Java Journeys – Day 1: Yogyakarta

July 27, 2024

I spent a restless night at my hotel in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport. I woke up almost every hour fearing that my alarm wouldn’t go off, until eventually it was so close to the time I had set that I simply got up and started preparing for my flight. My plane arrived in Yogyakarta a little after nine, but the Grab journey from the airport to the city centre took another hour.

My priority was to reach the Royal Palace of Yogyakarta as soon as possible, since I had read that the complex hosts gamelan performances between ten and twelve. When I reached the main entrance, however, I was told by some of the idlers that the palace was closed for renovations. This seemed a little off to me, but the main entrance was indeed barred. I did not lose hope though. Hesitantly at first, then purposefully, I strolled southwards until I arrived at what I knew had to be another entrance and found it open. Once I had paid and made it inside, I just managed to catch the end of the gamelan performance accompanying a choreographed dance. I was surprised that unlike a lot of non-Western music, it was very easy for me to follow: the melody gravitated towards the tonic and indeed ended on it.

There was not much else to see in the palace beside a few courtyards and statues. Yogyakarta’s real architectural wonder is the Taman Sari Water Castle, named thus for its fountain-filled pools, which are flanked by archways carrying the giant round faces of divine beings. The complex was built by the first sultan of the Yogyakarta Sultanate in the late 18^th century; its European influences – ascertainable from the shape of the towers and tympani or the use of stucco – are owed to the architect’s visits to Batavia, which was then under Dutch rule. Interestingly, the Yogyakarta Sultanate still exists within the Republic of Indonesia, and the royal family continues to exercise a ceremonial role.

Following these two stops, I made a longer tour around the historical centre along what I assume must have been the city’s walls. In the south, the historic centre can be reached through a big white gate called Plengkung Gading. Following the road westwards, one can reach Pojok Benteng Kulon, the fortified southwestern corner of the battlements. The northwestern corner of the battlements seems to be at Jokteng Lor, from whence the road leads back nicely both to the palace and to the palace mosque, which remains open.

For the last leg of today’s journey, I headed north along the popular Malioboro Street. At its beginning, I visited the Vredeburg Museum, a collection (largely of dioramas) relating to Indonesia’s struggle for independence. In an apt rebuke to Indonesia’s erewhile colonisers, the museum is actually a repurposed Dutch fortress. After crossing the train tracks, the road became a little less touristy, but it led me unfailingly to the Yogyakarta Monument, a white pillar with golden details originally erected in 1775. After eating a late lunch by the monument, I took a Grab car to my hotel near Borobudur.