Semarang, Java, Indonesia or Wow! That’s a temple!!!

 This morning we once again woke up to the slowing of the ship’s movement, a sure sign that when we opened the curtains there would be something to look at besides blue sea..

In the distance I spotted what looked like a partially sunken vessel

Yes, indeed that was what it was and then I saw more objects that looked like more sunken ships under water:

Guess that is one sure fire way to warn about the shallow channel!

Once we were docked and cleared to enter we headed down the gangplank and were greeted by Javanese singer, dancers and musicians. 

We have a full day excursion today. We will be touring and exploring the UNESCO World Heritage site of The Borobudur Buddhist temple. It is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. We will travel in a caravan of 6/7 busses and will have a police escort to avoid traffic problems.  Talk about privilege! It’s kinda embarrassing to be honest. But believe me after experiencing the traffic, I did appreciate it!

The Borobudur Temple was built if the 8th century. It was built as a shrine to the Buddha and a pilgrimage site. The pilgrim would begin their journey walking counter clockwise following a path around the temple and slowly work their way up each level through a system of stairways and corridors with 2,672 narrative relief panels on the walls. The idea was to meditate on each level corresponding to the levels of enlightenment. UNESCO has helped  locate many of the broken parts of the 504 Buddha statues and hands that were either lost during various earthquakes or looted. 

But first we had a three hour drive from Semarang with one stop for refreshments at a coffee plantation.

City apartments with laundry hanging out on every patio. 

After leaving the city, we were able to see rice paddies. Since I had never seen them other than in NatGeo I found immensely interesting.

Along the way I took pictures of small stores by the roadside. 

The lushness of the jungle was pretty 

Rice paddies 

More rice

Rice is a three month crop. Most of the paddies had just been picked and were now being replanted. Besides rice, there were new growth rubber trees not yet at the size to be a crop

One thing about touring with us old people is similar to traveling with toddlers- we do much better if we can stop, potty, and have a snack. So after about an hour, we stopped at a coffee plantation to sample coffee get a snack of Indonesian sweets and time to hit the toilet! 

The coffee was great and the treats were delicious.

Our first glimpse of the temple!

Goose Bumps!

The stairs up to the base 

The steps to the beginning of the temple. In years past you could climb up and experience the inside but the temple was starting to deteriorate and sink at parts from the weight of tourism so it no longer is allowed. 

Closer views

The reliefs are along the bottom of the picture 

Closer view

After our walk around the temple we were treated to a wonderful lunch at a nearby restaurant. Then began our ride home… remember the previous police escort? Well, now was the time to put it to really good use! As our buses made their way through town after town filled with scooters and trucks and hundreds of cars, we found ourselves traveling down the center lane of the road accompanied by the wailing blue lights and sirens. Cars had to move to the side of both sides of the road! We really made time flying along the road!!

I snapped a few pictures on the way back to the ship

Mountains ( volcanoes) 

It was a very tiring but rewarding day.