Day 13:  21 May – Day 5 in Java, move to Yogyakarta

(RC) Moving day – from here to Yogyakarta.  Roni drove us and it was a nice, leisurely 2-3 hour drive, stopped by a couple more temples.  The city of Yogyakarta has about 500,000 people.  It is the provisional capital and is led by a Sultan.  Sultans generally have no political power (except in Yogyakarta).  They often function as mediators and have a significant wealth accumulation as the result of their position.  There is also a raja (king) that is primarily a ceremonial position, though they sometime delve into political issues.  Somewhat like the royals of Great Britain.  The rajas are generally revered by the locals. 

We arrived at the Phoenix Hotel in the heart of the city.  It is a very nice hotel, but in a much more congested city setting than our previous hotel.  The Phoenix is more like a traditional hotel, but still very nice. It’s a sprawling property with many services.  Beanie will fill in some of the details.  We walked to a very nice local microbrewery (that’s right – I said microbrewery!) 15 minutes from the hotel for dinner.  They are a rare find on Java. Beanie was talking to the woman who checked us in about restaurants and mentioned that I liked beer and she mentioned this brewery/restaurant.  The name was Sakapatat, which according to the bartender there translates to “Potato Party”.  The bartender is named KiKi and she was a really good sport.  I asked if they sold tee shirts.  I mean who wouldn’t want to wear a shirt that translates to Potato Party, but sadly no!  

The lovely Ms. Kiki

They had a good beer and wine selection to include draft beer which is unusual.  We had a nice meal though when Beanie ordered a small glass of wine (6 oz versus 9 oz) it got lost in the translation into a ½ bottle.  She did give it a good effort!!  As luck would have it another waitress came walking in with a kitten.  Well that just topped off the evening – good food, good drink, AND a kitty fix.

Really, pretty self explanatory. Beanie kissing a stray cat - move along!

(KC) In conjunction with the drive to Yogyakarta, Roni took us to two other temples in Borobudur and also a Buddhist Monastery.  The two temples were built at the same time as Borobudur Temple, though on a very much smaller scale.  We visited Pawan Temple first, then Mendut Temple.  All three temples follow in a straight line and its believed that at one time there was a paved road flanked by walls leading between the temples. 

The Pawan Temple 

Hard to capture how much work & detail went into rebuilding and restoring.

A pretty raucous crowd at Pawan - video would have captured more, like a soccer crowd cheering

Does the Mendut Temple make me look fat?  

Inside the Mundut Temple -the statues were in pretty good shape - out of the weather 

(KC) We visited the Buddhist Monastery next; its relatively new and it’s temples looked like replicas of parts of Angkor Wat in Cambodia though much smaller.  

The avenue of stupas

Sleeping Buddha

This looked like it was made with genuine gold leaf

Picture 1 of one of the temple buildings

Close up to do it justice

Very similar to what we saw in Cambodia at Angkor Wat

This is the top of the structure - four faces. You can see how hard it is to keep nature away

We had never seen this kind of statue before in Thailand or Cambodia - Beanie liked it

Cannot keep a poser down - they had a videographer filming their walk up to this point!!

(KC) It was late afternoon when we got to Yogyakarta.  We stayed at The Phoenix Hotel.  I’ve read about this hotel in trip reports for at least 20 years so knew we would want to stay there. Its located in a central part of the city on a very busy street but it felt like a bit of an oasis since the main building was three stories, U shaped with a courtyard and pool area in the middle and set back from the street by other buildings.  The balconies opened up onto the courtyard/pool area.  The hotel was built in 1918 by a rich Chinese merchant as a private residence.  The mansion was converted into a hotel in the 1930s and after Indonesian Independence the building was temporarily used as the mansion of the Chinese consul, before becoming a hotel again in 1951.  Through the years it has belonged to a number of different hotel groups and is currently part of the Accor Group, a French company.  It has both Asian and European elements.  Our third floor suite facing the pool was very comfortable and we loved sitting out on the balcony in the evenings. The hotel was charming and everything worked (I’m looking at YOU Four Points by Sheraton in Singapore!).  I loved that much of the original furniture and artifacts were still on display.  All the stained glass windows were beautiful and gave the hotel a warm glow during the day and at night.  They provided a very diverse buffet breakfast and Randy really enjoyed trying all the different ethnic foods here, especially the soups.  I stuck mostly to Western food.  I love that all the buffets on this trip had both extensive fruit and salad tables.  Every morning I had both a big fruit plate and a big salad, followed by the usual eggs, bacon, etc.  Needless to say, we always skipped lunch.  

