S A T U R D A Y...Night (and Day)!

Saturday was the fullest day we have had so far - not counting the long days of travel. We left the hotel by van at 6:30am and were driven a couple of hours southwest to Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta is a city in Indonesia, but is also a special region of Indonesia that still has its own Sultan. One thing I am learning more the longer I am here is how much fascinating and complicated history there is to this region of the world.Near Yogyakarta are two important temples in the world's religions. We visited both of them.


Our first stop was the Prambanan temple. It is a Hindu temple built in the 9th century BC. My first view of the temple as we entered the grounds took my breath away. I actually got chills and was overwhelmed by the beauty and enormity of it.




The second stop was the Borobudur temple. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple. It was also built in the 9th century and was "lost" for several centuries until it was rediscovered in 1814 and renovations began.

Both temples are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

There are so many photos I would like to share and so much information I could share about each temple that I would fill up screens of this blog. For the sake if time and sanity, if you want to see more photos and read a little more about each temple in the comments of each photo you may visit my Facebook photo album here.

The highlight of the day was the children we encountered at Prambanan. There were several hundred of them from several difference schools and all dressed in their cute Batik school uniforms. Many of them were there doing "tourist hunting." This activity involves approaching tourist who speak English and asking them a set of questions - What is your name? favorite color? favorite food? What do you think of Indonesia? - things like that. When speaking to me one girl would ask the questions, reading them from the notebook where she had written out the questions in English and a second student would write the answers in her notebook. While only two students were actively involved in the activity there were always several more gathered around. At one point I asked a girl what she liked about America and she said she like the music - that everyone in America can sing. I told her I was a singer and sang a short line from "Light My Candle" from Rent. Their faces lit up so brightly it was heart-warming. 

Lots of photos were taken with these students and with many students all around the temple. Photos were also, however, taken with me by adults. Several of us in our group encountered this. However, no one more than Yemisi who is from Nigeria. It was almost like we were celebrities just because we look so different than they do. Photos were taken with groups, couples, individual men and women. I've heard of this happening to others (like my very fair skinned, blonde haired sister while in Japan), but this was my first time to experience it.

The rest of the day was a whirlwind of driving, visits to palaces and markets and a late night stop at the Indian Ocean. We go back to the hotel at 12:45am totally exhausted, but full of warm hearts and tales to tell.

#IBMCSC #CSCIndo8 #IBMIndo