Brown Motion

A must see cultural attraction.  On our quest to seek out UNESCO heritage sites all over the planet, this one was on the bucket list for a while.  This summer we were fortunate to be able to visit Indonesia and make a trip to Borobudur. Designed and commissioned by a Raja Shailendra that lived in the 9th century this Buddhist style temple is the largest in the world.  It is made of volcanic rock found in the area with multiple active ones still bubbling in the vicinity.  The Indonesian archipelago happens to be on the Pacific ring of fire which is a sensitive part of the earth's crust resulting in eruptions and tectonic activity from Indonesia to Japan to Hawaii to Alaska and going south to the islands of New Zealand. Borobudur roughly translates to the 'Great Buddha' by some accounts and is referred to as 'Candi (pronounced Chandi for temple) Borobudur'. We had to fly (1 hour flight) from Bali to Jogjakarta (which is a kingdom) on the island of Java, and the...

"Terimakasi".  In Hindi, the Indian national language this Indonesian phrase phonetically sounds similar to 'Teri Maa Kaise Hai?" which literally means - how is your mom doing? But this is not really a polite inquiry about your parent.  Rather a soft spoken heartfelt 'thank you' in Bahasa - the native tongue of the Indonesians.  The airline's recorded announcement told us that we had arrived in Bali and thanked us for coming. So began our introduction to the sounds, culture, foods and weather of the island nation of Indonesia.  We flew in with a Taiwanese air carrier from San Francisco, via Taipei into the isle of Bali, one of hundreds that make up the archipelago of this Republic. Bali happens to be occupied by people of the Hindu faith while the rest of the islands are largely Muslim faith.  It is overall a fascinating place with its own set of idiosyncrasies, lifestyle and pace of life. We were smitten and amused by a variety of phrases and wo...