Pretty cool night ambience 

The colonial lines begin at the entrance and permeate the entire property

Open air dining was popular - its set up for breakfast buffet - note the stained glass windows

Walkway/dining area adjacent to the pool area left - again, nice stained glass windows

Beautiful pool - not that we actually used it! Our room in back, left, 3rd floor balcony

Same pool - night shot

One of the original sitting areas when it was a residence - original furnishings

Another sitting area

Dolls, puppets, & other figurines fill every nook & cranny - just what is a cranny??

More figurines

More puppets - Beanie loves the Indonesian puppets

Accommodations - yet another 45th Wedding Anniversary welcome - looks like a cruise ship!

Living room area

The cake was really, really good

(KC) Here's a few photos taken from the balcony on one side of the hotel.  The hotel is only 3 stories  high.  As you can see from the photos Yogyakarta is a smallish city and no high rises that we saw.  

A small cemetery beside the hotel

City view # 1

And city view #2 with mosque (very quiet) featured

Here's a couple of day to day travel modes and of course the always popular tourist horse and carriage.

The Park Ave equivalent horse and carriage

The most common transportation mode - carries up to five!!

(KC)  We had two options for golf.  One course was a 15 minute drive from the hotel, next to the old airport, the other course was a 45 minute drive up into the surrounding hills with a good view of Mt. Merapi and better reviews.  After talking to the front desk we had them arrange a tee time for the next day at the Merapi Golf Course and also arrange for a taxi to take us there and back.         

 Day 14:  22 May – Day 6 in Java

(RC) Golf day – seemed hard to arrange.  Definitely spoiled not having a butler but turned out okay.  Ended up playing at Merapi Golf Course Merapi Golf .  The golf course was really a nice surprise.  In good shape at the base of Mt. Merapi, one of the most active volcanoes in the world.  When we were here visiting Indonesia (Bali) in 2011, we had earthquakes caused by this volcano that shook our villa in Ubud.  Little scary, but I think it was the first time I experienced an earthquake. Beanie was unfazed.

I had a very good caddy.  She told me her name, but it was like seven syllables, all consonants, and I just couldn’t get the pronunciation correct.  The course was wide open, we rolled up around 1100, first tee 15 minutes later, only saw three other groups, and didn’t wait all day.  It’s hard to imagine a more scenic place to play golf.  That being said the greens were batshit crazy, rolling about 25 on the downhill, 3 on the uphill, and 12-15 on the sidehill.  Here are some pics of the course.  We could have taken a dozen pics on every hole and still not captured how beautiful it was.  

Drive up to the very ornate gold themed club house

Clearly they were expecting me, I mean, when you arrive with  "all of this!" going on

Very nice reception area

I asked if I could take their pic and BOOM - they stood up and pose mode!!  Very nice and friendly!

Panorama of the course and starting area. 

This was very, very close to a green in regulation

You're sure the hole goes in this direction??

Beanie wanted to show the beauty of the course - I just see another penalty area!!

This gives you a good idea of how dense the jungle is around the course

I mean really!  Is this a great looking hole or what??

More Beanie beauty shots

Yet another beauty shot!

Good combo of jungle, bamboo, palms, and cactus!

And no, I don't know why the caddy is wearing golf gloves!

