Yogyakarta And Around

Me & The Locals

Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta) is considered to be Java's cultural and interlectual soul. If Jakarta is Thailand's Bangkok, then Yogyakarta is Thailand's Chaing Mai. It is the home of the Batik art, of Java puppet shows (Wayang) and is the educational homeland of the island. It is still run by the Sultan whose home, the Kraton can be visited, displaying an interesting set of colourful buildings.

There are many other museums and historic or cultural attractions to keep you amused and it is no-where near the chaos of Jakarta - it is infact quite a peacful town. Unfortunately my view of Yogya was tainted somewhat by the Batik Mafia. You cannot walk down the street with someone trying to be your best friend only to find out that all they want is your money for over-priced Batik items. They become incredibly irritating and will happily waste hours of your time if you let them.

Most people in Indonesia are delighted to talk to you - just to practice their English, without any other motives. Some Indonesians are excellent at English, but the rest only know two words - 'hey" and "mister", generally used in that order but there's no guarantee. Out of all the countries in Se Asia, it is the Indonesian's who are most up for a chat and love to hand out their phone numbers (especially the kids) in the hope that you will give them a call. I just found it here, in Yogya howerver, that there was always some other agenda to their conversations - mainly involving me parting with my cash.

Outside Yogyakarta are some incredible attractions. Borobudur is considered a wonder of the world, ranking up there with Angkor Wat in Cambodia. While, for me, it wasn't quite up to the heights of Angkor, it was still extremely impressive. It is a huge Buddhist temple, built in the 9th Century and consists of many large stupas, 1500 narrative panels and over 500 Buddha images. The temple is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, including the recently visited Gunung Merapi - which can be seen in the distance.

It was here, for the first time in my life, that I suddenly felt like a celebrity. Large groups of kids would come up and ask for you to be in a picture with them. And once you have said yes to one - well the doors are open and in they all flood. Matt tried to escape, but couldn't and together we must have been on every Indonesian camera in the whole complex. The kids would ask quietly and politely, the parents would just grab your arm, put you in place then add and adjust their kids in the right position for the picture. It felt like they may even ask me for a photograph at one point. A bizar experience.

Also a short distance from Yogyakarta is the equally impressive Hindu temple, Prambanan. Actually it is a complex of over 50 temples but there are 3 main ones, all lined up next to each other, one for each of the gods - Brahma, Shiva and Vishnu. The Shiva temple is the largest and most detailed, towering at 47m.

My time in Yogya had been an enjoyable cultural experience. It was however time for me to leave and in fact - I would have to leave Java and Indonesia very soon, but before I did - I just had to fit in one more volcano........