– JUNE 17, 2015

We got up at 4am to jump into a transport van for a ride out to Borobudar Temple for the amazing sunrise view.  The van picked up another 8 people from various accommodations throughout Yogyakarta, then we were on our way.  A hotel exists on the temple grounds, so we were dropped off at the front desk to purchase our temple entrance tickets.  In Indonesia, your driver will always try to sell you entrance tickets himself, but more times than not he quotes you a higher price, takes your money, leaves the van, buys the tickets for the real & lower amount, then returns to give you the tickets with no price written on them.  Just an FYI for people travelling to Indonesia…buy your tickets yourself at the entrance gates.

Upon entering the temple grounds you follow a dimly lit path (headlamps come in very handy here) and then climb a whole pile of uneven steps.  Once at the top you can find a good spot and wait for the amazing sunrise (t was packed full of people with the same intentions).

Borobudar Temple is a 9th century Buddhist temple which consists of nine stacked platforms: six square and three circular.  The temple is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.

The central dome is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues, each seated inside a perforated stupa.

It is the world’s largest Buddhist temple in addition to being one of the greatest monuments to Buddha in the world.

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For more photos of our adventure go to our flickr account here.