Semarang, the Borobudur temple and the magical infinite capacity Indonesian bus.

We dropped anchor in Semarang, thanks to the help of a university scuba diving club and no thanks to the harbor master who was nowhere to be found, which seemed strange for a large industrial port. We were the only cruising vessel among massive container ships, tankers and local fishing vessels.

An industrial port isn't the most scenic place to spend a weekend so we headed straight away to Borobudur to see the Borobudur Temple which is billed as the largest Buddhist temple in the world and is a UNSECOworld heritage site. It did not disappoint.

 

One of the hundreds of Buddha statues

 

Approaching the temple from the west.

 

Alison, Omar and I near the top. The uppermost stupa represents Nirvana.

There were Buddha statues inside each of the other stupas.

After seeing the temple we decided to buy groceries and return to Semarang on the local budget bus line. It only cost about $3 USD for the 3 hour ride. Groceries in tow we boarded the bus and headed out. These buses will stop occasionally to pick people up at various stops, and at about the third stop we sat and waited over an hour, apparently because our bus was having issues. So when another bus came along we were told to get off of our bus to hop on the other. We gathered our groceries and squeezed on the second bus that already had passengers. There were more people than seats so some of us had to stand. Back under way we continued back to Semarang, until a half hour later we encountered the hill.

Our new bus did not like this hill and was not shy about letting us know, groaning and puffing, jerking and shaking, finally convulsing to a stop mid hill. I entirely expected the bus to start rolling backwards down the hill and was fully prepared to dive out the back door if it did. Thankfully the brakes were more reliable than the engine. 

Once again we gathered our groceries and filed off of the bus to wait while they tried to get it started again, which they eventually did but determined that this bus had too many issues to continue. So after another hour a third bus came along and we were instructed to board. Keep in mind this bus already had passengers aboard, as did the second bus, as did our original bus.

If the second bus didn't have enough seats for everyone, this bus hardly had enough room to squeeze all our fleshy parts in. There were people literally hanging out both the front and back doors, the aisle way so packed that you could hardly shift your weight between feet and we still had two hours to go!

Despite the physical discomfort and the mental anguish of constantly chasing off thoughts of our impending doom, we managed to make it back to Semarang and our boat, exhausted but intact, groceries in tow, some 8 hours after beginning our journey home.

(Written at 7:17 am, In port at Karimunjawa)