July 8 - Borobrodur and Chicken Church

Our eyes have seen the glory of the mighty Chicken Church!

Tourists hanging out at Borobrodur.

Back to front on the church, zoom in to see someone taking a selfie on the crown!

July 8 Day 144

                We got up early, picked up our boxed breakfasts and got onto our shuttle.  e were the first ones on and so we got a dark tour of the city while the van filled up with other guests.  Then it was more than an hour to the site of Borobrodur.

                The place was part of an ancient Buddhist capital.  There were a few other ruins in the area but we were focusing on the main temple.  Our tour was the hill sunrise one.  We could have paid double for the sunrise in the temple tour, or paid a little less for the morning tour, no sunrise.  Our tour took us to a hill overlooking the temple to view the sunrise.

                Alas, it was misty and the sunrise wasn't visible so we spent 45 minutes on a nice hilltop overlooking some jungle and a few buildings.  At least we didn't pay the extra to see the lack of sunrise from the temple.

                From the hill it was a short ride to the temple and then about a 5 minute walk through the grounds to the temple.  security was there but we all set off the metal detector and no one minded.  We were given a small bottle of water, told where and when to meet up afterwards and sent on our way.

                The main temple is quite large, with staircases at the four cardinal points leading up to a large top stupa.  Along the way are many levels where you can walk along the outside of the temple and see lots of Buddhas and sculpted Buddhist scenes along both sides of the path.  Just before the top is a field of stupas, each containing a Buddha.  A few are out in the open for us to see but most of the enclosed ones are headless or damaged in other ways.  many of the scenes had missing bits where they put in plain structural bricks rather than carved ones.

                The main stairway was busy but the sunrise people had spread out so all areas had people but few were bottlenecked by them.  Meg just missed getting a picture of tourists sitting on the stupas right next to a sign asking them not to, but a few security officers came around and shooed people off. 

                The preservation of the temple was impressive, the sheer number of carvings and scale of everything made it different from other Buddhist structures and we've seen lots, well worth the visit.

                After the temple we walked along the path by the elephant ride station and the movie tent, where no one was there to tell about when the informational movie might be shown.  We headed back to the restaurant we were supposed to rendezvous at with our driver and get a coffee.  All they had was a breakfast buffet for those who purchased it (we didn't) and a waiter sold us the coffees for cash which he probably just pocketed.

                Our driver made a point of finding us as we hadn't paid cash but asked to use Visa.  He got ahold of a machine and after paying we needed to negotiate the next part of our day.  We needed to see the chicken church, which was close to the temple but not part of the tour.  We were also looking forward to exploring the temple site after most of the tourists left.  Our driver actually offered to survey the other passengers, as one group just needed to get back to town and the others needed to get to Prambanan by early afternoon, both groups having some time to spare.  We thanked him but decided to make our own way.

                At the site we saw a superior coffee shop and headed to the museums.  The boat museum had a few interesting displays but the main one had been integrated into a digital presentation area full of cartoon characters aimed at 5 year olds, so we passed on that.  The archaeological museum had a yard full of stones that had yet to be placed on the temple and a fair amount of information in English.  It gave us some background and the old pictures of the temple's first reconstruction were interesting.

                The 9 am gamelan performance didn't happen so we decided to make our way out.  We walked along the town but found no taxis at all in the core.  We came back to the temple parking lot and found a Grab station.  Grab bought out Uber in Indonesia but our phone doesn't have enough memory to take the app.  Fortunately and employee was on hand and was able to order a car for us and tell us the price.  We were able to get a ride to the church with a one hour wait and then  a lift back to Jogjakarta which was exactly what we needed. 

                The ride there wasn't too long but went along many narrow roads and would have been very difficult for us to find on our own walking.  From the parking lot you had the option of getting transport to the church but we opted for the steep 10 minute walk because we're tough.  The ticket office was partway up the path and our tickets came with  vouchers for a discount on coffee and a free "local treat".

                Once we got to the top of the hill there were a few vendors offering us drinks but we ignored them as we basked in the glory of chickeny radiance.  The church was very much a giant chicken with glass eyes and a majestic open beak.  Its size was huge and its presence undeniable.  We were awed for awhile and then headed to the main entrance through the side of the beast.

                A woman met us at the door and checked our tickets.  She said that the church wasn't a chicken but a pigeon of peace, a dove we figured.  She gave a few facts about when it was built and that it was meant to be a temple of peace for all religions.  By the entrance there were many cave-like alcoves with Christian images in them and as you moved along you came across small private prayer areas for Muslims.  Down the stairs were some Buddhist statues and paintings leading to a small garden with a statue commemorating love and unity.

                Going upstairs we came to the main hall, which was three stories tall and had a few chairs set up to watch a video of the founder speaking in Indonesian about the church.  Behind the tv were displayed some nice pictures of the place being built and some couples getting married there.  Certainly if we were even to renew our vows, this would be the place to do it.

                Heading upstairs into the chicken torso were some large, unfurnished areas with walls covered with colourful murals about living healthy and avoiding drugs.  We were asked to wait in another area for tourists to descend before we could move on.  This room had large pictures of similar monuments sucha as the Eiffel Tower or The Pyramids mixed with images of the Chicken Church.

                We went up one level to get the view out through the giant beak, but the highlight was when we went up on top of the chicken's head to walk inside of its crown and get a 360 degree view of the surroundings.  We could pick out Borobudur but the view was a little misty.

                After coming down we went up the chicken's backside to claim out coffees as well as delicious deep fried cassava with chili sauce.  The cafe was well set up with great views and nice looking food and the gift shop was tempting but limited.

                We went back down the hill, turning around every once in awhile to have one last look at the church.  We waited a long time for our driver to come back from getting petrol and talked to another driver in the lot.  Meg also fed some chickens hanging out there, probably staying close by in case their leader gave them instructions in their quest for world domination.

                The drive back was really long as we were driving when other people were too, unlike our pre-sunrise approach.  We got back around two and grabbed a late lunch at a local place and then headed back to the room to catch up on our sleep, do work and watch part of a strange Indonesian movie about a hero with magic powers that allow him to move logs around.

                We had another nice dinner at the same place as the previous day and went to bed early.  On our way in the hotel asked us what kind of breakfast we wanted and we requested the Indonesian one.  The correct choice, as we would find out.