Travel Log: A City of Many Names (Day 2)

Previous Day (Arrival + Prambanan)

Destination: Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Duration: 4 Days 3 Nights (Oct 20~Oct 23, 2012)

Day 2: City Tour + Borobudur

The breakfast spread in Phoenix Hotel was amazing! Western, Chinese, Local, and I’d never seen so many juices in a hotel breakfast in my entire life! They also had a porridge and soto soup corner so that you could mix & match the ingredients. Oh, they eat the porridge with cracker (keropok)! Their porridge was quite sticky though but the combination was tasty. After the breakfast, we checked out and went for a city tour with Han as our driver again.

Fruit Counter

Bread & Pastries

Juices!!!

You can make your own juice too!

The Soto Soup Corner

Porridge (very thick!) & Soto Soup

BANANA Bun!

Breakfast Area

Outdoor Breakfast Area

Our 1^st destination of the day was Kraton – the Palace where Sultan and his family of Yogyakarta stayed. In fact the Sultan is still staying in this palace even though it is a ‘tourist attraction’. Amazing huh? I think our English speaking guide loves palace gossips as she kept telling us how many wives the Sultan of different generation had. Some of them had more than 20 wives! Life is good to be a Sultan! Then our guide proudly added: Our current Sultan only has one wife even though he has no son, he refuses to marry again as he loves his queen very much! Aaahhhhh.. true love! *Dreamy eyes*

Horsie!!!

Lots of People in front of Kraton

"Entertainment" Area in Kraton

Getting into Another Courtyard

This is Where the Sultan Stays...

Some Chairs in Kraton

Gifts from other Countries

Goodbye Kraton

We then went to Water Castle – a former royal garden of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. Basically this was where all the concubines bathed with the Sultan of top of a tower to choose a girl. :p The sun was scorching  hot that day and we were basically stalked by those freelance guide there. It was so irritating that we simply lost interest to explore more. There were lots of students that day for field trips as well and a girl student there actually talked to me since it was their school assignment to talk in English with Tourist! o.O What happened to don't talk to stranger? 

Entrance @Water Castle

Getting Inside...

Ponds

Going Underground

The Famous Stairs

Another Look

Han then told us the trip to Borobudur would take around 2 hours but we were quite happy to be sitting in an air conditioned car. Before reaching Borobudur, Han dropped us to a tourist silver shop cum restaurant for lunch. We were not interested in the silver so we went to the restaurant after a while. The restaurant was decorated beautifully in Javanese style and it was alfresco. We quickly noticed that it was kind of a tourist trap as only tourist was eating there and the food was overpriced by Yogya’s standard. I believe no locals would come into this place. We ordered grilled duck (RP64,000) and grilled chicken (RP49,000) set (as recommended by the waitress), Fruit Punch (RP24,000) and Gulash Squash (RP24,000). Incredibly enough, there were only a few miserable fans in the restaurant in such a HOT weather! I would expect more from such a high priced restaurant! We were basically sweating during our meal!

The Silver Shop

Restaurant Area

You can sit in the middle of a pond

The grilled duck was great though, the meat was tender and tastefully marinated. The grilled chicken was quite normal but at least the meat was tenderer than last night’s fried chicken. 

Drinks & Snacks

Grilled Duck Set

Grilled Chicken Set

Guess it's called Sekar Kedhaton Restaurant?

After lunch, we checked into Manohara Hotel - the only hotel located inside of Borobudur Archaeological Park where the Borobudur stands. The hotel was used as a hostel for archaeologist during excavation of the temple and was converted into a hotel for tourist recently. That’s why it was not surprising that the room looked like a hostel room. The best thing about this hotel was it provides a side door which leads you straight into Borobudur.

Is this Kancil?!

Manohara Hotel Entrance

Lobby

Welcome Drink

On the Way to our Room

Manohara Hotel Room

The Bathroom

Borobudur is the Biggest Buddhist Temple in the Ninth Century and it’s now a UNESCO heritage site. This Buddhist temple has 1460 relief panels and 504 Buddha effigies in its complex. We were greeted by our English speaking guide and proceed to walk to the temple area.

View of Borobudur from our Hotel

There were Lots of Visitors...

There were many terraces and each terrace has beautiful relief panels with Buddhist stories. In order to understand the sequence of the stories on the relief panels, you have to walk clockwise from the entrance of the temple. There were also lots of stairs involved before you can reach the top.

The Smiling Lion

Borobudur from Another Angle

Buddha with Missing Head

Stories all over...

STAIRS!!!

Almost to the Top

Each Stupa has a Buddha inside

View from the Top

The Buddha inside the Stupa

We stayed at the top of Borobudur temple for sunset until the guard started to announce the temple was being closed down. The sky was quite cloudy that day so sunset was not visible. We were being chased by souvenir seller all the way from temple to our hotel before we could escape. It was terrible! The seller was not being honest as well as he 1^st quoted the postcard to be USD10 a set but when we almost reached the hotel, he quoted us for USD1 a set!!! Oh come on, do we have “Please RIP us off!” tattooed on our faces? We simply refused to buy from such a dishonest seller.

Waiting for Sunset

But It was Cloudy

Sammy was there!

Going down...

Goodbye Borobudur

The Stairway to Hotel

Almost to the Hotel!

There was basically nothing to do at night in the area so we basically spent the night watching National Geographic and Lord of the Rings on TV. We did try the famous Special fried rice (RP35,000) in the hotel – the fried rice was mixed with noodle and it tasted like the Indomie brand instant noodle! *facepalm* We also ordered some ice cream (RP25,000) since we were simply DYING to get ice cream after a hot day – the ice cream was… Hmm.. I guess it was either “Nestle” or “King’s” brand? *banging face on table uncontrollably* 

Special Manohara Fried Rice

Ice Cream & COLD Water!!!

Next Day (Mt Merapi + Malioboro)