Indonesia Prambanan Temple

“Having just been to Borobudur, it was impossible not to compare the two. While the former gave me that staggering, surreal feeling of “Oh, I’m finally here, and it’s even more amazing than I expected,” Prambanan snuck up on me slowly. Yes, there was that burst of whoa when I got my first full view of it from across that long stretch of grass and plants, but it was calmer. Quieter. Instead of stopping me in my tracks, it urged me to come closer and gained more of my admiration with every step I took.”

“Photos do little justice to the feeling of the place. Unlike Borobodur where you can scale the temple itself so that it seems smaller the closer you get, Prambanan offers no such relief. The nine central towers do exactly that – they tower over you and climb to incredible heights. In my opinion the eye is fooled even further by the shape of the towers themselves, dwindling to needle-like peaks which seem all the further away.”

“But as we were looking round, minding our own business, we realised that we were attracting quite a crowd. Being pale and fair in Asia, we were not new to this, but we had never been mobbed to this extent before. We must have had photos with over 100 locals, we were prodded and poked and filmed while we walked. One boy genuinely thought I was Britney Spears.”