Prambanan Hindu Temple

On Sunday we thought it would be a great idea to rent some bikes and cycle to Prambanan Hindu Temple, about 18km from the centre of Yogyakarta. We (Ben, Erin, Sophie and I) left at 6.00am. It was a nice misty morning and we heard there was a small road that followed a canal most of the way to Prambanan. Sophie scored an excellent map and we found the little canal fairly easily, then it was an easy flat ride from there.

Ben checking the map, just to be sure

The ride was really interesting with many things to see along the way – Mt Merapi, rice paddies, corn fields, rivers and local villages. The canal was pretty “interesting” too – unfortunately this is what I saw along the way in the canal (in this order)…..woman washing her thongs/flip flops, man taking his morning dump (when you gotta go, you gotta go?!), three dead rats and a sanitary pad! All I could think was that at least the woman was “up-stream”!

We arrived around 7.00am and it was already starting to heat up. We spent quite a few hours wandering around all the temples and also the outer temples which are part of the whole temple complex. There are at least another 17 temples within a 1-5km radius of the main temples you see in the photo below. Absolutely stunning!

First view of Prambanan

Prambanan are 9th century Hindu temples which were properly restored in 1930 but restoration is still continuing. Unfortunately a lot of the original stonework was stolen and reused at construction sites. You will notice a lot of rubble in some photos….a temple cannot be rebuilt unless there is at least 75% of the original stone available.

View of the other potential temples (if only they could locate the other pieces!)

There are no plans for the reconstruction of these smaller temples. Unfortunately, Prambanan suffered more issues when the 2006 earthquake severely damaged many of the temples and restoration continues for that as well. The interior of some temples still remain off limits for visitors due to safety reasons.

The main temple on the right, Shiva.

Prambanan

Prambanan

It was bloody hot and after about 3-4 hours wandering around we reluctantly decided we better ride back….this was a little bit of pure insanity. It was so hot, the canal was even looking tempting for a quick (not so refreshing) dip! Our nice quiet road along the canal was now also being used by many motorbikes and a few cars who were taking shortcuts to other places….!!

On the way home, our quiet road was also used by motorbikes and occasional car!

However, the scenery was beautiful and it was definitely a pleasant distraction from the heat and humidity and a good reason to stop many times under a shady tree and take some photos.

Rice paddy worker

Women working in the rice paddies