Yogyakarta (known as Jogja) is Java’s most visited city. As well as being of great cultural interest, it is situated within easy access of two of the islands most famous sites, Borobudur (the world’s largest Buddhist stupa) and Prambanan (the largest Hindu temple complex in Java). Deciding to avoid the noisier, modern end of the city we chose to stay in the quieter southern end, along Prawirotaman Road. Our hotel ‘Duta Guesthouse’ turned out to be a lovely, traditionally furnished hotel with a nice pool to relax by, when we got tired of sightseeing.
With five days in the city before we had to leave for Singapore, we first took a Becak (cycle rickshaw) to the Kraton to see the Palace. Having a completely incomprehensible guide certainly didn’t enhance the experience, but we doubt it made much difference. The palace is unfortunately just not that exciting. Having taken a shorter time looking around than we expected, we continued our tour of the rest of the old city. On the way to the bird market, we stopped to see some puppets being made and then had a look around a Batik gallery (I am pleased to say that we made a purchase in each). As well as birds, mainly pigeons (mahpati in Indonesian) the bird market sells all manner of creatures, including fruit bats, lizards and hamsters. After a brief look around we were taken on a tour of the Tamansari (water palace) by a local guide. When filled with water the palace must have been quite a sight. It was good to be shown around some bits that we wouldn’t have found by ourselves. Unfortunately the main palace has been rebuilt in a rather over restored way, so is something of a disappointment. Deciding that it was too hot to do much more, we made a brief stop at a local market and then returned to the hotel.
The next morning we got up at 4:20am to wait for the bus that would take us to Borobodur for sunrise. As it turned out we didn’t actually get to Borobodur at sunrise and on further reading of the advert it didn’t actually mention that we would. Having to be content with seeing the sunrise from the comfort of a minibus, we eventually arrived at Borobodur to be greeted by an $11 entrance fee. This went some way to explain why the tour was so cheap! Begrudgingly paying the entrance fee and noticing that the Indonesians didn’t seem to be paying at all (it is always nice to know that we are preserving other countries heritages for them!) we went in. The stupa is of quite breathtaking scale and the early morning mist gave it a beautifully silhouetted look. Photo opportunities were a little limited however, due to a film crew and all their gear obscuring the top. To top it all, it appeared to be the filming of a soap opera not a documentary (I bet they didn’t pay either!). Walking around the various levels admiring the many and varied carvings we encountered several headless Buddha statues. The opportunity proved too good to miss, so we had a bit of fun pretending to be Buddha and ordering the film crew from our stupa. Having had a good look around we headed down the steps towards the exit, only to get interviewed by some children on an English language course. We were happy to stop and chat with them, but having to write our details in all of their notebooks became a little tiring. After the interview was over we had to have our photos taken with them. Rather embarrassingly the second group photo was taken into the sun, so putting my sunglasses on, rather strangely I still found myself squinting. It wasn’t until we were halfway to the exit that Debs noticed that one of the lenses from my glasses was missing; heaven knows what kind of plum I am going to look on that photo!
The second half of our tour was to Prambanan temple. On the way we made a brief stop at Mendut temple, which instead of going into, we had a pleasant stroll around the garden of a nearby Buddhist monastery. Having been forewarned of the high entrance fees by our visit to Borobodur, the $10 entrance fee for Prambanan came as no surprise. What was a surprise was that you can’t actually get very close to the temples. Due to an earthquake in May 2006, the main Shiva temple has been deemed unsafe and the only view you can have is from behind a fence. There are further temples in the complex, but transport to these wasn’t included in our tour and several of them are too far away to walk. Prambanan, due to the fencing, is probably not worth the entrance fee, especially as they don’t tell you it is closed until you have paid your ten dollars. However the tour was definitely worthwhile if only for the visit to Borobodur.
