Accommodation: The Phoenix Hotel, Yogyakarta

Our adventure continues with day two in Jogja as with our guide and our driver delivering us one hour outside the city to the temple of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Arriving at the complex, it is easy to let the tranquility and spirituality overcome you to reveal a particular inner peace that was once unknown.

As we ascend up the temple, level by level we learn the story of a young Buddha, how his mother was impregnated in a dream and gave birth to a man that would change Eastern culture forever. Moving higher, we see Buddha in a variety of positrons ranging from meditating pose (hands together) to peace pose (palm up) showing us what is needed in order to overcome lives greatest obsticles.

As we reach the top of the temple, we see no carvings on the walls and no story being told. Instead, we only see a collage of stupas (the symbol of Buddhism) and within each, a statute of Buddha with a relic in each. Two of which are actually open for guests to see a glimpse of what lies in each stupa.

The day continued with various stops around Jogja. Lauren and I had the great fortune to try out the local Lewak coffee. This coffee has been described to be the best in world and actually is the most expensive coffee in the world ($160/cup). The reason why it’s so rare? It’s harvested, by hand, from the forest and comes from the feces of the local luwak animal. The beans are washed, dried, peeled and then roasted into a full bodied, bitterless and slightly sweet cup of coffee.

Arriving back to Jogja, Lauren and I decided to get really crazy for dinner and went to a local hotspot…McDonalds. Now many might think this is a lame choice for a meal, but we try to make it a point to hit up a McDs everytime we go abroad because each one absorbs the local food culture. Even though Lauren wussed out and got the chicken McNuggets (which, to her credit did taste much different than what we have back in the US), I chose the native option: Fried chicken and rice on a scrambled egg. The chicken what’s surprising good coming from McDonald’s and actually tasted close to KFC. The rice was good ol steamed white rice and came with a side of spicy sauce that Lauren and I mistakenly took for ketchup.

The next day was miserly a transfer day from our hotel in Jogja to the local airport, admittedly one of the more terrifying ones (tarmac boarding!) and with just a slight delay we were off the beautiful island of Bali. We met our new local guide coming out of the terminal and heading to the small town of Ubud to settle in to our hotel. After check in and a quick nap, our guide picked us back up to bring us to the venue of a Kecak performance. This local and ancient dance features an all male chorus providing the music for the dance with a few select performers telling the story of Princess Sita and Prince Rama.