Yogyakarta has some of the most beautiful temples in the world. We stayed here for a couple of days and decided to do a sunrise tour of Borobudur. The sunrise happens early in Indonesia as its so close to the equator so it was a 3:30am start to see the sunrise at 5am!
Borobudur temple is the world’s biggest Buddhist temple. It may seem odd to learn the world’s biggest Buddhist temple sits on archipelago with the largest Muslim population. But Indonesia has gone through a long history that goes way back including the domination of Hinduism and Buddhism before the coming of Islam. The temple sits majestically on a hill overlooking green fields. The temple’s design reflects India’s influence on the region, yet there are enough elements to make Borobudur look uniquely Indonesian.
After watching the sunrise over Borobudur we took a Jeep Tour round Merapi Volcano. Merapi volcano erupted in 2010 and crushed some of the villages in the region. Today, the area is used as a tourism destination to show the impact of the eruption in 2010 and the beauty of the volcano.
We stopped at different points along the way to see the impact of the eruption including the inside the house that was burned to the ground. Beside the museum and demolished villages, there also big stones called Alien Stones hurled out of the volcano during the eruption. These stones are absolutely massive as you can see from the one on the ground. This was an interesting tour to see the impact of Merapi volcano and how the village is rebuilding itself from its impact.
Our last stop in Yogyakarta was Prambanan temple the largest Hindu Temple in Indonesia. In my opinion, this temple is a bit similar to Angkor Wat and as spectacular! It was built 50 years later than Borobudur and was completely in ruins for years before reconstruction started in 1937. As you walk around the outer compound you see piles of rocks everywhere. Apparently all the piles are the remains of 224 temples in the outer compound so there must be a lot of reconstruction left to do. This temple was a lot less peaceful and not too crowded. We could easily walk and admire the temples.
Prambanan turned out to be our favourite temple and it totally surprises use. It has kind of the same feeling as Angkor Wat but not so spread out so can easily walk from one temple to the next.