Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Fort Vredeburg and more food

Love traveling during non-peak season - you never have to book hostels in advance (only because I have been procrastinating over booking for my December holiday). In closing, I really enjoyed Yogya in general, it has a laid-back charm and things like Batik (at Batik Keris) are definitely cheaper here compared to Bali and the DPN airport (mega ripoff! Shop swapped my Kopi Luwak, accidentally). So we were rushing to buy all the stuff we had been eyeing for the past few days on the last day.

After Kraton, we wandered back to Maliboro (aircon, please?). Enroute, we dropped by Fort Vredeburg, more of a messy-revamped museum, there's a surprise at the last exhibition room (aircon!). We were intrigued by the Dutch fort which stood out from its surrounding architecture. Content-wise, nothing much, but plenty of local people-watching to do.

 

Small People

Big Person

A summary

You know where to find me when the weather gets hot

Smile

Cute

Japanese food - My FAVE Buddy

Overstaffed, clearly

I don't know why we are having Japanese food in Indonesia too

Supper 1

Supper 2

Expensive satay

Yogya Loot

On to Mt Bromo ~ It's a long, long bus ride.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Yogyakarta Palace (Kraton)

Traveller Alert: We went to Kraton on a Friday, and on the way, we got turned away by 2 separate shady fellas who insisted that the palace was closed for Friday prayers and suggested that we go to an art museum or something instead. A very organized syndicate, I doubt they were that bad, they just wanted us to buy some substandard batik paintings (check out Batik Keris at Yogya, much cheaper than at Bali), but we had better things to do than to waste our time. We had read previously about such scams in Lonely Planet guidebooks, had some doubts about their honesty, checked with confused honest becak drivers, but we still had to see it closed (or open) for ourselves. The first guy claimed to be working in the palace while the next guy even had the cheek to lie to us in front of a police station! Shame on them, giving such a lovely city a bad name. Thankfully, the city also has some pretty decent and kind local folks around.

Upon arrival, you are automatically assigned a guide (whom you should tip). As the palace is still the actual residence of the King, the guides would keep us out of restricted areas. We were quite reluctant, our guide was frequently on her phone, messaging, but she did furbish us with TONS of juicy palace gossips. Yay.

Breakfast by the Roadside

Some basic Bahasa Indo you should know.

NASI - Rice, MEE - Noodles, Goreng - Fried, Ayam - Chicken (haven't learnt much)

Puny Ayam (definitely au naturale), think I popped over to KFC for seconds (LOVE BALI KFC).

Sheltered Guards

He's not real

Crest

Violent Photogs Shooting

Pretty guide at 'rolling pint'

Floral offerings to places and things on the floor

To store knives and swords

Typical Family Tree (note flowers, leaves and dragons bases)

Current Princesses (very pretty)

Puteri for Princess

Slumped

The Kraton was NOT CLOSED.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia: Borobodur and Prambanan

Our main purpose of the trip, a pilgrimage of sorts to Borobodur. We got a tour off the backpacker street after some comparing. The tour included a very early departure to the Buddhist Borobodur (beat the crowd at least), return back to Malioboro (and the airport to drop off some people) and then to the Hindu Prambanan.

Bus to Prambanan

Tea - Dinner

Dropped by the claustrophobic market

Friendly locals

Quirky backpacks

Foodstuff

JCO donuts

Magnum Galore

Awesome MSG-laced noodles. Once-in-a-lifetime

Off to visit palaces around Yogya next