08:25 When all the necessary got done in Jakarta, it was time to wipe off the big city dust and head off to nature. You will get used to the city comforts again and oo how I don’t like these huge polluted metropols.
Yogyakarta is absolutely amazing place, there is so much to too and see – Unfortunately we had only two days to get a glimpse of Jogja. Would suggest having at least a week or more, to see all the known and hidden gems.
There are a lot of options for accommodation in and around Yogyakarta: Check Airbnb or Booking.com. We ended up staying in a homestay, which although was far from luxury and looked quite old, warn out here and there, was actually really cozy and fully booked every day 🙂 Hosts were very welcoming and spoke English.
There are two options to get around Yogyakarta:
1) Rent on Van with a driver for whole day (or few days). This would definitely be the most comfortable option, but Jogja is still a large city with bad traffic and getting around with motorcycle is a lot faster. The van costs around 400 000-600 000 a day and the more people, the better the deal for you.
2) Rent a motorcycle – Cheap and fast alternative – But be warned, traffic is crazy and dangerous. You must be a good driver, aware of the situation. You should have international driving license or tourist license made to legally drive around Indonesia! Price for a scooter is about 50-70k a day in Jogja. For that we got a brand new and powerful bike, with enough room for two of us 🙂
There is a lot to do, so I point out few cool things we did and one that we wish we could have done.
1) Visit Borobudur Buddhist temple – Supposedly the world largest. It is few hours ride from Yogyakarta and easily doable with your scooter. You have two options: Do the sunrise tour or visit at random time. Ofcourse a lot of people choose the sunrise option, making it way too crowded to really enjoy the peaceful vibes, but it is still beautiful. The price was rather steep 400 000 idr per person, but at least you get a small and very expensive (but cool) gift in the end 🙂
2) Take your bike and look through all the numerous waterfalls – Some of them are on most of the lists, what makes them crowded and expensive ticket wise. But if you have time to look around, there are several cool places, where there is absolutely nobody and you only have to pay parking fee. Unfortunate that I don’t remember the exact location, but it is east from Yogyakarta.
3) Canting Mas Puncak Dipowono – Near to Kalibiru National Park is an abandoned adventure park. You will find a lot of platforms to climb and take cool picture – all of that for free and nobody else in sight. Great alternative to Kalibiru 🙂
Now the thing I wish we could have done, because it just seems so cool. We really wanted to visit Jomblang Cave, to see the majestity of this large cave. As it is in remote location, daily visitors are limited and you need to get in with lowered by rope.
It takes a full day to get there, wander around and get back. It’s suggested to make a booking in advance, so you don’t ride there to just find out, that it is fully booked.
We also visited some of the places, that are in most of the lists and did not find them very interesting to point out here. But it all comes to your taste and what one likes, other might find boring.
Our time in Yogje was way too short to discover all of it, but at least we had few cool action packed days cruising around the beautiful mountain roads. Back your back, off to Bali!