Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

In a break from the sunrise tours, I slept in today. I arranged transport to my next destination, and then hopped on a city bus out to Prambanan. Prambanan contains the largest Hindu temple complex and second largest Buddhist temple complex (after Borobudur) in Indonesia. I stopped for an early lunch in the market near the bus station and ordered one of whatever it was they were serving. It turned out to be a tasty noodle soup with beef balls.

Prambanan was much less crowded than Borobudur, perhaps because it's a weekday, perhaps because it's less famous, or perhaps because I was visiting at midday, rather than the recommended time (sunset). I thought it was just as impressive, though. There are a number of separate temples, one large one each for Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu, and smaller ones arrayed around them. Some of the temples are still damaged from the 2006 earthquake, but many of the are fully restored and can be entered.

Wandering around one of the outlying temples, I was called over by some restoration workers on a break. They told me a bit about the process. They're rebuilding the temples, stone by stone. Where a stone is missing or broken, they're replacing them with simple undecorated blocks. The workers think they have eight or nine years of work left. They invited me to go up to the top of the partially restored temple that they were working on. The center was empty at the time, so I could look down in towards the foundation. They warned me that there were probably many ghosts there.

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