Java: Borobudur

Overwhelmingly the single most popular tourist attraction in Indonesia, Borobudur has nowhere near the world-renown of other famous temple complexes like Angkor Wat but I can't quite figure out why . . . I mean, look at it!

Borobudur - history

I think it's almost fair to put Borobudur on a scale with Angkor Wat.  What Borobudur lacks in size and scale (not that it's by any means small) Borobudur makes up for in symmetry and surroundings.  The symmetry is eye-catching in a way reminiscent of the Taj Mahal. And whilst Angkor Wat is surrounded by pleasant flat, dense jungle, Borobudur offers commanding views across the Javanese countryside with unrivaled views of Mount Merapi (one of Java's deadliest and most active volcanoes with major eruptions in 2006 and 2010) looming in the distance.

Borobudur dates from Indonesia's Buddhist period in the early 9th century - making it nearly 400 years senior to its Cambodian rival - never mind that Borobudur has a tale of survival that tops Angkor Wat.  Angkor has famously been victim to war and neglect but Borobudur has been cursed by geography.  Surviving 13-odd centuries of earthquakes and volcanoes is no small feat - and is even more remarkable when you see how incredibly well preserved Borobudur is (it's in significantly better condition than Angkor Wat).

Like Angkor Wat, Borobudur also experienced an extended period of abandonment. Borobudur was abandoned from as early as the 11th century when the Medang Kingdom moved east after a series of volcanic eruptions and endured further neglect when Indonesia transitioned to Islam in the 15th century. Borobudur was only properly rediscovered with the arrival of the British in the late 1800s. Since then Borobudur has been restored and well-maintained, but has still been victim to attempted terrorist attacks, most recently in the 1990s.  It goes without saying that Borobudur suffers from the same problems of major monuments the world over - vandalism, pollution, littering and over-crowding.

Borobudur - visiting

Repeatedly touted as Indonesia's busiest tourist attraction, we anticipated Angkor-sized crowds.  We certainly didn't have the place to ourselves, but by comparison to Angkor Wat - Borobudur was downright deserted.  The overwhelming majority of visitors were Indonesian - largely comprised of junior high school groups.  There were probably less than a dozen Westerners there - making us a bit famous.

We had our pictures taken - both surreptitiously on phone cameras and in countless group shots with school girls and one wailing 4 year old whose father desperately wanted a photo of us with his son (the son was clearly less impressed with us).

To Ian's eternal glory he was extremely popular with 14-16 year old girl demographic.  One girl even sidled up to him, whispered in his ear 'I love you' and ran off.  At 6 feet, Ian is a veritable giant in Indonesia and a subject of much adoration.

I have no doubt that we have been Facebooked and Instagramed all over Java.

It is always strange when you are subject to such attention solely because of the the colour of your skin.  But as in India, these groups are likely children from small, rural villages and most of them probably have never seen a white person anywhere but on the television or perhaps on the odd trip into the city.

We lingered until the sun because too much to bear, the beer craving too strong and the camera on the verge of overheating.

Rumah Dharma

Borobudur is only an hour (maniac Indonesian-style) drive from Yogyakarta but it feels a million miles away.  We decided to splurge (by which I mean spend about $50 a night) on a lovely B&B style place smack in the middle of a huge rice paddy with jungle all around.  This photo is where we sat and enjoyed our red ginger lemonade (delicious) shortly after arrival.

I don't normally plug places where we've stayed, but I'm making an exception here.  If you ever find yourself in this part of Java, take a couple of days and stay at Rumah Dharma (translated as Dharma's House, named for the owners eight year old son).

This really is a special place, the owners are a delight, she's Belgian, he's Indonesian (between them they speak about 9 languages) the rooms are tip-top, the food is delicious (if you give enough notice they will cook you dinner and have a fridge stocked with cold beer).  They are generous, accommodating and full of tips on where to go and what to do.  If you're lucky you may even catch Mehdi on night when he brings out his guitar (and a bottle of gin). 

Jamal

Wendy and Mehdi also employ a local handy-man, Jamal, who is truly a bit of a local celebrity.

 Jamal rides around in a 40-odd year old vespa with a little sidecar that is rusted through and held together with bits of string.  Jamal was kind enough to take us around town in it (everyone in at least a 15 mile radius knows Jamal).  The photo is us stopping to by petrol from a local woman on the side of the road (that's Jamal at the back supervising).

Jamal has driven the Vespa all over Indonesia - I'm pretty sure it's been on the ferry to Bali and a few years ago it even made the 7,000 foot + climb to the top of Mount Bromo. 

