Yogyakarta Hotels - Reviews and Rates

My last night in Lombok was on market day. Nina made an incredible feast of fried squid and tempeh, spinach, kampung chicken, and urap-urap. It was, without question, the finest meal I ever ate. Check out the pics. I had settled in to Lombok and it was sad to leave my new friends--Greg, Willie, Nina, Indah, and Citi. Flew to Surabaya-- I have no...

I thought I'd tell you a bit about some of the work I've been doing. There are three organisations I am working with, and two are in Solo, but Matahariku (based in Yogya) are the most active. I've already spent quite a lot of time with people from Matahariku, visiting schools and going to various events in order to get a better idea of what the ...

Finally an update! It has been hard to find a reliable and fast internet connection close to where I have been staying. When I am connected I am often doing research for my trip, which is why blog updates have been few and far between. My travel plans have changed quite a bit, and I am now staying in Jogja (officially "Yogyakarta") longer than o...

Who am I? If I was living here on Rp10.000 a day, who would I be? I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few days. Would I be working in the rice fields? Would I be reclining on one of Yogya's million becaks - rickshaws - trying to entice a passing tourist to use my services? Would I would be one of those people I see with a handkerch...

Things started looking up a couple of days ago and have continued to get better, so you'll be glad to hear (I hope!) that I think I can now say I'm out of my slump. We took an executive train from Bandung to Yogya (as it's affectionately known) which was less 'executive' than we might have hoped, but we had relatively comfortable seats, were ser...

Thr final day of batiking and I finally feel like I at least have a minimal grasp of the medium. The past four days have been both challenging and enjoyable. So fun, in fact, I can see myself continuing to batik in America. Something very therepuetic about all the hot wax... We also had a critique of everyone's work. Our instructors were all pre...

Another day full of temple visits. This time we just visited the Prambanan complex. Our goal was to get into see the famous Siwa temple (locally known as the Loro Jonggrang temple), one way or another. We came prepared with a letter from the office of antiquities in Jogja giving us permission. The temples had been damaged in the earthquake and s...

My friend in Yogya does marketing for a farm machinery company. Their main product is a rice field tractor. I remember an old episode of Star Trek where Kirk and Spock have to find McCoy in Depression era America, and Kirk explains the Vulcan's ears as the result of a childhood accident with an automated rice picker. I think this is what they ha...

Finally I convinced Jon that we had enough strength to fly out of Bali (unfortunately not seeing more of the island due to my fading visa). So after 40 minutes in the air, 2 buses, a delay in Probolingo (due to a con-tour agent) and a further hour in a bemo we arrived to the fresh 2000m air of Ceromo Lawang in time for dinner. (Unfortunately I o...