September 30, 2006
Rest Day in Borobudur: Gotta keep on moving
Our telephone rings with the wake up call at 4:30. As usual we are already awake. We dress quickly and go to the lobby and wait for our ride to Borobudur. Patrick is still not feeling well, Rachel is better but now coughing and a nasal drainage like allergies and losing her appetite. She thinks it's the psyche of all the people fasting for Ramadan.
We wait for another couple from our hotel then we are off for the hour drive to Borobudur. We are given little boxes with a snack of a roll with butter and chocolate sprinkles and a cup of water.
We arrive and park near the entrance, outside the fenced area and blending as part of the parking there are maze after maze of souvenir stalls, mostly empty. After our visit to the temple and looking for the exit and minivans, we see many signs for the exit. We take one only to be trapped in a labyrinth of empty stalls finally coming out near where we went in. Soon we see our tour guide waiting at the "real" exit for the day. He explains that the point of entry and exit changes day to day to direct the tourists to different stalls.
Borobudur is truly spectacular, built by the Sailendra dynasty sometime around AD 750-850 and the name may possibly mean "Buddhist monastery on the hill." We enter from the east and start walking a kora, clockwise, the six square terraces with relief carvings and then the three circular ones to the main stupa in the center. On the circular terraces there are 72 Buddhas each covered with latticed stupas. Two have lost their covers so we could see the Buddha. The first Buddha on the right of the stairs is said to be the "lucky one." We each stretch through the lattice to the touch the Buddha's toes.
We meet up with the other couple (also Dutch) and walk back toward the exit. We stop at two more temples: Candi Pawon and Mendut Temple. Patrick gets two wooden puppets he has been looking for, something he saw and didn't buy thirteen years ago. We are brought back to the hotel and we go have banana pancakes and O.J.
In the afternoon, Rachel sits by the pool and reads taking a few dips that are refreshing in the heat. By 7pm, after coughing most of the day, she takes two nyquil tablets and sleeps until the 4am call to prayer wakes her.
It's Ramadan, we could hear the mosques when we were in the Hindu temple of Prambanan and today in the largest Buddhist temple.
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