We arrived in Jogja last night after circling the airport for what felt like a really long time. Torrential rain had closed the airport. It also closed up the streets, so it was a long, slow drive to Borobudur where we were staying in a hotel attached to the site itself. It was very dark and wet, so we saw nothing. In the morning we rose at 4.30 for the pre-dawn entry, when fewer people visit. We took the torches handed out to us and went on our way, in small pools of light as the path changed from composite tiles across grass to a road to concrete steps to weathered stone steps. The stone steps went up a very long way, but at least we arrived near the top to what appeared to be a circular stone platform with a couple of dozen people already there. The sky lightened and the mass of Borobudur was revealed, with stupas signifying formlessness stepping down to the huge stone body of the building, encrusted on the mound of a hill and covered in carvings. It was magnificent, even though the sun never really rose due to the clouds and we couldn’t see the volcano Merapi.
After breakfast the GF and his mother went for a nap while I strolled back to the site, wandering about the lower levels examining the reliefs. Gradually the number of people rose and the first of what turned out to be an endless stream of school groups arrived. I went back to the hotels, evading and ignoring the souvenir sellers, down a narrow path leading through trees. There I saw a tree with odd fruit (not that kind) and found a pavilion in which to read.