Jamal is a rather remarkable man. He is a Mount Merapi volunteer and has more than once helped with evacuations, he's incredibly involved in the community and has frequently been asked to become an English teacher (he learned English through correspondence with an Australian woman years ago, he's obviously very bright and I suspect he never came anywhere near finishing school). His English is astoundingly good, but the accent is very, very strong.

He loves Indonesia (except Jakarta) more than anything and he feels sorry for anyone who isn't from there.  We'd love to meet him again.

Around Borobudur

We had originally only planned for one night in Borobudur as at first glance (and from any tourist info you receive) there isn't a lot to do other than check out the temple and be on your way.  It only took us about 15 minutes - based on the surroundings and the company to decide that we wanted to stay - we  signed up for another night and would have stayed longer if we'd had the time.

For us, the real highlight of Borobudur was just having the opportunity to check out the surrounding area.  Rumah Dharma has bicycles to borrow and there are countless country lanes (and the ground is mercifully flat!) that you can cycle around and take in the views and check out the farming villages.

 The locals are almost heart achingly kind and welcoming - we were cycling around on Friday afternoon so every man and boy in the area was on their way to mosque for Friday prayers - I think it would be an under-estimate to say that 99% percent of them said hello or at the very least had a wave and huge grin for us.

The region is picturesque beyond anything we anticipated.  The villages are comprised of tidy bamboo huts and well-tended gardens.  Cockerels, toddling babies and hunched, tough old women squawk and watch you from the shade of their front porches (no doubt marvelling over what kind of idiots would be out in the heat of the mid-day sun) - and unlike in Malaysia where the kampungs are typically a bit grim and dirty, these were very much places of community and thoroughly charming.

All too soon our time was up and we really didn't want to leave.
We told Wendy that we'd be back, so if any of  our visitors want to go, we'd be glad to take you!

Ian having meltdowns about transportation, sampling local delicacies and getting a bit of urban culture in the next instalment.

Back to Indochina: Laos

A bit of background

Before returning to the back-catalogue of tales from India, our week in Laos has gone all too quickly and here we are home once again. Needless to say we had an amazing trip and Laos is possibly the most laid-back country on the planet. As anticipated it is very much like Cambodia, but without the hassle (backpackers excluded!)

Both Cambodia and Laos are categorized by the UN with 'Least Developed Country' status. They share similar infant mortality rates (between 55-60 deaths per 1000 births - the ratio in the US is 6:1000). The average life expectancy for both countries weighs in around 60. They have similar literacy rates at just over 72% and most children attend school for 9-10 years. Both countries rank appallingly in the world-wide corruption index (Laos comes in at 154 of 183, Cambodia at 164). Both were French colonies, and it shows, baguettes and cafe culture abound.

On the ground Cambodia appears to be the more developed of the two. In general there is better infrastructure, better roads (not good roads, just better roads), a small, but noticeable middle-class (as well as a small outrageously wealthy elite) and the greatest test of all in Asian development - the presence of Kentucky Fried Chicken. However, that is where Cambodia's edge ends (if you can count KFC as having an edge).

Most strikingly of all, Laos does not appear to be suffering from any of the child protection issues that are the scourge of Cambodia. I could count on one hand the number of begging children encountered in Laos (in Cambodia there were hundreds). There is no evidence of rampant padeophilia (by Westerners), child neglect or abandonment.

In fact, homelessness across the board appeared to be virtually nonexistent as was any evidence of starvation. There is also virtually no harassment and pestering. You are allowed to wander the market without items being shoved in your face, tuk-tuk drivers don't accost you relentlessly and restauranteurs don't stand on the sidewalk trying to lure you in.

Say what you will, but I suspect this culture has something to do with the fact that Laos is a Communist state and the government despite many, many serious flaws (not least that it is a one-party dictatorship in which all other political parties are banned) does manage to provide a very rudimentary social safety net. Laos also has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, a meager 2.5%  - ranking it 21 out of 199 putting it way ahead of Switzerland, Germany and the USA.

The Lao government also began encouraging private enterprise in 1986 and since then (with a brief blip from the Asia economic crisis in the late 90s) the Lao economy has grown by more than 6% each year. It is Laos' goal to graduate from Least Developed Country Status by 2020 and they appear to be on track to do so. The Chinese, as in Cambodia, are also on the scene - they are currently spending a whopping $7 billion (USD) to kit out Laos with a high-speed rail linking Vientiane with the Chinese border.

Onto the journey

Well, I'm not going to lie, our journey didn't get off to the greatest start. As if I don't hate flying enough, getting up at 3:00am for 7:45am flight is even worse. Add to that trying to get Ian up and it's like lining cats up for a parade. Anyway, we made it to the airport in plenty of time, had a smooth 2.5 hour flight and were on the ground by 9:30am Vientiane time.

