Yogyakarta - Java - Indonesia

July 9th - 12th, 2016

Apart from being 2 hours late and ridiculously cold due to excessive air con on the train, our 9 hour journey from Jakarta to Yogyakarta was pretty uneventful. The scenery outside the windows flashed past looking much like any other country in SE Asia, lots of rubbish and rice fields, apart from one very important difference...volcanoes!! Amongst the vast expanses of flat, even ground, occasionally a perfect cone rises menacingly to tower over everything and cast its shadow, under which people continue to toil, grateful for the fertile soil that comes with this price.

Yogya's heart is the Kraton, a 2km wide walled city built in the 1700's, tranquil and traditional compared to the rest of this frenetic city, it has a charm about it that makes wandering its narrow streets a pleasant way to spend a few hours. Within it's walls lies the Sultan's Palace, a supposed masterpiece of Javanese architecture, though we were slightly underwhelmed. The open sided pavilions and museum like displays were interesting to look at and there were some large drums and big silver guardian statues that were quite cool but in the main there wasn't really anything to make you think this was a palace rather than just a large wealthy property. The Gedung Kuning contains the offices and living quarters of the Sultan and are out of bounds, but we wondered if it was perhaps more impressive than the rest.

South west of the Palace lies the Taman Sari, a giant water garden designed in the 18th century to entertain the royal family, featuring swimming pools and fountains. What is there today is mostly a UNESCO reconstruction but was pretty to walk around and provided some much needed shade in its many empty rooms ranged around the edges of the pools. In the courtyard just outside of the Taman Sari were several shops selling traditional Batik pictures, which we learned are very time consuming to make and are priced accordingly!

A popular reason that people come to Yogya is to visit the nearby temple of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist monument in the Southern Hemisphere (though we later realised this isn't much to shout about given how much ground that covers) and also the greatest single piece of classical architecture in the entire Indonesian Archipeligo. We were picked up at 5am when it was still pitch black for the 40km journey to Borobudur via minivan and arrived at around 6.30. Our hopes of seeing the sunrise behind the temple were shot, but seeing it rise behind the volcanoes we drove past to get here was pretty amazing and luckily being so early meant that the crowds had not yet arrived. After purchasing our tickets we set off along a long straight road to the temple which, unlike most, was not built as a dwelling place for the gods but as a representation of the Buddhist cosmic mountain Meru. So to fully appreciate this you are meant to climb the temple and circle each of the 10 levels as if you are rising through man's earthly existence at the bottom, through his journey's to enlightenment and finally to the Sphere of Formlessness and Nirvana. Upon reaching the base of Borobudur we were struck by how small it was compared to what we had expected, not to say it isn't an impressive feat of engineering, especially the restoration which saw the entire place taken apart block by block to replace the hill upon which it sat with concrete! We began our ascent and marvelled at the number of people, mostly locals, who simply walked up the stairs straight to the top, the 3000 reliefs that adorn the walls of each level are stunning and well worth taking the time to look at, plus it gives you a rest from climbing. After slowly spiralling our way to the top we were met with the most beautiful views, surrounded by volcanoes and jagged limestone cliffs Borobudur is set in splendid scenery, not that you'd know by the pictures everyone else was taking...Andy decided that Nirvana must mean 'the place where one may take endless selfies'. We took our share of photos, mostly of the huge central stupa, the 72 smaller stupas and surrounding hillsides rather than ourselves, but couldn't resist taking one of a Buddha taking his own selfie using Andy's GoPro as a prop! Walking back down and out of the complex we were caught in a labyrinthine souvenir market which was almost more impressive in its enormity than the temple itself was! Finally escaping the endless calls of 'Sir, look here' and 'Miss, you buy something' we had a measly breakfast before getting back in the minivan for what was to be a nearly 3 hour very hot, uncomfortable return journey.

That afternoon we walked back through the Kraton and along a street called Jalan Malioboro, a famous 2km stretch originally designed as a ceremonial boulevard along which the royal cavalcade would proceed. Now home to a bustling stretch of old and new, shops and stalls selling Batik, jewellery, souvenirs, food, sweets, clothing and almost anything else you can think of, line both sides, cramming merchandise and people into such tight spaces you can only inch your way along. We found relief in a wonderful, cavernous bazaar, full of interesting trinkets and more importantly with great air conditioning, where we were able to browse for ages before deciding to make the long trek back to our hotel.