That night we decided to eat at the hotel in their bar.  It was a casual setting with a pool table. It’s one of the skills where the older I get the better I was.  It was fun to play around with it.  Also, there was a very young, new bartender. I ordered a Manhattan, and the glassy eyed response told me it was time for some advanced training.  Once again, we were a bit product challenged but we had a good time muddling through it.  I wish I had grabbed a pic!

(KC)  What a nice day at the golf course.  It was a beautiful drive into the hills, the clubhouse and the course were very nice and the course is stunningly beautiful.  While we were in Borobudur, we never got a clear look at the peak of Mt. Merapi because of the clouds and the smoke from the volcano.  We lucked out here and the mountain was in clear view though it had clouded up by the 8^th or 9^th hole.  We were closer to it here as well. 

Mt Merapi (live volcano) - clear shot early in the day

Shot 1 of the 10th hole. Volcano in the background & no, that is not a cell tower left center

Shot 2 - almost takes on a links feel with some bunker design

Close up of smoke coming out of the volcano

And then the cloud cover comes in and it's almost gone

(KC) It was late when we got back to the hotel so we decided to eat dinner in the hotel bar.  It was fun playing pool and also watching Randy teach the pretty, young bartender how to make a Manhattan.  It was especially interesting because she spoke very little English but they managed quite well! 

Day 15:  23 May – Day 7 in Java

(RC) Templemania – Beanie will describe today’s adventures. Our hotel driver to the temples was a young man named FaFa.  He told us that Bapak, which I had been called several times in Indonesia, meant literally father but also sir or respected older man. I asked what the term for a woman is in Indonesian.  I thought he said Ubu.  So I looked it up to see how it was spelled and the online translation was “ugly, but useful”!  Well that only left two explanations, FaFa was a butthead or the spelling was incorrect.  The spelling is actually Ibu and it literally translates to “mother” but is used to denote “ a woman that is older or higher in position than the speaker.”  We went with that definition.  FaFa called Beanie Ibu.  The other rather humorous note is under the definition of Ubu, the example was “a badly hit golf shot that ends up being good”.  It’s almost as good as the Wednesday Golf Group name, we call it a “Breck”!

That evening we went looking for a local restaurant called the Rooster and Bear, or so we thought.  We found our way there only to find out it’s actually the Roaster and Bear.  Lots of bear pics on the wall, but no wine.  We excused ourselves and headed back to the hotel and had dinner in the bar again.  There was a different bartender this night and I gave him lessons on the making of a Manhattan also.  Beanie & I split yet another good club sandwich for dinner and headed back to the room.  After huge breakfasts on this trip, we’re often not that hungry in the evening. 

(KC)  For the Java potion of our trip, I had originally booked 5 nights in Borobudur and 2 nights in Yogyakarta.  About a month before our trip, I realized there was a temple complex very near our hotel in Yogyakarta that I wanted to see (notice I said “I” not “we”, but I’m pretty sure Randy enjoyed it too).  So changed our stay in Borobudur to 4 nights and 3 nights in Yogyakarta.  So glad we did!  I loved the Prambanan Temple Complex.  Like the Borobudur Temple, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It was also built in the 800s but is a Hindu temple, the second largest in Southeast Asia after Angkor Wat.  Angkor Wat was originally built as a Hindu temple but later became a Buddhist temple, so has architectural similarities between both.  We could definitely see architectural similarities between Prambanan and Angkor Wat.  It is a huge complex and unfortunately, we only had time to see the main (largest) temple complex.  There are 2 others.  The grounds were beautifully landscaped and in addition to the temples, there were parks for kids and an archery area where families were shooting at targets.  I don’t know the terminology for archery, obviously!  But we did find out that it is a very popular sport in parts of Indonesia, for both men and women.  Once again we tried to save time by exiting at the Entrance – and once again we were politely told to go to the Exit – but, but, we could see our taxi in the parking lot from the Entrance and we were late for two more stops!  Nope, no way we were getting out the Entrance.  We quickly walked to the Exit (only getting lost once) and made our way through what seemed like blocks and blocks of stalls selling tourist stuff before we made our way outside and to the taxi.  Here are some pictures of this beautiful temple and park area: 

Is it just me or does this sign look like it should be to a golf course vs a religious site - Ah, same thing!!

