Achievement Unlocked: Climbing Borubodur

Last Sunday my dear friend Avel went around and asked everybody to describe Borubodur in one word. It was Juned who gave the perfect description on how I felt about Borubodur. He said, "Achievable!"

It was a mean feat for me and Juned to climb the temple. On the path to the temple I held on to Juned because it was dark and I didn't want him to stumble. Just as when we managed to get up to the frontage of the temple everybody disappeared and good thing Vanj stayed behind to assist me and Juned (thanks Vanj!). Both Juned and I were huffing from the steep flights of stairs from the entrance. We took a leisurely pace as we got up the temple.

Fifteen minutes later, with dirty hands and pants we surprised everybody when we showed up at the top of the temple. Ahh, photos were in order to mark our achievement. I realized though that it wasn't as difficult for me since I've been working up on my stamina and practicing on Hyatt Yogya's stairs paid off. I wouldn't have made it if you had me do it 2 months ago.

I love exploring museums, temples, watching about the histories of civilizations etc. and I originally wanted to be an archaeologist so I was beaming with pleasure the whole time we were in Borubodur. Watching the sun break in the day was an awesome spiritual experience. I just stood there in awe while take photos of the sunrise (check out the auto-awesomed photos here). It was one of those times I felt really happy I survived my heart surgery adventure.

Another thing that made the trip more pleasurable was being with friends from across the country and parts of Southeast Asia. The last seven years have truly been a huge adventure of opportunities for me. The best thing about my work was meeting lovely friends from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao! I feel like we celebrated our friendship with a jumpshot (see the auto-awesomed photo here!). I really didn't know if it was okay for me to jump, but jump I did!

One thing though that would have made me happier would've been to have both my boys with me since it was their birthday weekend. Ahh but I made a big surprise the day after when I showed up unexpected at home in Manila. Their look was priceless!

Oh Borubodur, I hope to visit again one day with Sweetie and Miguel!

Yogyakarta

It took me several visits to Jakarta before I managed to say the correct pronunciation for Yogyakarta (it's Jogjakarta), much to the consternation of my Indonesian friends. As a Filipino we were trained to pronounce words based on their spelling so I also found it difficult to remember that "C" in Indonesia is read as "Ch". I'm glad though that I have the opportunity to learn more about the other cultures in our region.

I managed to visit Yogyakarta for the very first time last week, but only for less than 24 hours. I asked Pungkas lots of questions about Yogyakarta all day (hope he didn't get annoyed haha). I learned quite a lot of things from him.

I was surprised to find out that Jogja has a Sultan. He lives in a palace which is at the center of the axis from north to south. The city was also built in a way that the Sultan can see across the city. Pungkas explained to me that Yogyakarta was supposed to be a separate country, but because of good relations they have with the Indonesian government, they have an agreement that it will be run by the Sultan.

I didn't get to see much of Yogyakarta since I finished work late. One thing I certainly enjoyed though (aside from the warm welcome I got) was experiencing the local cuisine. Pungkas brought me to Bale Raos, known to be the Sultan's kitchen. I loved the fact that the food wasn't spicy and tasted very similar to some Filipino dishes. Aside from the lovely food in the restaurant they also had a huge souvenir shop where I ended up buying another batik blouse (oh no!).

Hope to be able to come back to Yogyakarta again and have some time to visit Borobudur.

Thanks Pungkas for the warm welcome.