Hooray, in Yogyakarta! From what I’d read about Yogya, my impression was that it’s the younger, cooler sibling of Jakarta. I was ready to see if this was true but then things got off to a bad start….
Sometimes you just land in a hostel and you think “no… this is not the place for me”. Maybe it was the bad smell, or the lack of sink in the ensuite bathroom… or the fact that there wasn’t enough space on the floor to put our backpacks…
We took the opportunity to make the most of the Malioboro area that evening. It’s a hustle and bustle of street food vendors and it’s where you can see local life in action.
It should be noted that — after me touting my “stomach of steel” to Katina — I had been having issues with my stomach for almost a week. I definitely ate something on the last night in Lake Toba that didn’t agree with me, but I was feeling better. Then, after the first night in Yogyakarta, I was hit even worse.
The next day I was bedridden. As much as I tried to venture out, there was no escaping the bathroom. We ended up streaming the World Cup final on LTE from our bedroom (and yes, I think Croatia deserved to win).
At this point we were over the cold shower and lack of a sink in our room, so we decided to throw in the towel and head to the Prawirotamen area. Lonely Planet describes this as a “backpacker ghetto”, but for someone spending a good chunk of the day on the toilet, it was much needed relief.
Malioboro is a place to intersperse with the locals; Prawirotamen is a trendy street with more upmarket standards, i.e. good quality international food (Indonesian, Thai, Italian, and more) and coffee (check out Yim Yam, Via Via, Nanamia and House of Satay).
Overall, I enjoyed our stay at Prawirotamen a lot more. I would recommend it as a base. It’s not just tourists that go there; also people who want good restaurants and coffee.
Borobudur
There are two big places to visit temples in Yogyakarta: the Buddhist temples at Prambanan and at Borobudur. The one at Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist structure in the world.
We opted to take the expensive IDR 450k sunrise tour. In hindsight, this was a complete waste of money and lost sleep, because it was cloudy that morning. If I could do it again, I would visit Borobudur towards sunset and drive there on the bike (be careful to check the closing time).
Prambanan
Taking the scooter to Prambanan was an adventure in itself. The Lonely Planet suggests a route to get to Jl Selokam Mataram and my advice is: read it carefully and map it out beforehand. Because we didn’t. Navigating major roads and highways turned out to be stressful, particularly after we took one (or more) wrong turns. If you take a wrong turn on the main roads, sometimes you can’t turn around for at least 1km.
But once we were on this road, it was amazing. We saw rice fields and some stunning green landscapes that I never expected to find in the middle of a city!
By the time we finally made it to Prambanan it was just before sunset (and closing) and this was the perfect light to take some nice photos!
I was in awe standing in front of Candi Sari. There was something truly grand about it.
I think I would go as far as saying Candi Sari at Prambanan is one of my favourite temples.
Kraton
A trip on Java wouldn’t be complete without some Javanese culture. The Kraton is the name of the palace for the sultans of Java (yes, there is still one) and is mainly used for cultural events like seeing traditional Javanese song and dance.
We watched a performance of some traditional Indonesian instruments. Most of them are gong-like in one shape or another.
One area of the Kraton is the Taman Sari, which is a former royal garden containing a bathing complex and hidden tunnels. Rumour has it that the sultan had secret chambers for sexytime. We couldn’t find any kinky chambers, though.
By the end of our time in Yogyakarta we were starting to feel at home. Spending longer in a place helps you get to know it and I found myself pondering whether Yogya would be a city I could live in. But hey, no time for that… we have to see some volcanos!
(Stay tuned for Bromo and Ijen…)
