June 5,2013 – Surabaya to Yogykarta
Our flight to the Central Java town of Yogykarta was very
short, just 40 minutes. We arrived and though I had entered in my booking that we would like a
transfer from the airport, I hadn’t gotten confirmation so I completely forgot
to look for a ride. Luckily, Taylor
noticed a man holding a sign saying “Mrs. Carissa Smith, Melia Purosani.” So
there we had it! Our driver was a nice
man who had a son who studied in Boston and who (allegedly) had been the
personal driver for President Carter when he visited Indonesia in the early
80s.
After arriving at our hotel, our first order of business was
to go to the tourist area and arrange transport to Borobudur and Prambanan
temples the next day. Then, we grabbed dinner and drinks:
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| Noodles :) |
For dinner, we stopped at a Lesehan, an outdoor eatery where you sit on the floor on a straw mat at a low table. We ordered rice, friend chicken, and iced tea. The catch to this place was that they did not have any utensils. Traditionally, Indonesians eat with their hands, and true to form, that is what we did. For some reason, I find eating with my hands really difficult because it seems so barbaric, but I managed.
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| Attempting to eat with my hands |
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| Washing hands while eating outside. |
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| Taylor sang a little Indonesian with this guy |
After dinner, we went to a nearby bar called Bintang Café,
but it was way too westernized and we had to be up at 5am, so it was time for bed.
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| Bintangs and too many Bules (what they call white people in Indonesia) |
June 6, 2013 – Yogykarta
We got up around 4:30 and caught our ride to the biggest
temples in Indonesia. Our vehicle was
really nice and well air conditioned.
There were only two other couples there, a pair of French Canadian
sisters.
Our first stop was Borobudur
Temple, which was an hour away. Since it
was so early, we mostly slept on the way there.
We arrived at 6am and were given until 8:30 to tour the temple. Borobudur was absolutely breathtaking. It is a huge temple with, I believe, 6
levels. Each level was more impressive
than the next. The relief carvings and
views throughout the temples were all amazing.
As you got to the top of the temples, there were these structures each
containing a Buddha, and it was absolutely beautiful and amazing.
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| They make you wear sarongs in temples, we think it's mostly for show. |
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| Taylor posing as a Buddha head |
Despite the beauty, there were some annoyances at Borobudur. Everyone at the temple wanted to be photographed with the white tourists. There were a lot of Indonesian
tourists at the temple and many of them wanted to have photos with a white
Midwestern couple. Taylor was kind and
obliged, but I was uncomfortable because I knew that if you said yes, a crowd
would assemble.
We spent the rest of our time at Borobudur checking out the
museum and spending time wandering the grounds before getting back in our van
and heading to our next stop, Mendut Temple.
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| Woman cleaning chicken, Borobudur |
Mendut Temple was a small temple between Borobudur and Prambanan. It was fun, and there was a beautiful
Buddhist Monastery nearby, which we checked out before leaving.
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| Taylor with Buddha |
Our next stop was Prambanan Temple, which was absolutely
beautiful as well. It's a series of
temples, all of which were taller than Borobudur (but definitely not
bigger). They were speckled over a
hundred or so acres and when viewed from afar just look so majestic.
What we didn’t know going in was that if you
are a white person at Prambanan, you WILL be approached by some Indonesian
teenager asking you if, for one reason or another, they can guide you
around. For us, it was a group of three
young girls who were studying tourism and had an internship at Prambanan
learning to be English tour guides. They
did a good job and we got to see and hear about all of the temples before
grabbing a bite to eat and heading back to our van.
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| We loved this sign! |
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| Doing the "VU" sign! |
For dinner, we checked out a restaurant was called Jimbaran, where you basically just walk up to the restaurant
and order from a selection of raw fish and crawfish. You choose your fish, how you want it
prepared, and any sides and then sit down to wait. We also ordered DELICIOUS coffee with sugar.
June 7, 2013 – Yogykarta
Our last day in Yogykarta was spent being total tourists. We slept in quite a bit and I caught up on some work before we headed out to see the sights of Yogykarta. Out first stop was an old Dutch fortress which is now a series of Dioramas to the Indonesian battle for Independence.
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| Diorama |
Our
next stop was the Kraton, which is the compound that still houses the home of
the Sultan of Yogykarta. On out way in,
we met a man who told us that before the Kraton we should first go check out a
Batik “school” since most of the people who are usually in the Kraton were
still praying. We didn’t realize at the
time that this is somewhat of a scam. He
dropped us off at an art gallery and quickly disappeared, but it was not a
school. At least we got to see some traditional Batik.
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| Finished Batik |
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| Taylor pretending to make Batik |
We did learn a little about the process of Batik at least. Basically, it starts with a piece of cloth and they put wax in all of the negative space in the design. Then, they dip the fabric in dye. They then remove the wax and repeat the process for the next color. It's quite time-consuming! After buying a shirt for Taylor, we headed back to the Kraton.
We were not able to see the Palace because it was Jum’at
(Friday), the holy day of the Islamic week.
However, we were able to tour the grounds which had some good history.
We even got asked for our photograph.
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| Picture of Indonesians taking pictures of us. |
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| Man making Batik in his home. |
After
the Kraton, we headed to the Taman Sari, the ancient Water Palace of the
Sultan, where he would cavort with his concubines. Legend has it that the Sultan had the
architect of the Water Palace executed when construction was completed to keep
his pleasure palace a secret.
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| Ruins of the water Palace |
I had a work meeting at 10pm, so our night was abbreviated
in that we grabbed happy hour drinks and some food outside the hotel before
heading back to our room for my meeting.
We had to be up at 4:30am again, so we hit the sack early.
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| Posing with the greeter at the hotel in full costume! |
We even got asked for our photograph.
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