Snapshot Indonesia: Prambanan & Borobudur--Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta) is one of Indonesia's most famous places due to the rich culture that exists there. It is located in Central Java, so in the middle of the island I live on. Just a short hour plane ride away and I found myself in Yogya with my friends for a long weekend filled with delicious food, lots of laughs, and breathtaking and mystical temples. Ohh and not to mention 100s of photos taken of us, since a group of white, American girls are celebrities here--blonde hair adds more glam of course (Barbie status).

We spent our days relaxing and enjoying each others' company and easy conversation that we usually don't get so easily at all of our sites. It's funny, we all met briefly over the summer at our pre-departure orientation and then again we were together for 3 weeks for orientation in Indonesia before all heading to our sites across the vast and diverse archipelago that is Indonesia--and yet, whenever we see each other, which is rather infrequent, it always feels like we pick up right where we left off and that we have been friends for years. We also took advantage of the amazing restaurants in Yogya that have delicious organic and fair trade food.

Below are photos of Prambanan, the 9th century Hindu temple located about 30 minutes from Yogya. This temple is so amazing and truly so beautiful. It's hard to imagine that people can craft such grandeur with their own hands. While we were there we met some students from a local high school who offered to give us a free guided tour as part of their tourism training. The girls were so thoughtful and cute and charmed us with the American slang they learned from their teacher, who coincidentally was a teacher in our program a couple years ago! After the Prambanan photos are photos of Borobudur, a 9th century Buddhist temple about and hour outside of Yogya. Both temples are incredible..so enjoy!