It is renowned as a center of education, classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows.
Yogyakarta has a population of over two million people in the metropolitan area.
There were plenty of small bikes and horses if we wanted a cheap ride.
Also local markets were everywhere.
Yogyakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from year 1945 to 1949. One of the districts was the capital of the Mataram Sultanate between year 1575 and 1640 and the head of the area has still the title of sultan.
We arrived in Yogyakarta in the afternoon. Markus has been to Yogyakarta before so he could easily guide us to the train and to the center of the city, where we had lunch and found a cheap guesthouse.
Then we went out to buy a ticket to see the main attraction of Yogyakarta for the next day.
We bought a full day ticket which gave us transport to three temples in the area.
We got picked up the following night/morning at 03.45. We were going to see the sunrise over the Borobudur temple.
We thought it would be amazing like other sunrises we have seen before, but it was a failure.
It was overclouded and misty and we were way too far away for good pictures. The good thing was, that we were only us and another couple on the tour. The other couple came from Holland and it turned out, that they were really nice and we had a lot of fun with them.
The Borobudur temple is a Mahayana Buddhist temple dating from the 8th and 9th centuries.
The monument consist of six square platforms topped by three circular platforms and is decorated with 2672 narrative relief panels and 504 Buddha statues.
A main dome is located at the center of the top platform and is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues each of which is sealed inside a perforated stupa.
It is the world's largest Buddhist temple with the largest and most complete ensemble of Buddhist reliefs in the world as well as one of the greatest Buddhist monuments in the world.
Evidence suggest Borobudur was constructed in the 9th century and abandoned following the 14th century decline if Hindu kingdoms in Java and the Javanese conversion to Islam.
Worldwide knowledge of its existence was sparked in 1814 by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, then the British ruler of Java, who was advised of its location by native Indonesians.
Borobudur has since been preserved through several restorations.
The largest restoration project was undertaken between 1975 and 1982 by the Indonesian government and UNESCO, following which the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
After our visit to Borobudur we visited a the smaller Buddhist temple, Candi Mendut.
The temple is 26,4 meters tall and located in Mendut village about 3 kilometers east from Borobudur.
An old sacred Waringin also known as Banyan tree.
It is said that there is a religious relationship between the temples, although the exact ritual is unknown.
The main room has three carved large stone statues of Buddha.
Our last temple visit that day was the 9th century Hindu temple Candi Prambanan.
It is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture with a 47 meter high towering central building inside a large complex of individual temples.
The temple complex is located 17 kilometers outside Yogyakarta and is dedicated to the Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva).
The temple is on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites and is the largest Hindu temple in Indonesia and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia.
After our last visit we went back to our little cheap hotel but first agreed with the couple from Holland to meet them later.
After a nice dinner we went back to our hotel and slept like babies all night long.
The day after we went with the couple from Holland to see the Sultan's Palace or Karaton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat and Taman Sari Water Castle. Altough we had to postpone our visit to the Sultan's palace for the next day because Markus wasn't allowed to go in. The reason was his sleeveless t-shirt, not his condition.
The Palace was built from 1755 to 1756. Today the palace is still the principal residence of the sultan while also the royal court has its seat here.
Today it is the cultural and the political heart of Yogyakarta and the area surrounding it, but it is open to the public in the mornings.
It is always the women who has to cover their body before entering some place religious or royal, but not here. It was Markus who was the "problem".
In the palace we saw a series of luxurious halls and spacious courtyards and pavilions.
We went to see a concert in the palace.
Not all the players looked like they actually enjoyed working there.
We also saw some Javanese dance.
The dancers were very beautiful and
graceful.
One of the many dragons decorating the palace.
A part of the palace is a big museum and among many other things of different levels of interest we saw this old chair.
This is me outside the center of the palace, which is the reception hall, Bangsal Kencana or Golden Pavilion. The floor is made out of marble and the columns are carved teak decorated with gold.
The water calstle is a complex, that used to be a former royal garden and bathing palace for the Sultanate of Yogyakarta.
It is said, that the sultan sometimes had up to 100 virgins in his private pools.
He also had a tower from where he could pick the girl he wanted the most... :) It's good to be the sultan.
The day after we flew to Johor Bahru in Malaysia and from there we flew to Kuching in Borneo. On the way out of Indonesia they stopped us in the passport control. The officers told us we had overstayed our visa, which after long discussion cost us 30 dollars each and we did not even do it by purpose.
The 30 days visa turned out to be 29 days visa as they count the day of entrance already one day used.
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