Once we hit Yogyakarta, better known as Jogja by the locals, we headed for the Prawirotaman area where our hotel (The Gallery Prawirotaman Hotel) was located. This part of town was recommended to us and it was a perfect fit. Close to shopping, loads of restaurants and best of all, the becak. We all loved these bike rides and took one nearly everyday during our one week stay in Jogja.

While our hotel was on a quiet side street, all we had to do was take the shortcut through the alley and we were on a main drag with shopping and restaurants.

Fine during the day, but by night freaked Lydia and I out. Thank goodness for our head lamps. It was dark, narrow, dripping with water and seeing the squished rats on the roads during the day did not help.

During our stay we visited Borobudur, Prembanan and Selogriyo temples.

 

Borobudur Temple is the largest Buddhist temple on earth and it’s construction took place during the 8th and 9th centuries by the Mahayana Buddhists. This temple, was at one time completely buried by volcanic ash and jungle and forgotten by the locals until it was rediscovered and cleared in 1815. Borobudur is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Truly a beautiful temple. We spent the extra money (10 bucks) and hired an English-speaking guide. Worth every penny.

 

Prambanan Temple, also a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a Hindu Temple Built in the 9th century. This temple is dedicated to the Trimurti (3 gods), the creator (Brahma), the preserver (Vishnu) and the destroyer (Shiva). Many of the 508 temples at this site are either complete or retained as ruins. Agian, we hired an English-speaking guide and he was fantastic. Described the legends carved into the stones surrounding each temple with such theatrics and humor that it made our visit that much more entertaining and educational.

 

Our last temple visit was to Candi Selogriyo. Not a World Heritage Site and really a very small Hindu temple, but turned out to be a day I will cherish. The temple itself is about 2 hours out of Jogjo and the trail head to the temple is in a remote village. Proved to be a bit of a challenge for our driver to find and we had to pull over 7 times to ask directions. Once at the village, our driver stopped the vehicle to drop us off as the road was getting far too narrow to pass. Of course all the locals came out of their houses as I am sure they do not see much traffic in these parts. Our driver explained what we were doing and they were so happy to greet us. We asked (through our driver as nobody spoke English) if one of the ladies would like to guide us to the temple which of course they were happy to do.

The 3km walk through the rice fields to the temple was stunning. I loved every minute! Of course we were walking with the local ladies so they chatted with everyone as we walked by.

 Locals using the trail

 Rice drying on mats in the village.

Once back in the village, the ladies invited us into their home and we were able to visit with the family. Such an unexpected, but truly memorable day.

 

Among all our temple outings, we checked out the Famous Malioboro Street complete with scorpions, people dressed like zombies, large snakes and lizards, an owl, loads of food stands and oodles of shopping. And of course, lots and lots of people.

 

We also had a visit at the Sultans Palace and took in a Javanese orchestra and dance performance.

We took the 7 hour train ride from jogja to Jakarta. We purchased our train tickets at Super Indo (grocery store) and when we arrived at the train station we had to use the self-serve counter and print off our real tickets. Check out the old dot matrix…classic! Very basic train, but beautiful scenery until you hit th outskirts of Jakarta. After the train we grabbed a taxi and spent the next 2 1/2 hours stuck in traffic. Just crazy! Cars jockeying for position, motorbikes squeezing by all around you, food vendors hawking their wares, pedestrians meandering through the mayhem and all the while, everyone is honking and flashing their high beams at each other. I wanted to shout “I will have order!”. Positive nothing would be accomplished by that, so we just laughed…what else can you do? Our driver told us Jakarta is #1 in the world for the worst traffic. Not sure if that is true or not, but it would surely seem that way.

After a quick stop over in Jakarta we hopped on a plane and said farewell to Indonesia and hello again to Malaysia, but this time on the Island of Borneo.