Yogyakarta – yes!

We arrived at our hotel in Yogyakarta, the Phoenix, about 1.30pm yesterday after a much quicker car ride from Borobudur. And what a magnificent hotel it is! We were already surprised at the low cost of accommodation here from our Borobudur experience, but these are real classy digs – real opulence. Built in the 1880s (probably by the Dutch), it is spread over a couple of acres, with restaurants, drawing rooms, a large central swimming pool (which our balcony overlooks – we are on the third and top floor) and staff at your beck and call, always helpful, always smiling. After lunch we headed off on our complimentary becak, or rickshaw, ride. That was quite an experience – we were crammed into a bench seat that is definitely not designed for two people our size – and we were immediately out in the mayhem of traffic; cars, motorcycles - thousands of motorcycles – and the occasional bus or truck. Quite an enlivening experience, sitting in the front with nothing between you and the traffic as it swarms around you (especially when we take a shortcut on the wrong side of the road).

While out for our ride we spotted a campaign poster for a candidate for a local by-election, to be held soon. Apparently his strong views resonate with voters; he is hard on crime, hard on corruption, in fact his campaign theme seems to be “hard on....”. For some reason he seems to get a lot of support from women voters.

On our return, fortunately unscathed, we headed off on foot and had dinner at a local roadside restaurant. We are not sure what we had, although we know there was fish and chicken in there somewhere, however it attracted the locals and the food tasted good.

After a good night’s sleep and a delicious breakfast, accompanied by Javanese percussion music, we headed off to Prambanan, fifteen kilometres out of town and the home to a number of Hindu temples built between the eighth and tenth centuries to commemorate the return of a Hindu dynasty to power in Java. Although the main temple, Shiva, is complete and a magnificent sight and many of the other smaller temples have been restored, many are still suffering earthquake damage and are basically still in ruins. In fact there are acres of stones, statues and carved reliefs just sitting there, waiting to be re-constructed at some time in the future. The site is so vast that we caught a little motorised train to travel to the furthest temple, but everything is beautifully laid out, the grounds are well landscaped and maintained and it is to be hoped that funding will continue to come in to assist with restoration work. We stopped to admire the beautiful deer in an adjoining park before returning to our car. Our wonderful driver handed us a cold wet face washer and bottle of water to enjoy on the drive back to our hotel. Once home we again set off to explore the local area on foot; walking through the main shopping area, which is made up of row after row of shops and stalls on the footpath, then into the vast Pasar Beringharjo, the main city market, for more of the same (although much more compressed and congested). We eventually staggered back to our hotel about 5pm, after the nerve-shattering experience of crossing a few streets where pedestrians seem to have absolutely no rights. A swim and drinks by the pool then back to our room to write this.

This is the last night of our holiday (sob), so we are having a farewell dinner in the hotel restaurant and will have an early night before heading out to the airport to begin our three-stage journey home. Hopefully, during our time waiting around the various airports, we will compose a final blog.