Underground Mosque/Waterpark

Everything else we saw in Java paled in comparison to Borobudur, but then that's not really a fair comparison. Here are some photos of local attractions in Yokyakarta:

Entering the King's private bath house

It seems a shame that no one was actually swimming in the bath house, I guess it is used more for looking at than using these days.

A shadow puppet in the process of being carved from Raw Hide.

wards away evil spirits

pigeon's and other birds are bread for certain characteristics (ie the right cooing noise, color, strut) and then sold at the bird market.

Tunnel to the underground mosque

She chose poorly

These guys were showing off their pigeons. Pretty impressive. Also, pigeons-->pig eons...think about it.

BIRD MARKET!!

dyed chicks

awww, laura and I sharing a bike tuktuk thing. Unfortunately the bike was too small for our joint asses.

We took a horse drawn carriage because it was cheaper than a taxi, but there wasn't room for me, so I ended up hanging on to the back.

Look how comfortable they all look in their covered wagon

I got a lot of strange looks from people driving behind us...I think they thought I was steeling a ride.

Borobudur

We made it to Yogyakarta, Java where we settled into our hotel. We took short day trips from the hotel, like this one to the famous temple, Borobudur:
We learned a whole bunch about the history of the temple, it's reconstruction, and the interpretation of it's friezes, but it would be too much work to impart it all to you, so I will let wikipedia do that for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borobudur

I took this picture of them carefully reconstructing a wall with irreplaceable priceless carved stones, turned around to catch up with the rest of the group, and tripped over one of the newly laid stones...I think it was fine.

Inside each of these bell shaped "stupas" is a sitting Buddha...there are 72 stupas.

People touch his feet for good luck

A photo of the temple after excavation. The temple was discovered in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, excavated, and renovated many times over. The largest renovation was undertaken by the Indonesian government and UNESCO (it is a world heritage site) in 1975, where they pretty much took it apart, cleaned it, added water drainage, and put it back together...it took 7 years.

Hawkers

There always seem to be screws left over when I take something apart and put it back together, I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised by this collection of extra parts

Cleaning the temple

The very top of the temple (in the foreground) was removed and replaced with a lightning rod. The sitting Buddha was inside of the completely enclosed center stupa.