So its very rare when I’m backpacking that I will get up at 5am, well rare any time really. This morning it was to visit the large Buddhist temple of Borobudur, 40km or so from Yogya where I’m currently staying.
I have to say its huge, the temple is 9 layers upon each other up to the central dome on top. Surrounding it the layers leading up to the top are a total of over 500 Buddha statues and 2000 decorated carved panels. It was built maybe 1300 years ago, but was abandoned for a period and became buried by ash, later to be rediscovered in the 1800s and unearthed and restored.
There was not perfect weather conditions as it pretty cloudy, but I’m glad i went early when it was still quiet and before it got too hot.