Yogyakarta

12 August 2024

Yogyakarta, often called “Jogja,” is a cultural and artistic hub in Central Java, Indonesia. It’s known for its traditional batik, among other cultural practices we didn’t encounter. Yogyakarta is also the gateway to the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the Borobudur and Prambanan temples.

Día 1

Batik Painting Course
Malioboro Street

Batik Painting Course

On our first day in Yogyakarta, we did a Batik Paining workshop in the afternoon with Batik Painting & Course Batik Kelik. Batik is a traditional textile coloring method that craftsmen would use to make clothes for royalty. Over time, common people were allowed to make and wear the style. The cloth is dyed, so first, wax is applied to areas you don’t want to be dyed or where you want a particular color to be contained.

I used one of the templates they had there because I have no imagination. Indi asked to do a banana flower, so one of the workers there did a sketch. Once you have the sketch, you use hot wax and a little pen to distribute the wax along the lines. This was much harder than expected; using proper technique with the pen is difficult and time-consuming. Once the wax lines are done, you use dye and water to paint areas of cloth. The cloth is then washed, a silicone solution is applied, and then the wax is removed by dunking it in hot water. Last, the cloth is hung up to dry. We started the workshop in the afternoon, and it ended up taking way longer than expected, but it was so worth it.

Malioboro Street

We walked Malioboro Street after dark. Malioboro Street is Yogyakarta’s most famous thoroughfare. It’s lined with shops, street vendors, and restaurants. It’s the perfect place to find local crafts, batik clothing, and souvenirs. We got hustled into looking at some batik art that we didn’t buy. I ate spicy fried chicken with a rice ball at KFC. It was some of the best fast food I’ve ever had!

Día 2

Borobudur Temple
Prambanan Temple

Borobudur Temple

We paid the Grab driver who had driven us previously to take us to some temples the next day because we didn’t want to deal with public transport. We started at Borobudur Temple. There are two or three different kinds of tickets you can buy to see the temple. The only ticket not sold out was the one where we could only walk around the perimeter of the temple. Before we went in, we walked past part of an Independence Day parade. There was a group of haunted house actors who were making a real spectacle; we’ve seen a lot of horror houses in Indonesia for some reason. A guy painted totally white and wearing a diaper said hello to me.

Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It’s an impressive structure but it was built in the form of a squat pyramid consisting of 4 or 5 levels. So, it sits quite close to the ground but takes up a large footprint. This means that when walking around the temple, one cannot see much of the upper levels – the coolest part. I wouldn’t recommend the trip out there unless you have tickets to get into the temple, so check online well before your arrival date.

Prambanan Temple

Next, our driver took us to Prambanan Temple – a Hindu temple complex with several sites within the same complex. The main site is pretty cool, with a few towers containing statues of Hindu gods or where the images used to be. Before we could get in, we were asked for photos with three old ladies and then again with a family of four. It was apparent that a massive amount of restoration work had been done on the temples, possibly a complete rebuild on some of them.

We walked along the property, stopping to see a few minor structures, until we got to the other main site. From a distance, Sewu Temple is even more visually impressive. Here, there was still a lot of restoration work to be done, but what had been done was impressive. Sewu Temple is a 9th-century Buddhist Temple. I expected Borobudur would be the main attraction of the day, but surprisingly, I enjoyed the Pramaban complex more.