On the way back from the tour we got dropped off at the train station so that we could book tickets for our journey to Jakarta. Having read the Rough Guides’ description of Jakarta, we had no real desire to stay there. The plan was to arrive by train in the evening, spend one night and then head to the airport early in the morning to catch our flight to Singapore. When we eventually found the ticket office, booking the tickets was very straightforward and we were soon in a taxi back to the hotel.
Looking for a bit of culture, we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Ramayana Ballet. The ballet was performed in an open air theatre in the Prambanan temple grounds, with the Shiva temple in all its illuminated glory, as a backdrop. The Ramayana ballet tells the story of Rama and the kidnapping of his wife Sinta. We saw the condensed 2 hour tourist friendly version, complete with a hilarious English story board. The full version is performed over four consecutive nights of over 2 hours each and is probably a bit too involved.
Booked through the excellent ‘Via Via’ café, we spent our last day doing a Batik course at Kelik Batik gallery and school. Firstly we chose a design (I chose a gecko and Debs chose an elephant) from a selection of pictures and then using a pencil we had to trace the design onto a piece of white cotton. The next stage, after some practice, was to cover the lines in hot wax using a ‘chanting’; a kind of pen with a reservoir that you fill with hot wax. After the lines were covered, we coloured the different areas by painting them with dye, which was then fixed with acid. Rather laboriously the whole area that we didn’t want re-coloured then had to be covered with paraffin wax. The whole picture was then died black, rinsed and then boiled in water to remove the wax. Our pictures turned out really well and it certainly made us appreciate how much work goes into the amazingly intricate designs available in the gallery. Naturally we couldn’t leave without purchasing a couple of pictures.
With just the evening left we went to Sonobud museum, where they run a nightly puppet show of the Ramayana story. The museum is supposed to be the best place to see this traditional story telling method. All we can say is that it was one of the most incomprehensibly dull things we have ever seen. The puppets barely move, everything is in Indonesian and the synopsis given to us doesn’t seem to tally up with what you are watching. After about an hour we gave it up as a bad job and headed to a restaurant for some dinner. As it was the last night and Jogja is supposedly famous for it, I couldn’t leave without eating King cobra! I had my cobra curried and it was good, but whether I would rush to have it again I am not sure.
We had a really good time in Jogja, with more time maybe we will be back to have a look at the rest of the Island.
Next: Jogja to Jakarta
With five days in the city before we had to leave for Singapore, we first took a Becak (cycle rickshaw) to the Kraton to see the Palace. Having a completely incomprehensible guide certainly didn’t enhance the experience, but we doubt it made much difference. The palace is unfortunately just not that exciting. Having taken a shorter time looking around than we expected, we continued our tour of the rest of the old city. On the way to the bird market, we stopped to see some puppets being made and then had a look around a Batik gallery (I am pleased to say that we made a purchase in each). As well as birds, mainly pigeons (mahpati in Indonesian) the bird market sells all manner of creatures, including fruit bats, lizards and hamsters. After a brief look around we were taken on a tour of the Tamansari (water palace) by a local guide. When filled with water the palace must have been quite a sight. It was good to be shown around some bits that we wouldn’t have found by ourselves. Unfortunately the main palace has been rebuilt in a rather over restored way, so is something of a disappointment. Deciding that it was too hot to do much more, we made a brief stop at a local market and then returned to the hotel.
