Having been to Jojga several times over (now 4x to be exact, with 2 trips with my parents when I was younger given my dad is a bit footloose), many of the sights are, unfortunately, nothing new to me. Spending 5 days in Jogja was also a tad too long, in my opinion and most sightseeing in and around Jogjakarta can be done within 3 and half days.

We did the mandatory touristy thing like going to the Prambanan(currently recovering from the 2006 earthquake with some restoration works), Borubudur, Mount Merapi and several other sights… for the life of me, I’m struggling to remember the what, where and when! I remember Mount Merapi being lusciously green and has one of the most beautiful landscape around. This time round though, the land was barren and was pretty much left in devastation from the 2008’s eruption. Hence, there was really nothing much to see here.

I still love Prambanan, though. The entire temple is surrounded by a rich history of Hinduism surrounding Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu. For some reason, I find the entire story intensely sexy and I have always been intrigued by it for as long as I remember.

@ Prambanan

@ Borubudur

(of course, there will always be some belligerent visitors who just refuse to read signs!)

We also took a long scenic drive to Dieng Plateau and with a lot of time on our hands, even drove up all the way to Solo (3 hours away from Jogja) to visit a Candi Sukuh (Erotic Temple) located high on top of a mountain. The view going to both Dieng Plateau and Solo was breathtaking, but it was pretty much spoilt by the fact that it would not stop raining! It was, however, worth the journey, although in my opinion, just once is quite enough.