Yogyakarta Part:1 - Borobudur

Yogyakarta pronounced Jog-ja-karta, was the art capital of Indonesia.  I absolutely loved it here and wouldn't mind moving back to study art!  We flew from Medan in Sumatra over to the next island Java.  When we exited the airport at 10pm the taxi drivers were asking a ridiculous price to go into the city, so we decided to blindly use the local bus and try to find where all the nightlife and cheap hostels were.  Thankfully we got off at a good spot and found where all the night markets and hippie tourists were staying.  As we entered the small alleyways of Jogja, every single hostel was full and this is something we definitely don't want to see after traveling all day, starving and carrying our heavy bags.

After searching for a good 25 minutes I saw a huge rat the size of a small dog walk down the alley in front of us... and if you know me, I have the biggest phobia of rodents, like so bad that I can't even look at the stuffed animal mice in the children's section at IKEA.  I froze and instantly started crying, I was in a bad panic mode but couldn't go anywhere because I was in a maze of alleyways surrounded by towering walls.  With exhaustion and hunger fully consuming us, Landon was frustrated but I literally couldn't move and was in near sight of a panic attack.  Thankfully Landon pulled it together for the both of us and understood. He searched another 20 minutes alone while I stood in a local's doorway frozen.  We thankfully found somewhere and I decided to stay in as Landon went and got us food, I ate a chocolate ice cream bar for dinner that night, Landon is so good to me. :)  I know that I take a huge risk traveling when I have this horrible phobia, but after not having anything happen in India I thought I was just invincible of all rodents... which definitely wasn't the case. From that point on, our routine of walking back to our room was a very successful plan.  Landon would go ahead to every alleyway, stomp his feet and check every nook and cranny and once it was clear he would tell me I could come.  Many of the same locals we passed by every night would watch us strangely but I could care less.

So Borobudur shown in these photos, is Indonesia's #1 tourist site. It was just 30+ minutes from Jogja and the most expensive thing we paid for, it was $40 US dollars!! A Dutchman discovered this ancient Buddhist temple in the middle of the jungle.  There were reliefs of a Buddhist story carved into every stone used to create Borobudur.  It was pretty amazing to see everything and I was very inspired by the intricate reliefs.