Nirvana sunrise over Borobudur...

Beep beep beep...

I open one eye, it's still pitch black outside. It's 4 in the morning of September 11th. My alarm just went off. Today, no way to hit the snooze button, i stop it, jump out of bed, head to the bathroom, brush my teeth, quick morning pipi. I wash my hands and my face. Put on short, T-shirt, hoodie, sandals and head lamp. Pick up my bag, and out the door.

It's 4:13 in the morning. I lock my hostel bungalow and jump on my rental bicycle. Though it is quite chilly at such early hour, the pedaling quickly warms me up. I'm now actually sweating. Ufff...and yet, still another 20 minutes to go.

As I am passing through little villages on the surrounding of the world heritage Borobudur Buddhist temple, the deeper I go the less street lighting. After 10 minutes, I am in total darkness. The myriad is bright stars and the half smiling crescent of the moon are just about the only lights at sight. Not enough to guide my way through the rough dirt path of the farm land I am going through. I suddenly arrive at an open space...fields of tobacco spreading around for acres. I was here yesterday afternoon, and very well remember that right above my right shoulder is the gigantic temple of Borobudur which I would be able to see easily on the horizon and atop the hill. I look up. Too early. The temple is still asleep, and waiting for the sun to give it the signal to raise. I keep pedaling. Almost there. At the end of the path, and across the little mosque, I make a right.

A much more narrow path lays before me now. Thank god I have my head lamp!

I keep going. It's getting steeper and steeper. A few more drops of sweat...am there. The ticket counter. Yes, it seems that Indonesians manage to exert profit from just about anything that tourists will do or go to.

I lock my bike against a tree. We are now in the jungle.

I pay my foreigner's fee. 30,000 Rupiahs. About USD$3.

Between the cold, the night, and the pedaling, I am now drenched in sweat.

I start hiking an even steeper dry mud path. Half steps, half uneven path. Through the woods. Turning right, turning left.

When will I get there? It's now 4:35am. Please Mr Sun, wait a bit more. I can't miss a single second of your awakening.

4:50am. Finally, I reached the top.

I thought I was going to be the first and only one.

A group of locals is already here. They are loud. Just like all the local tourists. Disrespectful of the peace of others. Oh well...

I sit down on the edge of the mountain, overlooking what seems to be a gigantic valley of palm trees, bamboos, and little traditional huts. All this, overlooked by its majesty Borobudur's temple and two high volcanoes.

Not a single cloud.

The whole landscape is under the protection of the immensity of the sky and its gazillions of shiny stars. It's already magical and the spectacle has not even started.

Slowly, more and more tourists start to immerge and gather around me. Bummer...I really naively thought no one else would have the same idea. Naive indeed....

It's a bit after 5... The show is about to start.

Every single mosque in the valleys is singing the first call to prayer, almost as if they were also praising the spectacle about to begin. For several minutes, the whole valley is in sync, giving the impression to be thousands of years back in times.

All of a sudden, it's happening, the dimmer is being turned very slowly. The light is peeking through the horizon, behind the main volcano, Mount Merapi.

It doesn't take me long to understand why this place is called the nirvana sunrise viewpoint.

Wow! Though the local tourists are still disrespectfully as loud as before, the foreign tourists and myself are in awe, speechless...and trying to play with the settings of our cameras to get the right aperture and right exposure to capture the photo that will capture this moment as best as possible.

The spectacle continues. And now the best part.

As the sun is rising and slowly showing its glorious face, we are witnessing the second act. Because of the vegetation, the humidity and the cold or the night, the whole valley is waking up layered with thick white fog or morning dew. This is giving to the landscape a feeling of far away and ancient oriental mysteriousness.

The whole valley seems to be trying to yawn and unfold its palm trees to liberate itself from a giant cotton veil. Magical!

And the spectacle goes on until the sun is way up and the dew is evaporating up towards the sky and off the ground.

It's now 5:45 am. Every one is gone, either to make it to the 6 am Borobudur temple opening time, or to catch their bus to Jakarta or Jogjakarta. I a, the only left, aside from a couple of old farmers who are delaying the moment they will walk down the hill to get to their daily farming chores. The sun is high up, it is getting uncomfortably hot, and the light is blinding. Squads of swallow birds play with the sun rays around the high trees above my head. I close my eyes and breath in as much of the sun's energy as I can. It feels good and rejuvenating.
I'm ready...too hot to stay here anyway.

The farmers are gone.

I get up and hike back down to where I parked my bike.

Gosh, what a magical way to start a day. The locals don't realize how privileged they are to be able to witness this spectacle every single day, and each day with its own variations.

UNESCO has classified the Borobudur temple a world heritage monument, while the true treasure of the site is the Nirvana sun rise spectacle.