A Trip to Indonesia- Java and Komodo

After a few nights in Bali we flew to Yogyakarta- mainly we wanted to see Borobudor and Pranbanam sites and the areas around the city.  We had to get up very early in the morning in Bali to allow extra time to get to the airport due to unpredictable traffic in Bali.  It turned out that the traffic was no issue so early in the morning!  The security and boarding for the flight was fine, and the flight was also fine.  In Yogya, we were met by out guide "Yoga" and Driver- Mr. Tomo who served us well for the next 4 days.  The Hindu temples at Pranbanam are near the airport so it was easy to go there. The complex was bigger than we expected, and due to school holidays there were large numbers of kids around. The temple were built around 1150 CE and have had a lot of restoration done. There are large amount of stone lying around from the restorations- parts that they did not know where they were from or for smaller features not restored.  It was rainy this morning which made the visit less pleasant.   The temples have steep steps, but we managed to go up a number of them.  The kids outside kept approaching Jim to get their picture taken with him size they rarely see tall people.  They also approached him many times asking certain questions in broken English. After a couple of these he realized there was a pattern to the questions. After quite a few of these an older man came by and said they were his students in English- most were very young so they were to be admired for having courage to approach strangers and try to speak in a strange language, but after 4 or 5 it started to be annoying, but politeness still ruled!   Much of the English teaching took place while Janet explored a temple or two without Jim who hoped to get better pictures if the rain stopped.  We saw only the main complex, but there are others close by, some Buddhist.
We had lunch at a very pleasant place by a stream not far from the temples and then made our way into town to the Phoenix Hotel. The Phoenix is a colonial era hotel that has been modernized and was very pleasant. We walked down a nearby road ro a shopping area, but it was hugely crowded on this day off from work and school.

The next day we made the long drive to Borobodur. Again there were large numbers of young Indonesian kids around in addition to foreign sightseers. The weather was very good- no rain, a few clouds and blue skys, but it was fairly hot in the direct sun and high humidity.  There are ten levels at the this Buddhist temple built around 750 CE and with the crowds it took awhile to get around.  Jim Managed to walk all the way around the upper 7 levels but finely got tired enough to stop.  Janet and Yoga waited atthe bottom after going around 4 or 5 levels.  One is supposed to walk clockwise around these temples, but most of the kids were not told this and they went the other way.
There are some nice views from the heights on such a nice day.   The site was largely buried when it was "discovered" by Raffles around 1813. They did some clearing, but it is a big place and it was mostly restored  over many years around 1970.  It is an amazing structure that had to have required a huge effort to build originally.  The builders realized the structure was not stable and added much stone to make it better, but there were drainage problems that slowly and continuously made it fall into disrepair.
We went to See two other Hindu or Buddhist sites nearby- Mendut Temple and Cowen Temple- these are much smaller and not at all crowded. We also vistied a modern Buddhist Monastery that has very nice sculptures.   We had lunch and road the back roads to our hotel to relax and have dinner.
Our next two days we visited a nice museum in town, saw a shadow puppet maker,  the royal palace and visited some batik makers.   Java is known for exquisite batik cotton and silk, but there is a lot of cheap stuff made for the masses as well. On our last afternoon On Java we rode to the beach on the south coast and watched the sunset. It was a very nice beach with lots of people in the water and having fun.

On Dec. 20 we flew back to Bali where we rejoined most of our luggage and stayed the night at Amandari. The next day we relax went to The Klungung market and attempted to visit Tenganan Village as mentioned earlier and then we boarded our ship for the night.  The next day the ship left Bali for Komodo.

We arrived at Komodo after an overnight at sea.  The harbor looked like a crater of a volcano and probably is.  We joined a lot of other people on the dock and walked to the visitor center.  They take large groups around a mile or so path and end at a small watering hole where 6 or 8 Komodo dragons sit.  They were not too active but two or three did move around. The group at the watering hole were big and we were told were males. After a little while a smaller female walked through the woods to the watering hole.  We watched as she walked through with her long tongue coming out frequently. We were told that the tongue is how they sense smells.   We were very careful around the dragons, but they did not attack anyone. There are rangers around who carry long sticks with a "Y" shape at the end. They use these to keep the dragons from getting too close to people.  It was interesting to see these ancient creatures.
We walked on toward the dock and back to the ship and sailed off toward Australia.