My mom came in for 6 days and we headed for the cultural capital of Java. It's called Yogyakarta, or Jogjakarta, or Jogja, or Djodja, or Yogja, or a hundred other versions. There didn't seem to be a consensus. Even the different airlines spelled it differently. We rode all manner of transport, including the "becak" above.
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| we also rode in this "andong" |
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| Julia took a liking, as usual, to the friendly animals. |
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| another friend made |
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| this one seemed to understand her |
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| We went to a real-life sultan's palace |
Borobudur
After looking around town, we went to the real historical places. Borobudur is an 8th century Buddhist temple that was really impressive. It has over 500 Buddha statues all over it, some of them enclosed in stupas.
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| It's like a huge mountain, it's too big to get a picture of it all |
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| a view from the top |
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| us in our skirts |
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the local tourists wanted us in their pictures, as if we
were famous |
Prambanan
The next day, we decided to go to the other major temple. This one is Hindu and was built around the same time. The walls are full of fantastical friezes telling the stories of the different gods.
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| we hung around until sunset |
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and watched the Ramayana show, a ballet involving
the stories depicted on the temple friezes |
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| This was the background to the open-air theater, the temples at night. |
