About Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta is the capital of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. It is located in the south-central part of Java. Yogyakarta is the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy.

The city is often considered to be an important center for classical Javanese fine arts and culture. Yogyakarta is also home to a large student population due to its large number of big universities. The city itself only has a population of about 400,000. However the metropolitan area has a population of about 4,000,000.

Yogyakarta is a very popular destination for tourists and has also adapted to tourism. There are a few bars and nightlife in general does exist to some degree. Also there is a huge variety of western food and a large selection of tourist attractions.

My experiences in Yogyakarta

Arrival

The first thing I noticed when I arrived in Yogyakarta was that there are many Bules (local term for foreigners). That went on when I got to the hostel. There were more tourists there than I have met in the whole of Indonesia up to that point (even though, I stayed in Hostels before). That was not a bad thing though, because I could finally exchange experiences with other people, who where also backpacking. I stayed in the Wonderloft Hostel, which I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is backpacking and wants to visit Yogyakarta.

Shortly after I arrived, we (about 8 people from the hostel) went out to grab some dinner. Going out for dinner together was also something I really enjoyed, since I had to eat alone pretty much every time so far.

First trip out of the city

The next morning 5 others from the hostel and me rented some scooters and went to a waterfall near the city. The drive took about 1 hour. It was very scenic and traffic was not too bad so it was pretty nice. The waterfall itself is really cool. The water is bright blue and just the perfect temperature. You can stand directly below the waterfall or jump from a platform into a deep part of the river. I really enjoyed this place. After spending about 1.5 hours there, we left again and headed towards the ocean. The drive was again really beautiful. After getting some lunch at a small shop at the shore, we went to the beach with black sand. The beach is on the south shore of Java. There are thousands of miles of open ocean that way, so the waves are quite high. We went in the water anyways though. It was manageable but you had to be careful not to be sucked into the sea. We left the shore before sunset, because driving outside the city at night is not fun due to all the crazy bus drivers.

Most of the people, I spend the day with had, to leave that evening unfortunately, so the next day I did not have many people to do stuff with.I just decided to explore the city on my own. And to be honest, in my opinion Yogyakarta (or Jogja how to locals call it) is really nothing special. All of the big attractions or places of interest I was to, where kind of boring. It was interesting to just look around the city and try some of the street food though. When I got back to the hostel, I met some new people.

The next day, I rented a scooter again and explored the surroundings of Jogja again with 2 others from the hostel. We again went to the mountains in the west. We were caught in some rain though, which was not to bad because that way it wasn't that hot. After going to the same waterfall I had already been at, we left the mountains behind and headed south. We drove over small and calm roads and could therefore enjoy the beautiful landscapes around us. We got something to eat near the shore and then headed back, because again, we didn't want to drive back at night.

Something you hear from everywhere, that you need to visit when you are in Yogyakarta is the Buddhist temple. There are 2 big temples outside of the city. One of them (the Borobudur temple) is the world's largest Buddhist temple. Therefore, I decided to go visit them. Me and 3 others from the hostel rented a grab driver for the whole day to get to both temples. The tickets are really expensive though. An adult has to pay 45$ for the entry to both temples. We visited Borobudur first. It was pretty impressive but there was not too much to do there, so after about 1 hour, we left again and headed to Prambanan. This one, I would say is quite a lot nicer. We were actually able to go inside and it looks a lot cooler as well. For my taste though, there were still way too many tourists and way to little to do there. After like 1.5 hours we left again and headed back to the hostel. Most of the time of the day was actually spent driving.

Therefore all in all I would say visiting the Buddhist temples in Jogja might not be worth it for you. There are so many more things to do that are more fun and also a lot cheaper. Also you can only really see the temples. There are no Buddhists there to talk to and learn something from.

That was unfortunately already my last day in Jogja. I spent the rest of the evening at the hostel socializing with other backpackers and then took the night train to Malang.

What to do in Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta has a lot to offer for tourists. Many things are not very authentic and some of them are straight up just scams. My favorite thing to do where

• Exploring the surroundings of the city
• Going to the beach
• Walking around the city
• Visiting the important sights (Buddhist temples, Sulatans palace)

Conclusion

Yogyakarta is a great place for tourists. No matter what you are interested in, Jogja will have you covered. Also since there are many other tourists, you will never have to do anything on your own. I especially recommend exploring the nature around the city, however you should keep at least one day of your schedule reserved for exploring the city. The city itself is not super interesting but the surroundings are. Plan in as many days as you would like here, I promise it will not get boring.