Indonesia

Back to Indonesia, to some old favorite sites and one one.

After India, I rushed back to Kuala Lumpur to meet up with my mother, who came in for a week. We did KL, which I love cause it’s so easy and modern. And after that I took her to Indonesia. We first went to Yogyakarta, on Java. I’d been before, and really like the area. Yogyakarta is a culturally vibrant city in its own right, with an enduring sultanate that promotes dance, music, puppetry and batikwork. But the real draw is that there are two outstanding UNESCO world heritage sites nearby, Borobudur and Prambanan, ancient temple complexes.

What I really enjoy about them is that the two sites are somewhat unified aesthetically, yet vastly different in scope and style. Borobudur is massive and singular, a giant stupa that commands the landscape and overwhelms the viewer.

It also has a series of sculptures detailing scenes from the life of the Buddha, and there is sculpture and ornamentation flowing like ribbons on both sides of each level. It’s a visual delight, crowned at the top by a view of the surrounding mountains.

Prambanan is a collection of elegant temples, arrayed in patterns fanning out from the center. Each has some attractive temples nearby, and the landscape in that region, with active volcanoes and lush rice fields is also impressive.

(Full disclosure, I’m including some shots I took earlier, when I visited in 2010, because it absolutely poured when I went to Borobudur this time.)

After, I took my mother to Bali, for what amounted to a whirlwind tour of the beaches and the highlands – not much time, but enough to see some important temples, lovely rice paddies and bob around in that infinity pool I mentioned a couple months ago. We also stopped and said hello to the monkeys I photographed on my last visit. Props to my mom for making the trip out, as it was an arduous one – on the way out she routed San Antonio to DFW to LaGuardia to Toronto to Hong Kong to KL. The way back was even crazier.

After she left, I went to Lombok, just east of Bali, to rest. And that’s exactly what I did. I bobbed in the pool and the ocean for four days, And not much else. I’d love to go back, as there are some great snorkeling sites just offshore, but I needed a do-nothing rest. And Indonesia is one of the best places to do that.