Semarang – When it Rains, it Pours

Indonesia is an archipelago made up of over 17,000 islands that are stretched out wider than the United States.  The country has almost 300 million people; with over half of them living on the island of Java with its capital Jakarta. 

Our next stop on the island of Java was the city of Semarang, home of Prambanan a 9^th century Hindu Temple and Borobudur, an 8^th century Buddhist temple.  Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world (larger than Angur Wat); 9 levels high with thousands of hand carved relief panels and hundreds of Buddha statues.  It has been remarkedly well preserved and today you can see 72 of them housed in individual domed structures, each more than 6 feet tall that surround central dome. 

Do you remember that Morton Salt slogan, “when it rains, it pours”?  We experienced that at Borobudur; the higher we climbed, the harder it rained and the wetter we got.  But we persevered and managed to have a great time, but without the amazing views of the surrounding mountains.