The awe inspiring Borobudur

Another long weekend, another temple to visit. This time the largest
Buddhist temple in the world - Borobudur. We flew into Semarang in
Java, Indonesia and were met by our taxi driver who whisked us off to
our hotel Mr and Mrs Smith hotel Mesa Stila. After a long drive
winding our way through the middle of the island we were not
disappointed. The setting of the hotel was magical. The hotel was set in
a coffee plantation overlooked by volcanoes. The buildings were in an
old colonial style and surrounded by lush greenery and lawns. We

were shown to our private villa which was enormous. After we had
unpacked we went to explore the grounds of the hotel. We walked back
up the long pathway to the main house. Here you could choose from a
number of living rooms to sit and relax and read books while sipping
your gin and tonics. There were a number of board games to play along
with a life size chess board and croquet pitch outside. The main house
was perched up on a hill and overlooked the other buildings with the
volcanoes towering over us in the background. The pool and spa were
located next to the restaurant. We finished out gin and tonics and
wandered down to the restaurant to have some dinner. We tasted
some local delights while drinking a bottle of wine.
The next day we headed off on our tour of Borobudur. We were told
that it was best to visit the temple for sunrise so we woke up at an
unreasonably early hour to head off in search of the temple. We were

handed a coffee as we clambered half asleep still into the back of the
taxi. As we approached the temple it was still dark and our guide met
us in the parking lot. It seemed that everyone had the same idea as it
was very busy. We followed our guide to the top of the temple where
we took our seats and eagerly awaited the sunrise. The sunrise wasn't
amazing but that didn't matter because as the sun rose we could see
the whole temple and take in the full beauty of its immense size. We
wandered around the temple admiring the craftsmanship of the
stuccos and reliefs. We then drove to Yogyakarta to visit some more
temples. We were very tired by this point and think we would have
preferred the comfort of our beds but we wandered around the
temples and Rich enjoyed himself pretending he was on the set of
Indiana Jones. We finally made it back to our hotel for lunch and a
swim. In the afternoon I stayed and relaxed by the pool while Rich
went for a horse ride around the coffee plantation. On his tour he
found the jungle gym. An outside gym hidden amongst the trees

where
you can work out.
The next day we decided to be a bit more energetic and set off to climb
one of the surrounding volcanoes - Mount Andong. We were dropped
off at one of the small villages where we stocked up with water. As we
set off we walked past the fields where the locals were growing the
crops. The fields were steep and layered with different crops. The path
became steep very quickly and we soon found ourselves walking uphill.
As we walked up higher there were a lot of people passing us on their
way down. It wasn't until we reached the top that we realised that the
locals were camping and hanging out with their friends. The tough
climb was an easy stroll for them. We could see why they liked hanging
out there. The view was incredible. The view from the top was

masked by clouds but we caught a glimpse of the surrounding
volcanoes. We finished the day off with a game of tennis and felt like
we thoroughly deserved our dinner.