Things did not immediately improve. The Lao government has put a flat rate of $7 for the taxi ride into town. This is by all means an exorbitant sum for this part of the world, but $7 isn't exactly going to break the bank and sometimes you just roll with it. I was ready to roll, Ian was gearing up for a fight. In the end we got the taxi - needless to say, it would have been a lengthy walk into town and a tuk-tuk would have saved us no more than about $2. This did not prevent me hearing about our squandered $7 for the rest of the morning. Pointing out that we really only frittered away a couple of bucks as a tuk-tuk still would have cost money apparently did not help the situation.

We arrived at our accommodation. Now, I'm a pretty hardened traveler and have survived many nights in inferior accommodation, but this was pretty sub-par. As always my first exploration of our new digs took me straight to the bathroom. I was instantly swarmed by mosquitoes (we were to discover that even in the dry season, mosquitoes were still a pretty serious problem) and as I victoriously crushed the life out of one unfortunate skeeter against the bathroom wall, I noticed that a large portion on the bathroom wall was indeed smeared with mosquito guts and blood from previous guests whom had fought the same losing battle. Charming.

The bathroom also had that delightful scent of raw sewage that accompanies one virtually everywhere in Asia and the shower curtain was positively streaked with slimy black mold. Too tired and dirty to care, I hopped in the shower while Ian plugged up gaps in the windows and fans with plastic bags to keep the infestation down and we set off in search of food.

Still bristling from our massive over-expenditure on our taxi fare, we made several aborted attempts to get some food, no way was Ian going to let breakfast set us back another $7! We (I) did eventually locate a small noodle shop, crammed with locals and commanded we stop. We ordered two steaming bowls of Pho and were richly rewarded. We topped up our soups with a dazzling array of condiments: fish sauce, limes, sugar, soy, pickled chillies and no less than two kinds of amazing (super hot) chilli paste. Washed, fed and on the ground holiday could officially begin.

Cambodia: Around Angkor

Following our short, but pleasant stay in Phnom Penh we made for Siem Reap, gateway to Angkor Wat and the rest of the Angkor Temples.

Again, I had done my homework and was thoroughly prepared to be awed. Angkor Wat was constructed early 12th century, so it's roughly the same age as Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It took about 300,000 people and 6000 elephants to construct.

It is by any account impressive and all things considered - incredibly well preserved. Naturally, the place is packed and long gone are the days, where even if you get up really early can you count on having the place to yourself. So you do have to tolerate the crowds - but there is some respite, it is amazing how many people (especially those in obnoxiously large tour groups) just plow straight through to the middle and don't explore the perimeters, courtyards or even all the incredible bas-reliefs. Angkor Wat is vast - we made two trips spending about 2.5 hours this first time and went back again for another 1.5 hours.

Angkor Wat was (and is) the crown jewel of the Angkorian Dynasty, which ruled from roughly 800AD to 1400 (and encompassed most of modern-day Cambodia and a great deal of Thailand). Spanning nearly 600 years, the Angkorian period left dozens of other temples - none of the others as big as Angkor Wat, but some equally if not more impressive. None of the other temples are nearly so well preserved as Angkor Wat, and some have been left to jungle for long periods of time.

Some of them have been left for so long that there is some emergency work being done and countries and foundations from all of the world are chipping in to sponsor work - the Chinese and Koreans and pouring money into Cambodia (and not just in temple restoration), but being Hindu temples, the Indians have also taken a great deal of interest in their preservation.

At the moment you are still allowed to wander pretty freely around the ruins and even climb them. I can't help but feel these days are limited, the number of tourists is clearly steadily increasing and it seems to me unlikely that the temples will long be able to sustain the current amount of traffic, wear and tear. People generally seem to be pretty respectful, there is mercifully little graffiti, but the mainland Chinese tour groups are pretty blase about scattering their empty water bottles wherever they like (and there's no shortage of rubbish bins).

Still there is so much to see and as we had 5 days in the area we had plenty of time to explore some of the 'lesser' temples in the area - which is a ridiculous really - if all of these weren't piled one on top of the other, they'd each be famous in their own right. Also amazing is the variation between the different temples, I fully anticipated 'temple fatigue' setting in after about a half dozen or so, but they are all so different and the detail so astounding, that I could have gone for another couple of days easily.

We hired a tuk-tuk driver for our time there and he dutifully carted us round to all the sites and kept us supplied with cold water (it was hot, but mercifully the humidity is nowhere near as bad as in Malaysia). Travelling by tuk-tuk was of course novel, but it also gave us a chance to see a lot of the Cambodia countryside, which is by any account idyllic and I daresay even greener than Ireland.

