Yogyakarta: Sunrise at Borobudur Temple & Sunset at Ratu Boko

Part 2 of my #TripOfWonders trip: Yogyakarta!

Continuing from where I left off here previously, we took an evening flight out of Bandung to Yogyakarta! It was approximately an hour's flight!
Yogyakarta is known as 'Neverending Asia' for its endless attractions and appeal. This city is one of the foremost cultural centres of Indonesia. From climbing the magnificent Borobudur Temple, visiting the Keraton (Sultan's Palace), to watching silversmiths produce amazing jewelries at Kotagede, to shopping up a storm at Malioboro road, you'll never be bored in this relatively small yet bustling city. From natural wonders, local art and traditions, examples of Javanese heritage to delicious culinary delights, Yogyakarta is a city with numerous attractions. This is why Yogyakarta is the second most visited destination in Indonesia after Bali,


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Anyway, so we arrived in Yogyakarta at about 6pm and proceeded on to check in at our hotel - Royal Ambarrukmo Hotel where we stayed for the next 2 nights.


Warm welcome at Royal Ambarrukmo Hotel!




We slept really early that night as our morning call the next day was 2.30AM!!! I had only about 4hours of sleep? From our hotel, it took us about 1.5hours to get to the foot of Borobudur Temple. We arrived at about 5am? It was still super dark when we arrived and had to use torchlight to help guide us along the way! Thereafter, we climbed up Borobudur Temple which honestly wasn't that tiring at all! Took us about 10-15mins! Some of the steps were pretty wide and steep tho, but it wasn't difficult to climb at all!

We were there on Hari Raya Haji which was a public holiday so...... it was definitely a bad choice to visit Borobudur Temple that day cuz IT WAS JUST SO MAD CROWDED! So hard to even find a spot to sit down while waiting for the sun to rise lol



Also, sadly, it was kinda cloudy the day we visited so the sunrise wasn't as magnificent as I would expect it to be! Nonetheless, it is an experience you should experience once in your lifetime!


Photo by @julian_cheong


Located on the island of Java, the magnificent Borobudur Temple is the world's largest Buddhist monument, an ancient site widely considered to be one of the world's seven wonders! The temple sits majestically on a hilltop overlooking lush green fields and distant hills. The monument is a marvel of design, decorated with 2672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. Also, this whole structure was built without using any kind of cement! It is simply like a set of massive interlocking Lego blocks held together without any glue!Amazing isn't it?

The temple has remained strong despite neglected for over ten centuries. It was rediscovered in 1815 buried under volcanic ash. In the 1970s, the Indonesian Government and UNESCO worked together to restore Borobudur to its former glory. The whole restoration took 8 years to complete and today, Borobudur is one of Indonesia and the world's most valuable treasures.



Golden moment in Borobudur Temple. Wearing http://carrislabelle.com/! (Shenny for %)


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Say hi to @_febrian! Love what he wore to Borobudur Temple that day! He totally looked like he's the owner of the temple lol
Then it was finally time for breakfast! Really famished by this time cuz we haven't ate the entire morning! We had our breakfast at this really lovely place called Stupa by Plataran!

Lovely place to just chill, relax and energised up for our next activity!



And our next activity was the "Borobudur Cycling Village" tour! It was an interesting tour as we get to see the lush green countryside, rice field, the typical villagers, see the life of rural communities and not forgetting, the beautiful scenery during the entire journey!




The villagers were all SUPER FRIENDLY!! They were like waving and saying hi to us non stop!!! Love it!

As part of the cycling tour, we also had the chance to do some handicraft work - making our own clay and batik painting! Interesting!

We were all pretty exhausted by then so off we went back to our hotel to rest a little and freshen up!
We then left the hotel again at about 4pm to visit Ratu Boko! We arrived at around 4.30p, just in time for sunset!


Ratu Boko is located 196m above the sea level. On the highest point in the site, there is a small pavilion from which we were able to see a panoramic view of Prambanan Temple with Mount Merapi as the background!


It was still a cloudy day but the sunset looked fantastic nonetheless! Imagine if it wasn't cloudy!!!



And yup.... that was my short yet sweet encounter with Yogyakarta! A full day definitely wasn't enough at all to cover the whole of this amazing city and I really hope to be back one day to explore more :)
Next stop was to Lombok which I'll continue again really soon! And as always, thanks for always dropping by here! Means alot to me :)

xx Shenny