First Stop in Southeast Asia: Yogyakarta

After saying goodbye to Africa it was time to change gears and head to Southeast Asia. We used credit cards points for our flight from Cape Town to Jakarta, Indonesia, which took us on an interesting route from Cape Town in South Africa to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Bangkok in Thailand. When we landed in Bangkok all but about twenty passengers exited the plane. We stayed on and flew the next leg of the flight to Jakarta, Indonesia along with the handful of other remaining passengers. From there we took a separate flight we had booked on Air Asia from Jakarta to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, our ultimate destination. I think the whole trip from Cape Town to Yogyakarta took around 26 hours so when we arrived at around 10:30 pm we crashed hard at our hotel.  

Yogyakarta, locally nicknamed “Jogja”, is a cool city on the island of Java in Indonesia. The Javanese people are some of the kindest we have met and we felt so at home and at ease while in Yogyakarta. The streets are full of restaurants from street food vendors to more upmarket options, and the whole city has a friendly, laid back vibe. Attractive and creative street art can be seen on the walls almost everywhere you turn. Even though the traffic can be chaotic, most of the local people seem to stay calm and never get upset with each other (quite different from America). 

The city is pretty easy to navigate and we traveled around on foot a good bit. There are tons of becaks (three-wheeled pedal or motor powered carts) all over town whose drivers are happy to take passengers for a city tour or short rides around the city. We used them a few times mainly because they are fun to ride in and the drivers always seemed to appreciate the business. A few times we had trouble with the becak drivers not understanding where we wanted to go, which we usually did not realize until we arrived at the wrong place. Sometimes it was easier to just use Grab, which is an app just like Uber that is widely available and usually costs less than traditional taxis. In the square in town known as Alun Alun Kidul, there are dozens of pedal powered cars covered in neon lights that you can pay a fee to pedal around the square at night. Unicorns and Hello Kitty seemed to be popular themes for the neon blinking cars.   

On our first full day in Yogyakarta we took it easy and had a 90-minute couples massage at the lovely Tea Spa. We also enjoyed lunch at Depot Veggie, an all vegan restaurant with local Javanese cuisine run by an incredibly friendly owner and his family. After our massages we walked down to Malioboro Street, a huge boulevard lined with street vendors, music performers, and food stalls galore. We spent a few hours perusing the items for sale and taking in the lively atmosphere. There were many, many tourists congregating in this area, most of them Indonesian. A number Indonesians who spoke English stopped us to ask where we were from and chat with us a bit. When they learned we were American they were always quite welcoming. Some people we met liked to talk about Obama as he lived in Indonesia for several years as a child and he also visited Java and Bali with his family in 2017.     

We arranged transport one day to take us to the Prambanan Temple complex at around 4:00 pm so that we could explore the temples in the afternoon, watch the sunset at the temple, have dinner at a nearby local restaurant, and then catch the evening performance of the Ramayana Ballet, which is performed nightly on an outdoor stage. The temple complex is about an hour outside the city. The three temples we visited within the Prambanan complex were amazing and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring them. We had been warned about how crowded Prambanan can be but we were pleasantly surprised and did not find it overly crowded, especially for a Saturday. The grounds around the temples are clean and well kept. There was actually a large Volkswagen Club festival complete with hundreds of VW vans and live bands happening there during our visit, which looked like a lot of fun.

After we had a quick dinner at a restaurant near the temples, we went to the ballet performance, which included live music, dancing performances, great costumes, and a stunning setting with the illuminated Prambanan Temples just behind the stage. Below are a few photos from the performance. Would definitely recommend visiting these temples in the late afternoon and staying for the ballet afterward. 

Another local day trip tour we tried was tubing at Pindul Cave. We were told to be ready for pickup at our hotel at 6:45 am. Due to a flat tire our driver did not actually pick us up until about 8:30 am and then we were off to the cave tubing location about an hour away. When we arrived we met a local young lady who would be our guide for the tubing excursion. We did not realize we would have a guide for tubing but we just went with the flow. Once we had our tubes in the water we noticed that this was a very popular activity, especially with young Indonesians. The cave tubing part did not last that long and the portion of the river that flowed through the cave was jam packed with tubes. The cave was large and beautiful but it was hardly relaxing with all the people. The cave tubing seemed like more of a cultural experience mingling with the locals than a typical river tubing outing. Several local people asked us if they could have their photo taken with us. I believe this was only because we were foreigners, which they perhaps don’t see that often in that area, but I am not entirely sure due to the language barrier. We only met two other foreigners during the tubing excursion, a very nice older couple from India, so we stood out just a bit.   

After we finished tubing through Pindal Cave, which took around 25 minutes, we hopped in the back of a truck with our guide and our tubes and headed over to the Oyo River about ten minutes away for some more tubing. This river was more like the nice relaxing float I had been hoping for. There were far less people and the water was deep, clean, and open enough to swim around freely. There were several small waterfalls and a jumping off point on the river. Along the way our guide gave us a crash course in the Indonesian language.

The tubing was not very expensive to begin with but you could definitely do this activity even more cheaply without a guide as there are many tube rental places near the cave. Meeting our guide was quite enjoyable so we were was glad to pay a little more to have her along with us and to have our transportation arranged for us. Even though they were late picking us up, it did not hinder our day in any way. 

The site we were most excited to see while in Yogyakarta was the Borobudur Temple and it definitely did not disappoint. We arranged a tour with one of the many tour operators in town, which included being picked up in a van early in the morning in order to go to the Punthuk Setumbi viewing point to see the sunrise over the temple. We set out at 4:00 am in a van with several other travelers. We learned that some people would watch the sunrise from Borobudur Temple itself, which required a special sunrise entrance ticket, and the rest of us would go to the Punthuk Setumbi viewing point. We hiked up a big hill in the dark to a spot where we joined about a hundred other people waiting there for the sunrise. When the sunrise did happen, the view was nice but hardly spectacular. There is a photo of it below so you can judge for yourself if it was worth getting up at 3:30 am to see. Sunrises are always weather dependent of course so it is really the luck of the draw how nice they will be and it was rather cloudy on this particular day. Regardless of the weather I would recommend viewing the sunrise from the temple itself if possible. 

After the sunrise we headed to the temple grounds, which we reached around 6:30 am. We were given a hot cup of coffee on arrival, which was much appreciated, then we set off to explore. Borobudur Temple is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world and its unique design also makes it one of the most memorable I have ever seen. The temple is made from nine stacked levels with intricate narrative carvings on the lower levels and latticed stupas with Buddha statues inside on the upper levels. With its circular design and hundreds of Buddha statues, Borobudur is impressive and visiting this temple was one of my favorite experiences in Java thus far. It is a beautiful and mystical place. 

We were treated to some great food while in the Yogyakarta area. One of our favorite dishes has been Gado Gado, an Indonesian salad of lightly boiled vegetables, potatoes, tofu, tempeh and lontong (rice cake) served with a peanut dressing. It usually comes with boiled egg, which we omit. Indonesia is the birthplace of tempeh and we have enjoyed some delicious tempeh dishes here. Coconut and soy milk have also been widely available, which has meant plenty of delicious iced coffee drinks. We even had some vegan espresso ice cream at Depot Veggie. The food is also amazingly affordable. One night we had a rather delicious meal from a street food vendor and our bill was around the equivalent of $3.00 USD for both of us. Places that cater to tourists cost a little more but are still very affordable. We enjoyed our time in Yogyakarta so much and are looking forward to exploring more of Java before we head onward to Bali and Flores.