Tanjung Rhu vs. Pantai Cenang

Another trip to Langkawi today... We explored Tanjung Rhu, thinking that it would be more pristine as the location is secluded, with high end resorts such as Four Seasons and Tanjung Rhu Resort situated on the strip, compared to the much hyped and popular, despite the more low-to-mid range Cenang. Another reason was that we were trying to avoid the crowd, thinking that Cenang has not recovered from tourist over run over the festive weekend.

Not much beach goers as we arrived at Tanjung Rhu and we can see why - the water is much clearer and the sand grain is much finer in Cenang. The public beach at Tanjung Rhu is quite barren, with no trees or natural shades close to the water.

We decided to switch location and go back to good old Cenang.Surprisingly, Cenang is not crowded at all today. Perhaps,most of the holiday makers are backing their stuff and heading home now as the holiday is coming to it's end. Feels like anothet quiet day at the beach.

Borobudur - Sunrise

The heart of the visit to Borobudur is the Borobudur Temple. It is the biggest Buddhist structure in the world and lies in the the Kedu Plain - a very fertile volcanic plain between the twin volcanoes of Mount Sumbing and Mount Sundoro to the west, and Mount Merbabu and Mount Merapi to the east.

Manohara Sunrise Tour cost IDR230,000/pax and it's really worth waking in up early in the morning for that. It comes together with morning tea/coffee and light meal at the coffee shop.

The temple can get quite crowded once the sunrise tour iss over and non hotel guests starts to flood the temple – so cherish the early morning tranquility you get during the sunrise tour, seeing the sun rising between the 2 great volcano of Merapi and Merbabu was simply magnificent with the silhouette of the Buddha statue in one of the opened stupa adorning your picturesque composition (if you are a photographer!) This alone is worth the visit.

Borobudur - The Temple

It took me a while to understand the geographical location of the temple site: it is located in the sub district of Borobudur, Magelang Regency, Central Java Province.

The authority has decided to build a park around the temple as a continuation of the renovation work done to the temple. It works as a silencer and as a rendezvous point for the ever increasing visitors before they continue their tour of the temple.

The name of the temple originated from the word "Boro" and "Budur". "Boro" means temple or shrine in Sanskrit while "Budur" means above the hill from the word "Beduhur" in Balinese.

There are 504 Buddha statues, in the temple. Besides that, there are also 1,460 craved reliefs illustrating scenes and 1,212 decorative reliefs in the temple(not that I went to count each and everyone of them - just some random facts from the official temple brochure). Most of the craved reliefs well preserved, except for some missing head or figurine.

Technical Data (from official park brochure):
1. Temple height (from ground to the top) = 35.29m
2. Side length = 119m
3. Temple area = 14.161m square
4. Number of Keben Stupa (I have not figure out what "Keben" means yet!) = 1,464
5. Weight of the temple building (I think this is the estimation) = +/_ 3,5000,000 tonne