I had the opportunity to take a training course for work in Yogyakarta this last week. I stayed at the Sheraton hotel which had large rooms and amazing grounds. The hotel had an unusual arrangement of having the lobby on the top floor, but it did make for scenic views.
This structure seems more Central American than Indonesian, but its still impressive.
I decided to fly out on Saturday evening so I could explore some the area's famous sights. I opted to do an 8 hour tour starting at 3:30 am so I could see the sun rise over the world's largest Buddhist monument called Borobudur and then explore the world's tallest Hindu temple called Prambanan.
I had a driver from the hotel send me over to the sites and paid about $25 USD to get into Borobudur (It is over $30 if you are a foreigner without a work permit). The sun rise was quite scenic and you can see the volcano Merapi in the distance which blew last in 2010. Luckily, only about 20 people got their early enough to the see the sun rise. It was really neat to experience the quiet of the early morning in such an old structure. But after 7:00 am, the tour buses started rolling in... and I left. :)
I headed back to Yogya and saw some Hindu temples.
Prambanan temple was pretty busy when I went, so I had a tour guide tell me all about it instead of just exploring on my own. At $8 for an english speaking guide and $3 entrance fee (with KITAS), it was definitely worthwhile.
This is Sewu Temple which was nearby Prambanan, but saw very little traffic and didn't cost anything once you paid to see Prambanan. I did splurge to rent a bicycle for $1 as the other temples are on the other side of the complex.
The Hindu temples in particular still needed a lot of work to finish them as earthquakes and scavengers have taken their toll over the last 1000+ years.
Overall, I had an amazing tour and was even lucky enough to catch an earlier flight back to Jakarta. What a full day!
