Borobudur and Prambanan

Lisa and I returned on Thursday night to Sabah - only just getting on the plane with all our purchases. I was wearing a skirt over trousers, Lisa's hiking boots, a couple of sarongs for scarves, not to mention the raincoat and sweatshirt tied around my waist! Anyway we are back in Ranau now and looking at our photos and thinking what alot we took  and what a wonderful time we had. So I must put some up before I forget where we have been and what we did.
 One of the first days in Yogakarta was spent visiting Borobudur and Prambanan Temples. Tanya had visited the temples seven years ago and I remember her photos really well and wanting to visit them but never thought I would. I'm not going to write lots of details about them as you can all look up Wikipedia too like me! 

One of the 504 Buddhas

Borobudur Temple is a 9th Century  Mahayana Buddhist Temple and consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the centre of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside a perforated stupa. ( thanks Wikipedia) Apart from that I can tell you that it is a huge tourist attraction and pilgrimage for Indonesians. There were lots of school children visiting and they all seemed to want to have their photos taken with random white tourists. It is a UNESCO Site and underwent a huge restoration and opening in 1982 after being abandoned for many years.

A relief panel

The next stop was the Hindu Temples at Prambanan which was just as popular with Indonesians. This was again built in the 9th Century and has been abandoned, restored and then recently in 2006  suffered a lot of damage from an earthquake.

Hard hat in case of earthquakes!

Restoration continues

 Both of the temples were wonderful and well worth visiting . They were very  popular with the locals and there was no respectful quietness and it was as if we were all at a funfair which was rather nice!