Yogyakarta

From Yogyakarta

If you have been following this blog closely, you may recall that our next destination after diving in Bunaken was going to be Bali. However, after making all the arrangements to fly to Bali and then return to KL from Yogyakarta, we decided to change everything around, so that the new plan was to fly from Manado to Yogyakarta, then work our way eastwards though Java, finally ending up in Bali. This was all very last minute, to the extent that we did not purchase the air tickets for the final leg of the journey until we actually arrived in Manado airport. The end result was a whole day of travelling, starting off with a boat trip from Bunaken to Manado, then three flight sectors, taking us form Manado to Makassar, then Denpasar (Bali) and finally ending up in Yogyakarta in the evening. We had to travel with Garuda, who turned out to be a very efficient and friendly airline, in spite of their dubious safety record (their planes fall out of the sky with alarming regularity). Indonesian airports also surprised us by how up to date they were. Because of the last minute rearrangement, we had not booked anywhere to stay in Yogyakarta, and had to spend ages with an agent at the airport, trying to find somewhere that had rooms at one of the peak holiday times in the year.

For our first day in Yogyakarta, we decided to go on a self-guided walking tour around the city centre. From the railway station, we headed down the main shopping road, which is full of stalls selling batik clothing and other touristy stuff. Interestingly, we were just about the only westerners there. Most of the Saturday shoppers appeared to be locals. Spent some time walking around the massive wholesale market, selling everything from cloths, handcrafts, fruit and vegetables, and most spectacularly of all, a massive array of spices. By the time we got to the Kraton Palace, we were too late to get in, so instead we found a guide to take us around the Water Palace, which used to be the Sultan’s main home.

In the evening we went to a performance by the Ramayana Ballet in an open air arena. The ballet was accompanied by a Javanese gamelan orchestra and singers, and depicted an ancient Hindu story.