Large and sprawling grounds & this is just one of the 3 complexes - we could've spent
 several more hours here

This gives you some idea of just how much has NOT been restored. Acres of rocks and figures.

Probably at least a dozen or so completely restored structures

Provides some sense of scale

I think they will rename this temple in my name - send your inputs to Beanie!

You could go inside many of the temples and they each had a statue of the
god the temple was built for 

Very dark inside, but helps to preserve

A few closer shots to show the detail.  Some repetition in the figures

Popular theme of part human - part animal/bird/dragon, etc

Very animal centric

The tree of life

Another carving reminiscent of Angkor Wat in Cambodia

Buddha - or I could just be making this stuff up!! (KC) Its a Hindu temple so he IS making stuff up!

Okay, last one . . . I mean it!

Well maybe one or two more

Last one - really! It looks like he's looking right at you.

See, this is just a bird!

(KC) Next stop, the Sultan’s Palace.  At first I felt like we should’ve skipped this since you don’t actually have access to the Sultan’s Palace, just the buildings beside it that are used for ceremonial occasions and small museums.  However, there was one building that made the stop worthwhile.  It showcased many of the royal family’s place settings and tea sets over the years. Phyllis, we figured you’d really enjoy seeing these.  Maybe contact the Sultan if he needs some help locating some lost/broken pieces?!  

Very similar to our Thanksgiving layout

Growing up this would have fed our entire family of five!

The cool part for this set is it's in use in the old black and white background photo

Closer shot of the same set

The tea cup collection

Much more of an Asian feel

Pick your poison

(KC) Here are a few pictures of the grounds and buildings of the palace open for visitors. There was also a very large Indonesian orchestra playing while we were there. They were excellent.  So now that I think about it, this really was a worthwhile stop!

One of the areas off limits to tourist -thinking maybe that's where the bar is

This  is an outside festival area, polished marble, and impressively large

Hard to believe they used to cart the big guys around in this tiny, very uncomfy little box

Same box - different perspective

This was the "Orchestra" - all ancient instruments to include actual hammers

Here's a short video of the orchestra in action.  Enlarge once it's open and adjust volume.

Same as above except this is a really good dancer that we came in on the last part of her performance.  You can capture the gist of the performance. Too bad we missed the first part!

(KC) We missed the dance but this is how the dancer exited the stage.  We also saw the audience who were also sitting on a portion of the stage, exit the stage this way also.

Yes, "The Dancer"

(KC) We enjoyed the next stop too  - The Water Castle (Taman Sari).  It sounds like something to avoid at all costs doesn’t it?!  But no, it’s not a water park with slides and a million kids running around.  Though most of it is gone now, it was used as a garden, bath, resting area and also escape route (tunnels) for the Sultan and his family.  Its still beautiful and you can imagine it when the rooms were filled with tapestries and cushions for lounging.  The walls are very thick so the rooms are cooler than the outside air.  

Entrance to the Water Castle

One of the many pool areas

Off course the obligatory creature to protect everything

Another of the pool areas - duplicate pools, side by side

Yes another pool with a Beanie water feature

One of the out buildings - huge, thick walls which kept it pretty cool

Another Beanie water feature heading into the pool

You can see how thick the walls are in this pic

Another view

Man, these Indonesian chicks love them some tall, old, white, wrinkled eye candy eh!!

(KC) The gal tucked into Randy's rights side (you can barely see her) was the ring leader of this happy group of ladies.  She ask him they could get a picture of all of them with him.  Not me!

We had dinner at the hotel again since our restaurant choice was a bust (Roaster and Bear).  It’s been a very enjoyable stay in Java.  Looking forward to Bali tomorrow.