I’m alive in Yogyakarta in central Java.
I did the most dangerous thing on my trip today. I flew an Indonesian discount airline. The flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta was $29 with taxes. The plane was packed, and they fly pretty much on the hour.
Pramabanan and Borobudur are the two big ruins nearby. Either of those would be the defining sites in any other country. Why they aren’t better known is beyond me. If they were in Bali, I have a feeling they would have been on the Seven Wonders of the World ballot.
Tomorrow I’ll be exploring Yogyakarta, then on Friday I’ll be going to Borobudur for sunrise.
The infrastructure for tourism here seems larger than the actual number of tourists. I think the Bali bombing years ago has effected this area and it still hasn’t bounced back totally.
I’m writing this at a tiny road side internet cafe with three computers. Food here is cheap. You can easily get a good meal for $2.
I’ll have to get to bed early the next two nights if I’m going to actually see sunrise.
i really marvel at your travels and photos. goodluck on all your trips. :-)
Both the Bali bombing and the tsunami gave Indonesia a bad name for tourism. Which is a bit odd, because the tourist area that got badly hit in the tsunami was in Thailand, but Indonesia was badly hit as well, so it sort of got mixed together.
Australia is one of the main sources of tourists for that region, so the continuing saga of the Bali nine being brought up in the news all the time doesn’t help either.