Days Seven & Eight: Yogyakarta and visiting Borobudur Temple

When Rich and I were planning our holiday this year, we knew we wanted to visit South East Asia - but WHERE? Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos? There were lots of amazing things to visit in ALL these countries, but nothing really sparked our imagination.

That was until a friend posted a "top ten placed to visit in 2014" list on facebook - she tagged Rich and I in the post as Christchurch was number two on the list (this friend is in the USA - so she always thinks of us when anything NZ related pops up). We read through the other places on the list, and one of the places that caught our attention was Yogyakarta, Indonesia - I will admit it, I hadn't really thought of visiting Indonesia on our trip. I guess a lot of Kiwis go to Indonesia to party it up in Bali which isn't my scene. However when we read about Yogyakarta it sounds amazing - temples, palaces, so much history! That was it, we were sold! Yogyakarta was added to our list of places to visit in 2014.

I didn't take many photos on our first day in Yogyakarta because - my camera ran out of batteries. However, I did snap a few pictures before it died, I loved this little guy. There was a bunch of fun street art in the city.

On our second day we got up early for a visit to Borobudur - this is one of the two main reasons we chose to visit Yogyakarta.

Borobudur is an 9th Century Buddhist Temple - that alone completely blows my mind.

As you can see,  it was an EXTREMELY hot day - sensible people wore hats and had parasols. But not me "who needs shade when you hair is BLACK?" - I should have TOTALLY had a hat or parasol!

I've visited quite a few different Asian countries and visited a lot of Buddhist Temples, but Borobudur was unlike anything I've ever seen. The most obvious thing being - you can't go INSIDE Borobudur! It's a large stone structure and you can walk along the different levels, but there is no inside.

Each layer of the temple included a lot of different reliefs that told different stories. Climbing up the levels wasn't difficult at all - but the heat was kind of brutal for folks like us that are from a very mild climate. The higher you climbed, the more amazing the views became.

When  we finally reached the top of the temple it was amazing, there really are no words.  It was one of those moments that reminded me why I save my pennies to travel.

On our way back to the hotel, our driver took us to visit a second temple (the name of this temple escapes me right now). It wasn't as big or impressive as Borobudur - but it was still impressive!

 Also Rich had the chance  to swing on a tree - tree swinging isn't for me, so I was the group photographer!

So how were our first couple of days in Indonesia? Completely, mind blowing and amazing and there are so many more Yogyakarta adventures to come!

Back to Kuala Lumpur

Hey all - I am back from our friends wedding in Taranaki and we had such a great time! I will post some pictures soon, but I thought it was time for another photo update from my trip earlier this year.

Once I returned to Kuala Lumpur my friends Lisa and Aaris joined me from Taipei - yah! We met Lisa and Aaris whilst we were living in Taipei and they are are so much fun, I was so happy they could come over and meet me.

We decided to start out by visiting the National Mosque of Malaysia and the Islamic Arts Museum - here's a few shots of our walk to the mosque.

Along the way we saw the KL station and took a few photos, its a pretty amazing building - in fact its hard to believe its a train station at all.

We even had lunch at the train station - ice blended drinks (mine is kiwi fruit) and assorted roti full of awesome things - mine had milo in it!
Next up was the National Mosque of Malaysia - we all had to wear robes inside the building. All women have to wear them and cover their hair, turns out Aaris had to wear one too as his shorts weren't long enough.

It wouldn't have been so bad wearing the robes if they were made of cotton - but they were made from the most nasty scratchy polyester. But I was still smiling - I think the red sunnies add so much more to the look.
Below is the view from the mosque - it was really nice walking on the cool marble and tiles inside.

Below is the prayer hall, which as you can see is extremely beautiful. However as non-Muslims we weren't allowed to go inside, but it was still pretty cool that we could have a look at it from the outside.



After the mosque we went to have a look at the Islamic Arts Museum, which was amazing - so many beautiful things to look at. I honestly felt like I could have spent a whole week just at the museum. If you even visit Kuala Lumpur you have to go there!

Next we decided to stop for a cheesy tourist photo.

Then it was time for more exploring of KL - so many sights to see!

We finally found ourselves back in China town - Lisa and Aaris were staying in a hotel around here.We stumbled across another temple, I think it was maybe Buddist - but I'm really not sure, it could have been Taoist.

We stayed in Chinatown just a little bit longer and had a look around the most beautiful Hindu Temple - it was amazing. It was the first Hindu temple I've ever seen and the colours were so beautiful and the designs so intricate.

Then it was time for something completely different, we went to Times Square which is a big mall to check out a tattoo artist for Aaris. Finally we finished off our day with a "Fish Spa" which is exactly what it looks like - you put your feet in a tub with some fish and they eat away the dead skin. I did this a few times in Korea and over there it is called "Dr Fish". I have to say the Korean fish were much smaller than the type they use in Malaysia - you could really feel these guys eating away at your feet! That was the end of day one with Lisa & Aaris and as you can see - it was pretty epic! It was the most adventure filled day of all our days in Kuala Lumpur. I have more photos of my adventures with Lisa & Aaris to post soon.