Some 30 years ago, I visited Indonesia and discovered its beauty.
The trip brought me from Jakarta all the way southwards to Bali, passing through notably, Yogayakarta and Surabaya.
I was stunned by the beauty of Boroburdur temple ( built in the 8th century) and also watching the rising sun from the Bromo Mountain which is an active volcano.
I vowed to return.
This trip, I brought my wife with me, as she has never seen the beauty of Borobudur and also Prambanan.
On this trip, I rediscovered the beauty of Boroburdur temple and the Prambanan; not only that, we toured the second most active volcano Merapi on a jeep, coming to within 4km of the crater and walked the terraced fields of Melagan, getting our feet wet and dirty. There we have a close encounter with the local peasants, seeing how they plow their land with oxen, how they harvest and how they carry the firewood etc on their backs.
We lazed around in our hotel which was within a short distance from the Borobudur temple. Every morning we would gaze towards the temple which has a dreamy setting of many layers of trees below it and fabulous cloud formation above it. We knew our lives are blessed as we hear the night prayers broadcast in the middle of the night (4:30 am).
We ended our trip sitting under a pavilion among the terraced fields; having lunch whilst over viewing the green and yellow paddy fields with relatively strong wind blowing over our faces and bodies.
We have returned home yesterday and learned that there was a 6.4 scale earthquake at Lombok. We were happy with the decision not to go further south to stay in Bali.
retireediary 