Yogyakarta

After 8 hours of train journey, we arrived safely in Yogyakarta, the cultural and university city of Java. Unfortunately, we had some bad luck with our accommodation, which seemed to be quite old and definitely did not look like the photos when we booked it. Our roommate this time was not a cat but a small cockroach that lived in the air conditioning, but didn't bother us and we named her Paola. Well, we somehow made the best of it. In addition, Jana continued to struggle with her stomach. After consulting her trusted doctor, Dr. Scherer the First, over the phone, we diagnosed her with gastritis after a gastrointestinal infection, and she was prescribed a stomach protector and a bland diet, which thankfully helped her recover quickly!

Yogyakarta itself was much nicer than Jakarta, there were even wide sidewalks! 😉 Overall, there are many young people and more tourists here, it gets really busy on the weekends with music and hustle and bustle everywhere. Unfortunately, there are also many horse-drawn carriages with very shaky and sad-looking horses. All in all, it's not exceptionally beautiful but quite nice. There is batik art to see everywhere and as soon as it gets dark, you can drive around in neon-colored cars with pedals à la Fred Flintstone at Alun-Alun Kidul. There was also a pop-up stand of Indomie, an instant noodle brand, where Philip had two portions and we were constantly filmed (seems to be a thing in Indonesia...privacy, what's that 😜).

After Jana started feeling better, we visited the Taman Sari Water Castle and in the afternoon, we headed to the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia, the Prambanan Temple. On the way there, we got talking to Sarang on the bus. He has been living in Washington DC for a long time, originally from Mumbai, currently working in Jakarta, and made a weekend trip to Yogyakarta. We had a good conversation with him about his work and also had him as a quasi-private guide through the temple, as he is very knowledgeable about Hinduism (and many other things). The temple itself is quite spacious, there are also Buddhist elements, which reminded us of Ayutthaya and Sukhothai in Thailand, unfortunately, we couldn't explore everything before closing time. This was also certainly because we always lose a lot of time with our photo shoots. 😄 We were once again surrounded and grinned at many, many mobile phones of the students who were on a field trip there. Since Sarang also planned to visit the Borobudur Temple the next day, we made plans and were kindly allowed to ride in his taxi. The driver answered many questions about Indonesia, the different religions and cultures, and the danger of Mount Merapi, which had a small eruption just 2 weeks ago. He said that the volcano has a small eruption about every 4 years and a big eruption every 30 years. The last time was in 2010 when the lava destroyed many villages and cost lives. We drove through the exact region that was destroyed back then and where a lot was still covered with ash from the recent small eruption. However, he mentioned that heavy rain had washed everything away, and there were no visible effects anymore. Still, it felt weird to drive so close to something dangerous. He said that the nearest village to the crater is only 3 km away, but people always return there, which he doesn't always understand. It seems that people in Java have learned to live with volcanoes, even though they can never get used to it. After 1.5 hours of driving in heavy Indonesian traffic, we arrived at Borobudur, which is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. Unfortunately, access to the main highlight, the uppermost level with large Buddha statues and bell-shaped stone structures, is currently closed. The reason given is the pandemic, which we couldn't really understand since everything is outdoors and there were no restrictions at the bottom either. Our driver later said that an attempt was made to reopen everything for tourism a week ago, but it didn't work out, and it is closed for conservation reasons. Either way, it's a shame, but the temple is still beautiful from the outside. Unlike Prambanan, which consists only of this one large monument, we returned with Sarang in the afternoon, who had to catch his flight back to Jakarta. We spent the rest of the day at Starbucks, where Philip had a heart attack-inducing coffee and Jana finally had a piece of cake. In the evening, we watched a traditional dance performance with masks and beautiful costumes. To end the day, we had dinner sitting cross-legged (yes, even Philip, although it's an acrobatic masterpiece for him) and tomorrow we continue by train to Probolinggo, from where we plan a tour to Mount Bromo.