Advertisement
Published: November 15th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Yogyakarta
Jalan Sosrowijayan...backpacker central! 20 October 2009 - 24 October 2009
TRANSPORTATION:
Pangandaran to Yogyakarta by private minibus & executive class train (booked through travel agency)--Rp250,000 (5 hours)
HOTEL:
Setia Kawan Losmen
Double, fan, cold water, western toilet--Rp90,000 incl. breakfast and free tea & coffee all day!
Very cute guesthouse down a quiet little alley owned by a local artist who has painted each room himself with interesting murals. Great value place, even if the rooms are a little tight and dark.
We had a great (and huge) breakfast at our plush hotel before setting off to the cultural capital of Indonesia. We had booked the trip through a travel agents which is more expensive but is most likely the easiest option. We were picked up and taken by private minibus to Sidareja train station about an hour away from Pangandaran. Our train arrived (dead on time again...they are proving to be more reliable than British trains!) and we settled down to our 4 hour journey. We were on Executive class this time ( a step above Business), but the aircon wasn't working properly and the seats felt like they were going to fall apart but at least we had more legroom.
Prambanan
An impressive mosque outside the temple complex We definitely prefer Business class but this was the only one available. The journey went by fast enough and soon we were in Yogyakarta.
We walked to the hotel we had chosen nearby the train station in the heart of Yogya's backpacker ghetto. We were glad that our first choice was a good choice. As it was late afternoon when we arrived we headed out to eat at a restaurant nearby. We cracked and had a pizza to eat. We also ordered our dinner for the next night as it was on a "order one day before" part of the menu. Snake curry!! We put a deposit down for a mix of cobra and python. It's going to be interesting!!
Our first task for the next day was to get our camera in for a service as the zoom had packed in, so unfortunately we didn't have a camera for the rest of the day which is a shame but it's got to be done.
With the rest of the day at our disposal, and no camera to capture the sights we decided to take a leisurely walk of the city's sights, stating at the train station
Prambanan
One of Dan's favorite drinks! and ending at the Sultan's Palace (although the latter is only open until 2pm, we didnt get the chance to look round the interior.)
That evening we had the joy of looking forward to our snake dishes (yes you heard us right.... snake!) that we had ordered the night before. We were served up Python and Cobra curry, deep fried cobra and jackfruit and chicken curry. With a little hesitation we dived into the dishes, not sure what to expect. We had been told that snake tasted a cross between chicken and fish. This is mind we devoured our python think how chicken like it was.... only to be told by the waitress we were in fact eating- chicken! Oppps, undeterred we carried on with the python and cobra curry- which we were not keen on. Ok for an experience but wouldnt have it again!
The following day, we picked up the fixed camera and made our way to get the Trans-Jogja to the Buddisht/Hindu Temple 'Prambanan.' A simple task one would think, however we were accosted by school children practicing their English. Half an hour later and we were slowly making our way the 800 yards to
Prambanan
The main temple the Trans-Jogja bus stop.
We arrived at Prambanan early afternoon, found a warung to get a spot of lunch before paying the 11$ to enter the temple complex.
We were slightly dissapointed with the complex as alot of the temples are under construction as they were damaged in the 2006 earthquake. However, as we pasted one of the closed temples one of the workers offered to unofficially show us around the temple (for a little tip of course!) He told us about the work that was taking place around the temple complex as well as the temple we were being shown around. As his father, grandfather and great grandfather all worked on restoring the temple he was well knowledged on the history of the temple. He showed us the restoration work he had been doing.
Our final day in Jogyakarta and we had an early start of 4am to leave the guesthouse to see Borobudur at sunrise (although 'sunrise' was actually after sunrise and due to the recent humidity it was very hazy so little could been seen.) All the same we made our way up the steps and embarked upon our tour of the temple slowly
winding our way up the levels to the top tier where you can place your hand in one of the ' Buddha bells' to touch the Buddha inside and receive good luck and never one's to turn down the opportunity of increasing our chances of winning the lottery we happily continued the tradition!
After 2 hours of scaling the temple we made our way down to one of the warungs for a toast breakfast before heading back to the guesthouse a 10 am for a well earned nap! revitalizing us for our train at 7.15 the following morning which would take us to Surabaya, east java.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0379s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb