Thursday, April 23, 2015

Greetings from Yogyakarta

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Yogyakarta, also called Jogja, is located in South Central Java. It is the only province in Indonesia that formally governed by a Sultan, the Sultanate of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat and recognized by the central government.

I, myself, consider Yogyakarta to be Indonesia's must see destination after Bali for their art and cultural attractions. Thanks to its proximity to the temple of Borobudur and the temple of  Prambanan.

My husband was born and raised in this Special Region of Yogyakarta until he finished his High School and immigrate to the United States where we both met. Our two grown kids has never been to Yogyakarta, and never knew about their father's culture.

So the four of us finally arrived Yogyakarta, along with my husband's brother and niece, and our driver took us straight to Hotel Jambuluwuk. This boutique hotel is located in the heart of Yogyakarta, within walking distance to the famous Malioboro Street. It's quite a new and modern hotel without abandoning the traditional Javanese touch such antique chandelier hanging on top of the lobby, traditional characteristics puppets hanging on the wall, some gamelan instruments at the corner of the main entrance where the maestro seated cross-legged on a raised wooden floor to entertain the guests with the soft and soothing music.




Also, on the other corner of the lobby there is a Batik making demonstration. Now, here we are in Jogja!!



Visiting Jogja is not complete without testing its typical food, called gudeg. On our first night we went to Wijilan village, where we found dozens of food stalls lining on the street that adjacent to each other and they all sells gudeg. Actually, gudeg can be found in every place in Yogyakarta, but Wijilan are the most famous areas as Gudeg center. Gudeg is traditional food, made from jackfruit, served with chicken and egg on rice.

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Malioboro region is also famous with its street vendors. Walking along this street is just like entering into a giant flea market. Variety of local handicrafts such as batiks, ornaments, silver good, sandals, sarongs, hats, bags and other knickknacks ....You name it, and don't hesitate to bargain the price.




Curious about Malioboro at night, at 10:30 PM we took a rickshaw or becak owned by the hotel. It took us not more than 10 minutes to get there, and the becak driver standby for us to return back to the hotel.
They say New York City is the only city that never sleep? In fact, Malioboro at night seems so vibrant and active too. After all the stores are closed, at around 9 PM, the street changes into a culinary area, and became the signature of Malioboro at night called Lesehan, where people sitting on the floor with a low table and eat. Vendors construct their tent-style warungs along the Malioboro pavement. We picked a warung with a more light and while eating some street singers sang an unknown song to accompany us during our dinner .... :)))


Punthuk Setumbu


Our second day destination was Punthuk Setumbu Hills. It's a spot to see the image of Borobudur temple from up the hills at sunrise. We left the hotel at 4:00 AM and took us about an hour ride to reach Karangrejo village near Borobudur. We were so obviously clueless of what to expect. After we arrived, we still have to walk up the steep, narrow and slippery dirty clay path to reach the top of the hill. There's no such infrastructure, it is a total primitive. Just can't imagine when it rain, it must be very slippery. It took us about 15 - 20 minutes walked and climbed up, once we got there, we waited for about 15 minutes, and saw the sun slowly rises right in between Mt. Merapi & Mt. Merbabu, and the sky turns into a combination of purple, pink and orange color.  It was so mystical where we saw the image of the tip of Borobudur temple on the misty cloud.


Walk way to the top of the hill

Beautiful scenery of God's creation



Punthuk Setumbu Hill .... We still can't see the top of Borobudur


Candi Prambanan (Prambanan Temple).


In our short time in Yogyakarta, we also visited this UNESCO World Heritage Site called Prambanan Temple. It was built in the 10th Century and is the largest temple dedicated to Siva in Indonesia.
We touch down at this temple at almost down. Its a true beauty to see this Hindu structures intact.



Each temple houses a different deity. The architecture is amazing it is cooling inside each temple though it was scorching hot outside.




Another angle of the compound


As a highlight of our visit, we visited the Ramayana Ballet. It is located in the complex of Prambanan Temple. It is a splendid dance performance taken from the epic of Ramayana, performed based on the Javanese culture.



Ramayana Ballet
In the open air performance

The entire story presented in a series of dance movements done by dancers, Gamelan orchestra. No dialog among dancers, only storyteller performed by the “sinden” (female singer) who describes the coarse of the story in Javanese songs.


Prambanan glowing in the night overlooking from the open theater