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Published: March 9th 2015
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Everything I did in Yogyakarta was just plain fun. I originally planned on staying in the region for about six days, but after a couple I realized that I needed to stay a bit longer to experience as much as I could of the things the city has to offer. I had to skip Jakarta, but from every person I met throughout the country—locals and travelers—it seems like it was a good decision.
I arrived late into Yogyakarta, and my first night I spent it settling into the hotel, checking out the neighborhood, eating good pasta, and seeing some live music. The pasta I had the first night was delicious, and I continued to go to Mediterranea, a restaurant run by a French chef, throughout my stay in Yogyakarta. All of the food that the restaurant served was not only amazing in quality but also in value. I definitely recommend anyone that visits Yogyakarta to eat at Mediterranea.
The second day in the city my friend and I met a couple of German tourists, and the four of us headed to the Sultan’s palace. Though the grounds provide a nice slow walk,
the attraction itself isn’t all that special. The hawkers and vendors are best avoided. After lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening enjoying drinks with new friends and getting to know the neighborhood the hotel was in.
After meeting up with another friend, the following day my friends, our new German friends, and I hired a driver from the hotel to take us to several places in the city. We first did a short hike to a hill where we could see the valley where Borobudur was located. The sunrise was great, but a bit cloudy. After the sun rose, we headed to Borobudur itself and walked the grounds. The area was very well kept, and it only took us an hour or so to see everything. The temple is very impressive, and the views that it provides are nice. I asked the driver if he could take us to a local place to eat, not geared toward tourists. We ate an amazing array of different types of meats and sauces at a roadside restaurant where many truckers had stopped to eat. Following lunch, the next stop was Prambanan Temple. Another impressive place,
we greatly enjoyed the sights and walk. The main temple itself wasn’t as big as Borobudur, but it has more temples on the grounds, and therefore it took us two hours to see everything. The following stop was Ijo temple, a small temple located on the top of a small mountain. Not many tourists came up here, but it was still worth a visit. We finished the afternoon with a short trek that was a bit challenging—as we had to climb boulders, go between huge rocks, use rope to climb rock walls, and get on all fours at some points. However, the challenging hike was rewarded at the top with marvelous views of the region. The evening was spent drinking beer, enjoying the sunset and the views of Yogyakarta as the lights came on, eating amazing pizza at Mediterranea, and listening to live music next door at Asmara.
The next two nights I spent in a small, sleepy beach town 2 hours southeast of Yogyakarta called Indrayanti. The area was stunning, with amazing beaches. However, the water had very strong currents that made swimming difficult and almost no place sold alcoholic beverages. The sunsets during the
two nights there made the trip worth it.
On the way back to Yogyakarta, we stopped to see some caves and do some more trekking. This time, we went to a local waterfall where we hiked up the waterfall and jumped off some small cliffs. It was great fun. The next day, we did an amazing food class, where we got to cook gado-gado (steamed vegetable salad), beef rending (beef in a coconut curry), Cap Cay (chicken stir fry), and chicken nasi goreng (fired rice). The chef that provided the class was an old lady who opened up her home to us and made us feel very welcoming. Our last full day in Yogyakarta, we rented scooters and rode throughout the beautiful countryside. We finished the day by going to the Cerme Cave, where we were able to go in and walk up a river that ran through a cave. About 30-40 minutes of walking in water and avoiding the cave walls, we got to a powerful waterfall deep inside the mountain. If it weren’t for the lights in our helmets, it would have been completely dark. We took a seven-hour train ride the following day
to Jakarta to head to the airport.
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