SE Asia Summer Pt. 2

After visiting beautiful Bali, we hopped on a Garuda Airlines flight from Denpasar to Yogyakarta.  The trip was only about one hour long as it took us west from Bali to Java island.  The airport was small and unassuming.  We hired a taxi driver just oustide the airport parking lot at a lower rate and headed to city center.  The driver's name was Joko.  He was a native of Jogja (as they say and spell it).  You could tell he liked working with foreigners.  In fact, he showed us his notebook filled with testimonials from driving other tourists from around the globe.

Borobudur
We found a decent little guesthouse to stay at for about 180,00 rupiahs (about $20).  It was tucked away in a small alley just off the main drag of Malioboro Street.  We freshened up, and then quickly were off on our first excursion--Borobudur.  Joko recommended we see the most visited site in all of Indonesia the very first day because it was Wednesday, a work day for most, and the weather was ideal.

In around one hour we reached the town of Magelang, some 40 kilometers outside of Yogyakarta.  Here is were the 8th century Mahayana Buddhist monument Borobudur is located.  We entered the site park at the "Foreigners Entrance" area.  Here we paid a whopping 135,000 rupiah ($15) entrance fee when you consider the price of our hotel.  However, they did happen to have complimentary Internet, coffee, and bottled water here.

It was about a 10 minute walk from the gate to the actual candi, or temple.  After ascending a large staircase, the awesome sight of this renowned UNESCO world heritage site comes into view.  Dating back to roughly 800 AD, Borobudur was built as a single stupa and when seen from high above gives the appearance of giant mandala.  Each side of the massive square foundation at the bottom level is 118 meters (387 feet) long.  In total there are nine platforms, six lower square shaped and three higher circular shaped.  There are 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues carved as decoration.  The hallmark site of the monument is the top level where a main dome with 72 Buddhas inside stupas are located.

Borobudur was built as a shrine and place for Buddhist pilgrimage.  The idea was to walk around the sacred monument using a series of passageways and staircases viewing the relief panels' narratives at each of the nine platforms.  Since Indonesia converted to Islam some time in the around the 13th or 14th century, Borobudur was abandoned and left relatively alone for some time.  It wasn't until 1814 that a rediscovery of the incredible site was given worldwide attention.  Interestingly enough, it was lead by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles who happened to be the British ruler of Java at the time.  This is the same Raffles who founded modern day Singapore.

We spent a good four hours marveling at the site.  Pazi also spent a fair amount of time taking pictures with Muslim Indonesian women.  For some reason, high school students to elderly women, all wanted to snap a shot with Pazi.  At first it was no big deal, however it did get a bit out of hand and then finally the people calmed down as it got into the late afternoon.  We stayed until sunset to take pictures.  As we were getting ready to leave a German guy named Jans came up to us desperate for help.  It turns out he just graduated from college.  He was traveling in Asia on a shoestring budget and got trapped out at Borobudur when he found out he missed the last city bus back to Yogyakarta.  Knowing it could cost him over $20 bucks to get to his hostel, we offered him a ride in our van with Joko.  Joko didn't mind at all and in fact picked Jans' brain the whole ride about German culture.  We learned that Jans was madly in love with an Italian grad student living with him in Berlin.  He decided after graduating from school to take a wild "road trip" as a way to reward himself.  He was a nice guy and was very appreciative when we dropped him off because we wouldn't accept any money from him.

Prambanan
Our second day in Jogja would be much different than our first.  Instead of hiring a driver, we decided to rough it by walking and taking local transportation.  Pazi said she was feeling good to walk since she was still in the early stages of pregnancy.

We had breakfast at a cafe close to our guesthouse and then found an Internet cafe to figure out how we would be getting to Laos in the next few days.  Ahh, thank goodness there's Air Asia.  We then spent a few hours wandering the streets seeing the local life and stopping to shop a bit a long the way.  The highlights were buying some really neat batik items and watching a young Indonesian boy jam out to the music of a street band.  Ultimately, the big attraction for us on day two was visiting the Prambanan Candi.  We learned that if we took the city bus it would only cost us 3,000 rupiahs ( $.35) for the 18 kilometer journey.  It was about a 40 minute bus ride but we were able to sit part of the way.

Prambanan Temple is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The archaeological park dates back to the 9th century and is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia.  The first thing we noticed was that the complex was much less occupied than Borobudur.  The entrance fee here cost us only 90,000 rupiahs (around $11).  Although not revered to the same level as Borobudur, we personally liked the feel of Prambanan much more.

