The Travellist's journal

By TheTravellist

Borobudur Temple

I picked up Riri at 10am and drove nearly two hours to Borobudur. After a quick stop for food, we went on some slightly dodgy back roads to get to a church near to the temples which is shaped like a chicken! Apparently some guy had a vision that told him to build a massive chicken church (see extra photo). Very strange. The building doesn't seem to be finished but we paid to get in and could walk to the top of the head for some glorious views of the surrounding areas with Borobudur temple in the distance.

By the time we got to the temple, it was probably the hottest part of the day and we were both struggling to cope. On the plus side, it meant there weren't many people around. The temple is made from multiple tiers filled with bell statues. We sat in the shade of one of the bells and waited for the weather to cool down a bit. More and more people (mostly Indonesian) arrived until it was impossible to get a photo without anyone in the shot.

I had to pose for photos with a few different groups and families, as seems to happen everywhere in Indonesia where there aren't many foreigners. I don't mind doing it at all but it does seem a little strange.

We left at around 3.30pm and had to walk through 15 minutes (via a route twice as long as it should be) of market stalls all selling the same souvenir rubbish. This took 'exit through the giftshop' to a whole new level. We drove to a mushroom restaurant on the outskirts of Yogyakarta that has one of the highest ratings I've ever seen on Foursquare (9/10 from nearly 700 votes). Google took us on an interesting route but we got there eventually. The restaurant was massive, probably seating a couple of hundred people. Everything on the menu contains mushrooms, with most based on classic Indonesian dishes. I had high expectations given the ratings and I wasn't disappointed. I loved it all!

Running the length of the main area of the restaurant was a trough filled with fish for customers to dip their feet in for a free fish pedicure. After finishing dinner, we tried it. There were so many fish that I could barely see my legs in the water. It was very ticklish but they gave my feet a much-needed clean!

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