Java

Borobudur, Java. Sunrise at this famous Buddhist mountain/temple. Off in the distance, dead-center in the photo, is Mt. Merapi, an active volcano. It was erupting smoke and ash at this time and villages near the volcano had been evacuated.

Borobudur, Java. Kind of the same view as above. But here you can see Mt Merapi erupting in the distance. This is a dangerous volcano and has killed many thousands of local villagers over the years, unfortunately including many more after this photo was taken in 2006. The spires in the foreground are part of Borobodur, and were being restored with a great amount of time and trouble and international $$$ while we were there. A few years after these pix were taken much of this painstaking work was shaken back into the ground by yet another massive earthquake from this powerful volcano.

Borobudur, Java. It's hard to relate the size & scale of this place with photos - it's a Buddhist temple that completely covers a large hill/small mountain. The idea behind it is that as you spiral your way up the passageways through the various levels you're ascending heaven-ward, in a spiritual as well as a physical sense. The texts, reliefs, and statues carved into the rock all narrate your journey. The many missing heads from the statues were stolen over the years for private collections. What assholes - they obviously missed the lesson!

Borobudur, Java. Kind of an "Enlightened Buddha" photo, taken near the top of Borobudur shortly after sunrise. Just to his right is Mt Merapi with a large plume of smoke and ash coming out. This is one of the few volcanos that I've ever seen erupting.

All around Borobudur restoration work was underway. Skilled stonemasons like this guy would just sit there all day working on a single block of stone, trying to get it just right. And they were doing a pretty good job - it was hard to tell the new parts from the old parts of the structure. Slow, hard work - all done by hand. It was a real shame that an earthquake damaged much of it after we left.

Borobudur, Java. OK - just one more pic of Borobudur and then we'll move on. This is one of my favorite pics of this place, showing a local couple just chilling out at the 'summit'. The huge spire behind them represents enlightenment but I don't think that's what's on their minds.

Yogyakarta, Java. In most parts of the world people don't usually want their photos taken. Indonesia was the first place I'd been where locals felt honored that you'd want to take their picture. That made it easy to get some good people-pix, something that isn't always possible elsewhere. In fact we found ourselves on the other side of this game many times- locals would cautiously approach and very timidly ask for a photo standing next to us. Beth was especially popular for photos - she's pushing 6 ft and was probably the tallest woman these folks had ever seen!

Prambanan, Java. Java is mostly Muslim nowadays but has a long Hindu / Buddhist history. This is an old Hindu temple in central Java that is slowly being restored. I heard that it was also damaged by the earthquake following our visit.

Prambanan, Java. Here's a very cheerful little boy (or possibly little girl?) having a blast playing in the ruins of the temple shown above.

A nice parting shot from this very scenic tropical island.