Yogyakarta beach

Waves at the beach in Yogyakarta. Notice the bathing suits of the people at the beach.

 

Sultan Dance

Part 1 of the dance at the Sultan's palace.

Part 2 of the dance at the Sultan's palace.

Sunday in Yogyakarta

Sunday, we tried to make up for lost time.  To a large extent, we shouldn't hvae bothered.

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 Garage Sale Palace, we went to another place everyone said we "had" to go to - Bird Village.  Bird Village is really just a portion of a street where they sell birds and bird cages.  We drove through it without stopping.

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!

Saturday in Yogyakarta

According to the tour package we purchased, this was our busy day. Borobudur, bird market, Sultan's palace, silver market, puppet show. Alas, it was not to be.

We started our morning eating a 6 AM breakfast at the hotel. By 6:45 we were on our way to Borobudur. The drive took nearly an hour. Our guide provided background on the city, the government, and the geography. We did our best to stay awake. The drive presented several photo opportunities - a water buffalo plowing a field (with farmer in tow), steam coming from the active volcano that towers over the landscape, beautiful rice plantations. Of course, I didn't take any pictures.

We arrived at Borobudur shortly before 8 AM. The national park and world heritage site requires we use their guides, so our guide handed us over to a park guide and we were off. Well, almost off. It was time for my son's feeding. Instead of climbing the temple in the early morning, before the crowds and the heat, we finally got started around 9:15. By then, crowds of school children had arrived. Apparently, their teachers had instructed them to practice their English by bothering interviewing tourists.  They seemed to prefer my father-in-law over any of the rest of us.  They kept stopping him to interview him, take pictures with him, ask him how well they spoke English.

In the middle of the night, we noticed our daughter had a fever.  We woke her and gave her some medicine, and that brought it down.  We gave her medicine again in the morning - the last we had with us - when it had returned, and it went down again.  When we were finally ready to climb the steps - the one hundred or so steps - to the top of the temple, her fever was back and she was lethargic.  The sun was hot.  She was hot.  Everyone but her was sweating, so we knew her fever was back.  Climbing the stairs of Borobudur is strenuous. 

Carrying a three-year-old child as you climb the steps is even more difficult.  Doing it while you are also carrying a baby in a sling is next to impossible.  Good thing my wife has been working out!

Kidding.  I carried our daughter, my wife carried our son.  Half way up, we stopped so my wife, daughter and son could sit in the shade and my father-in-law and I completed the climb and the tour.  This time I took great pictures.

Legend has it that inside one of the bells atop the temple is a lucky Buddha.  If you make a wish and reach your arm through the hole and touch his middle finger, your wish will come true.  If you touch his foot, you will have bad luck.  Most people's arms are not long enough to reach the fingers.  My simian arms (that reach my knees when I'm standing upright) were long enough to reach the middle finger.  I'll let you know if my wish comes true.

My daughter was still burning up - and still not sweating - so I called my admin and asked her to find out if there was a doctor in the city I could take her to.  Our medical service advised us to take her to the Jogja International Hospital.  We went to the emergency room and, just like in the US, 30 minutes later we saw a doctor.  They said she had a fever and head cold symptoms.  They assumed Dengue Fever, but said to wait another two days and if the symptoms persisted, get a blood test to confirm.  They immediately gave her medicine for the fever, and provided us prescriptions for continued treatment of the fever and the head cold symptoms.  We filled these in the hospital pharmacy.  Total cost of this side trip:  $12.

Yep, $12.  Emergency visit was $5 for the doctor, $0.70 for the adminstrative fees.  The prescriptions were $3.50 each.  Who needs insurance at those prices?

The hospital was enough for the day.  We returned to the hotel for lunch and spent a boring afternoon at the hotel with my daughter banned from swimming by the doctor, so she missed out on the pools.

 

This time I got the massage while everyone else took a nap.  We had an early dinner and, once again, went to bed early.

Friday in Yogyakarta

Friday morning my son, daughter, wife, father-in-law and myself hopped a plane for the short, 55 minute trip to Yogyakarta, a city on the southern coast of Java. I have been looking forward to our Yogayakarta trip since we arrived. A city of approximately 3 million people, Yogyakarta is the home of Batik artistry, stone carvings, a ruling monarch (the Sultan, who acts as the governor), an ancient Hindu temple and, what I was most looking forward to, the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia, and the oldest in the world.

Our flight arrived without issue, and our guide, "Bobby", met us just outside baggage claim. First order of business was to visit Prambanan Temple, a 9th century Hindu dedication to the Trimurti, located just a few minutes drive from the airport (I'll let Wikipedia provide the detailed history). Arriving at the temple shortly before noon, we walked the sacred grounds in scorching heat and enjoyed every minute of it. Our infant was in a sling on my chest and I carried an umbrella to block out the sun. We took photos, video, played on the swings at the nearby playground (that they did NOT build in the 9th century), and enjoyed causing the "shy lady" fuchsias to close when we touched them - our daughter liked this part best.

There were two other temples on the same grounds that we did not visit. Our son needs to eat every four hours. He eats at 4 AM, 8 AM, noon, etc until 8PM when we put him down for the night (yeah!). Because we arrived at the temple so close to noon, he needed to eat. When he needs to eat, he lets everyone know. Loudly. Without prejudice. So, we scurried back to the car with tremendous haste after entering just one of the temple's dedicated structures.

We left the temple and went to a famous Batik artist's studio. While my wife fed the baby, and my daughter slept, my father-in-law and I learned the painstaking process of making a Batik and viewed many of the tapestries - silk and cotton - for sale. I was shocked at the price (it was much lower than I was expecting) so I bought three.

I always enjoy the bartering aspect, though I truly don't know if I'm getting ripped off or getting a good price. I guess if we're both happy with the price paid, that's all that really matters.

When our son was fed (and in his afternoon siesta), I asked my wife to come look at the one I liked, and see if there were any she wanted. They quoted us prices of $250, $200 and $30. I told them I was willing to pay $250 for the whole bunch - a little more than half. Of course they said no way, just one of them was worth that much. I thanked them for their time and walked away. They countered with $300 for the group. I countered with $275. They said no, $300. I hesitated, pretended to consider it, then said $280. They agreed.

When they started to complete the sale and entered 2,800,000 Rupiah in the Visa POS terminal, I told them that wasn't correct. In Indonesia, to keep math simple, most people use 10,000 Rupiah as the conversion rate. The actual rate - and the one Visa will charge me - is around 9,250. They were trying to pick up the rest of their $300 counter-offer by hoping I was not aware of the current exchange rate! These guys are smart. Travelers have to be smarter to get a good deal.

After the Batik shop, we checked in to our hotel, the Hyatt in Yogyakarta. Our driver pulled the van into the hotel turn-around and a young woman in traditional Batik greeted us with a sweet smelling, white flower lei. The porters unloaded the luggage and, as we walked on the teak-wood deck over the koi pond, the hostess banged a gong, announcing our arrival. We checked into our rooms only to discover they were not adjoining, and both had King beds - two beds, 5 people. My father-in-law got one room, the four of us took the other. I did manage to procure a crib for our son to sleep in.

I took a nap with the kids, my father-in-law went to the pool, and my wife went to the spa for a massage. We ate dinner at the main restaurant in the hotel and, after a brief walk around the grounds, called it a night. We were leaving for Borobudur - the Buddhist temple - at 6:30 the following morning and needed to get our rest.