Highs and lows at Yogyakarta

I had an October vacation planned since beginning of the year. The plan was absolutely not to make a solo trip and not to visit Indonesia. That was a spontaneous idea that conquered staying at home doing nothing. Probably you never heard of the city of Yogyakarta at the island of Java in Indonesia but it is fairly big and has 3 million people. Indonesia has over 200 million so not big for Indonesian standards but for my Scandinavian ones. I flew in from Singapore and it was a smooth 2 hour flight with Singapore airlines sister company Scoot. I been to Indonesia more times than fingers on my hands but what was new since October 2025 was that you needed to fill in an arrival card online. But the trip went very smooth. I was checking prices from the airport to the city and surprisingly the airport cab’s was cheaper than Bolt and Uber so I jumped in one of them and had a 1,5 hour nap until I reached my hotel.

I booked a middle class hotel but what was important for me was a nice pool and I was very happy with the 27 meter long rooftop pool and also the gym was good. I stayed for three nights and focus was on experience the local.

Cooking class

One day I had signed up for a cooking class. Those who knows me also know that pasta pesto is one of the most frequent cooked dishes in my kitchen and it also explains my cooking interest. Honestly I can enjoy cooking but then you have to do it as a group. We were a small group, another Swiss girl, me and the Indonesian lady that had the class in her kitchen. It was actually very fun to do everything from scratch with fresh herbs and vegetables. I enjoyed it. Also the end result was in my taste. Chicken with rice and steamed veggies. The appetizer which was some tofu I did not liked that much. For desert we had some coconut puddings which was very nice made out of raw coconut.

I got this activity recommended by a friend and could pass on the recommendation. It was also super fun to be invited to a home of a local where the daily life also went by on the side during our class.

Biketour at the countryside

After the cooking class we went on a bike tour in the suburb of Yogyakarta. It was super nice to see the local area, cows, tofu factory, rice fields, middle class living, schools, just the local authentic life at the other side of the planet. People in the area were so sweet, everyone wanted to greet us and kids got so happy to when we came riding our bikes. I got the feeling it was not so common in this area with Western tourists. If they are there are mostly Dutch due to historical reasons but it was long ago I saw the pure joy and excitement of local people when I was around as a tourist.

Temple visits

Yogyakarta has some famous temples and I enjoy seeing these local architectures and read that the Borobudur temple should be a miniature Angkor Wat so with great memories from the 42 degrees hot week in Cambodia I also had that in my mind. Its going to be a hot day. Yes, it got a hot day but no 42 degrees. Borobudur temple was beautiful but it was very arranged around tourists. You had to go with a tour guide and got certain slots for different parts of the temple. Not really my cup of tea but it was a must see.

While waiting for the slow watchers in my group I explored my photo function sitting in the shade. It was an early morning when we got picked up at 3 am in order to get to a sunrise spot.

Borobudur temple also has a half marathon if you wish to run through the site. I believe it could be a great travel combo if you are into running. After visiting the Borobudur temple we drove another hour and ended up at Prambanan temple. For me both these could be a miniature Angkor Wat together but Prambanan was mostly a steaming hot experience for me. I was very tired and walking up and down to the different towers made me think about the pool. Luckliy my co sightseeing partner from Shanghai had the same feeling so we were finished listening to our guide rather quick. Got to hear some interesting stories about the temples but then my ears was also filled with information about heritage of stones.

Batik and handcraft

In Java you can find a lot of handcraft and especially Batik. I love handcrafted items and enjoy a lot to go to markets where local products are made. If I had one more day I would been taking a batik course. Not because I am good at arts and craft but rather I like it. But due to time constraint I only went to a gallery to watch and get a crash course in how to made batik. Was very interesting. Then I spent the evening at the local shopping street Marlborough street which is a paradise for shoppers. A lot of stores and life. I loved this place and could easily brought with me a full suitcase with nice stuff but I limited myself to a new handbag and some wooden items.

Local market visit

Among my top things to do in Asia is also to visit local markets and try food there. Taiwan is my number one, Seoul my second favorite. The Yogyakarta one was very nice to see and to try a few things. The local coffee for example Kopi Jos was super interesting. A burning piece of charcol was put into it and it tasted very good. I also had some ginger tea or soup which was very fresh. But they have a lot and I mean a lot of sugar in everything so you need to order without sugar if you don’t want a sugar high.

Sunrise terrace

The same day as I went for the temple visits I was also on a sunrise hike. I would not call it a hike because it was around 700 meters walking one way but it was nice to see the sunrise over the temples with Java vulcanos in the background. I learnt one of them erupted 10 days earlier so you could see it but we were not that lucky this time. We got a medium good sunrise and a very nice tasting morning coffee. If it was worth getting up 3 am for? yes.

That was a bit of what I did during my days in Java and Yogyakarta. In between I also had plenty of time to relax, swim, read books and have holiday. Hope I could inspire to a trip to Java and Yogyakarta because it is a place worth visiting if you want an authentic Indonesian experience away from tourist crowds.

/ Pernilla that had some interesting days in Java