Amanjiwo

• Tee off at an altitude of 1,000m at Mt Merapi’s 18-hole course • The 18-hole Borobudur Golf and Country Club is 35 minutes from Amanjiwo Village festivities • Celebrations in rural Java involve dozens of gamelan and dance performances, games of chance and country fare

• Yogyakarta offers excellent shopping, from exquisite wayang kulit shadow puppets to gamelan instruments, gold-threaded batik wedding sarongs and antique furniture • The craft centre at Borobudur showcases sculpture, jewellery and textiles • Discover the busy, terracotta-roofed markets of rural Java, selling everything from volcanic stone ornaments to street snacks

• Volcanic Mt Merapi rewards both serious and casual hikers, rising to 3,000 metres; experienced climbers can attempt the summit at sunrise with an Amanjiwo guide • The nearby Menoreh Hills offer a pleasant 2.5- hour hike, which can be combined with a drive to view the sunset at Suroloyo • Further afield, the summits of Mt Sindoro (3,153m) and Mt Sumbing (3,371m) can also be attempted

No visit to Amanjiwo would be complete without a tour of Candi Borobudur, the Eighth Wonder of the Orient, and one of humanity’s most imposing creations. Nothing else like it exists. The temple, we feel, should be visited in 2 stages. First of all on an afternoon “Intellectual Tour”, and secondly with the dawn “Mystical Element”. As the heat of the day cools, we suggest driving you down to the Kedu valley where Amanjiwo guides, all born within the shadows of the Temple, will escort you around the monument. Our guides are able to reveal the secret meanings of this masterpiece and bring to life the knowledge contained within its reliefs – Borobudur is a colossus which needs to be understood before it is felt. For the “Mystical Element”, we wake our guests before the sun, and marvel at its rising from the top of the temple itself. Few are afforded this rare privilege. Dawn at Borobudur is very spiritual, mere words cannot convey the feelings that it inspires. It is truly an experience of a life-time, and one that remains within forever. It should not be missed.