The next morning we got up at 4:20am to wait for the bus that would take us to Borobodur for sunrise. As it turned out we didn’t actually get to Borobodur at sunrise and on further reading of the advert it didn’t actually mention that we would. Having to be content with seeing the sunrise from the comfort of a minibus, we eventually arrived at Borobodur to be greeted by an $11 entrance fee. This went some way to explain why the tour was so cheap! Begrudgingly paying the entrance fee and noticing that the Indonesians didn’t seem to be paying at all (it is always nice to know that we are preserving other countries heritages for them!) we went in. The stupa is of quite breathtaking scale and the early morning mist gave it a beautifully silhouetted look. Photo opportunities were a little limited however, due to a film crew and all their gear obscuring the top. To top it all, it appeared to be the filming of a soap opera not a documentary (I bet they didn’t pay either!). Walking around the various levels admiring the many and varied carvings we encountered several headless Buddha statues. The opportunity proved too good to miss, so we had a bit of fun pretending to be Buddha and ordering the film crew from our stupa. Having had a good look around we headed down the steps towards the exit, only to get interviewed by some children on an English language course. We were happy to stop and chat with them, but having to write our details in all of their notebooks became a little tiring. After the interview was over we had to have our photos taken with them. Rather embarrassingly the second group photo was taken into the sun, so putting my sunglasses on, rather strangely I still found myself squinting. It wasn’t until we were halfway to the exit that Debs noticed that one of the lenses from my glasses was missing; heaven knows what kind of plum I am going to look on that photo!
The second half of our tour was to Prambanan temple. On the way we made a brief stop at Mendut temple, which instead of going into, we had a pleasant stroll around the garden of a nearby Buddhist monastery. Having been forewarned of the high entrance fees by our visit to Borobodur, the $10 entrance fee for Prambanan came as no surprise. What was a surprise was that you can’t actually get very close to the temples. Due to an earthquake in May 2006, the main Shiva temple has been deemed unsafe and the only view you can have is from behind a fence. There are further temples in the complex, but transport to these wasn’t included in our tour and several of them are too far away to walk. Prambanan, due to the fencing, is probably not worth the entrance fee, especially as they don’t tell you it is closed until you have paid your ten dollars. However the tour was definitely worthwhile if only for the visit to Borobodur.
On the way back from the tour we got dropped off at the train station so that we could book tickets for our journey to Jakarta. Having read the Rough Guides’ description of Jakarta, we had no real desire to stay there. The plan was to arrive by train in the evening, spend one night and then head to the airport early in the morning to catch our flight to Singapore. When we eventually found the ticket office, booking the tickets was very straightforward and we were soon in a taxi back to the hotel.
Looking for a bit of culture, we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening at the Ramayana Ballet. The ballet was performed in an open air theatre in the Prambanan temple grounds, with the Shiva temple in all its illuminated glory, as a backdrop. The Ramayana ballet tells the story of Rama and the kidnapping of his wife Sinta. We saw the condensed 2 hour tourist friendly version, complete with a hilarious English story board. The full version is performed over four consecutive nights of over 2 hours each and is probably a bit too involved.
Booked through the excellent ‘Via Via’ café, we spent our last day doing a Batik course at Kelik Batik gallery and school. Firstly we chose a design (I chose a gecko and Debs chose an elephant) from a selection of pictures and then using a pencil we had to trace the design onto a piece of white cotton. The next stage, after some practice, was to cover the lines in hot wax using a ‘chanting’; a kind of pen with a reservoir that you fill with hot wax. After the lines were covered, we coloured the different areas by painting them with dye, which was then fixed with acid. Rather laboriously the whole area that we didn’t want re-coloured then had to be covered with paraffin wax. The whole picture was then died black, rinsed and then boiled in water to remove the wax. Our pictures turned out really well and it certainly made us appreciate how much work goes into the amazingly intricate designs available in the gallery. Naturally we couldn’t leave without purchasing a couple of pictures.
With just the evening left we went to Sonobud museum, where they run a nightly puppet show of the Ramayana story. The museum is supposed to be the best place to see this traditional story telling method. All we can say is that it was one of the most incomprehensibly dull things we have ever seen. The puppets barely move, everything is in Indonesian and the synopsis given to us doesn’t seem to tally up with what you are watching. After about an hour we gave it up as a bad job and headed to a restaurant for some dinner. As it was the last night and Jogja is supposedly famous for it, I couldn’t leave without eating King cobra! I had my cobra curried and it was good, but whether I would rush to have it again I am not sure.
We had a really good time in Jogja, with more time maybe we will be back to have a look at the rest of the Island.
Next: Jogja to Jakarta
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