Our Sing Fling: September 2019

One of the best things about travel is actually seeing sights that you have only heard about before. I remember my first trip to Europe in the late 80’s when I saw the Eiffel Tower and the Tower Bridge in person for the first time. Standing there with Julie, it was a little hard to believe that I was actually there, in person, seeing them. And that’s how travel memories are created.

Our memory banks have grown as we have visited more countries and seen more things. I have added mental images of ancient ruins that I had only seen in school textbooks growing up. Ruins such as the Colosseum in Rome, the empty streets of Pompeii, the Greek ruins of Ephesus, and Antalya Colosseum where Peter addressed the Corinthians.

Our memories also include non-European sites like the Mayan ruins of the Yucatan (Tulum, Coba, and Chichén Itzá), Machu Pichu, and Angkor Wat. Now we have added Borobudur Temple in Central Java. This is a place that we had never read about in school or even knew about until our good friend Fred mentioned it as we were moving to Singapore.

It’s about a 2-hour flight from Singapore to Yogyakarta, the closest airport to Borobudur. We were met by our driver arranged by the hotel (something we have learned to coordinate in advance) and had a 75-minute drive to the hotel. At one point the driver told us as we crossed a bridge over a dry riverbed that the riverbed was a result of a volcanic eruption of Mount Merapi in 2010. I guess we were in The Ring of Fire that I was always reading about.

Julie found a wonderful little hotel, the Rumah Dharma. Very highly rated in Trip Advisor, it was not our typical place. Nine rooms (each an individual “villa” consisting of a room and bath) and it was wonderful. Set among rice paddies a short bike ride out of town, the staff, the rooms, the location, and the price were great. It was about $60 USD per night per room, including breakfast (and free bicycles to ride around on). A great place to stay.

We found out how great the next morning as we met a hotel staff member the next morning at 4:15 am to ride bikes to the temple (if that sounds early it was, but also I don’t think that we would have slept a whole lot later as a Call to Prayer started about that time from the 4 mosques around us). It was about a 15-minute ride down dark roads and streets.

Our hotel guy took care of buying the temple tickets and we headed off up the steps of the temple to the top. Getting there in the predawn light we realized it would probably be best if we went down a level or two—fewer people and a better view for sunrise. And what a sunrise it was. There is no way my words can describe what we say, and pictures don’t do it justice—but it’s the best we can do.

After spending a couple of memorable hours we enjoyed a breakfast at the hotel (included in the admission price) and headed back to Rumah Dharma on out bikes. While the daylight made seeing a little bit easier, the morning traffic definitely raised the level of difficulty. Luckily the majority of the traffic was comprised of motorcycles and scooters instead of trucks and cars. It still required coordination and timing to make some of the street crossings at intersections and we were very relieved to make the left hand turn off the main road and onto the little road to the hotel.

Back at the hotel we had a lazy day after our second breakfast (hey, it was included in the price) . We hung out by the pool and took a couple of bike rides around the village. For lunch we rode about 10 minutes to Pasta Gio, a typical open air restaurant that served pasta and pizza. The food and service were good and it was only about $10 USD total for the three of us.

Our burning question was “what are we going to do tomorrow?”. Watching the sun set over the nearby rice paddies our question was answered as a small parade of brightly colored Volkswagen Things (known as 181s to everyone outside the US) went by. These jeep-like convertibles looked like a fun way to explore the surrounding area. So, I started looking on Google and could only find sites that were in Indonesian. With a little help from Google Translate and a lot of help form hotel staff we were set for a 3.5-hour adventure the next day.

Our car and driver showed up the next afternoon and gave us some ideas of places he could take us. They sounded good and we asked “can we also go to the Chicken Church?”. He looked at us and said “you know about the Chicken Church?” a little incredulously. And yes, we did. I think it was Patrick that first pointed it out to us on Atlas Obscura. I will let you read the link for details, but it was designed to look like a dove, but instead looks like a giant chicken.

Driving at slow speeds in the VW with the windshield down was a great way to see things. We turned off the main highway and headed down a paved road into the jungle. After a coupe of miles we pulled into a parking lot, bought out tickets and climbed in to the back of a 4WD truck for the short, yet steep drive to the church at the top of the hill.

Entering the basement level, we wandered around what looked like monk cells. We headed upstairs to the main “church” and then kept climbing to the top of the chicken’s head for a great view, including being able to see our hotel and surrounding rice paddies and tobacco fields. Afterwards we drove through several small villages, stopped at one to see a ceramics studio, then headed back to out hotel. All of this was about $40 USD.

The next morning was another early one and as we got into the car at 4:15 am the calls to prayer were beginning. Since there are only a handful of international flights out of Yogyakarta there was no real line. We were back in Singapore by 10:30 and home home shortly after that. We left Borobudur with lots of photos and wonderful memories (some of which are below)