Yogyakarta Attractions
Jogja can be the launching pad for side trips to several temple antiquities, a sacred beach, a silversmithing area, a pottery crafts village, and an active volcano. Near the center of the city is the Royal Palace or Kraton, numerous museums and other interesting and historic places.
Borobudur
Borobudur is the most famous temple antiquity, and is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. This World Heritage Site is about 90-minutes away by car to the north and makes a perfect one-day side trip from Jogja. Besides being a major tourist attraction, it is also the site for the yearly Buddhist Vaisak spiritual celebration, which is well worth seeing. Future dates: 17 May 2011, 4 June 2012, 24May 2013 and 13 May2014.
Prambanan
This is another large temple complex with dozens of temples, much closer to Jogja than Borobudur, just to the east of the city. Several of the temples are currently being restored after suffering some damage from an earthquake in 2006. Within a 15 km radius of this spot there are at least 30 other minor temple sites, remains from the Hindu-Buddhist era of around 1000 years ago. The entire area of central Java was abandoned around the 11th century after a series of major volcanic eruptions, and the area was almost completely depopulated for several hundred years.
Yogja City
In the city the Kraton Royal Palace is certainly the most important place to visit. It has several museums associated with it, including the Royal Coach Museum. It is the home of the present tenth Sultan, who is also the governor of the region.
Adjacent to the Kraton is the Taman Sari Watercastle, built in 1750 by the first Sultan, and restored in recent years. It is a candidate World Heritage Site.
The Kraton has a large open square immediately to the north, and this space becomes the center of a huge yearly celebration, the Sekaten Festival, which culminates with special ceremonies involving the Kraton palace on the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. For 3-4 weeks before this date the square is the site of a large, night market festivity. (The approximate dates for Sekaten coming up are 16.02.2011, 05.02.2012, 27.01.2013, 16.01.2014.)
Kotagede in the southeastern part of town is where silver crafts abound. Local craftsmen have mastered amazing techniques to form intricate and beautiful objects from silver. This is certainly worth visiting. Some gallery shops let you watch the craftsmen at work.
Parangtritis Beach
Not far from the city is Parangtritis Beach. This area is the home of the mythical Queen of the South Sea, Roro Kidul, who is regarded as having a spiritual connection to the Sultan, one of the sources of his power. The Indian Ocean pounds ashore here with great fury and it is far too dangerous for swimming. When looking south out to the sea you should realize that there is nothing but open sea until you reach Antarctica. This view overlooks the very deep Java Trench where the Australian plate slides under the Eurasian Plate. That subduction zone is the agent responsible for the presence of over 150 volcanoes all over Indonesia, a nation having more volcanoes than any other in the world.
To the south of Jogja somewhat on the way to Parangtritis beach is the Kasongan crafts village, which specializes in ceramics and pottery, but also has many other handicrafts in its many shops.
Mount Merapi
The Mount Merapi volcano looming over the city to the north has rather regular minor eruptions about every 3-5 years, but in 2010 it had a significantly large eruption, the largest since 1930. At Ketep Pass there is a museum that shows a film about the mountain, its eruptions and about volcanoes in general. It is not too far from Borobudur, so the two can be combined to make a single day trip, if volcanoes are of interest. This is an unusual volcano, quite unlike most other in Indonesia, in that one of its more sinister traits is to belch out dense, hot gas clouds that roll down the slopes. It is one of the most intensely monitored volcanoes in the country.