We stepped of the train 8 long hours after setting off from Jakarta, we walked out of the station to be pounced apon by taxi drivers and tuc tuc drivers. After a few Tidak macazi ( no thank you) we decided to go with a tuc tuc driver. He was quite a small man but he seemed happy that we had chosen him. We hopped on with our bags.... It was a little bit of a squash! The poor tuc tuc driver kept peddling and peddling uphill, down hill, down the wrong side of the road..... I saw my life flash before my eyes ;0) it took him 30 minutes to get to our hotel. In the end we got out so he didn't have to peddle anymore, we felt so bad at the distance he had to travel.

The hotel was basic but it would do for the 3 nights we had booked. We wanted to take a trip to the Sunrise tour of Borobudur and a trip to Mount Bromo, as much as we hated to do it we opted for a tour package for both trips..... It would be one of the worse decisions we had made!!!

We awoke at 3.30 for our trip to Borobudur, it was a 6 hour tour which involved travelling to a view point where we could watch the sunrise over the temple before we headed down to the temple for a closer look. 4am was our pick up...... 4am came and went with no sign of our transport..... 4.30 still no sign! Another couple called the tour operator only to be told the driver had overslept! He arrived 15 minutes later to pick us up, the sky was starting to turn light and we knew that the transfer time would be an hour. We would be cutting it close. The driver put his foot down to try and make up for his lateness, I held on to the seat and couldnt watch! He was over taking and driving like a mad man.

We arrived at the bottom of a hill after sunrise! We were not impressed but continued to climb the hill up to the viewing point! The hill was steep... Very steep and at 5am in the morning it was hard going. We arrived at the viewing point slightly out of breath, we glanced around looking for this magnificent temple we had read and heard so much about.... Where was it??? 3 other tourist could see our confusion, they pointed into the distance below some mist on the horizon was the temple. All you could see was the top of the temple and that was it. I sat down angry, out of breath and generally deflated by what had happened that morning!

After 10 minutes we climbed down the steep hill back to the car, we stood around for another hour whilst the driver tried to sort out our tickets for the entrance to the temple, by this time it was gone 7am and we should have already been at the temple, our patience was growing thin!! We felt cheated and ripped off!

We headed to the temple and spent the next 2 hours walking around the temple in a clockwise direction as apparently this brought you closer to Buddha. It was an amazing temple! Borobudu, is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist monument in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument consists of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. A main dome, located at the center of the top platform, is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside a perforated stupa.

After the 2 hours we headed back to our hotel for a much needed rest, I complained to the tourist operator about our trip and received a slight refund, we were more concerned that our trip to Mount Bromo was with the same company in 2 days time. If they managed to mess this trip up what would happen on a trip that would take 2 days!!!