In Reply to: Yogyakarta Questions posted by Foster_patton on Wednesday, 28. July 2004 at 21:44 Bali Time:
We were in Yogya recently.Found it easier to hire a car from the hotel for the trip to Borobudur.We stayed in the Garuda hotel on the main drag and cost of the car was 200000rp.The drive ther was around 1 hour with a kamikaze driver and once there the entrance fee for tourists is 90000rp (only 7000) for locals and hired a guide there for 40000rp. That was probably a good idea as he was able to explain the history of the temple which was quite interesting and as we progressed onward and upwards gave us the stories of the carvings until we reached the top and were "enlightened"
There are heaps of drivers around all too willing to take you places but we stuck to the hotel car.We personally were not impressed one bit with Yogya and couldn't wait to get out.Having said that we are 2 "older ladies" and we weren't that game on wandering too far by ourselves especially at night.The locals were very friendly but we appeared to be the local tourist attraction.At Borobudur people kept stopping us to take our photo.Our guide said it was because we had white skin and looked like "ghosts" and had big noses.That sent us into hysterics as neither of us could be accused of having a big nose.Hope this is of some help.