Another visit to Borobudur this morning, and again the school groups were in full swing. I suppose I can’t begrudge them, though I certainly got very annoyed at a little phalanx of Buddhists: all white, dressed in flowing robes, with fixed, desperate expressions (not even the la-la-enlightenment one saw in Ubud), circling the stupa and looking balefully at the children. They also touched each Buddha they passed which enraged me.
We went from there to Prambanan, the Hindu temples to Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu where I did a good job of identifying and explaining the iconography. They were magnificent too, but definitely outshone by Borobudur. Finally we arrived at our next hotel, in Kotagede. This is now a suburb of Jogja but was once an imperial capital. Dinner was at a warung, a lovely relaxed place with the cook/waiter playing his guitar and a little huddle of students. They specialise in brongkos, a soup of buah keluak, the nut that has to be buried for six weeks so it is no longer poisonous (one has to wonder). Very tasty, but the star of the evening was the wedang uwuh. This translates to ‘trash drink’ but is a delicious cold tea of ginger, spices and leaves.
The photo is from Borobudur