Jalan Jalan Java – Part 3, Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta (pronounced Jogjakarta), is officially my favourite city/town in Indonesia of all the ones I’ve visited. It is the true art city – I saw Ubud in Bali, and Yogya still came out tops.
The art is heavy duty street art – but more so – street sculpture. I love Melbourne – and while we are so young, fresh and “cool” with our street art – I found Yogya significantly more so in their street sculpture. I saw a bright yellow lamppost with a knot in the middle. I can believe that I failed to take a picture, but I can’t believe that I failed to uproot it and bring it home.
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Here is a little piece of coolness for you. Seats made from bike tyres. They’re miles ahead of us I tell you. If you squint, you will see a little coffee table in the back – also made of tyres.
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The Kraton is a “walled-city” in the heart of Yogyakarta which is still the home of the sultans. To be 100% frank, if you have seen several palaces and temples abroad, don’t expect to be blown away. Its more in the details that you will find the beauty – I loved the old photographs, the real, authentic batik work and the consistent monograms.
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We visited Borobudur – the most epic and amazing temple in Indonesia (in my grand perception). Imagine Indiana Jones – those temples in the middle of a forest – Borobudur was discovered like so. They’ve made an aggressive effort to maintain and protect it – and it is a MUST see if you ever travel to Indonesia.
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The sweetest thing about the temples – was that local school kids would come and visit and take pictures of themselves. They also seems fascinated by us (I’m guessing it’s the accent) – and they wanted photos with us – all giggling & excited. So somewhere in Indonesia, about 100 school kids have a photograph of me. What a celebrity.
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We also visited Prambanan – although by this time I had bunged my foot (did I forget to mention I had a bung foot for the remainder of our trip) – which meant everyone had to let me sit at the front, drop me off at the entrance and treat me better in general. Although – how one can be better treated by a bunch of 20-something boys is beyond me. #joke. Prambanan is still in preservation – it does have one of the few temples of Brahma, which V tells me is quite rare. Very cool to see Hindu deities in Indonesia.
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And that was Yogyakarta.
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