Let’s say day 1 in Indonesia, no flights, just heaps of fun.
Early rise, Bedhot picks me up at 05:30 and we cycle to the meeting point where I’m surprised by the size of the event, we’re at least 80 people! Food and drinks are all organised, and a professional photographer catches our early smiles. I think this is the funniest folk I’ve met in life, they joke about (this early!) and already make group photos where everybody tries to cram in, e-ve-ry time. We have some local snacks for breakfast (hooray!) and then we’re off. Easy-peasy to be honest! I expected worse as they’re a cycling club, but my Dutch legs are apparently always willing to pedal.
The busy roads become smaller and more quiet and before I know we’re in the middle of rice-paddies, surrounded by bamboo and banana trees. I get why we left early as the sun is burning down hard on us now. The road takes us close to the Borobudur temples, but we take a another turn and continue to the rafting meet-up.
We cram ourselves into the vans with rafting boats on the top to get to the starting point. 14 Boats in total! Hardly anyone listens to the introductory talk and once we hop into our boats it takes only 10 seconds before everyone is splashing everyone and the challenge is to pull boats over or just pull others overboard. Quite a few can’t swim but they try to laugh away their fear.
It’s a blast, I feel like a kid again and laugh until my cheeks hurt. The water looks like coffee with milk and the rocky slopes have all possible greens you can imagine with the occasional waving fisherman and hanging bamboo bridges you think only exist in movies. So much joy 🙂 Even a thunderstorm with serious rain and lightning can’t spoil the fun (although I do realise this one will go on the list of dumb things to do when travelling)..
Even the ride back to Yogya is memorable, in the back of a truck, with the drivers behind us taking pictures because of Mrs. blondy.
If this day marks the vibe of the rest of my travels, I am one lucky girl!
The main attractions of Yogya are its Kraton (sultan’s castle) and the nearby temple complex of Borobudur and Prambanan. As I told myself to take an easy day, I start with a good sleep decent breakfast, I mean, what can go wrong after banana pancakes?
Later on, I take the bus to the Prambanan temples and this brings 2 easygoing Swiss girls on my path who share their impressive travel experiences with me.
After my first photo-experience with the bicycle-club, the feeling of being a movie star continues more intensely as hordes of schoolkids ask us repeatedly to ‘take picture’. Although it gets a bit old after the 10th picture, how can you deny those shy and beautiful kids with shiny eyes when they ask you? Good fun! The Prambanan temples are seriously impressive.
Many smiles and pictures later, we were back on the bus back to Yogya as the rain starts pooring down. It’s the wet season, which means you better be prepared of some serious fat drops in the afternoon lasting between 1 to 5 hours.
Another early rise on Tuesday, I visit the Borubudur temples. The wake up is way before the break of dawn as the first stop of the tour is to see the sunrise over the massive temple complex. Together with dozens of other tourists and their camera’s all aligned for the best shot, we wait for the first rays of sun. Gorgeous how the jungle wakes up, the fog, the sounds, the smell, mesmerising. The colours of the sky change and the fog starts lifting up to reveal… more fog. We wait for about an hour, but the temples decide to stay covered up so we better head for the entrance.
The once buddhist Borobudur temples hardly just survived natures’ and humans’ establishment of the past millennium. In 1990, Unesco basically took the whole place apart, put a foundation and water drainage to then put it back together piece by piece.
Nowadays, the big threat is the amount of tourists, with about 90.000 visits on holidays, some still trying to take pieces home thus taking the reliefs apart. Such a pity.
As much as I enjoyed the temples and amazing green surroundings, the amount of people here make it hard to truly take it all in. The afternoon presented itself for a proper nap and some delicious spicy local noodles from one of the many street stalls. The Indonesians are so friendly, always trying to help, always wanting to know about you and ever smiling.
Feeling intensely joyfull for all my experiences and the people I’ve met, I will move on to the next town. Malang. Sampai jumpa lagi Yogya! (Until we see again Yogya!)
Planet Bubbles 