A Weekend in Yogyakarta

During our only free weekend here in Indonesia aside from our first weekend, which I chose to use for jetlag recovery, my friends and I booked a trip to the cultural center of Java, Yogyakarta. Although we enjoy life in the education city of Malang, we were certainly excited to see a new city. Little did I know (because I let my friends do all of the research and planning – thanks Mariam, I know you’re the only one who reads this), Yogyakarta is a super neat city with two of the most beautiful temples in the world, signs written in Javanese script that we can’t understand, and lots and lots of reasonably priced oleh-oleh (e.g. batik!)

After a very long car ride (10 hours) and a comfortable sleep in a hotel, my six friends and I (yes, I have six friends! Six!!) went to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen with my eyes, Borobudor. Borobudor is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, and many of the Buddhists in Yogyakarta go to Borobudor for celebrations, such as “Buddha’s Birthday” in May.

From what I understand from Wikipedia, Borobudor is shaped as a mandala and is meant to be walked through in a certain manner because of the Buddhist tradition to meditate using a mandala and also because the carvings in the walls tell the story of the Buddha. There were Buddha statues seemingly everywhere, many of which no longer had heads, and every stone seemed to be so meticulously placed. My favorite photos I’ve taken during my time here come from Borobudor.

Two of many headless Buddhas

Cool Friends

Stone Carvings that tell a story

I had a conversation with my mom about the temple that night, and I mentioned to her how grand it was and how I thought that it was probably made by slaves. In May, I was at Incapirca, the beautiful Incan ruin in Ecuador, and I remembered that our tour guide Ami, a rare vegetarian naturalist Ecuadorian woman, spoke about how ironic is was that something so beautiful could be made on the backs of miserable slaves; as we all know, many or most of the world’s man-made wonders were made this way. However, my mom replied that Buddhist temples and other places of worship were always made by Buddhists who believed that building the structure would help them in their next life. It made the experience even more beautiful for me.

Incapirca

Borobudor

Later that day, we ate lunch on top of a large koi pond (Thanks for the lunch Matt and Mike!) and then we made an underwhelming stop at the sultan’s palace Kraton. The most delightful part of the day was when Mariam walked through two trees which she believed to be these two trees that make all your dreams come true if you can walk through them blindfolded. They were the wrong ones.

We ended the day at Jalan Malioboro, a street filled with shopping (e.g. batik) and becaks (a little too small for our Western hip widths). I got some gifts for my friends and family at Mirota, a beautiful three-story batik store. Jalan Malioboro was well lit and really lively at night, a sort of street that doesn’t really exist in Malang. It reminded me of an Indonesian version of Kao San Road in Thailand: lively, saturated with Australian tourists, but with more conservative clothing and without all of the alcohol. We stayed out until 8:30 p.m., planned on “going out” (read: going to a convenience store and buying juice), but we got too tired and immediately fell asleep. My friends make jokes about it, but it’s not too far off from my college life, and I’m enjoying it.

At the Kraton. I love this picture because we look diverse and Margarethe had a great face.

Koi Pond restaurant

Mariam walking with her eyes closed through the wrong trees

We ended our time in Yogyakarta the next day at Candi Prambanan, a beautiful Hindu temple complex. Although Borobudor was obviously my favorite, as it was one of my favorite places ever, Prambanan was also incredible. We also ran into a bunch of Thai tourists, one of which who spoke English to me in a thick Thai accent, and it made me miss my mom. While we were there, we were interviewed by some students for their English class, and they were really surprised that we spoke Bahasa Indonesia. I really enjoy being able to surprise people by speaking their language, even though I am certainly still getting the hang of it. It was a fun exchange, and we snapped a photo at the end.

Pretty ladies in Prambanan

Prambanan

This weekend was our first chance to explore more of this complex country, where even a city nearby on the same island is completely different.