Borobudur sunrise...magical mystical and wonderful

Thursday 6 October
Here's Anne's account of another fascinating day:

Well Borobudur lived up to expectations - it was magnificent and all the more for being there at 4.30am to see the sunrise.  Yes really!  Well actually the sunrise was a bit muted - in other words we didn't see much of it it because of the mist, but being in this very old (built in the 9th Century) and spiritual place as the light slowly emerged from the darkness was soothing and beautiful - serene in fact.

This place is special to the Buddhists and in a different way to anyone who is lucky enough to visit. It is the largest single Buddhist structure in the world, reminiscent to Angkor Wat but quite different, not a place of worship but a place of learning.

But the steps - my goodness there were steps. Very steep, narrow, different angles and depth ........ you get my drift.  We dragged ourselves up them in the dark with torches - it was a sterling effort.  And then we sat quietly (for us) and waited - it was lovely.  Atik our wonderful guide warned us it would be pretty cool that early and was dressed in a puffer jacket.  Let me tell you it was warm, steamy (especially after the climb) - but of course Atik has a different view of hot and cold to us.  Atik guided us around the 72 stupas and explained various stories of the Buddha represented in extensive carvings - a bit like Opera ie woman meets man, falls in love, various bizarre things happen, drama, and then they die. But of course full of allegory and metaphor.

We started to get confused and glaze over a bit so we trekked down the steps again and made our way back to the hotel for breakfast and a rest day.

But before we got to the bus we were accosted by a group of students smartly dressed in their school uniforms who were there, not to admire Borobudur, but to practice their English on unsuspecting tourists! For some of the W&P group, who had remained at the first level to avoid the stairs, they had spoken to 3 groups of students!

They had clearly been practicing their questions and their performance: one group sang a song in English with finger puppets and lots of smiles. At the end we had to rate them so we gave them A+ of course as they were really very good.

We do have some work to do as they wanted us to sing and we were....... I'm not sure how to describe it really!!!??? We did try 'Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree' after deciding Waltzing Matilda was too long and some of us weren't sure of the words to the national anthem. We all thought we could do a rousing rendition of 'God save our gracious queen' (given our ages and our school assemblies that's not surprising I guess!) but it didn't seem appropriate!

For most of us a return to the Plataran meant spa treatments in the most beautiful room looking out to Borobudur - Kim can now bend her legs backwards, Kerryn snored during her facial and frightened herself, Jan and I experienced, shall we say a robust technique, Thelma and Kim's treatments were lost in translation with Jenny ending up with Kim's hair treatment. Then Di and Kerryn's detoxifying facial was completed by the application of iced jade stone rollers!!!!

This was all interspersed by lolling in our respective pools that were part of the villa's - pretty speccy.

The farewell dinner was preceded by alfresco cocktails overlooking Borobudur after which we staggered down to the room for dinner.  One could only describe this room as..... well unusual - Venetian inspired with chandelier, baroque chairs and background music and yummy Indonesian food - lots of food.  Really nice dinner and wonderful company.  We say adieu to Sue, Chris, Karin and Veronica tomorrow.  It goes so quickly but wonderful experiences shared.

Anne Smyth