Spring Break Part 1: Yogyakarta, Bali, and the Gili Islands

February 20-March 1

For Spring break I took a trip to Yogyakarta, Bali and the Philippines with Juliette and Maria. Being the wonderful students that we are, we figured out a way to extend our spring break an extra week and a half in order to have a full 10 days in Indonesia and 7 days in the Philippines! 

This is part 1: Indonesia.

First stop: Yogyakarta, home to the largest Buddhist temple in the world- Borobudur and the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia- Prambanan!

Borobudur- Buddhist Monument

Borobudur was a really spectacular place. Inside each of these bell shaped figures was a seated Buddha figure (There were 504 Buddha statues in total around the entire temple). 

It was comprised of 3 main levels of which the inscriptions on the wall told different parts of Buddha's life and his path to enlightenment. The monument's 3 main levels of divisions symbolize the 3 "realms" of Buddhist cosmotology: Kamadhatu (the world of desires), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the formless world). According to my research after visiting this site most people never reach the second "realm" of Buddhism and usually only Buddha can reach the third level which is a state of complete meditation. I've been learning a lot more about Buddhism while visiting these amazing temples and monuments and it continues to fascinate me endlessly! 

One of the only open stupas in which the Buddha is overlooking the hills and people of the villages. 

Prambanan- Hindu Monument

This temple was fascinating as it is composed of 3 large, main structures for Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. It was an incredible place to walk around as there were hundreds of other smaller shrines surrounding the 3 main buildings. Very different feel from Borobudur. 

The details on each of the temples continue to amaze me all of them telling a different story. 

This temple is part of the Prambanan complex (located in the same park area) however is not part of the same temple exactly. I found this one almost better than the main Prambanan for many reasons but I really liked it as it was much more peaceful, we were the only people wandering around and through the temple.

We got to try some of the most interesting fruits in Indonesia! This one here is the snake fruit,  it was incredibly rich and much more dense than most fruits, it was almost like a nut in richness however had a very different taste. I wish I could describe the flavour however it was unlike any other fruit or flavours I've had before.

This is the Rambutan, it is similar to the Lychee in texture and has a very delicious, juicy and distinct flavor. If you're ever in a tropical country with them I highly recommend trying them!

After all of our temple hopping in Yogyakarta we headed over to Bali!

We spent the first 2 days in Kuta, without many plans we started with a walk on the beach in the morning, before we knew it we were learning to surf in the Bali waves. My biggest fear is drowning and so I never once considered surfing, although when in Bali there are just some things you need to try. Surfing is one of them, so why not? I couldn't be happier that I did. The only unfortunate part: forgetting to put sunscreen on our butts... NEVER again will I forget sunscreen when surfing. We couldn't sit down without pain for at least a week. Lesson learned.

After our Surfing lessons and fun in the waves, we headed out to see the Uluwatu Temple for sunset.

I could have stayed there for hours watching the beautiful waves crash into the cliffs, the water so crystal clear that even from 200 feet above, I could see the rocks on the bottom.  

For dinner we headed to Jimbaran, the lovely stretch of restaurants on the beach, the best place in Bali to get seafood. 

There's nothing better than eating fish, shrimp, crab, and even lobster while watching the waves crash against the beach and playing with the sand under your feet. Such a wonderful first day in Bali!

From Kuta we took a bus to Ubud starting our next leg of the Bali adventure!

Woke up at 2am to hike Mount Batur for the sunrise. After tripping and sliding up the volcano, we were so happy to finally reach the top and get to enjoy the most beautiful sunrise I think I've ever seen in my life.

All smiles because we'd reached the top!

We were promised a nice toasted banana
sandwich and eggs at the top, however
somewhere along the way our eggs got forgotten.
Maria being Maria, she figured out a way to get
an egg and was beyond happy when she got it.

Toured a coffee plantation on our way back to Ubud from the volcano! The best part? Free samples of all of the coffee, cocoa and tea that they produce! I think we appreciated it 10x more since it was about 8am and we had already hiked up and down a volcano. 

Next stop on the tour: Rice plantations. You can't leave Bali without seeing this amazing world of greenery. We decided against a full tour through the rice plantation as the weather was getting increasingly warm and we were all looking forward to a nice mid-morning nap. We definitely enjoyed soaking in the views though.

From Bali we took a boat to Gilly Air: i.e. Paradise

Gili Air is the smallest island I've been to, you can walk around the entire island in about an hour and a half. It was small but absolutely perfect for our last 4 days in Indonesia. We spent the days relaxing on the beach, snorkeling, eating wonderful food and purely enjoying life. I've never been on a tropical vacation before so this was a new experience for me. I'm not used to spending entire days on the beach but somehow it just felt right. The laid-back, non-touristy atmosphere was exactly what we needed to forget our worries for a few days.

 Spent our last day walking around the island, dipping our feet in the water and avoiding the many corals on the beach. 

