Voyagner

Yogyakarta (or Jogyakarta) is a special place, the main reason people visit is for the well known Buddhist temple of Borobudur yet even when visiting a major tourist site like this western faces are few and far between. It’s dirty and polluted but charming and not without its own beauty.

Off the back of my previous post about avoiding crowds at Angkor the suggested alternative was Borobudur. Here is my take on Borobudur and Prambanan the two most visited temples near Yogyakarta.

Borobudur

I visited Borobudur during the day, it was hot and crowded yet a lot of fun. The Stupa (It’s not a temple) was crawling with tourists and school groups from west Java and most other tourists seemed to be made up of Malaysians, Chinese and Koreans. The students on their excursions are keen to practice their English with you and asking questions to complete their assignments, mostly though they want to have their photo taken with you, it would seem for them the western tourists are more of an attraction than the Stupa itself.

I got the impression that many westerners visit the temples at sunrise, both to avoid this crowd and for the amazing photo opportunity. If or when I get the chance to return to Yogya I’ll definitely make a early morning trip to see the temple with the mist and the stunning colors that come at that time, given the genuine friendliness of the crowd during the day though it felt that they were an experience themselves and whole lot of fun, the fact that they aren’t a bunch of package tourists also makes it less of one of those tourists crowds we like to avoid.

On the other hand there are a hell of a lot of hawkers and rows and rows of tourist stall next to the parking area. They are extremely persistent, the worst I have encountered so far.

Prambanan

Prambanan was another day visit but there were no crowds here. It is a beautiful temple but unfortunately you can’t get as up close as others because of instability, earthquakes have taken their toll and of the hundreds of smaller temples that make up the sites very few still stand. On the larger temples you can see stones that seem to be just waiting to fall. At night the temples are lighted and there are performances with the temples as a backdrop, worth checking out, it looks amazing.

One of the most interesting things to learn here is that Borobudur and Prambanan are respectively Buddhist and Hindu sites that existed in peace so close together.

For hardcore temple fans there is a lot to see, with many smaller temples scattered around Yogyakarta that see very little of westerners. The region has a lot more to offer than temples though with volcanoes, the Royal Palace, arts and food. WikiTravel’s guide to Yogyakarta gives a good idea of what is on offer in and around the city. I recommend sticking with the same driver day to day and take up any invite to visit their or any other villages, they are unforgettable.

So there we go, Borobudur as an alternative to Angkor Wat? I don’t think so, Boro is a single monument, an impressive one yes but you will neither escape the crowds or be awed by it as much as Angkor.