Yogyakarta

Day 1 –Getting There

Today we are going to head back to a city and Yogyakarta according to our guidebook seemed like a lively place.  So after packing and a quick coffee we were picked up by a taxi to take us to the nearest train station.

 

We spent the next 6 hours on what was quite a decent train and whilst watching the countryside pass by we had time to catch up on some blogging and some trip research.

Arriving at Yogyakarta station in mid-afternoon we then made our way to the hotel we had booked.  When we got there we found it was quite a nice place in a Moroccan style with a pool in a courtyard at the back.  It was in the Sosrowijayan area which was supposed to be the liveliest area with hotels, bars and restaurants.

 

After unpacking we headed out to check out the area and after wandering around for a bit we decided to have a beer in what looked like a rock bar, Lucifer Bar.  It appears that the beers are a bit more expensive in Yogjakarta!

 

Next we decided to go and find some dinner but by this time I was getting a bit bored with Indonesian food so we thought we would be naughty and found a KFC, to be honest we wish we hadn’t bothered as it wasn’t that great.

In the evening we headed out and headed down a side street where there seemed to be a few restaurants and bars.  We were encouraged to go in one bar and ended up sitting next to two dubious local characters, a guy (a sound engineer) and a lady (a financial consultant).  After chatting to them for a bit they tried to sell us some bags and then offered us to stay at their home.  Both Shell and I could smell a rat and thought they were working an angle, so we finished our drinks quickly and headed off.

We headed back in the direction of our hotel and found a bar that had balconies overlooking the street and had a couple of beers there before going home for the night.

Day 2 – The Sultan’s Palace

Our early starts on our volcano trips had caught up with us so we had a lazy morning in our room before having a very late breakfast.

In the early afternoon we headed out to find the Sultan’s Palace, The Kraton.  We walked down the main street through hundreds of market stalls in the shade as it was very hot.  We then continued for a while until we found The Kraton.

 

From the guidebook we were expecting to find a vibrant little town within the palace walls however we were sorely disappointed as there was pretty much nothing to see there apart from some poor museum exhibits and a couple of statues (apparently there is cultural dancing in the mornings that we missed).  The only thing we did do was try and convert some local kids into hammers before heading back to the hotel.

 

For the rest of the day we rested up, did some blogging and watched a few episodes of the Soprano’s before getting our dinner in the hotel before going to bed.

Day 3 – Admin/Rest day

Unfortunately Jogjakarta did not really live up to its billing so today we thought we would sort out some onward travel stuff.

After our breakfast we headed out and found a laundry to wash some clothes and then tried to find a bookshop for Malaysia guidebook which is our next country (but had no luck, unless we wanted a 1997 version). 

We then went to a train station to get tickets to our next destination in a couple of days time.  From there we went to a travel agent and booked a trip for Borobudur for early the next day.

Once again we had a lazy afternoon as I think we needed to re-charge our batteries and so spent it blogging, reading and watching TV.

In the evening we went to find a Spanish restaurant that was recommended on tripadvisor,  however when we got there they had about 5 Spanish dishes on the menu. After having the poorest excuse of a tortilla ever, maybe we should have opted for the Python or Cobra options they had on the menu (I can’t remember this being on any menu’s I’ve ever seen in Spain!!).

 

After a very poor meal we went back to the hotel for a few more episodes of  The Soprano’s before bed.

Day 4 – Temple Time Again!

Why when you visit Temples, Volcano’s and mountains does it always include a sunrise viewpoint???   Anyway our trip to Borobudur temple did include a sunrise and so we were up and out once again by 4.00am.

Borobudur is a colossal Buddhist monument built between AD 750 and AD 850 and is held in the same esteem as Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar.  In 1991 Borobudur was declared a World Heritage Site.  In recent time it has survived volcano eruptions, earthquakes and terrorist attacks.

So we were picked up at stupid O’clock and driven to the bottom of a hill where we got out and had a coffee to wake us up.  We then paid and entrance fee to let us climb to the sunrise viewpoint, fortunately this was a relatively easy path up and did not take too long before we were at the top.

Once there we waited in the dark for the sun to come up, but as it was becoming light it was very cloudy/misty and it was very hard to work out what we were trying to see.  As it became lighter we could just about work out what we were looking at, from this vantage point it didn’t look that impressive so after a while we made our way back to the foot of the hill.

 

Once at the bottom we were then transported to the temple site where we got out and paid quite an expensive entrance fee.  When we got through the tourist entrance we were then treated to a cup of free coffee before making our way to the temple.

We walked through some nice grounds/gardens and then we got our first glimpse of the temple and to be honest it was far more impressive than we imagined from the sunrise point.  The temple itself is a pyramid of seven levels with carvings all around the walls and made out of some 60,000 cubic metres of stone.

 

Shell and I climbed each level and walked around each level until we finally reached the top, taking lots of photos along the way.  When walking around the top we were approached by some school children who wanted to interview us for a school project, wanting to know where we came from, how long we were here for, what we thought of Indonesia, etc and also to practice their English.

After a circuit talking to them we then enjoyed wandering around the top level (Nirvana) of the temple taking photo’s and enjoying the surrounding views from the top.

 

We then got a shout down from the level below and it was a different set of school children on a day trip here that were also doing a project.  Again they wanted to interview us so we happily obliged, walking round answering questions they then gave us badges welcoming us to Indonesia and friendship bracelets.  We were then introduced to their teacher who asked us to come with them to take some pictures together with all the pupils for their records, so most probably by now Shell and I are now pinned to some school noticeboard!!

Saying goodbye to the students we then made our way back down the temple and took a few more photo’s from the ground before heading back to meet up with our driver.

 

Once back in the car we then had an hour’s drive back to our hotel where we arrived back in time to have a late breakfast.

As we had an early start and felt like we had done something already today we decided to have another relaxing day doing some blogging and getting through a few more episodes of The Sopranos.

In the evening we went and found another restaurant that was recommended in trip advisor, we found it through a few dark alleys and were the only ones there.  As had happened at a few other restaurants in Java we were handed the waiters notepad to write down our own orders, so we ordered some local food and a couple of beers.  Despite the lack of atmosphere the food was pretty decent.

After dinner we decided to go home for an early night as we were moving on tomorrow and had a train to catch.