Yogyakarta Part 2

These have been our final two days in Yogyakarta.  I wrapped up my time with the ICSD conference on Thursday and on Friday we did a full day tour of two temples near Yogyakarta.

I'm grateful to have been here for the ICSD conference.  I made several new professional contacts and strengthened existing relationships with folks I typically see just a few times a year at social work conferences or events.  My final day of the conference was spent in two different workshops about human rights and social work practice, both of which provided me with a lot to think about as I head into the Fall semester.

After the last session on Thursday, I scooted out with hopes of enjoying our rooftop pool again.  Alas, it was not meant to be.  The skies were sort of overcast and it just wasn't hot enough, so I settled for an hour and a half on the couches with a good book.  It was a beautiful view all the same and the skies cleared out close to sunset.

Landry and I treated ourselves to dinner on Thursday night and headed to Mediterranea Restaurant by Kamil.  We didn't realize until we got there that we were right in the middle of Yogyakarta's expat land.  Despite that, we had a delicious three course meal, complete with a bottle of champagne at such a ridiculously low price I'm not even going to publish it.  But seriously, pretty much everything here is so inexpensive it makes the expensive flight totally worth it.  The exchange rate is just under 14,000 Indonesian rupiah to 1 USD.

Funny tagline for a gelato place

Entry gates like this to different neighborhoods are very common throughout the Yogya region

Friday morning I got up at 5:30 to go buy jajan pasar.  If you've watched Netflix's series called Street Food, then you know what I'm talking about.  If you still haven't watched it, get to it!  Jajan pasar is a traditional Yogya street food that is sweet, like dessert.  Mbah Satinem became famous for her jajan pasar after it caught the attention of the president in Yogya some years ago.  Now you have to get up right when she opens shop if you have a hope of getting some of her tasty treats.  I arrived at 6:03am and there were already ten other people in line in front of me!

As promised, a motorbike selfie

Mbah Satinem and her famous jajan pasar

OMG, that caramelized palm sugar!

Mochi, a rice treat with caramelized palm sugar in the center that burst in your mouth when you bite into it

Two types of rice, coconut flakes, fermented caramelized cassava and that caramelized palm sugar syrup

Netflix dreams do come true!

After a sugary breakfast of jajan pasar treats, our driver Supri came to pick us up at our apartment for our tour of Borobudur Temple and Prambanan Temple.  Borobudur is the largest known Buddhist temple in the world and was built in the 9th century.   When we got to the base of the temple we were approached by two high school girls who were there to meet tourists so that they could practice their English.  They asked if they could walk around with us and talk.  We agreed and they were sweet and lovely to spend our morning with.  I'll not say much more about the temple as there are so many pictures I'd rather share for you to see, but you can click the link above if you want to know more about the temple.

I took this shot so you could see how large the steps are and how incredibly steep it is.

And now we come to my favorite part of the day.  No less than 15 people asked Landry to pose in photos with them while we were out touring.  We only saw one other African/African American all day, so I'm not sure if its the novelty or if they all think he's a famous athlete (which several people asked also).  In any case, he's going to be in lots of people's vacation photos!

Our sweet high school touring friends, April and Atiya

After the temple we made a brief stop for lunch and had nasi goreng (fried rice) and sweet grilled fish, probably the best meal I had thus far on the trip.

Couldn't resist also posting the aftermath.

Then we were off to Prambanan. The grounds of Prambanan actually house four different temples.  Prambanan Temple itself was also built in the 9th century and is a large Hindu temple.

The largest, center temple at Prambanan is dedicated to Siwa (Shiva), pictured here

I'm pretty sure this is inappropriate, but also couldn't resist

Took this photo to show how the stones shift over time.  There are several temples under restoration and many, many more in crumbles as you can see from the photos.

By the time we got back to our apartment, packed up for our departure and had dinner I was absolutely exhausted and was in bed before 9pm.  Now it's 5am and I'm again feverishly typing, trying to get this out before we hop in the car to the airport where we'll be off for the vacation leg of our trip in Bali!

This is our driver, Supri, who was wonderful, friendly, amazing!  If you're ever in Yogya, please WhatsApp him for transportation!