Borabadur Dawn

January 4

I did master the local transport and enjoyed a windy bumpy bus ride out to Borabadur, it cost just 15 cents, a $24.85 savings on what a taxi would have cost and I had a much time as I wanted, where with the taxi I would have had only 4 hours, including getting there and coming back and its over an hour each way. I started at 5:30 and including a very long rickshaw ride to the bus station I made it by 7:30. Fortunately it was overcast until about noon. My transport

Unfortunately I didn't make it ahead of hoards of what I think were high-schoolers, they looked and acted about the right age, a universally obnoxious age in any country and Java it turns out is no exception. The noise level at the "divine" level plus the feeling that I was at a mall rather than a sacred site was somewhat distracting to say the least, if one wanted a contemplative moment, so I headed down to have a look at the wall reliefs on the other 9 layers. At one point I heard the strange sound of silence, so ran back up and caught some peaceful time until another hoard or two of schools came. The teachers seem to just let the students run wild, and the guards seem to pay no mind, but I did give a stern response to a young woman who seemed to feel that the louder she screamed "excuse me" at me,the more likely I was to respond. Being a gray haired old lady does have its rewards, as I walked through the girl gang a bit later they parted in silence like the red sea. I have a few photos of the top before and after crowds and some interesting carving and other miscellaneous imagery.
Borabadur with high-schoolers

Borabadur without high-schoolers

Borabadur about to rain or maybe not, but it makes for a nice backdrop

I've also included a few pictures of the carvings.


I'm not sure what's up with the man and bird, but it doesn't look particularly good!

This is quite curious as well

One of my favorite new signs, interesting at both Borabadur and Prambayan there was a "foreigners bathroom" I guess because we pay a lot more to get in, we get our own special facility.

More photos posted tomorrow, I'm off to eat, I've gotten quite attached to the local beer, good thing I'm waking and sweating a lot each day.