The park had many temple sites that were obviously in different stages of both excavation and restoration.  The main temple was a towering 47 meters high and done in a traditional Hindu pointed-top architecture.  Unfortunately, it was closed off due to restoration.  Nevertheless, we were able to tour over half a dozen smaller temples and the freedom to wander so freely was great.  With almost no security in sight, it reminded us of Siem Reap in Cambodia.  The fact that crowds were so small made the experience even better.  Once again we stayed until sunset to take those beautiful shots of the temples.

Taman Sari, Kraton, and Beringharjo
This was our last day in Jogja.  We decided to hit a few tourist sites close by, then have a nice lunch, and finish our day with shopping at the markets.

After eating a quick meal close to the guesthouse, we headed over to see Taman Sari, Water Castle.  This attraction, recently renovated in 2004, was actually nice considering we stumbled upon it.  Our guide books didn't talk much about it so we really weren't sure what to expect.  It was funny that we even got inside.  Since we had no idea what was inside, we really didn't want to pay to go in.  Eventually an older man caught on to our uncertainty of wanting to pay and gave us a hint that around a small jalan, street, we could see everything.  We decided to take his recommendation considering that it was daylight and the area was probably the nicest in all of the inner city.

Sure enough, we ended up see the entire complex using his suggestion.  The site is a former royal garden of the Sultanate.  It's located just under two kilometers away from the Kraton, Sultan's Palace.  It was built in the 18th century and is made up of four main areas.  There is an artificial lake complete with islands and pavilions.  A bathing complex sits in the center.  Lastly, there is a smaller lake on the south side.  The attraction is consider a "tentative" world heritage site.  Although small, it was worth the peak given to us by our local friend.

From here we continued on to the Sultan's Palace, the kraton.  Located at the center of the city, this 200 year old complex is kind of like a city within the city.  It does indeed house the Sultan's living quarters, however it also serves as a historical museum of Yogyakarta history.  We walked through the areas open to the public and viewed photos of previous sultan's and their families, gifts from foreign dignitaries, and royal chambers.  Our time here was around one hour and thirty minutes.  Not bad considering we paid 3000 rupiah (under $.40).

Next, Adan wanted to take Pazi out for a nice lunch.  He had read about a neat restaurant in a different tourist area of Jogja named Jalan Prawirotaman.  We took a cylo taxi to the location since it was about 4 kilometers away.  The restaurant was called Via Via Cafe and it didn't disappoint.  The building it was in was a simple two story design with a white exterior.  Inside minimal earth tone interior decorating was done.  Locally handcrafted tables and chairs filled the dining area.  Several foreigners were  having their lunch and taking advantage of the free WiFi.  The service was good and the food was even better.  We both decided to have fabulous organic chicken burgers.  The ingredients were very fresh and tasty.  We enjoyed the atmosphere here so much we decided to order drinks afterward eating and simply relax for another 30 minutes.  By doing so we learned that the cafe was actually an establishment of 12 restaurants on 4 continents started by a group of Belgian friends.  Their mission is to showcase local culture and arts while at the same time promote eco-friendly tourism.

Our last spot to visit before leaving Jogja was the massive Pasar Beringharjo.  At this site is the ever popular people's market that dates back to 1758.  It name means "place of the Banyan trees."  This has historical significance in that before the actual building for the market was constructed in the early 20th century, the people of Yogyakarta used the shade of the trees to allow them to trade and buy goods during hot days.  Now, a few Banyan trees still remain at the back of the market as a reminder of days past.

We decided to conquer the market from the back and work our way to the front.  This strategy would eventually take us to Jalan Malioboro the area near our guesthouse.  Much like other world markets, Beringharjo sells just about everything:  meat, vegetables, snacks, houseware, hardware, souvenirs, and clothes to name a few.  Jogja is famous for its batik of brilliant colors such as maroons matched with golds so we shopped for these articles the most.  Pazi found very nice shirts, dress, and skirts for low prices.  They ranged from about 40,000-170,000 rupiahs ($5-20 dollars).  Most of the vendors were very nice and worked with us even with the language barriers.  We new a few numbers in the Bahasa language, but not much else.

By the time we finished shopping we were exhausted.  We relaxed on the street near our guesthouse by having a simple dinner. Later, we packed up our things and went to bed early in preparation for a 7:00am  flight to Laos the next morning.