October 5th, 2013
Visiting the Borobudor Temple might have been my favorite stop so far! We snuck off the Sail Indonesia path so we could anchor in the 5th largest town of Indonesia, Semerang, which happened to be only a few hours away from the temple. We anchored in a giant shipping port - something that would never happen in the States before we jumped on local buses and headed to the Borobudor Town for the night.
We anchored the boat on a jetty in a busy shipping port - giant fishing vessels behind us!
And the navy to our side! (They kindly let us in to their head quarters to do laundry!)
First glance at the temple . . . we woke up at 5:30 am to be there right when it opened at 6am.
This is the largest Buddhasist Temple in the world - 7 stories high.
The Buddhists Monks who visit the temple walk circles around each level - on the first level they walk 3 steps then bend down to kiss the floor. It's like a new Crossfit WOD.
Here's a tour guy, Hatah, explaining one of the 1,200 reliefs that is in found on the floors around the temple.
UNESCO restored this whole temple over 10 years back in the 70's - they took it all apart and put it back together again.
The top of the temple is full of tupahs - a Buddhist sign.
Inside the tupahs are perfect Buddha statues, except the main tupah which is empty inside. The final state of enlightenment.
Here's the view from the top.
UNESCO won't put stones back into place in the temple unless they are certain where they go.
After the temple I took off a tofu making tour. Just outside the town there is village where over 50 houses make tofu for the local markets.
Each giant square of tofu costs about US $2 - yum!!!
The only bummer is they use mostly USA grown soy beans! Boo GMO's!!! It costs them US 80 cents per kilo, thanks to our government subsidized soy beans.
The fresh soy milk I drank with my guide, Erik, made me forget about GMO's for a moment. Mmmm….
Next on my tour - batik making!!!! Here's where they measure the cloth.
Once the cloth has been cut, the women use hot, melted wax to draw patterns on the fabric.
I got to make my own batik, but as you can see I used the stamp to apply hot wax instead of free handing it.
I did free hand my name though when I was all done with the waxing! (Think Ukrainian eggs mom!!!)
That's my finished wrap covered in now dry wax.
Next I went to a local dye shop, where some women dyed my fabric a darker blue than I wanted it. :(
After the dye set in my fabric, about half an hour, the ladies boiled my wrap until the beeswax melted off, leaving my white designs underneath.
Tada!!!! My finished hand made batik!
cool!
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