Live free or die hard (part 1 - Borobudur)

yeah baby....since im still alive and typing its clear that im living free instead of dying hard

so, after taking care of bitsness (the killing lil miss piggy thingy) im all set for an escapism from my little shit hole life. having my original 6.50am flight to soerabaya being postpone to 11.50am is a blessing in disguise indeed (air ASSia call me at 1am to tell me bout the delay!) as jack can shoot straight out from office and ready to roll, but he was 1.5hr late. Reaching the very neat and impressive Surabaya's Juanda airport at 2.30pm and after a pit stop for lunch we were on the road right away.

Jack was under the (false) impression that it will only take us 4hr to reach Jogya from sby with 4 wheels. So as the result we reach Jogya 4times!!! at around 8pm when we hit some city jack went "here is Jogya buddy...up front will be the famous Malioboro St" of course there wasnt any Malioboro to be found in that city since its not Jogya!!

we keep going under false hope that Jogya will be around the corner

Later on we found out that we were still more than an hour away from Jogya! and since we'd been saving our empty stomach for Malioboro's food for like a year now we decide to stop at a random waroeng at a random city with a random food. Jack ordered the "nasi mawut" and i opted for the much more usual "nasi goreng" but once the food were ready...we cant make out the differences between the two, can you??
Which is which?? the eternal mystery of the difference of nasi mawut and nasi goreng in central Jawa


with a barely full stomach we continue our journey and at almost midnite we finally reach the city of Jogyakarta/Yogyakarta/Djogyakarte, choose whatever that work best for u since the gov themself don't seem to know much bout the official spelling, it was different spelling on different street signs we saw.

Malioboro here we comes!!!! alas the famous nite spot was not as happening as we hope for. After suffering from empty stomach for like 6hr and reach 3 different fake Jogya our Oasis in the middle of the Sahara is not there. It was friday nite, but Malioboro is almost empty, a few waroeng lesehan (a waroeng where u sit on the floor) is open but there were almost no body eating. We sat down and ordered a hot ginger milk!!! to take care of all the excess gas produce by our empty stomach vaganza
A nice cuppa of hot ginger milk

that took care of the 8hr of driving out of our system, although im not driving. its almost 1am and since we were on a cheapskate and kamikaze holiday it only make sense if we were not staying at a hotel. So to kill a few hour we got before we need to cruise up to Borobudur in search of that amazing sunrise we go clubbing instead! ari kink kink...ari kink kink kink!!! Sorry,what...?ohh that song was like so early 90's?? ohhkay then.....ajeb ajeb ajeb........

watching hot girls shaking their booty was certainly much better than sleeping. But all the while we didnt really know how to get our lousy ass to borobudur yet. So we interviewed the club's staff, of how long and what way should we take. And later on we hit a cyber cafe to browse for some map and info about borobudur, all the while trying to keep up with the sun. Being on a mission to take a sunrise pics of the great candi i must get the 1st light pic, without that it just wont work. thus we must be there and with all my gear set up when its still dark.

so, equipt with bits and pieces of info we (or rather jack) were convince he knows how to get there exactly. But of course just as the way he found "jogya", at no time we were lost again. Listening to jack say "turn right here..im dead sure this is it" is like listening to a tukang becak say "yeah pull that thing and im dead sure u'll get the plane on the air". So after a series of "im sure" we were trap deeper and deeper in the heart of Jogya. A frantic direction asking to strangers took place thick and fast (who said men dun ask direction?? dumb men dun that is. we smart men ask direction! well, not so smart as to not getting lost though)

After being told we were on the right way and need to keep going straight i step on the accelerator like my hairy ass depended on it. Its about 3.30am and we were not even sure what time mr.sun wakey wakey. Determined not to miss first light i made Jogya street into my own private formula one circuit.

Once we were on the gate to enter Borobudur our race is not even close to finish line as we are told by the bapak who seems to be the gate keeper that the gate will only be open for public at 6am!!! that wont do...at 6am the sun will be bright and shining, it will be well and trully morning. So we told him that we want to take picture of sunrise yada3 and he offer to take us to a hotel that he said arrange this kind of thing and cost around 200.000 sweet rupiah. Being a paranoid that he is jack was not sure at all. So we ditch the bapak and try to find out more info from some local. All this time i was acting like a kid on his birthday all hooked up on sugar and accidentally swallow his dad's ecstacy pills.im just so excited and just imagine the worst, the sun comes out while we are no where near a place to see borobudur!! Then this ibu convinced us to follow her, turn out she bring us to the same hotel the bapak was talking about. and turn out this hotel is the only one open 24hour and organize sunrise watching, unless of course if u can find your way around the kampoeng surrounding Borobudur and find a sweet spot which we of course didn't.

