Yogyakarta is a confusing place - for a start it seems to have four names for itself (Jogjakarta, Yogyakarta, Jogja and Yogya - I've gone for Yogyakarta/Yogya because I like Ys better than Js) and because the main streets are linked by lots of little gangs (alleyways) which are very easy to get lost in! I really enjoyed my stay here, it's much more chilled than Bali was and it has a very nice 'cultural' vibe to it.

On my first day here I took a trip to Borobodur and Prambanan temples. After a very painful 5am start we arrived at Borobodur just after sunrise, which made for some very cool misty photos from the top! Borobodur is the largest Buddhist monument in existance, and the top of the temple features four levels of cone-shaped 'stupas', which each have a stone buddha inside (which peering through the holes in the stupas revealed). The views from the top were awesome as well - you could just about spot Mt Merapi emerging from the clouds and fog in the distance, which was an impressive natural backdrop to the manmade wonder we were standing on! There were lots of groups of school kinds wandering round the temple, and occasionally they'd stop all the tourists so they could interview them and practice their English skills - I think I must have told my name, age, hobbies, nationality, reason for being in Yogy to about seven different groups of people! Next up was Prambanan, which is sadly not in the best condition after a series of earthquakes over the years (there's only four temples left out of more than 200). The temples are gradually being rebuilt though, so I just had to close my eyes and imagine what they would look like without all the scaffolding and piles of fallen bricks. Prambanan is a Hindu temple, and reminded me a bit of Angkor Wat, on a far smaller scale of course. We also saw deer and sheep (with baby lambs) grazing around the temples - aw!

That night I saw an awesome Indonesian ska-punk band with some lovely people I'd met on the Borobodur trip - they were brilliant! They played covers mostly, but their second set was full of ska-d up covers of punk sonds like Rancid and The Clash as well as what I think was their own bouncy happy tunes. The way the crowd were reacting you'd have thought the Stones or someone was playing, but the atmostphere was brilliant, with people dancing wildly and pumping fists down at the front of the tiny room at the back of the bar - I guess not that many rock bands make it to Indonesia, let alone Yogya, so local/covers bands get a much warmer reception than they do in the UK!

Aside from the temples, Yogya's main schtick is batik art, which you can buy pretty much everywhere in the town. I did a course to learn how to make it, and indulge my creative side for a day! The technique is very simple, but doing it well is harder than it looks! I learned how to paint an outline onto cloth with wax, then fill in the colour with dyes. Next I had to paint the areas that I wanted to keep colourful with more wax, before covering the whole thing in a dark background colour. I used parafin and more dye to create a 'cracking' effect, before washing the whole thing in hot water to melt the wax and clean it up. I was pretty pleased with the final product, and have come away with all sorts of ideas for future batik projects!

The sights of Yogya itself were a little underwhelming (especially the utterly crap museum I got tricked into going into - 5,000 Rupiah to see some models dressed as royalty - wtf?!). The Kraton (Sultan's Palace) was quite interesting, although the water castle was dull - basically a dirty swimming pool set amongst ruins. I was glad I'd met a local who showed me how to sneak in the back for free! I also saw the bird market, where you can see hundreds of songbirds and budgies in cages, as well as bats, cats, bunnies, puppies and geckos. I also saw an owl, which bit me when I tried to stroke it, and a baby koala in a cage. The koala didn't seem to be in a good way, and I wasn't sure if the crickets it was sharing a cage with were its food or vice versa!
Luckily Yogya has plenty of cool cafes to drink coffee in (if anyone visits soon go to ViaVia Cafe - it's awesome) and markets to potter round, so that's how I spent most of the rest of my time there!

After all the westernised food I had in Bali, I've been getting a proper taste of Indonesian food in Yogya - everything seems to come either with a fried egg on top (which dad would love) or with peanut sauce all over it (which dad would hate). Gado gado was my favourite I think, salad/boiled veg with peanut sauce, but I also liked nasi goreng (fried rice with fried egg on) and pretty much anything served with sambal chilli sauce.
I actually did a cooking course on my last afternoon there, so anyone willing to volunteer can look forward to trying gado gado and sambal chilli for themselves, as well as caramelised tempeh and coconut rice. I got to eat all the food I made afterwards - it was delicious (even if I do say so myself), but as there was enough for about three people, I was very full by the time I left! As Selina and I said many a time, the theory that people lose weight travelling round Asia is definitely a myth!

Bye for now
Kimbob xx