Gods,Sultans, volcanoes, palaces, ballet and temple dreamscapes or what I did with 4 days in Yogyakarta

What do you do when a government official at the Ministry of Home affairs tells you to come back in a week to pick up the forms you need to carry on with the research permit application process? Either sit and moan about it and stay in Jakarta for that week, moan at the officials everyday and either it gets the form quicker or delayed for being a nuisance or do what I did and thank them very much and then once outside go "f*** it I'm going on holiday!". So the next day I was sat on a flight booked with Air Asia for £36 return to Yogyakarta, and is one of the better decisions I've made.

Some may baulk at the idea of flying with Air Asia at the moment so soon after the accident and in the same area, but all I found was a clean plane, friendly staff and very nice prices. The only bit that was a little annoying was when booking you have to pay for your checked in baggage, but the online system doesn't let you choose no checked in baggage so the girls I'm travelling with paid the £5.60 for up to 15kg of baggage that they didn't have. I  however made use of what I'd already paid for to put some toiletries and a couple of changes of clothes and shoes into a small backpack that I was able to check in, leaving more room for camera equipment and tech in my hand luggage. The flight was good though, no real problems other than a little turbulence, but we had amazing views of some of Java's many volcanoes which was almost worth paying for the flight alone.

Some of the volcanoes that you can see whilst flying from Jakarta to Yogyakarta

On arrival at Yogyarkta or Jogja as it's known to most Indonesians, the change from Jakarta is pretty much instant, no more multiple terminals and line after line of planes instead your met with a small single building and a line of Indonesian Airforce Hawk training fighter jets. What is most noticeable though is that there are very few buildings in Jogja more than 2 or 3 stories tall compared to Jakarta where it's a forest of glass and concrete with 15-20 stories are the norm. Jogja also oddly has quite a small town feel even for a city of over 500,000 which puts it in the same class as Liverpool, and like Liverpool it has a large number of universities and big student population. My hotel in Jogja- the Grand Tjokro was near to the main campus and so in the student district and this is a good tip is if your not a fan of being hassled all the time to buy things or for rides in Becak's find a hotel in the student area and you can walk around and shop without anyone bothering you, but still close enough to the main part of town that taxi's are still quite cheap. 

So why of all places did I choose Jogja for my quick couple of days off? Firstly it's known as the home of Javanese culture, secondly it's a very touristy city because of the ancient Hindu temples of Prambanan and Buddhist stupa of Borobudur being nearby, thirdly it's famous for it's shopping and local crafts (silver and batik), and lastly I'd met someone the previous week in the RISTEK offices who's doing their research in Jogja so it was a good way to catch up and get a sort of local's view of the city. First day was pretty much a write off after landing, mostly getting settled and wandering around the local area to see what's about. That night we met up with Belinda to go for some food and a couple of drinks and turns out she was living just round the corner from the hotel which made meeting up much easier. Anyway we went for food at a local warong which is the Indonesian for small café's and restaurants, this one made Chinese inspired food and was well known for it's speciality of hot plates. These were super hot cast iron pots that were brought out with the food sizzling and spitting everywhere from the heat and placed on little stands, we got one similar to sweet and sour chicken though less sour and way spicier, ciap cai (pronounced chap chai) which was mixed spicy vegetables, noodles and some nasi goreng (fried rice) and nasi putih (white rice). All the food was insanely good and fresh and the entire meal with drinks for the three of us came to less than 60,000irp which is less than £3!  

Hot plates aren't the cleanest of meals with all the sauce spitting everywhere just make sure you don't wear white/pale clothes when ordering it!

That meal gave us time to plan out some things to do with our time in the city and the first decided was to visit Prambanan to see the temples and the Ramayana ballet the next day. Prambanan is a huge Hindu temple complex 17km from Jogja built in the 9th Century and is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. It's main temples are dedicated to the Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), Preserver (Vishnu) and Destroyer (Shiva). Within the temple grounds are many other smaller candi's (temple's) like Candi Sewu and Candi Lumbung. Entrance fee's are 175,000irp which is a bit expensive for Indonesian standards but it's not too bad and if your either historically or photographically inclines like myself you could easily spend most of a day here, unfortunately I only got to spend an afternoon but I'm hoping to be able to go back and fully explore the complex. Also next time I'm going to aim for getting there early morning as the main temple was really busy and if your Western it can be a bit of a nuisance as many of the local school children and some of the adults will ask to have photos with you and try practice their English with you. Which is fine for the first or second time but wears off after 10 different groups ask the same in a row and you really want to just get a photo without any people in them and to just take in the view in peace!  However if you leave the main temple but stay in the grounds and head to any of the smaller temples you very quickly leave the crowds behind and can quite easily find some peace and solitude. 

