Day 21 - Jogja
3 weeks really just flies by... The last few days we have been exploring Yogyakarta (or Jogja that it is more frequently called). Jogja is the cultural capital of Indonesia and the city to come to if you want to see old temples and palaces, old markets and older tourists. Jogja was the capital of Indoneisa for a few years around the second world war.
Saturday we went to the most famous construction in Indonesia, Borobudur. It is a huge buddhist temple built in the 800th century. The building itself was quite impressive, but we were really blown away of where it was located (on top of a hill between a few beautiful mountains).
The next day we walked down the main street of the city, Malioboro street. It is a 2 kilometer long market crammed with people and stalls that sell anything you can think of. In the end of it we reached a small fair that was there for the weekend. We did not dare to go on any of the rides because they were loud, ran on gasoline and looked like they were built during the era of black and white tv. We continued passed the fare and finally got to our destination for the day, Kraton, the old royal palace. Inside we got to see some traditional indonesian dancers accompanied by a 20 person orchestra playing all sorts of bells and gongs. The palace itself was not that big or mindblowing, but interesting in the sense that it mixed colonial dutch architecture with asian. The rest of the day was spent resting and then watching the Arsenal - Man Utd game in a bar next to our hotel with a loud-mouthed british guy and 7 indonesians. It was quite funny when the indonesians started to mimic whatever the british guy did (like applauding after every good effort or yelling at the tv).
Being in a good mood after the game we started the new week with going to the oldest market in Jogja. We could have spent hours in there just looking and smelling everything. The area where they sold spices was the most exciting. After the market, we checked out some dutch colonial architecture (the post office, the bank and a fort), when a bicycle taxi (here called beckak) driver approached us and wanted to show us the city. He followed us everywhere and did not take no for an answer. So in the end we got on and let him peddle us around for an hour. All he wanted was half a dollar (4 kronor). We did not regret it cause it was a lot of fun rolling through the small streets of the city.
He dropped us of at the water castle, a system of underground tunnels leading to a big bath house built by a portugese architect who was later killed so he would not give away the locating to the secret pleasure rooms of the rulers of that day. The buildings have been largely ruined by earthquakes but that just made it feel more authentic and unique. The area around the castle was old where they selled all sorts of animals. Cats, dogs, snails, turtles, snakes, lizards, hamsters, rats, birds, fish, etc. We felt sorry for all of them being crammed in to tiny cages. They had also dyed the small chicklets in different colours and painted the shells of the snails.
We have decided to buy a small souvenir from every country that we visit on the trip. We bought the one from Indonesia today, a small bell to remind us of the church bell in Batu that Emily's granddad Heinrich put there 50 years ago.
Tomorrow we are leaving Jogja to head to the last stop on our Indonesia trip, Jakarta.
Saturday we went to the most famous construction in Indonesia, Borobudur. It is a huge buddhist temple built in the 800th century. The building itself was quite impressive, but we were really blown away of where it was located (on top of a hill between a few beautiful mountains).
The next day we walked down the main street of the city, Malioboro street. It is a 2 kilometer long market crammed with people and stalls that sell anything you can think of. In the end of it we reached a small fair that was there for the weekend. We did not dare to go on any of the rides because they were loud, ran on gasoline and looked like they were built during the era of black and white tv. We continued passed the fare and finally got to our destination for the day, Kraton, the old royal palace. Inside we got to see some traditional indonesian dancers accompanied by a 20 person orchestra playing all sorts of bells and gongs. The palace itself was not that big or mindblowing, but interesting in the sense that it mixed colonial dutch architecture with asian. The rest of the day was spent resting and then watching the Arsenal - Man Utd game in a bar next to our hotel with a loud-mouthed british guy and 7 indonesians. It was quite funny when the indonesians started to mimic whatever the british guy did (like applauding after every good effort or yelling at the tv).
Being in a good mood after the game we started the new week with going to the oldest market in Jogja. We could have spent hours in there just looking and smelling everything. The area where they sold spices was the most exciting. After the market, we checked out some dutch colonial architecture (the post office, the bank and a fort), when a bicycle taxi (here called beckak) driver approached us and wanted to show us the city. He followed us everywhere and did not take no for an answer. So in the end we got on and let him peddle us around for an hour. All he wanted was half a dollar (4 kronor). We did not regret it cause it was a lot of fun rolling through the small streets of the city.
He dropped us of at the water castle, a system of underground tunnels leading to a big bath house built by a portugese architect who was later killed so he would not give away the locating to the secret pleasure rooms of the rulers of that day. The buildings have been largely ruined by earthquakes but that just made it feel more authentic and unique. The area around the castle was old where they selled all sorts of animals. Cats, dogs, snails, turtles, snakes, lizards, hamsters, rats, birds, fish, etc. We felt sorry for all of them being crammed in to tiny cages. They had also dyed the small chicklets in different colours and painted the shells of the snails.
We have decided to buy a small souvenir from every country that we visit on the trip. We bought the one from Indonesia today, a small bell to remind us of the church bell in Batu that Emily's granddad Heinrich put there 50 years ago.
Tomorrow we are leaving Jogja to head to the last stop on our Indonesia trip, Jakarta.
Testing testing :)
Your Day 21 post is the next best thing to being there! Thanks for sharing.
Fine places with different activities to see! Enjoy the good adventures.