As for Siem Reap, well it serves a purpose in terms of catering to the tourists with a truly overwhelming amount of accommodation, restaurants and watering holes. We'd heard surprisingly good things about it, but I thought it lacked entirely the charm of Phnom Penh and it largely struck me as the Cambodian version of West Yellowstone (although it is probably a bit better than West Yellowstone.) The airport is surprisingly nice, but that's pretty much all I have to say about it.

Cambodia: Phnom Penh

You'll forgive me for not getting round to this earlier, but no sooner had I sorted the photos from our trip then I was (and still am, now on day 4) struck down with a viscous stomach bug that Cambodia was kind enough to give me as a going away gift.

Dysentery aside, we had a wonderful trip.

We flew in Phnom Penh, expecting a hectic, dirty, still-recovering capital of a desperately poor country. The city is neither dirty (I think it's significantly cleaner than KL) nor is it particularly hectic. I can't quite put my finger on it - or think of a better way to articulate it, but there is a certain 'lift' that is nearly automatic when one departs and Islamic society and arrives in a Buddhist one. Even in the face of pestering tuk-tuk drivers and begging children, there is an undeniably laid-back aura that in my experience is simply non-existent in peninsular Malaysia.

I did a lot of reading about Cambodia before we came, and poor, very poor though it is (the average annual income is around $480) it is already difficult to grasp how far Cambodia has come in the past 30 years. Phnom Penh is teeming with excellent local restaurants, bars and cafes (no chains - yet, get there now!) and the Royal Palace, National Museum and other main city attractions and monuments are in tip-top condition.

Save for the number of street children and a very visible UN presence (child protection, land mine victims, human trafficking, world heritage and of course the ongoing Khmer Rouge trials) it would be just about inconceivable that that just over 30 years ago this was a country that lost 1/7th of its population to the Khmer Rogue, had more bombs dropped on it than were dropped in all of WWII, and that Phnom Pehn itself was nearly entirely evacuated, ransacked and looted.

Indeed given Cambodia's tragic recent history, we made the obligatory trip to the Killing Fields of Tuol Sleng. One of the most striking things about Tuol Sleng, like Auschwitz, is that, it is just a place. A place where people live and work - it's largely surrounded by rice paddy, and rural winding lanes; it is just such an ordinary place. Unlike Auschwitz, none of the buildings still stand, however, it does somehow feel less sanitized than Auschwitz.

The only real monument there is a tall narrow pagoda which has been filled with unearthed human remains and clothes; otherwise it's an area not much bigger than a large backyard by American standards, that has several pits and rather crude wooden signs to point out and describe atrocities or asking you, 'please do not walk through the mass grave'. They have not even paved the path around the Killing Fields - nor have they exhumed all of the mass graves (roughly 10,000 people died here) so that when it rains, bits of clothing, bone and teeth frequently come to the surface.

It was heartbreaking and grim and about all we could take. You can also visit the prison in Phnom Penh, Prison S-21, the most notorious of the Khmer Rogue and where most people who were eventually executed (not so much executed as bludgeoned and beaten, they did not want to waste the bullets) at the Killing Fields were first held.

Having done our duty and soured our morning, we headed for the Russian Market. Like most markets in Asia - it's dank, cramped, sprawling, and full of junk - it's also full of really, really, really cheap clothes. If you look through your wardrobe, you'll probably find a fair few items are 'made in Cambodia.' And if you are prepared to dig, bargain and take a chance that it might not be a perfect fit - you can walk away with a lot of top end designer goods - for literally 90% of the regular retail value. Ian came home with $400 worth of Lacoste & Ralph Lauren shirts (real ones) for $40.00.

We also packed in a trip to the royal palace, had a nice stroll around town, a few drinks at the Foreign Correspondents Club and ate plenty of delicious food (avoiding the platters of deep-fried spiders though!) The food in Cambodia really is terrific and in Phnom Penh you really are spoiled for choice.

A growing trend in Cambodia at the moment seems to be 'charity restaurants' - which are really brilliant - they are proper restaurants, in fact usually very, very nice restaurants. The idea is that they take in street children and rehabilitate them teaching them how to cook, serve, host etc. All profits go to the child rehabilitation programmes and the food and service were outstanding; although, the nicest part was that all of the children (mostly teenagers) seemed really pleased and really proud to be working there - it lacked entirely that horrible patronizing, post-colonial feel.

So went our time in Phnom Penh, we both really would have liked another full day there but everyone and everything we read was so down on it that we thought a day and a half would be plenty. I suppose coming straight from the West one might find it a bit of a shock, but considering we live in KL and my last holiday was to Chennai and Delhi, Phnom Penh was indeed relaxing by any account.

I shall wrap up there, plenty more to come on the temples at Angkor . . .