It's not often I'm left speechless, (ask any of my family and friends they've been trying to get me to be quiet for years!) but upon setting eyes on the main temple of Candi Sewu lit by the late afternoon sun and the volcano Mt Merapi providing an awe inspiring backdrop I thought I'd slipped into a dream or a fantasy world of pen and paper not carved stone. What also gives this place such an amazing atmosphere is that it was almost completely empty when I visited it even though Prambanan, less than a km away was completely packed. Unlike Prambanan, Candi Sewu is a Buddhist temple and in the main chamber of the temple there would have been a large statue of the Buddah but like the heads of many of the statues at Candi Sewu it has been removed. 

Candi Sewu and it's Dvarapala gate guardians which you'll see many reproductions of in front of many government and important buildings in Java

When visiting Prambanan, in my opinion and though it's pretty touristy the best way to end a day is to go watch the Prambanan Ramayana Ballet which is held just outside the main complex. Annoyingly the time of year affects the type of show you get, so from May to September you get to watch it in the outside theatre which the main temples of Prambanan lit up giving a perfect backdrop for the ballet. Unfortunately the rest of the year because of the higher likelihood of rain they perform in the indoor theatre and perform a shortened version of the Ramayana whereas in the outside one they spread it out across multiple nights, though it's not as spectacular it's still a really good show! Tickets weren't too bad 275,000irp for 1st class seats which were near the front and the show was over 3 hours! The actual show is of the Ramayana which is one of the two major Hindu epics and tells of the story of Rama and Sita and her kidnap by the demon king Ravana and Rama's journey to rescue her, I won't write it all here as it's quite long and a little complicated but definitely worth reading into if you've got time. 

Traditional Javanese ballet is very colourful and what you'll notice is the stark contract between the movements of male and female characters, where female dancers (except the golden deer) movements are more graceful, but very small and reserved the male dancers are far more flamboyant and spectacular. 

The next day was pretty much wasted because we were pretty tired from the day before, we didn't get back to the hotel until 11pm and we'd left at 1:30pm! So that was a really long day! Then with it's brilliant timing my camera charger packed in, so I spent most of the day wandering around Jogja searching for a Nikon camera charger to no avail. Luckily the supervisors for the MRes student's from Bournemouth University I'm working with were coming to Sumatra the week later so I was able to order a new charger to their address in the UK and have them bring it with them, which was a life saver! Due to this I also wasn't able to sort out a sunrise trip to Borobudur though the £65 price is a little off putting, so I've decided to wait until the end of my trip to go back to Jogja and visit Borobudur.

With our last day we decided to see some of the main sights in the centre of Jogja and have a super touristy day. First port of call was the Kraton or Sultans Palace. There are a number of Sultans in Indonesia with very limited power but the Sultan in Yogyakarta has a special place in Indonesia  as the previous Sultan, the presents father, played a major part in Indonesia's independence and gave shelter to the rebels when fighting the Dutch. Due to this the Sultanate of Yogyakarta was made a Special Administrative Region and is the smallest region in Indonesia and the only one headed by a monarchy as the Sultan also holds the office of Governor.  When visiting the Kraton, before the entrance there's a lot of sellers trying to sell you their wares from drinks and food to toys and the odd blow gun and darts! If you can get through these with a few friendly "tidaks" (tidak is no in Bahasa) then you'll get to the entrance, fees are 12,500irp and an extra 1000irp for taking a camera in, this is around 60p in UK money and with that you also get a tour guide who speaks amazing English as well!

Going round the Kraton I was first amazed by how simple and elegant the buildings were, no tall or ostentatious building as you find in Europe, and much less gold than Buckingham Palace or the Palaces in Brunei. Yet when you look closer, you find out the floors are Italian marble, the lights and lampshades Venetian glass, the wooden struts all teak and the pots surrounding the courtyard 350 year old Ming Dynasty Chinese porcelain! The term I think best fits it is "Reserved Extravagance" it's a strange contradiction of some of the most expensive and luxurious materials used in a way that it looks  reserved and modest, the polar opposite of its European counterparts and the malls that litter so many Indonesian cities. The one exception is in the Pendopo pavilion which is filled with heirlooms of the previous Sultan including his writing desk, however what stands out is that much of the inside of the pavilion is gilded in 17 carat gold leaf, yet even then it isn't as gaudy as many western palaces.

