In the world of tourism, there are sites that you absolutely must see: Grand Canyon, Machu Picchu, Eiffel Tower, Pyramids of Giza. Prambanan and Borobudur, to me, qualify in the list of "must see" destinations, especially if you are in Indonesia.
There are also the sights that everyone sees because, well, that's what all the travel sites and travel agents and chambers of commerce tell you people see when they visit that city. Even your friends tell you to go. They didn't like it, but they were told to go there, so they tell you to go there. You won't like it either but, like a chain letter, you feel guilty if you don't keep it going, so you'll tell others to go. I think sometimes people do it for the comfort in being part of a large group of people who were duped. Some will even pretend to like it - you know, like Romantic Comedies - because everyone else claims to like it. No one likes it.
Well, that's how we spent our Sunday prior to our flight - seeing sights no one really likes, but everyone goes to.
We checked out of the hotel at 11 AM and visited the Sultan's Palace. As I mentioned in a previous post, Yogyakarta is a separately governed province of Indonesia with its own royalty. The current Sultan is #10 in his bloodline. A line that stops with him, as he has had five daughters and no sons. He's the first sultan to practice monogamy. The prior sultan had 25 wives and 71 children - including many sons. Maybe there's a link??
The Sultan's palace is another place where they require you to use one of their guides. The guides for the sultan's palace are all relatives of the sultan. Nepotism at its finest. We were lucky enough to arrive as the daily dance celebration was wrapping up. It's a common Javanese dance with the traditional music.
The tour then takes you through a small portion of the palace grounds and then the Sultan's private "museum". The museum was more a history of the Sultanate - gifts received from foreign dignitaries, the baby spoon used by Sultan 3, the soccer medals won by Sultan 9, the rules for making Batiks. I'm sure this is the highlight of the year for some people. For me, it felt like an antiques garage sale. It didn't help that my daughter kept asking when were going to meet the king and the princesses. Of course, we never did. The grounds were pretty nice, though.
After the Sultan's
Then we went to the Leather Puppets "factory". The "factories" and "villages" are just shops. The "Batik Factory" was a place for us to buy the batik artwork. Sure, they make it there, so I guess it qualifies as a factory, but the intent is to sell. The puppet factory was more about getting us to buy their product than teaching us about the artistry or entertaining the kids. I'm sure the Silver Factory, had we gone, would have been trying to get us to buy silver jewelry. The puppet factory likely would have been more interesting if my daughter wasn't throwing a fit....but not much.
We had five hours before we needed to be at the airport, my daughter was in a foul mood, and we had no interest in going to another "factory". So, we asked about the beach. The beach in Yogyakarta is not a place to swim. Our guide told us the waves were "uneven" and had odd currents. Many people have drowned over the years, so no one goes swimming. A city of 3 million people on the ocean doesn't have any fisherman. That should give you an idea on the extent of the oceanic tumult. I had to see this.
The drive to the beach took an hour. The beach was the best part of the day. The waves - unlike any I have seen. High, uneven, crashing. It was a bright, sunny day and the ocean looked like there was a hurricane on its way. I would not have attempted to swim.
It was quite crowded for a beach with no swimming. There were, however, many people splashing in the surf but not going more than knee deep. Of course, this is also a conservative Muslim city, so everyone was splashing fully clothed. Not a swimsuit in sight - men or women.
My daughter had been asking all day to ride the horses. The beach had a horse-drawn buggy ride so her and I rode together along the beach. This is when I noticed that people do get to swim at this beach, it just isn't in the ocean. Just on the other side of the high tide line the beach is dotted with shallow swimming pools. There were at least 20 of them - most of them empty.
We completed our Yogyakarta vacation with a visit to a local restaurant for some good local cuisine.
It was an exhausting trip. Physically exhausting we were expecting - climbing temples is strenuous work. Mentally exhausting we were not. I'm sure it would have been better had my daughter not been sick and fussy. We would have enjoyed the hotel more, spent more time at the temples, and had less frustration.
To top it off, when we returned home we discovered we had lost my contacts. The $350 per eye contacts. Ouch!
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