Out and About in Yogyakarta (Jogja)

My last stop in Indonesia before heading back home - Yogyakarta ! Its a very sunny day indeed and everything was good, started the day with yet another Kraton (palace) in Yogyakarta. Apparently the king himself still lives there ! Not much excitement over at that place but just ok to start the day off.

After the visit to the main Kraton in Yogyakarta, we stop by briefly at the Water Castle (that was once the majestic kingdom of the kings) .... it looks like buildings in Greece to me lah ! .... see for yourself below .... does it look similar to the houses in Greece ?

Volcano eruption is very common in Indonesia and just to prove that we went over to mount Merapi (the volcano that is still active and will still erupt anytime) You can see the dried up lava from the pictures .... cannot imagine how big this is until you are actually there !


Its quite a relaxing day as we even got a chace to do some shopping in town in between our visitation and sightseeing. Went over to Malioboro street to get some bargain stuffs .... lots of souvenirs, T-shirts at very reasonable prices....heaven for the shopaholics !

After the hectic shopping that we did, finally headed to the famous beach in Yogyakarta - Parangtritis (translated into english as a sharp knife = "parang" to be exact) to enjoy the sunset of Yogyakarta. We saw the sunrise in Borobudur and now its time for sunset in Parangtritis beach and the sight not dissapointing at all - very beautiful with cool sea breeze and cocunut trees swaying .... what a way to end the night with !



It was a good holiday and a great way to re-charge myself....away from the busy KL life and schedule. No e-mails, No stress .... absorbing to the nature of things as it is !

Recapturing the sense of wonder - All of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today !

......ooops ! forgot about some miscellaneous photos that i took, the 4 star hotel that i stayed in - Jayakarta hotel (about 20 minutes to the key shopping area in Jogja - Malioboro Street) Very nice surrounding in the hotel, with swimming pool and nice facilities !

Other miscellaneous picture of Yogyakarta the city from old kampungs to high street !

Amazing Borobudur

Borobudur - the biggest Buddhist temple in the world ! Another world heritage (and its even older than Angkor Wat) ......

The temple was built in 3 tiers, each reprensenting a different meaning or stage in a person's life. Many stupas found all over the temple with seated buddha statute in them and if its correct, there should be 72 of them (but due to illegal activities of selling these historical items, many were stolen, destroyed or un-found).


The Amazing Sunrise at Borobudur ! Look at the sea of clouds under the shining sun ..... definately worth to get up as early as 4:00am on that day to see this.

Not forgetting the hotel that we stayed in. Its inside Borobudur park, so we can get up early to catch the sunrise .... Hotel Manohara !

The Bodhi tree - a symbol of the buddha's presence.

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world !

Prambanan Indonesia (the greatest Hindu Monument)

Its one of the greatest hindu monument still standing now (the world heritage !) Located in between Yogyakarta and the small town of Kraten stands this magnificent hindu monument that was nearly destroyed during the recent earthquake in Yogyakarta.

Its such a dissapointment that i can't go in each of the temples to see, due to restoration work done on them after the earthquake.... on the brighter side of things, consider me lucky to be able to see the monument in one piece this time around and its not taken away by the earthquake totally !

City of Solo (Surakarta)

From Jakarta I arrived in City of Solo, located northeast of Yogyakarta, once the power kingdom of great Javanese ! A very small town in comparison to Jakarta but quite a nice place to take things slowly and have a nice stroll around the city. (I can do away with all the traffic jams after the few days in Jakarta !)

Not much to offer in terms of sight-seeing in the city itself, as people usually treat this town as a stop over before moving on to the other more popular destinations.

Started the journey by visiting the Kraton (Palace) in Solo. The place looks a bit old and I don't really know how to describe this place ....... its really a mixture of culture from Malay, Chinese, European etc .... (as what we call ROJAK in Malaysia !)
Main entrance to the palace (malay 'atap' style house with an european fountain statute)

The garden of the palace (resembling the Roman era)

Reception area is a mixture of malay and british.

After the Kraton, went outside of Solo city towards the mountain to this 2 interesting candhi (temples) :-
1) Candhi Ceto (a fertility temple !)
2) Candhi Sukuh (looks very similar to the Mayan temple in Mexico)
Both temples are tucked away in the mountains near Solo, off normal tourist trail !

Tooks more than 1 hour driving up the mountains to reach them but its definately worth the journey.....
The tea plantation on the way up to the temples.

And after more than an hour drive, finally reached Candhi Ceto. At first glance, i thought i was in Bali ! The design of the temple really look like what we find in Bali.
Did not know that it was a fertility temple until I walk further up the temple and found that there was a penis statute being prayed to by people there !!!!


Not forgetting about the view from the mountain down ! Breathtaking .....


Next stop, the Candhi Sukuh. Took another 30 minutes drive from Ceto to this temple and it really look like the "Maya Temple" in Mexico at first glance.... but just a mini size one-lah ! Wonder whether its related to the Mexico one ?
Its always good to see something that we don't see in our everyday life in Malaysia and expose to the culture of different people in the world !

During each moment that we are aware of something peaceful and beautiful, we water seeds of peace and beauty in us.