We spent 8 days in Indonesia, and no, it wasn’t Bali.
We decided to visit Yogyakarta to get some authentic insights into Indonesia instead of the mass-touristic Bali.
I spent a couple of weeks in Bali years ago, and while I met a good chunk of new friends there and understand why it’s popular, it’s far from the paradise you think it is – it’s crowded, and the infrastructure is on the verge of total collapse. Still, every twenty-something wants to go there for cheap drinks, beaches, and yoga.
Instead, we decided to go with something much less known – Yogyakarta.
Yogyakarta is located in the south-central of the island of Java and is the only Indonesian city that is still ruled by a monarchy.
Our Airbnb
The first thing I want to mention is our incredible Airbnb.
It had everything – a fully equipped kitchen, a comfortable bed, a living room, a large pool, and hands-down the best hosts you’ll find. If you ever want to spare Yogyakarta a visit, go to Ben and Galuh’s apartment, and you’re up for a great time!
Prambanan
Prambanan is the biggest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia.
It’s indeed a rather massive complex, and you’ll most likely want to plan an entire day for your visit, as it takes quite some time to explore the whole area with all the temples around.
While it was incredibly hot on that day, it was also rainy, which was quite lovely as it allowed us to explore the temples away from the main complex completely without any other tourists, perfect for some good photos:
One thing we didn’t expect was that we ended up as the leading tourist attraction.
Before we understood what was happening, we found ourselves in a selfie session with a group of school kids – it looks like white people still aren’t that common here ๐ .
Borobodur
Borobodur is the biggest Buddhist temple complex in the world. It’s also part of UNESCO – at least that’s the official part – it’s smaller than you would think ๐
It’s indeed the largest temple complex, but in comparison to Angkor Wat, it feels tiny. However, I think it’s well worth a visit anyway, and as always, I made a ton of pictures to give you a better insight:
And that’s a wrap for our time in Yogyakarta. In all honesty, we kept it pretty slow, as traveling full-time for several months is exhausting, and we needed some rest. Having such a lovely apartment also made it pretty easy to stay home! ๐
Until the next time,
Patrick