Usually called Yogya, Yogyakarta (pronounced
Jog-ja-KAR-ta) is the country's center for higher education: The population swells by a few hundred thousand during the school year. It is the country's second major center for foreign tourism after Bali, and a major site for Indonesian tourists as well. On 27 May 2006, Yogyakarta was extensively damaged by an earthquake that killed more than 5,000 people. Most hotels and restaurants rebuilt quickly, but some evidence of the quake will remain for years.
Yogya can be reached by air, train, bus (the Bima Express runs daily from Jakarta and is very cheap) or car from Jakarta and Denpasar. Yogya is famous for its
becaks: three-wheeled bicycle cabs, which are an inexpensive, quiet and cool way to get around town. Negotiate a daylong fee to have a
becak driver take you around and wait while you shop and explore.
The local government-run arts center, the Taman Budaya (also called Purna Budaya), offers wonderful dance and music performances and exhibitions of contemporary art. The center is off the beaten tourist path and offers a taste of authentic Indonesia. Nearby is a late-night restaurant and snack-food district, up the street from the Galleria Mall.
The Sultan's palace (keraton) is a must-see, although you have to pay an official guide a small fee. There is a fine crafts shop inside the keraton walls where Yogya aristocrats and Dutch colonial officials once shopped. Guides will often try to take you to other batik shops in the area, because they receive commission if you buy—if you're interested in batiks, you're better off roaming on your own in the nearby Taman Sari district, home to most of Yogya's batik painters. In the same area is the bird market and one of Indonesia's finest galleries of contemporary art, Cemeti Gallery. Jalan Malioboro is the main shopping area and has lots of street vendors selling all kinds of crafts and souvenirs (beware of pickpockets).
Yogya is also a wonderful place if you're interested in puppetry. Wayang kulit (literally, "leather shadow") puppets are flat, carved out of buffalo hide and hand-painted with gold and colored paints. A single, highly skilled puppeteer (dalang) controls the puppets behind a screen, creating voices for each, as musicians provide the mood music. Lamps hung behind the dalang cast shadows of the puppets on the screen. (Indonesians like to sit and watch the shadows in front of the screen and stand in back, watching the dalang perform his magic.) The stories are derived from the Javanese versions of the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, but the dalang inserts contemporary commentary, often of a political, social or sexual nature.
Wayang golek is another form of puppet theater that uses three-dimensional wooden puppets. Plays typically go on for several hours, but it's common for people to walk in and out and stay for only portions; don't feel shy about leaving if you've had enough. Performances can be found at the Taman Budaya, the Arts University outside town, and sometimes at hotels and tourist sites, or on special occasions, at the keraton.
Yogya stays up late, and once it's dark, shopping districts turn on their neon lights and food vendors roll out mats on the sidewalk for a Yogya tradition called lesehan, late-night meals. Avoid the overpriced lesehan on Jalan Malioboro: Venture into the neighborhoods for better and cheaper food, but be selective in your ordering—stick to dishes that are stir-fried or grilled on the spot.
You should set aside an entire day for a trip to Borobudur, an elaborate 1,000-year-old Buddhist temple that is one of the historical art treasures of the world. It's just over 25 mi/40 km northwest of Yogyakarta. To see the site at its best, try to get there by dawn (you'll have to leave Yogyakarta no later than 5 am) to avoid the heat and the crowds. The temple, created in the shape of a mandala, contains elaborate carvings that portray Javanese court life of the time. The famous lower level, or "foot," of the temple reportedly contains erotic carvings that show Tantric influence and was intentionally buried by the Indonesian government. Once a year, during the spring, on the Buddhist new year of Wasiak, the small Indonesian Buddhist population descends on Borobudur in a huge, colorful procession. If you're visiting Yogya between May and October, stop by the Prambanan Temple to see the Ramayana Ballet during nights of the full moon. It is an amazing spectacle, with more than 100 dancers and musicians. Performances run for four consecutive nights each month. Yogyakarta is 270 mi/435 km east of Jakarta on the island of Java.