The Magic of River Quai

February 5th- February 7th

As I mentioned in the previous Bangkok post, on the same trip over the Chinese new year we took a short trip about 2.5 hours outside of Bangkok to a wonderful little village named Kanchanaburi. We signed up for a 2 day- 1 night all inclusive tour package that would take us through 2 museums, on many boat rides, exploring a local village and the best part: staying in a floating hotel. 

The first stop on our tour was visiting the Kanchanaburi bridge over River Kwai. This bridge was built and rebuilt many times during World War II by the Prisoners of War (under rule by the Japanese). The railway bridge is part of the long "Death Railway" that the POWs and many "voluntary" asian workers died constructing. It was built to connect Thailand to Burma mainly to transport goods from Burma back to Thailand. While visiting this area we got to visit 2 different museums focusing on this area and it was incredibly eyeopening to me. I had no idea about the Asian side of the WWII conflict. 

Walking along (and posing) on the bridge over the River Kwai

After our stop in town, we had quite the adventure getting to our hotel. Not only did we take a bus, but we also took a pickup truck and a boat! 

Dragon boat to our Hotel

Our first views of this beautiful hotel. Everything was constructed from Bamboo and floating entirely on top of the river. During the night we could hear the water rushing underneath us and feel the current rocking us to sleep. 

One of the best things about this tour was that all meals were included~ meaning we got to try many different thai dishes while eating family style. 

There was a little village near the river supported by our hotel. The village was comprised of Mon people, a group of people originally from Burma who occupy a small part of western Thailand and a large part of Myanmar. This village had a few adorable elephants we were able to feed and enjoy the company of. 

In the village they had their own little school which helps teach the children the Mon language and more about their own culture so that it is hopefully not lost. The children attend this school for about 2 hours every day after they finish and come back from their regular Thai school. 

After touring the small village, we headed to the Hellfire Pass, named this by the POWs who worked on the railway in this area. We walked along the site of the old railway, saw the memorial site and also visited the museum all allowing us to learn much more about this part of history. 

Us with Bligh, the coolest guide you'll ever meet. He made the whole trip that much better. 

Bangkok

February 4-10: For the Chinese New Year we had a few days off of school so I decided to head to Thailand for about a week with 5 other girls!  We spent most of the time in Bangkok and couple days in the cutest little village of Kanchanaburi (which I'll write about separately).

One of the places I was most excited to visit in Bangkok was the Grand Palace. For me when I think of Thailand I imagine the colors of all of the different temples sparkling gold in the sun. Pictures really do not do this temple justice. There's something about walking around a place where everything is so incredibly detailed and beautiful that transports you to another place and mindset.

Sitting in awe beneath the prettiest doors I've ever seen.

Various towers and statues around the grand palace add to the grandeur of the temple. 

The stunning Grand Palace

Wat Pho temple

One interesting thing for me was exactly how many statues were around the temples, we walked through rooms and rooms of Buddha statues similar to these throughout Wat Pho. The different hand positions of the Buddha have different meanings for example this one pictured above is signaling "No fear". 

Wat Pho~ The Temple of the Reclining Buddha. I honestly had no idea the massive size of this buddha, to get an idea of size, you can see the size of the doorway by the elbow of the Buddha.

If you weren't already aware, I am a total foodie. I'm all about discovering new foods in each country I visit and most of the research I do pre-trip is about which foods I want to try. This one however, was no new food to me, mango sticky rice has been my favorite dessert for years and I was beyond ecstatic to get to have some authentic mango sticky rice after a long day of adventures. This stand in particular was at a night market and apparently very highly rated. It was the first of many desserts I enjoyed in Bangkok. 

  

More delicious food I tried, to the left was coconut ice cream in a coconut with sticky rice on top (absolute perfection) and to the left was one long fresh potato chip! Both of these I got and shared with my friend Juliette as we were exploring Chatuchak Market, the biggest market in Bangkok. There were so many stalls of everything from clothes to spices to pets we needed some energy to get through it all. 

We made the great choice later in the day to go explore the Amphawa Floating Market, it was about 2 hours outside of Bangkok but definitely worth the trek. It was so neat to see the intricate system these ladies have to make dishes on their boat passing ingredients back and forth with a little basket on a stick. 

Delicious Pad Thai I enjoyed made by the ladies in the floating boats. 

One of the reasons we were able to spend so long in Bangkok was because it was the Chinese New Year so of course we had to go check out the celebrations in China town. The crowds were insane but luckily we were able to still see some of the parade around the people while we enjoyed dinner. 

I've been thinking about getting a compass tattoo ever since I studied abroad in France,

and I knew coming to SouthEast Asia I wanted to get it so after seeing this sign, my mind

was made up: Bangkok was the perfect place. Hannah has been thinking about getting her

tattoo even longer than I so it was a really exciting day for both of us.

We spent our last night in Bangkok visiting the Sky Bar (where the Hangover 2 was filmed). There's nothing better than an entire view of the city from above to finish the trip.