Family Trip to Yogyakarta

By chance I visited a city which has many variation to its name to match the diverse faiths the people adhere to.

The city, for a brief period of time, was the capital of Indonesia after it gained its independence from the Dutch in 1949. It is known as Yogyakarta, Yogya, Jogjakarta or Jogja. As if those names are not enough, the senior citizens in Indonesia call it Ngayogyakarta. Interestingly, you can call the city by any of those names, the world would still know which city you are referring to.

In the city one would find the remains of Buddhist and Hindu temples that have a millennium of history behind them. It is a testimony that the Javanese was once under the influence of the great religions of India. Although the contemporary religions of the Javanese are Islam and Christianity, nevertheless the Buddhist and Hindu temples are still in good shape to attract foreign tourists. The listing of Candi Borobudur and Candi Prambanan as the world heritage by the UNESCO recently also add to the importance of these places of worship.

I visited Yogyakarta on 25 March, 2010 and the trip was planned eight months ago by my nephew, Yang ,who booked the AirAsia flights from Kuala Lumpur to Yogyakarta as well as the connecting flights from Penang.

I was glad to join this family trip as it offered a rare opportunity for me to meet up my immediate family members as most of them were busy with their work schedules in different places.

We spent four days and three nights together touring briefly a few places in Yogyakarta including Candi Prambanan, Candi Borobudur,Museum Kraton and Taman Sari. We spent one evening of our stay to let the ladies go window shopping along the Malioboro Street, the busiest street in the city centre.Unfortunately, our visit to the Museum Pura Pakualaman did not materialise as it was closed on Friday when we visited the place. Travelling around the city of Yogyakarta was not a problem for us as Yang had rented a four-wheeler and engaged a local driver to show us around the city. As we had reached Yogyakarta early in the morning of March 25,2010, at 8.30 am of the local time in Indonesia, it was too early to check in the hotel we booked. We decided to go to the Merapi Mountain National Park which took us about one hour’s drive from the airport. Sweating profusely, we trekked up a one-kilometre jungle trail hoping to have a closer view of the Merapi Mountain; only to be disappointed to find out at the end of the trail we had to climb up another three- storey observatory tower to view the Merapi Mountain from afar. Even that was not possible as the peak of the mountain was covered with layers of silvery clouds. Neither did we have any luck on the following afternoon when we paid a visit to Prambanan Temple (Candi Prambanan). It started to rain heavily when we entered the first Candi where the statue of the Holy Cow was located. We were trapped there by heavy down pour for almost an hour so that we could not have sufficient time to visit all the other temples in the vicinity. To cut short the visit, we took a tram to go round the compound. The small kids were too delighted to ride on the tram than to visit the historical temples.

Visit to Borobudur was the main tourist attraction that no one could afford to miss. It was on our itinerary on the third day of our trip. As a foreigner, everyone of us had to pay US$15 as the entrance fee. Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist temple in the eighth century built by King Samaratungga of the Old Mataram kingdom. It took almost one hundred years for the construction to be completed. It was constructed as a ten-terraces building with 1460 relief panels and 504 Buddha effigies in its complex. All the relief panels in Borobudur temple reflect the Buddha’s teaching. For this reason, the temple functioned as educating medium for those who wanted to learn Buddhism.

Although our tour guide was a Muslim, he could relate vividly the history and teaching of the Buddha as he patiently guided us up the staircases of the Borobudur temple.

For the whole trip of Yogyakarta, we were very thankful to have a very dedicated driver who would bring us to some of the best restaurants to have a taste of the local cuisine. The menu was usually of sweet-sour and deep fried fish which was not too spicy. It was also cooked in a variety of other ways. Steamed fish was not found in the menu of any of the restaurants in the city. Believe it or not, one meal at such a restaurant was much cheaper than the cost of the burgers that we had in a McDonald outlet in the city. Another interesting feature was the number of Chinese that we met in any restaurant was far more than those we saw on the streets in the city for any single day.
The hotel we stayed was ten-minute drive from the Adisucipto International Airport. Though it might be ranked as one star, two stars or none at all, the hotel was well kept and beautifully decorated. The service of the staff was exceptional and commendable. Housekeeping was done every day without fail. Breakfast was served at anytime in the morning upon the request of the guest. Throughout my four-day stay at the hotel, I was not bitten by a mosquito; a wonder that you and I would find hard to believe. This prompted my friend, Tommy Sawyer, to postulate that the female mosquitoes, like their counterparts of the Indonesian young ladies, could have “seek employment in the foreign lands”. On the whole the trip was a resounding success. For this, I have to give credit to and thank Yang and his wife, Angeline for taking the trouble and their precious time to plan the trip meticulously.