Java photos

Here they come – we had a total blast, temple-hopping around central Java, fuelled by an excess of fried rice and being pursued by endless small Javanese people wanting their photo with the 2 blonde giantesses…

In no particular order –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stunning Prambanan – one of the two main temple areas. Woof. Here photographed in black and white to try and disguise how incredibly sweaty I was that day..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only eclipsed by the big boy himself – Borobudur, the central reason for this whole trip. Hoofed up there at 5am

to watch the sunrise and it was just as good as I'd secretly hoped for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here he is with a bit more daylight. Hours of happy temple crawling spent on his many layers and sides once the sun was up, just sucking it all in. (The top banana sights and feel of the place that is, not just my gut for once).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thence on to a spot of Indo grub – the only place Janine found brown rice to satisfy her healthy food lust, and a particularly splendid beef rendang. Note the torch, cunningly brought down the hillside to dinner as we had just had a major frog incident in the toilet. Never good when a massive one leaps out from under the lip of the loo seat at head height – my screams must have been heard right down the valley – about the only way to drown out the particularly persistent and multiple Imans who were competing fiercely for the local ears …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Talking of the valley – here is one of the many stunning views across the Dieng Plateau. Slightly better than our trip to the viewpoint where you can see 5 volcanoes – on the day with major mist and having driven for 3 hours not a single peak could be seen…so the guide then filled the slight disappointment with a great story of how the last major eruption was in 2010 and that Mt Merapi usually erupts badly every 5 years… you do the math!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah – our night at the Ramayana 'Ballet' – only booked as the Prambanan temples are beautifully lit behind the stage for the show. You can only imagine how keen Janine was to have this picture taken on our way in, with the chance to meet the dancers….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ah, the view. Yep, it wasn't quite Swan Lake and the music was excruciating – but you've got to love the setting..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And at least we had the dog's bollocks of a room at the wonderful Phoenix Hotel in Jogjakarta – check out our room behind J, top floor, the one with the big central balcony – we deffo lucked out with that one. What a place for a pre dinner G&T, some slightly crushed Walkers Sensations and a cheeky fag…

And finally – the holiday piece de resistance – what better place to take a woman whose surname is Capon (that's a castrated chicken to you and me) than to see this? Check this out – well worth the slog up a huge hill in a jungle to see the look on her face as she clocked the shape and style of this now abandoned whopping and bizarre old church…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, these and about 600 other photos were the magic 8 days of Java. what a total hoot and despite it taking 28 hours to get there and back, worth every minute x