasons change, the position of the sun changes to the right or left. I guess I was in Borobudur at the right time.

Everybody started to scatter around, trying to get the best possible pictures. Some people stared in awe, looking at the sun that was rising in the horizon and at the same time, looking at the peaceful surroundings. Some roosters were crowing on a distant, from some nearby "kampung"s which surrounded the temple area. I tried to capture some of the stupas in the temple, which went around the top three levels, with the biggest stupa on the very top of the temple, which represents a cosmos or mandala. Each of these stupas has a statue of Budha in different hand positions. There are myths from people that if you reach for Budha inside any of these stupas, you will be blessed with fortunes.

Our tour guide pointed out in a distance while I was taking some pictures of the sunrise and stupas. He said, "That big hill over there, looks like a lady lying on her back, sleeping." As I looked more carefully, I saw it too. It really looked like someone sleeping, although in this picture you probably can't really see it. As I was taking this picture, the tour guide said to us again, "Over where the sun rises, one of the mountains once erupted when the tourists were here, about the same time as now. It happened a few months ago. Nothing big and I wasn't scared because sometimes, it happens. But all the tourists were scared. There was some smoke coming up but it was nothing important." My husband just looked at me as if to say,"I would be scared too if I was one of them", but he didn't say anything. I guess, somehow the people know that the Borobudur would protect them from natural disasters. They are not affraid.

After I took so many pictures from the top levels, we went down, level by level to get some more pictures of the reliefs. As we went down and around the temple, we were told that monks and buddhists always go to Borobudur during Waisak. When they do, they start from the bottom level going in a clockwise all the way to the top. The reliefs depict the story of Siddharta and his journey into enlightment, until he became Buddha. In some of the reliefs, we could see that they were not made by the same artists by looking at the details and the style of the carvings. But nevertheless, they are all beautifully made.

We knew when to go when two bus loads of people filled with mostly children arrived. They started running around the temple, touching stuff, and screaming on top of their lungs. Then there were some groups of ladies who were there too, walking around as they overlooked their children running around. The sun started to rise much further up, creating more heat and humidity that linger in the air. It's time for us to go. After taking some personal pictures of me and my husband in front of the temple as proof of our memorable journey, we went back to the hotel by car. Some people went back by elephants, which we already took the day before in the late afternoon. On our way back we stopped in the middle of the rice field. On a distant, we saw the Borobudur temple from far away. As I took it's last picture from the rice field, I said to myself, I'd be back again.

When we got to the hotel, we were hungry ... because we didn't have breakfast before we went to the Borobudur temple. We ordered the classic Bubur Ayam (Chicken Rice Porridge), topped with raw yolk, chilies and fried shallots. This is something that we don't get that often back in the States. As we were eating our breakfast, we looked at each other and said how great it was to visit Borobudur to see the sunrise and to learn about the temple's history and its importance to Indonesia.