In Reply to: Hi cliff posted by pkt on Friday, 12. November 2004 at 17:20 Bali Time:
Depending on the flight schedules, if there's enough time left in the day, it might be worth going to Prambanan straight from the Airport, as it's on the same side of the city and isn't too far away.
If you are returning to Bali, it might be worth seeing if you can stash most of your luggage at your Bali hotel and just take enough clothes for a few days in a backpack to Yogya. Then you can travel light and leave your bags at the office when you get to Prambanan and pick them up on the way out.
After Prambanan, look for white people who will probably already have a driver and ask them for a lift into town. Failing that, the bus costs 2000rp (turn right at the exit and walk about 500 meters... the stop is across the road from the police box... ask the police, just to be sure). The bus will take you to a terminal in Yogya that's pretty much out of the way, but a taxi will take into town for no more than 15,000rp.
December is a fairly quiet time in Yogya, so you should have your pick of hotels.
After a night o' fun and a good rest, spend the next day shopping or seeing some of the sights around town. There's a handy little book that's almost written in English and fits in your pocket and is available at pretty much every hotel for 10,000rp that will give you plenty of options.
The Kraton (Sultan's palace) has some good stuff, but in off-season, a lot of it can only be seen from a distance, and for every thing of interest, you'll have to endure a hard sell of batik or wayung kulit puppets. However, the prices aren't that bad, and if you're doing some Christmas shopping anyway, it might be of interest. (I'm not much of a shopper, so my opinions on people trying to sell things are biased).
Things are cheap in Yogya. If you want to shop in Bali, check out what's in Yogya first, coz it will be about half the price you pay in Bali. Obviously, Bali has some things Yogya doesn't.
The shadow puppet shows are interesting, but are in Indonesian, so interest can wane after a while.
In off-season, most of the museums close at 1pm. As a late riser, I haven't seen many of them. From what I've seen, if they pooled all the stuff into one building, they'd have an essential can't-miss-it display. As it is, museums are lucky-dip.
Parangtritis is not worth the trip for the beach. But the surrounding scenery is awesome, and if you can find the meditation caves, it's worth a look. But that will take most of the day.
Mt Merapi is gorgeous. If you're a golfer, play the course (if you have time). Mid week prices should be no more than AU$40-50 including shoe and club hire.
The reason I suggest seeing Prambanan one day, then doing other stuff the next, and seeing Borobudur just before you leave is because both Prambanan and Borobudur are so awesome that if you see them on consecutive days (or, god forbid, on the same day, as some tours seem hell-bent on doing) the impact is lost and they blur into one. Prambanan is slightly less spectacular (in my opinion), but amazing enough to bring you to tears. After such an emotional experience, you need a break before seeing one of the few things on the planet that is more spectacular. There are some nice temples on Bali, too. See them first, otherwise they will look like toys.
But, as I said, it depends on whether you have enough time to see Prambanan after you get in, and whether the flight leaves late enough for you to see Borobudur and then get to the airport (allow two hours travelling). Otherwise, you might have to see them on consecutive days.
After being there three times already, I can't imagine spending less than five days in Yogya. It's that good. And if I lived there, I would go to Borobudur at least once a week.
When you say you have no info about Prambanan, do you mean you've never heard of it? Do a websearch.
Basically, it's a Hindu temple complex that once had about 240 temples, of which a few dozen have been reconstructed after falling into disrepair. The most spectacular is Candi Shiwa. Each temple is made of thousands of stones, many of which have been carved to form stories from the Bahgavid Gita (I hope that's right). But the best experience you can have is to stand on the wall between the reconstructed temples and the strewn rocks of those that are still waiting for all the kings horses and all the kings men to put them together again, and to contemplate what Man is capable of when He cares about his job. It's a humbling experience.
And the Yogya people are just fantastic (other than the Batik salespeople -- just kick them in the nuts... they are a blight). And the food is as good as the food in Bali and half the price.