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In Jogja (which is the nickname of this city - pronounced Jog -Ja) I hired a jeep from these two guys (Ketut in the green top and Wayan with the specs) who were going to be my driver and tour guide to do the Perapi Volcano trip, and also sights around the city of Jogja itself.
First stop is the Water Castle which was a little disappointing because they drained all the water out of the pools to clean and refurbish the place. It needed it badly, and I would have loved to have gone back to see results, but I never got around to it.
The entrace to the Water Castle, beautiful intricately carved solid concrete.
One of the many side entrances to the courtyard, this are is usually full of water. As you can see, it was in need of some serious cleaning and painting.
I went up to the window of this building which overlooks the pools in the courtyard.
This is me sitting on the window sill of the building on the previous photo, which looks down to the pools of the centre courtyard.
This is the centre courtyard which should all be pools of water with beautiful pots of plants all around. If you can imagine, with the water, goldfish, plants and beautiful flowers around, this would be a stunning place.
Next stop, the bird market...not my most favorite place as I hated seeing all the beautiful birds in thousands and thousands of cages.
Here's me holding two baby owls...how I wanted to let them fly off and leave this horrid place.
Next stop, the silver factory...one of thousands as silver is one of the abundant resources in Java.
It is very hot inside this building, hence the lack of shirts on the workers.
this old guy preferred to work outside where it is much cooler.
Next stop, the Sultan's palace.
Just inside the entrance to the Sultan's palace
The public area surrounding the palace.
The lobby of the Sultan's palace, this is where distinguished guests and special visitors get to sign the visitor's book. The elaborate gold colours on the pillars are actually gold leaf. Lots of gold all over this palace.
This is a portrait of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. Did you know Indonesia has royal families?
On special occasions, the Sultan's guests are entertained by Ramayana dancers.
They wear beautiful costumes and their dances depict stories of princes and princesses and their love and of course there has to be a villain who always looks very mean...like this guy here.
Of course the Prince is the hero and always wins the Princesses hand.
The music, the costumes, the colors, the dance itself...all quite breath-taking.
Final tour of Yogyakarta is the trip to Perapi Volcano.
Climbing up to the summit of this volcano is made a little easier by these steps that have been carved on the side all the way to the top.
The humidity is unbelievable, I had to stop so many times because it was so hard to breath and the heat was incredible. You literally get saturated but you dont know if it's the humidity or your sweat.
But the view was worth it.
The end of my Yogyakarta experience, next stop is Mt Bromo near Surabaya.
Update: I found photos of the Water Castle on the net with the pools of water.
