Advertisement
Published: September 29th 2013
Edit Blog Post
The Monggo Chocolate FactoryWhen I went with friends into Kemang about a month ago now for a day trip, traveling naturally came up in the conversation. We discussed how we should book a weekend trip to Jogjakarta, less than an hour flight away. Later that week we booked our flights and the dates were marked on the calendar!
The other two had been a few times before as it’s one of their favorite destinations to visit, but being new to Indonesia, it was my first. Jogjakarta is apparently the second most popular destination to visit after Bali by Bules . Jogjakarta is often called Jogja for short. I was excited for them to show me around! We stayed in a guest house. This particular guest house apart of a small chain found all around the world - it was a great experience and I’d certainly come back!
Immediately after work we rushed home, grabbed our day packs, something to eat and off we went to the airport in a taxi. As expected we hit some traffic on our way in but made it to our gate well before the flight
took off . We arrived at the guest house, planned our weekend out, booked some tours and then went to bed.
After breakfast Saturday morning we hired a driver to take us to the Monggo Chocolate Factory. Great tasting chocolate is hard to come by in Jakarta so we all stocked up! From there we were dropped off at the HS Silver Factory. Jogjakarta is famous for its Batik and Silver. In this district you can find very intricate pieces of jewelry. For instance, one of the girls I travelled with bought a ring from a shop in one of her previous visit to Jogja. A small piece had broken off so when she went back home to the States to visit family a few summers back; she brought her ring to a jeweler to be fixed. The first jeweler wouldn’t touch the ring as they said it was too delicate for him to work with. What he meant was items of jewelry like these are not made in North America anymore because it’s very labor intensive and they would cost hundreds of dollars. In fact, the jewelers concern with this
Hmmm, mmm Chocolate!piece of jewelry is that because the jewelry had many fine thin pieces to it, he was scared in his efforts of fixing it; he would accidently damage it further. We had a tour of the factory and saw up close the process it takes to make their jewelry. It was incredible and very impressive. We took becaks back to the guesthouse so we could drop off our purchases and grab lunch at a local restaurant.
After lunch we were picked up and driven to various temples on our way to the Prambanan Temple, a major tourist attraction. This Hindu temple is marked as being a world historical site and dates back to the 10
th Century. It is the largest of its kind in Indonesia and one of the largest Hindu temples in South-East Asia. We bought tickets and saw a performance in the evening where the Prambanan was all lit up and acted as the backdrop for the production. There just happened to be a full moon and it was stunning when the large, bright orange moon rose into the sky behind the Prambanan Temple towers just as the performance was starting. At
the end of the show you could get your photo taken with the actors and actresses. As we climbed the stairs on the stage to gain a better view of the temple, candle lit lanterns were floating up high into the sky – it was gorgeous! Earlier that day we had noticed people were setting up for what looked like a wedding. We assumed the lanterns were from the wedding celebrations.
We woke up early Sunday morning so that we could catch the sunrise at the Borobudur Temple, another popular tourist destination. This temple is also a world historical site and is one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world. It is believed to have been built in the 8
th and 9
th centuries, around the time when the Syailendra Dynasty held power. It’s located in the Kedu Valley. I was most excited to see this temple. I suppose it’s because I saw it several times when I was looking up information about Indonesia before I left home and there’s a photo of it in my Lonely Planet book. As a bule, it’s very common to be asked by locals to have your picture taken
The Silver Factorywith them. You feel like a celebrity at first but then it becomes exhausting and you end up saying no. This happened a lot when we were touring around the different temples. Everywhere you went people stopped you and asked if they could take your picture. As you glanced around other bules were posing for the cameras. The view from the top was amazing. As you look down into the valley below, you see Mount Merapi in the distance. At work, the school has been divided into four house teams, each one named after four major volcanoes found in Indonesia – Merapi being one of them so it was neat to see this volcano in person.
After grabbing some lunch we went Batik shopping. Batik is Javanese cloth that is traditionally made using wax-resist dyeing technique. The process is all manually done. I was able to see it done in person and again, the time and effort that is put into it, is amazing. Similar to the silver, patience is needed! We were able to squeeze in a visit at Taman Sari, better known by tourists as The Water Castle before heading
The Silver Factoryto the airport. Taman Sari is an old royal palace. According to the story told, the king would be in his clock tower looking down in his private pool where his family would be swimming on one side but then gaze out the other window where his concubines would be bathing in a larger pool separate from his family. The concubines would each have a number on them so the king could identify them easier.
Before we grabbed our bags from the guesthouse and headed in a taxi back to the airport, we bought some fresh artisan bread and dinner. We had a few very packed days, saw and did a lot, but it was great to taste a little bit of the Javanese culture. There’s still a lot to do and explore in Jogja and I hope to return one day!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.088s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0251s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb