Wednesday, we stopped in the port of Semarang on the island of Java which is a part of Indonesia.
The main site to visit here is the Borobudur temple which is about 60 miles southwest of Semarang,
Borobudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Central Java, Indonesia. It is the world's largest Buddhist temple and ranks with Bagan in Myanmar and Angkor Wat in Cambodia as one of the great archaeological sites of Southeast Asia. Borobudur remains popular for pilgrimage, Borobudur is Indonesia's single most visited tourist attraction.
The temple consists of nine stacked platforms, six square and three circular, topped by a central dome. It 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.
On the way to the temple, we stopped at a train museum and rode an old steam engine for a 1/2 hour ride through rice fields and near a shallow lake.
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| lots of motorcycles here too! |
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| We were in a 3 bus convoy with a police escort vehicle to help get through traffic |
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| our police exscort |
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| driving through to countryside |
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| many rice fields |
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| we stopped at the railway museum in Ambarawi to catch our train |
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| starting up the steam engine |
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| boarding the train |
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| The train car I was in |
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| looking through the smoke at times. |
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| we passed may rice fields with working in them |
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| volcanic mountains in the background |
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| after the train ride we took the bus to the Borobudur temple |
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| the main entry steps |
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| near the top |
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| the top dome |
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| coming back down |
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| our lunch included a drink. I chose a local beer. |
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| Where we had lunch |
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| back to the ship |
Very Cool!
ReplyDeleteI heard before that the bell structures had statues inside them. Is this True?
Hi John:
ReplyDeleteAt that temple, the stupas each contain a statue of a Buddha. I could not see in them very well and I ran short of time. I could not get a picture of the inside