Solo-Yogjakarta Trip - Part 2

Day 3 - Yogyakarta Kraton & Prambanan Temple

The third day in Yogja was spent visiting the Kraton & Prambanan Temple. As per the Solo Kraton, the Yogja Kraton is a working Kraton, where only 2 parts of the palace open to public. The rest are still being used as the royal residence and access is limited. From our conversation with the guide, the royals are opening up their kraton to the public as part of collecting revenues for the upkeep of the palace. This is due to the fact that the royal did not receive any allowance for the maintenance of the palace. In the compounds, as per Javanese believe were black volcanic sands instead of grass and sawor kecil trees. The Javanese believe that great beings lives in the mountains and the seas, hence the volcanic sand represents these two places. Sawor means 'everything' and 'kecil' means 'prosperity', hence that explains the abundance of the trees in the compound of the kraton.

Entrance to Yogjakarta Kraton ( Palace )

Javanese Mask Motive near the entrance

Balai Rong Seri - Yogyakarta Kraton
Effects of the recent earthquake - Flattened part of the holding hall of the Kraton

Guardian of the Kraton

Intricate Joglo Architecture



Potrait of Hamengku Buwono & Royal Paraphenalia (replicas)

Royal Gamelan



Declaration from the government of Indonesia to the Yogja Royals

Prambanan Temple

Prambanan Temple is located on the outskirt of Yogjakarta, and its the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia. It is also a UNESCO World heritage site, where part of the temple has been restored. As the temple lies within the earthquake prone region, the recent 2006 earthquake has damaged the temple. The site was open to public but with access is limited as the damage from the earthquake wasn't fully repaired.

Word of advise, please brace yourself for the salesperson selling souvenirs as they are very persistent to the point of annoying. Also if you could do a good impression of Bahasa Indonesia or better still speaks Javanese, then head towards the local entrance for a cheaper entrance ticket.

Prambanan Temple Complex

Damages due to the earthquake

Day 4 - Borobudur Temple

Borobudur Temple is a Buddhist Temple, unlike Prambanan which is a Hindu Temple. What blew our mind away is the entrance fees charges to tourist, which is 11X dearer than the local rates. We decided to get a guide to explain things and guide us around, and Pak Dhani did an excellent job explaining things to us. He's well versed with Malay, English, Dutch and Japanese. IF we thought that the salesperson was quite annoying in Prambanan, at Borobudur it was 100X irritating, up to the point of sick at the sights of souvenirs being thrusted in your face. In a different circumstances, I would buy those but under these extreme selling scheme, we were put off of buying stuff from them. But Abah has a soft spot for them, and he was swarmed like flies. Its hard if you can't say no kan.....

UNESCO Heritage Plaque

Jauhnya nak jalan.....

Tingginya nak naik

Pak Dhani - Our guide

A water spout feature

Sleeping Man MountainCuramnye...camne pakcik nak naik ni

Profile of Borobudur Temple


View from the top

After visiting Borobudur, we head back towards Solo as we need to catch an early flight. Along the way we stopped at a salak stall to buy the famous salak pondoh. Its sweet and nice, with no soury or bitter taste at all. I bought some only to eat through half of it during the drive to Solo :-0

Lunch was at a sort of 'floating' restaurant, where the setup was huts above a man made lake, with fishes swimming around. The setup was serene and peaceful, the food typical of Javanase but a little to sweet for my liking (even though I'm of Javanese descent ). The best thing about the setup is that even the remains of the food could be thrown to feed the fishes.

The setup of the restaurant

One of the huts - the have more than 20
Cute monkey made out of coconut

Feeding the fishes

We also managed to see part of Bantul province, which was hit by the earthquake. From our guide, most of the residential dwellings have been repaired but bigger buildings such as schools and stadiums have yet to be repaired.

All in all the trip has been a a good experience for me, even though there are similarities in between the two countries, there are also a noticeable difference in the way, pace and quality of life. My observations are that the Javanese people are very courteous especially those whose in the service industry which may prove a challenge to Malaysians and they are also hard working but not rewarded enough. No wonder thousands of them heads towards Malaysia in search of a better living, very much like what my grandad did in 1941. There another trip to Medan coming in Aug 07 and hopefully it would be as enjoyable as this.