Yogyakarta is still under rule by a sultan.\u00a0 So, the next morning I decided to pay a visit to his palace, which is located near the city center and open to tours.\u00a0 Despite it being very hot out, I decided to walk.\u00a0 Along the way I met a German couple who were also there to see the palace.\u00a0 Unfortunately, we were informed that the temple was closed that morning to visitors, but the extremely helpful employee proceeded to spend 10 minutes providing advice on other areas to explore and see during our visit.\u00a0 Highly recommended was a visit to the Balik Art School, where they teach Balik style art and sell student work at discounted prices.\u00a0 Yogyakarta is riddled with art galleries mascarading as art schools, so this employee helped flag down a becak (bicycle powered rickshaw) and arranged for the drivers to take us to the school.\u00a0 He also got us the local price for our transport … 50 cents for a ride which took about 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
The art school was really cool.\u00a0 The German couple and I were shown to where the students were, and the employees working there explained\u00a0 how the art is designed and developed.\u00a0 We were then invited to purchase the artwork.\u00a0 I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t spend an hour there to buy several pieces of art.\u00a0 Although this is the beginning of my trip and so space is an issue, the artwork is done on canvas, and taken out of the frame it takes up very little space.\u00a0 It is worth noting that many people will try to trick you into thinking a local art gallery is the art school.\u00a0 If you are trying to get to the school, it is located Northwest of Sultan’s palace, somewhat near JL.\u00a0 Letjend Suprapto.<\/p>\n
From there, I headed to a castle called the Water Castle, located adjacent to the Sultan’s temple.\u00a0 I met an employee outside responsible cleaning the grounds in the morning and evening, who was off for the afternoon, and negotiated an hour long tour with him (cost – $0.50).\u00a0 It was really interesting to tour the beautiful grounds.\u00a0 I was stopped several times by locals touring the grounds who wanted to get a picture with me.\u00a0 This is actually something that has happened a lot during my time in Indonesia.\u00a0 My guide explained that Indonesian’s love American music, and that was one reason they wanted to take a picture with me.\u00a0 The culture is somewhat status oriented, so I think perhaps that is also a motivator behind wanting to take a picture with an American, given the wealth of our country relative to Indonesia.<\/p>\n
That evening I went to see the Ramayana at the Purawisata theater, who’s claim to fame is being in the Indonesia Guiness Book of World Record for performing the Ramayana ballet every night continuously for 29 years.\u00a0 The Ramayana ballet is a foundational, non-religious story for 1.5 billion people and goes a long way in explaining the art and architecture of much of Southeast Asia.\u00a0 The open theater design and enchanting, ornate costumes added to the historical feeling of the ballet.<\/p>\n
Overall a great introduction to the history and beauty of Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
Itinerary Highlights<\/span> Lessons Learned<\/span> Have you ever toured around a new city with strangers?\u00a0 Why or why not?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yogyakarta is still under rule by a sultan.\u00a0 So, the next morning I decided to pay a visit to his palace, which is located near the city center and open to tours.\u00a0 Despite it being very hot out, I decided to walk.\u00a0 Along the way I met a German couple who were also there to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indonesia","category-itinerary","category-touring-around","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\n
\n–Balik Art School
\n–Water Castle
\n–Ramayana at Purawisata theater<\/p>\n
\n–When you are traveling, it is appropriate to start talking to random fellow travelers when out and about touring (i.e. the German couple I met)
\n–If someone asks to take a picture of you while traveling, the nice thing to do is say yes.\u00a0 Bonus is that you can usually get a picture with them for yourself as well
\n–Don’t see the Ramayana ballet after being in the sun all day … or you may get very sleepy for the performance as I did!<\/p>\n