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I left Desa Bahasa school to go into Borobudur town to see the temple and also fix my bicycle.
My bicycle now was unridable and people at the school told me I could fix my bike at any roadside mechanic, I've always been hesitant to fix any issues at these places because they often pull out a hammer and today at the first place I found did exactly that. No! You cannot fix my bike with a hammer! I thought it would be an issue with the bearing of the rear hub but the whole rear hub had to be replaced. Struggling to get anywhere on my bike I managed to make it to a bicycle shop that supplied the component I needed to fix my bike, it set me back about $30 but it definitely was necessary. The whole hub had to removed and replaced with the spokes refitted and the wheel then had to be realigned; the repair took some time but now I have a useable bicycle that I hope finishes my trip in Southeast Asia, wherever my final destination will be.
Borobudur. After checking into a cheap hotel recommended by two Slovakian guys I met while my bicycle was being repaired I entered the grounds of this truly incredible Buddhist pilgrimage site, it's an expensive place to go at $20 but I had my student card (from 8 years ago) ready to get the 50% discount.
Borobudur dates back between the 8th and 9th century, 300 years before Angkor Wat in Cambodia and comprises of two million volcanic stone cubes and took 75 years to build. As a fun fact: if all the 2672 exquisite relief carving panels were placed in parallel the length would reach 6km.
Borobudur truly is a marvelous wonder of the world to behold and spending several hours wandering the lush and vibrant grounds you really do appreciate the amount of effort that went into building this gigantic structure.
Saying goodbye to Desa School and its students
Having my Bicycle repaired
Climbing and checking out Borobudur Temple
Elephants!
More photos around Borobudur
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