Monday, May 29, 2017

Back from Malaysia, and Indonesia too! :)

One of a number of panoramic pictures I snapped of a UNESCO
(And yes, you can click on it to view an enlarged version of the pic!)

 Panoramic shot of one of the similarly UNESCO World Heritage-listed 
Prambanan's lesser -- I kid you not -- temples!

It's not UNESCO World Heritage-listed but this cave temple 
in Malaysia left me in awe also... 

As long-time visitors to this blog often realize, whenever I go on blogging hiatus for a time, it usually means that I'm off visiting a foreign land (or more).  This time around, I was back in Penang for part of my longest spell out of Hong Kong in more than a year and a half (i.e., when I spent both Christmas 2014 and New Year 2015 in the Netherlands) but I also paid my first visit in years to Kuala Kangsar and Ipoh  -- and, most excitingly, set foot for the first time ever in the neighboring country of Indonesia!  

In the world's largest Muslim country, I visited an ancient Buddhist monument (Borobudur) which I first heard about as a school student, another ancient religious site (Prambanan) whose existence I only learnt about a few years ago and, for good measure, the city (Yogyakarta) which has been described as the cultural capital, heart and soul of Java -- maybe even all of Indonesia.  Suffice to say that I took hundreds of photos during the six days or so that I was there, particularly at Borobudur, and intend to share some of them by way of this blog.

For now, here's offering up one panoramic photo each taken at Borobudur and Prambanan (which I hope will give you a good sense of how wondrous those sites are, especially when viewed in enlarged formats).  In addition, as unlikely as it may seem, I visited three cave temples located on the outskirts of Ipoh for the first time ever on this trip -- and at least two of them really did leave me awestruck at how wondrous they are.  So here's giving fair "warning" that I am planning a number of Malaysia as well as Indonesia-centric blog posts over the next week or so before returning to regular Hong Kong-centric "programming" at some point! ;b 

8 comments:

eliza bennet said...

I for one am looking forward to these future posts :)

YTSL said...

Hi "eliza bennet" --

Glad to learn this! Advance warning though: you may wish to check my blog only during the hours that you're able to eat during Ramadan (though rest assured that not all of my Malaysian and Indonesian blog posts will be food-related)!

eliza bennet said...

Oh no worries there, my favorite passtime during Ramadan is looking food blogs/videos, I probably have masoshistic tendencies :)

YTSL said...

Hi again "eliza bennet" --

Teehee re your masochistic tendencies! And here's wishing you a blessed Ramadan. :)

Paul said...

These panoramas look amazing! I'm guessing you're able to partially understand the Indonesian language, at museums and in restaurants? :)

YTSL said...

Hi Paul --

The real things are even more awesome! And yes, I can understand Bahasa Indonesia for the most part. I'd estimate that every seven out of eight words are similar to or the same as that in Bahasa Malaysia. :)

Bill said...

Hi YTSL,

Good to see you back in travel mode form. I visited Borobudur and Prambanan years ago. Your panoramic photos make it seem as if I'm looking at them for the first time. When in
Yogyakarta, I hope you saw a performance of the enchanting wooden puppets.

Bill

YTSL said...

Hi Bill --

The more you tell me about your past travels, the more I get to realizing how many places in Asia you've been to! Didn't catch a puppet performance in Yogyakarta, "only" some traditional dances -- which I'll post about in due course. :)