Indonesia Borobudur Temple

“As soon as I took a spot to sit, suddenly I could feel the magical vibes this world’s biggest Buddhist temple has. It was so peaceful and quiet there. The mist covered the trees, one could only see its shadows, making the whole scenery even more mystical and magical. I just loved sitting there, by myself, listening to the sound of nature.”

“Waking up at 3 in the morning has never been so worth it. With an excited mind and heavy eyes, I crawled out of bed even beating the nearby Mosque’s loud-speaker morning prayer to the punch. In the dead of the morning not one car or person filled the streets of Yogya. The driver we hired for the day completely disregarded the red lights and sped on quickly through the night, in a hurry to get us to the sunrise spectacle. I felt like a giddy little girl – antsy – waiting to witness the famous 9th century Buddhist sanctuary, Borobudur, emerge from the pitch dark night into a sun-drenched sunrise.”

“I got a map and a torch, and 5 minutes later I was on my way to the top of the temple. Now here is something you should know about me – in my daily life I hate getting up early. When I travel, however, I cherish the opportunity to wake up before everyone else and have all the astonishing landmarks to myself. Well in Indonesia my waking-up-early-to-be-alone system failed me. First, it was mount Bromo and its rush hour at 3:00 AM, and now it was happening again at Borobudur. When I got up to the top, there were already a dozen people there. At the time of the actual sunrise, they were more than a hundred…far away from the secluded nirvana experience I had planned.”