One of the most iconic sites in the Kraton are the palace guards in their blue robes, patterned batik sarongs and their ceremonial kris' (traditional Javan swords) tied to their belts. Their role is mostly a ceremonial one, with each guard working one day a week and unpaid, though it is considered a great honour with the position being passed down from father to son. I would certainly recommend taking time to chat to them and many of them were more than happy for you to take their photos. Overall I would really recommend going to and in the main pavilion there's usually a different show on each day, when we visited there were performances by the male and female gamelans which are and ensemble of traditional instruments including xylophones, bamboo flutes and vocalists, which make a beautiful and soothing sound.

The entrance to the Kraton flanked by the Dvarapala gate guardians that you see in front of many buildings in Java including Candi Sewu

One of the many 350 year old Chinese porcelain pots surrounding one of the main pavillions of the Kraton

The pendopo pavilion 

The traditional male gamelan

The all female gamelan

A trio of the palace guards in their blue robes and batik sarongs

After going round the Kraton we'd planned to go the Taman Sari or Water Castle which is just a short walk away, however on our walk we actually bumped into the head of the Government Tourist Information Centre whilst getting some bottles of water from a shop that turned out to belong to his brother, he recommended not going there unless it's either early morning or late afternoon as it's quite hot and in the middle of the day there's a lot of sellers about. Instead he recommended going to see how Batik is made at the Yogyakarta Batik Art Group which acts as a school for young artists and provides a place for both the students and masters to sell their works. Following this he then recommended going to see Malioboro which is the main shopping street in Jogja and is famous as a place where you can pretty much buy anything and was a place I'd been told many times that I couldn't leave Jogja without going to. So we went with his suggestion and he helped us get a couple of becaks which are the traditional pedal powered rickshaw-esque vehicles you'll see plenty of in Jogja. All I can say is it was on of the most awkward and uncomfortable rides I've ever had and that's only because I was probably twice the size of the guy driving mine and at every incline he hopped off and had to push it uphill (which the other driver also has to do for the girls, so not as bad). 

Once we finally got to the batik studio we were struck by so much colour, every inch of wall covered in artwork that from a distance looks like delicate watercolours but when you touch them it's actually dyed silk and cotton. We were given a short talk on how they produce batik and how to tell the difference between quality batik and the fake stuff. Batik is produced by drawing an outline onto the material cotton or silk, and then coating the areas you don't want to colour yet in wax and then dipping it into a dye which can be either natural or a mix of natural and synthetic, though as you can imagine the natural dyes are far more expensive. Once the first colour is dyed it's placed in the sun to "fix" and then this is covered in wax and the wax from the areas you want to dye a different colour are removed, this is then dyed and fixed again and repeated until the finished design is produced, this is as you can imagine a very time consuming process but what they produce is truly beautiful. Having a look around the gallery I couldn't help myself and bough a couple of pieces that I'll hang on the walls of my flat when I finally return home. Batik as well as being made into art is also made into clothes and it is this that many of the shops on Jalan Malioboro are selling. I didn't buy any of these this trip but on my return trip I definitely intend to have a better look.

The view from the front of my becak of the girls one, needless to say when crossing traffic this is one of the most terrifying forms of transport ever created for a passenger.

Some of the many Batik artworks in the gallery.

After the trip to the gallery we made our way to Malioboro to find somewhere to eat and have a look around some of the shops and the market. It is along this street that you can also find the office for the Government Tourist Information Centre and I would definitely encourage any visitors to Jogja who aren't sure where to go or to book things to call in and have a chat with these guys. After finishing shopping a massive storm moved in so we quickly grabbed a taxi and headed back to the hotel to get some food, and then caught our flight early the next morning and so ended my first trip to Jogja.

If your in Jogja and not sure what to do or where to go, head to Jalan Malioboro and call in to the Tourist Information Centre and remember to pick up a map, it's invaluable when getting a taxi to more out of the way places.

 I didn't do everything I wanted to do, but I'm happy with what I was able to do in such a short time and this just gives me more reasons to come back when I've got time in the summer.  Ciao for now.