Perhaps Borobudur is not one of the official wonders of the world. I heard a tour guide say that but tour guides exaggerate. Still, it should qualify as runner-up.

Borobudur is a 1,200-year-old Buddhist temple that was mostly hidden under ash and jungle for hundreds of years. In the 19th century someone discovered how huge it really is. It is a four-sided pyramid shape. It has seven levels. The closer to the top, the closer to nirvana. There is no interior to the pyramid. Everything is outside.

We walked entirely around the pyramid at each level. Both sides of the corridors of the lowest four levels are lined with continuous relief panels. There are well over 1,000 panels. The panels on the lowest levels depict battles and sex and other basic earthly things. In fact the bottom level is so carnal, they have a wall around it so you can't see it. As you go up the panels show more lofty things like people praying. Animals show up only in the lowest two or three levels. The top three levels are separated by a wall from the lower four. As our guide pointed out, you can't see the top three levels from the lower four and you can't see the lower four from the top three. The top three levels consist of concentric circles of bell shaped "Stupas", each one containing a statue of a Buddha. Level five has 32 stupas, level six has 24, and level seven has 16. In the very center of the temple is one large stupa that is solid (i.e. nothing in it).

I don't know what to say except it's a very impressive, awe-inspiring place. It reminds me a little of visiting a Civil War battlefield. It's something about stepping exactly where something great happened.

It's amazing to think of the thousands of workers carving all the panels and placing all those stones together without mortar. Despite the crowds we competed with, I felt a special excitement walking on stone pathways made 1,200 years ago.

The crowds were mostly Indonesian kids between five- and 18-years-old. Many wanted to take pictures of us! Some shyly took pictures as we walked by. Others boldly asked if we would join their group photo. I didn't mind at all. I've been doing that to Indonesians for weeks.

We came around one corner where about a 15 or 20 teenagers leaned against the panels on both sides and smoked cigarettes. It was like a gauntlet. They shouted out things at us, anonymously, and the whole group laughed. I had deja vu - I was a high school geek walking through the smoking lounge again. Even kids who looked like they were only 12-years-old were smoking. Nearby, some girls congregated on steps. All were wearing Muslim headdresses (the ones in Indonesia don't cover the face, just surround it), none were smoking. A few were wearing ballcaps over their headdresses.

The tour also took us to Prambanan, an impressive Hindu temple complex not that far from Borobudur and only 50 years younger. It's amazing that two huge projects took place so close together. It's also amazing that they were built for different religions. (Although Prambanan has many Buddhist elements).

Joan slept with her head in my lap the entire way to the next Prambanan. The friendly tour guide tried to start a converstation with me but, alas, failed. He asked, "You like basketball, eh?"

"No. I don't follow it at all. Most people here know more than I do," I said. Then he tried football (soccer). He actually knew the name of at least one player in the U.S. national team. I tried to explain, politely, that most Americans couldn't care less about soccer. I think the rest of the world fails to appreciate American apathy towards the sport since every other country seems to love it.

I thought Prambanan was as impressive as Borobudur. Instead of one large temple though, Prambanan has 16 restored temples of an incredible 244 remains of fallen temples. A huge earthquake apparently toppled most of the temples in the 16th centrury. Just outside the restored ones you can see piles and piles of stones, all that remains of the rest.

These temples are like steep pyramids. Most have a steep stairway in the center of all four sides an inner chamber that contains usually contains a statue of the god for whom the temple is dedicated. Although some of the temples had an empty chamber. At the level of the entrance a walkway leads around each temple and, like Borobudur, the walkway is lined with relief panels. The stories in the panel are Hindu stories like the Ramayana which is also used as the story to many Wayang puppet performances.

Once again we were surrounded by crowds of kids, though these kids behaved a lot better. Unfortunately, a cruel English teacher had told at least 100 kids to find an tourist, talk to them in English, and get them to sign a notebook with a comment about their pronouciation. It's a crual assignment for us and the kids. Most of the kids, like anywhere, are shy. What usually happened was a bold kid came up to us and asked us, usually in excellent English, then as we signed their notebook, another six notebooks were shoved in front of us. We signed several cheerfully, but we only had an hour at the temple and it looked like we could go on all day just signing notebooks. I signed many more before we left. Usually I tried to get the student to actually speak English first.

(Joan: Then Eric would write the truth in their notebooks: Needs to work on pronounciation).

The tour also stopped at a batik shop and we got to see batik art worked being created and a helpful guy patiently explained each step. They don't use stamps for the paintings, all the wax is applied with small hand tools. The dye is applied sometimes with fingers, sometimes with a brush, sometimes by dipping, whatever the artist wants. They get some good affect. At the place we visited, the artist came up with a plan and drew in pencil the figures then women traced the figures with wax at the different stages.

At Borobudur we were accompanied by another American couple, Ted and Marilyn. They said they sometimes told salesmen they were Canadian because there's a belief in Indonesia that all Americans are very rich and therefore salesmen try to overcharge us. It is hard to prove but almost all salesman do ask us where we come from before determining price.

At the batik shop we visited, I bought a couple of the tools that the women use to apply the wax. The guy that showed us around asked 20,000rp ($2). I hesitated. I just looked at them more closely and didn't respond. He said, "for Sunday, a discount 20 percent." He punched the number 16,000 in his calculator. I said okay and gave him a 20,000rp note. Behind the counter was an older, larger man that handled the money. He talked to the young man who sold me the items. I understood enough Indonesian to know that they were discussing the price and the older man mentioned, "Amerika." I could also tell by the tone of his voice that he was scolding the younger man. Perhaps he was saying something like, "No discounts to Americans" but I don't really know.

The tour also took us to "Silver Industry." We walked into a large jewelry store and our guide immediately realized that no one was making jewerly that day because it was Sunday. We could, however, browse the store. We said we wanted to leave immediately.

We were more than a little pissed that even though we had paid for the tour, they still took us on these "Sales calls." The batik shop was really just the same thing.

I suppose a business man would say that what they were doing is just good business. It happens all the time in America. You pay to see a movie yet watch commercials at the beginning. I just prefer it to be more subtle or to be done to me by some large nameless corporation that I can bad mouth later rather than by some guy who's trying to be my friend.

Back in Surabaya, our translator had complained that the ethnic Chinese were only nice to you when they wanted something, usually business. At this point, I could say the same about the Javanese I had met in Yogya. But the next day things changed and we met some friends.

Next: Friends in Yogya

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