J is for Java – Places I Dream of Seeing!

  I am starting to see a theme in the places I want to go so far at least half the places have the potential to be deadly, today’s included.

Java as you know is an Indonesian island and you have my sister to thank (blame) for this one. She went out to Indonesia as part of her studies when she was at uni but this is my dream not hers, you can guess my struggle picking one place in the area to visit, Sumatra has Tigers, Borneo has Orang-utans and Bali the beaches and temples but Java has all of those and of course Volcanos.

As part of the ring of fire it has some of the most active volcanos in the world today, I can pretty much guarantee this would be one place I could theoretically look down into the crater at the top and see the lava bubbling, though I think flying over would be a better idea than climbing these.

There are of course the temples which are as beautiful and elaborate any others I have featured, I have wondered as I write these posts if there is a direct link between the harshness of life and the beauty of the temple.  It seems in some ways crazy to expend so much energy building something nature could so easily destroy but they seem to survive so maybe mother nature appreciates the vision if not always the builders.

When you look back at the places of worship built when life was harder they tended to be bigger and grander, now we could easily build giant structures we just build big boxes with no personality.  Possibly it is because we no longer hold religion in such high esteem, maybe it is we no longer believe in spending the money on buildings but given how many gorgeous old churches are turned into cafes and bars I think we should fix up the existing ones rather than build any more.

The final attraction for me on Java is the wildlife.

There is a Wildlife Reserve where there is the possibility of seeing various endangered species in their natural habitat, while I would love a world where zoos only existed to care and display the injured and abandoned creatures we share the planet with, they are a necessary evil for many species killed for profit in the wild.  It is tragic that we the supposedly most intelligent species cannot work out that every other species is as precious and worthy of existence as us.

The only thing really stopping this trip at the minute is money but maybe if I get really lucky one day I will get there and if I am really really lucky the Tigers and Rhinos will still be there.