One of our main reasons for visiting Yogyakarta was to see the Borobudur temple. We signed up for a tour through our hotel to visit the Borobudur and Prambanan Temples on the same day. The cost of the tour paid for the driver of an SUV, which we shared with two other people. We still had to pay for our entrance tickets (about $10/person per temple). That added up to $40 in entrance fees for one day! In the morning we visited Borobudur, a Buddhist temple. We hardly ever hire a guide, but this time we decided to, and were glad we did. He explained the stories depicted in the reliefs carved on the temple and many of the elements on the temple that he pointed at were similar to ones we had seen on many other temples. We were only given 2 hours at Borobudur, but it would have been nice to have at least another hour, since our guide didn’t have time to explain everything he wanted to.
After a lunch break we visited Prambanan, a Hindu temple. This time we wearily walked around on our own. By this point in our trip, we had seen enough temples! Prambanan is impressive, but after numerous stone temples, including those at the Temples of Angkor, we had lost interest. We headed back to the SUV before our meeting time, but luckily the two ladies sharing our ride were already waiting, so we could head back to the hotel early.
Overall, we really enjoyed our stay in Jogja. There is lots of culture and shopping!
Although this has nothing to do with your latest entry, I’m glad to see you travelogue is back online.