Yogyakarta, January 21-24, 2012

This time we spend the extended Chinese New Year weekend in Yogyakarta in central Java.

For a change we don't have an early morning or a night flight, so we are relatively fresh when arriving at Yogya's small airport. A big minus to AirAsia for how the arrival is handled: the on-board staff did not have English arrival forms available, and it takes time for the immigration staff to find them. Meanwhile, the planeful of mostly foreign passengers pack the small and steamy arrival lobby and try to line up for the VOA counter in some organized manner. And eventually fill in the forms while standing in the queue in the cramped space.

Finally we are on our way to our first night's accommodation in Magelang.

Even if our flight reaches Yogya around noon, it is late afternoon before we arrive at our destination: first because of the VOA hassle and then because of the heavy traffic.

The low hanging clouds are dark.

And then the skies open.

It is still raining when we reach Magelang.

Saraswati Borobudur Boutique Hotel.

We start with a late lunch at the hotel's restaurant, which is located in the hotel lobby: spring rolls, chicken and beef satay, and green salad.

Afterwards we head out for a short walk in the hotel's neighborhood. The streets are muddy from dust and rain.

Eco-friendly ride.

It is getting dark around 5pm.

The only pedestrian friendly section of the town.

Next morning we wake up very early first to our own alarm and then to the call to prayer from the nearby loudspeakers. We have a plan to have a breakfast and then beat the crowd in Borobudur temple. The breakfast is not ready at 6:40am. --- it was supposed to start at 6am. --- so, we head to the temple first. The temple of Borobudur was rediscovered and restored by the initiative of Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles, the same guy who is known as the founder of Singapore.

The temple is already crowded. International tourists have a separate entrance (and entrance fee) from locals. We also get a complimentary coffee or tea with our entrance.

When in temple, we try to find alternative routes to avoid the congestion, and first of all school children that want to take pictures of us and with us.

The sun is barely up, but it is steamy and hot already. Fog surrounds the mountains.

These girls want in a photo with Tei, and afterwards they run away giggling. The subsequent photo requests are firmly denied.

The exit is even more crowded than the entrance.

Left-over stones.

The exit route goes through a huge covered market area where vendors send all sorts of tourist crap from T-shirts to miniature Borobudur temples made of fake stone.

Navy blue tennis shoes go well with a navy blue school uniform.

When we leave at 8am. the locals are still crowding around the entrance waiting to get in.

Saraswati Borobudur Hotel lobby. We arrange an earlier ride to Yogyakarta town, since we can't think what to do for a few more hours in Magelang.

The local people are still working to clean up after the Merapi eruption in late 2010. We see houses and roads submerged in ash.

Ministry of Coffee, a coffee shop and a guesthouse, on Prawirotaman, Yogyakarta. Our home for the next two nights.

Our room is not ready yet, so we spend time first enjoying some great coffee at the guesthouse, and then visiting Affandi Museum.

When there we notice we are very hungry. The museum cafeteria does not serve but soft drinks, so we head out to find some food.

Unfortunately the only place within a reasonable walking distance is KFC. We are ashamed enough so we don't take any pictures of our "happy meal" (chicken wrap and fish burger), even if the interior of the restaurant is quite retro.

A relief by Affandi's grave.

Affandi's paintings (and sculpture) are very impressive and the museum consisting of three galleries is designed (partly by himself) to exhibit them in the best possible way. The mint green shade of paint, prevalent both indoors and outdoors, is directly from the 80's.

There is three-story high tower with spiral stairway that offers a better view to the museum grounds and the surrounding area. Photography inside the galleries is prohibited.

The museum cafeteria.

The entrance tickets come with a complimentary soft drink. We should have chosen much better than these tooth rottening drinks, but Fanta bottles make much nicer photos than plastic water bottles.

From Affandi Museum we take a taxi to Malioboro.

The street is much more crowded than these pictures show.

Hectic combination of pedestrians, rickshaws, and ...

... horse wagons.

Yogya's main post office.

An amusement park next to the Sultan Palace.

The hills in downtown Yogya are quite gentle, but still too much for the rickshaw riders to tackle, even without any load.

We take a number of narrow alleys when navigating back to Prawirotaman.

We see some cool graffiti on our way.

The alleys get narrower ...

After some wandering around in the alley labyrinth, and asking local residents for directions, we are in Via Via Cafe on Prawirotaman. We have Storm Pale ales (from Bali) with Falafel and a Mediterranean salad.

Later we head out for dinner. We try the Turkish restaurant next to our guesthouse. Bright blinking lights make us turn back immediately. We end up in Alioö for pizza, and enjoy Hatten Rose (from Bali) for dessert in Via Via afterwards.

Next morning we wake up early for a run. The traffic is not yet bad, but fumes from motorcycles and burning trash is unbearable. We start running around a "park" next to the Sultan palace, which has attracted other exercisers to run, cycle but mostly stroll. It is too crowded so we head out to the Southern Ring Road. The motorcycle lane is practically empty for us to run. The roadside is heavily littered.

Ministry of Coffee.

After breakfast we take a rickshaw to the Malioboro area. The poor guy has to work hard uphills for 30.000 rupees he asks. We give him 50.000, since he does not have change and we think he earned it all.

TnT

Graffiti is abundant in Yogyakarta.

There are quite a few kampungs still left. We walk around for a while looking for a place to have coffee, but with no luck. The closest catch is a bakery shop that sells brownies but no coffee.

We start a long walk back to the guesthouse.

A strange purple building --- school, office or prison?

We have lunch at Easy Going on Prawirotaman: Sego Abang (red rice with beef) and Ikan Bakar Sambal Dabu-dabu (grilled snapper with spices, bell pepper, tomato, chili, and lemon). Simple and delicious.

The place is quite peaceful, but dusty. Dust (or ash) is everywhere in this town. We take a quick shower before taking a tour bus to Prambanan temple in the afternoon.

Simple bus stop signs.

No shit.

The driver drops us off at the temple and tells us that we have until 5:30pm or 6pm to explore the temple grounds. That is about 3 hours and we have no idea how to spend it. And we will get quite bored.

The weather is not quite optimal for sunset either. The sky is cloudy but bright, and temple structures dark, so the photos do not turn out too well.

Prambanan Temple.

What current day visitors see of these temples is actually the result of quite impressive reconstruction and renovation work. The structures were quite in crumbles when rediscovered by a surveyor of Sir Thomas Raffles in 1811.

Entering Sewu Temple.

The nearby residents are collecting firewood on the temple premises and have created means to transfer the wood over the fence to their home.

Finally tonight we dare to try the Turkish restaurant --- finally they have turned down the blinking lights. However, we have the weirdest dishes ever. We have chicken biryani and lamb "something" that resembles tagine in writing but is not. It is a pile of rice topped with minced meat. Dry and flavorless.

All main courses are served with french fries, but something we don't realize is that the fried french fries are chopped and mixed with the rice, not served as a side. The restaurant also advertizes wine, but none is available.

We return to Via Via for dessert wine (Hatten Rose) and ice cream. The name of this portion is Romance (something)

The morning we leave Yogyakarta is bright and sunny and we have gorgeous view of the surrounding volcanoes.