The hotel was part of the National Park where borobudur is situated. There were some foreign tourist going on this sunrise thingy too. later i found out that we were going to be taken to the top of Borobudur itself to watch sunrise, hell no, i want to take picture OF Borobudur on sunrise not sunrise FROM Borobudur! and thanks to Buddha they do have a place for that kind of thing.
They brought us to this small hill that we need to climb up ourself, all the while jack was breathing on his last breath, looking paler than a kuntilanak with a wrong face cream.

But once we were up there and before any light even shine on the great candi....wait....there are a few spotlight light there giving us a breathtaking sillhoutte of the candi. But ironically that view actually gave more breath to jack. He found a new meaning of his life, a sudden surge of energy. I think we both were pretty awe struck by what we saw.
My 1st sight of Borobudur...and it certainly is unforgettable

I saw alot of amazing pictures of Brbdr and this spot was not the best, but with our limited knowledge of the local places and our extremely limited time this is the best we can get. But all the while i wondered how amazing if we get to see it from the spots of those great photos from great photographers as what we saw here is pretty friggin amazing in itself already.

Wasting no time i get out all my arsenal and start snapping. so pls check to my photos site for a complete range of great photos later on craxguy.multiply.com (prob have to wait untill im back in mdn before i can post it all tho)

But certainly it wont be a road trip/photo trip without a few foto centil of ourself...prepare your eyes..............
two wise men in search of enlightenment
one not so wise man in search of a slap in the face by the Buddha Himself


the ministers of tourism of central Jawa welcome you to Borobudur


When morning broke and it was less amazing to see it from far away we walk down and go to the candi, ready to greet the Buddha himself, u know how the myth says that only those with pure heart can touch the Buddha's statue inside the stupa. But we stop by the hotel's cafe to recharge with a hot tea and a nice pisang goreng complimentary of the 130.000/person we paid to get in the "sunrise tour" first

Borobudur is just hidden behind those tall tress behind us


And here we are...seeing and touching the legendary Borobudur, u heard story bout how it was build without cement or any other form of building adhesive, its just stone on top of stone, but somehow it survive all kind of nature test for all this long and amazing time. so seeing it and touching it was somekind of surrealism

Jack was too beat to continue climbing up and exploring the candi, and since we were planning to come back late in the afternoon to take some twilight picture he gave up on the 1st step of the candi. So i went up by myself. take some quick snap with the morning light. and climb down in no time so not to make jack die at borobudur, though it wont be a bad idea to die here, there are certainly plenty of other places that u wouldn't want urself to die in.

ohhh i did touched the statue of Buddha Inside the stupa....yeaaaa i got pure heart......

Long story short later that day the rain pour down like mad.....no more chance to take picture. so there are no foto centil of us with the candi. its like we never visited the place!!! there are no proof!!! and jack never go in!!!! but hell.....at least he has this one shot....
The only proof that we (or he) visited borobudur

Im so gonna photoshoped myself into this pic later mwahahahaha. Our morning affair with the candi end at aorund 8.30am. but before we can find a place to park our tired legs we were "harashed" by a bunch of souvenir sellers. I am a sucker for a traditional handy craft and when i saw those beautiful stone sculpture i know i must have it. Having been warned to bargain the hell out of the opening price I told them 80.000 for 4 pieces while they open with 90.000 for 1 piece. I know i could get it for the price i wanted if i just make one last push to the seller who keep saying that with 80.000 for 4 he wont make any profit at all. And although i know he will earn something with my price i refused to be a total arse and offer him 100.000 for 4 instead. He promptly agree
"supposed to be" made from the volcanic stones of Merapi

From here we found a 60.000 a room guest house to crash, i couldn't sleep and opted to walk around and having a chat with the locals instead, but jack was gone.........
Jack was out cold

Outside of our lakbantun room

Later the day when we went back and stare hopelessly from afar through all the heavy rain we were once again mugged and harashed by souvenir sellers, though they were very polite and keep repeating saying sorry but damn i admire their determination, its like they wont quite until u buy. If only the indo's soccer team have this kind of determination...the world cup is ours.
buy or die u rich chinese bastards

We end up buying some cloth with the image of borobudur printed on it, would make a nice souvenir for family back home and some wooden pen with image of borobudur being draw on it too. People who treat me nicely back home are gonna get some of those, if u didnt get any...u know u are not on my "nice kids list"

Borobudur is amazing.....but there is still BROMO......

untill next blog..........keep an eye out for "live free or die hard II"