Go see Prambaran - WOW!

I had a few mistakes on the prep and plan for the four day trip to Indonesia.  But my biggest mistake was to forget my camera in the car (and Jessica had a low battery on her camera) for our tour of Prambaran. 

Background on:
Temples (candi) uin Indonesia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candi_of_Indonesia#Ratu_Boko_.26_surrounds
Prambaran http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan

We had a 7:00 am flight to Yogyjakarta arriving at 8:30 am local time without a real plan other than visit some temples, ballet and a hotel reservation.  Getting our visa on arrival (VOA), getting through customs and some local currency by 9:30 we were ready for a breakfast of champions: choice between Dunkin Donuts or KFC bucket of chicken - Dunkin Donuts won.  We were approached by a driver who said he could give us a deal.  He actually broght a tourist map over (I guess he could tell we were lost) and agreed to take us to all four main temples and our hotel (5-6 hours) for 500,000 Indo Rupies ($60 USD).  Good deal all around.

First temple was Prambaran - where we got a guide (good choice even if the guide's humor was a bit off) and we paid the foreign tourist tax. 

Some compliants on the web about two tier pricing but everyone paid the same price either
- Not enough money would be raised to maintain
- Locals couldn't afford to visit and eventually would be be conflict with tourists
In my semi-humble opinion (IMSHO) two tier model makes economic and business sense.

A bit of background from our guide on Prambaran (Hindu temple) and then this vista

 Guide requirement to prove we were there and work on the relationship to prepare for the tip

 There were originally hundreds of these temples. Built in the 9th century AD and then knocked down during an earthquake and forgotten for almost a thousand years.  Now being put back together with the only carved stones being original.  Think of a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle

 In case we wanted to remember where these picture were from

 One of the smaller guard temples, still under construction

 Piles of stones - we took to calling temple pieces as they are piles of these stones across the area

Tough to see from these pictures but the were 4 levels of temples circling the central temples- from the bottom (basic Hindu caste system) - you can see the bases of the temples surrounding the core
- Farmer and poor people
- Business people and wealthy
- Warriers
- Priests

 Central temple had been damaged in 2006 earthquake (or volcano - I forget) so we couldn't go inside which is disappointing but probably an ongoing challenge whenever you go

We were able to go into the side temples

Left hand side temple (from facing out postion)

 Best guide picture - love the perspective

You will see picutres of Borobudur and it's very impressive but if you are in the area spend as much time here as at Borobudur - sadly we didn't (and weren't camera prepared)