The Hindu Temple Complex at Prambanan
Today's exploits can be summarised as "Jan visits a load of old temples and a railway station (oh, and did some shopping)".
An early start allowed me to do the tour of the Sultan's Palace before the crowds arrived (Sultan's Palace pictures). We then moved on to the Sultan's "Water Palace" - three walled swimming pools for the Sultan and court to use (Water Palace pictures). In one building they were making the traditional two-dimensional articulated puppets-on-sticks. All the other traders were confined to a street of souvenir shops on the way out. A visit to a Batik factory (Batik pictures here) proved very interesting but, of course, having seen the process of producing Batik, there was a "purchasing opportunity". I then spent half an hour exploring the railway station (surprise, surprise). For those interested in railways, there's a report on this visit here.
Then, we moved on to a small leatherwork factory run by a vivacious Dutch lady. Once again, a set lunch was provided for me at a restaurant before we moved on (via a huge silverwork shop) to the Hindu temple complex at Prambanan. 'P' and 'B' sometimes get interchanged in Romanising Indonesian names so these temples are sometimes called 'Brambanan'. My pictures of Prambanan are here. After climbing up and down the steep steps giving access to a number of the temples, I was starting to wilt a little and I was quite content to return to the hotel. After a swim, I started the serious business of backing-up and grouping the pictures from today before writing this update. Tomorrow morning I move on again.
