Yogyakarta + Bali (Mar 2024): Indonesia for Beginners

First trip out since Chiang Mai in October last year. We had an empty slot in our bunny boarding calendar in March, so I decided to book a two-parter: 3 days in Yogyakarta then another 3 in Bali for Nyepi. Ok, I realise they are the two most touristed parts of Indonesia, but an Indo-newbie (apart from Bali and Batam) has got to start somewhere right?

Part 1: Yogyakarta

Jogja airport felt a copy of Changi Airport. Huge and modern and well-signposted. It's far from Jogja city but an integrated train takes you there in half an hour for only IDR 20K ($2 ish). The big difference from SG was how many of the staff were just slacking. One guy at the baggage X-ray was straight up sleeping while the others were scrolling through their phones. I love it. 

I was pretty excited to try Jogja's food, but they were disappointing. We ate at famous places like Raminten, Jejamuran, Gudeg Yu Djum, Pastel Kauman etc. and they were all letdowns. So were the random street food (lumpia, bakso) stalls we sampled. The lack of veggies was a concern. That was my first lesson in Indonesian regional cuisine: that Central Java isn't such a fan of veggie-forward dishes like lalapan (Sundanese) and gado gado (West Java).

(I love jamu, though. The Indonesian repertoire of hot drinks is fabulous.)

Raminten (pictured above) is worth visiting though because of the Javanese-style seating and there are horses stabled near the toilets. Horse carriages are commonplace in central Jogja, along with the becak (pedicab). Both are traditional forms of transport used by "normal people" as much as by domestic tourists, it seems. 

As for us, we went about Jogja on foot and by bus. The main strip Jalan Malioboro has proper pedestrian footpaths and was very walkable, but I preferred walking through Kampong Kali Code. Most people were watching TV or chilling in their homes; we rarely saw closed doors or gates even though it was night. They were obviously poor but the place was tidy, clean-smelling and cosy. I was surprised to see a CNA video describing it as a slum. It isn't. It's more civilised than some of the atas landed housing estates here.

After some confusion we managed to get on bus 1A to Gembira Loka Zoo and Prambanan Temple. 

The zoo... mixed feelings. Some of the animals looked very happy (elephants and otters especially) but the ones that will stay with me are the orangutan and chimpanzee, each imprisoned in its island. They behaved exactly like human prisoners, full of misery and defilement. The chimp held his hand out for food, ran around aggressively. The orangutan stayed in its cave, depressed, looking at nothing. The siamang and black macaques were similarly eerie, but at least they weren't solitary. I am now borderline obsessed with primates.

Continued the bus trip to Prambanan. No intention of going in, but wanted to see it from afar. Found a restaurant there serving a buffet dinner. Perfect! The dinner was IDR 180K but how often do you get to eat sate right next to a 9th century Hindu temple?

After seeing Prambanan it felt weird not to visit Borobudur. Plus we had nothing to do after walking around and looking at the 12409812 bakpia and batik shops along Malioboro. So we took a Go-Car there in the afternoon. We just about made it for the last tour, starting at 3.30pm. (Borobudur closes at 5pm.) They made us join a guided tour, which I didn't mind because our guide (who's been there for 37 years) was insanely knowledgeable.

But, but, but... the way the tour was structured was to maximise photo ops. In fact more than half the guide's time was spent taking photos of the group participants. Which was really stupid, to me. You have the chance to see one of the coolest temple complexes in SEA and you choose to squander it looking at the camera? WTF. The heavy rain cleared up and there was a heavy mystical vibe on the upper levels of Borobudur as we looked out into the mountains. 

To exit Borobudur, you're forced to walk through a seemingly endless, cramped maze of souvenir stalls. Now that looked like a slum. I was so disturbed by the experience of going from Paradiso to Inferno and convinced that this feature must be universally hated by other tourists. 

But when I went to the Google Maps listing I found mostly positive comments from Indonesian tourists. They were glad of the opportunity to buy lots of souvenirs and also that the locals have a chance to make some money. Huh. First confrontation of Indonesian vs international (though really Western-driven) tourism culture right there. This would be a theme in the coming days as we went to Bali for Nyepi...

Part 2: Bali for Nyepi

Flying from Jogja to Bali was a chance to check out domestic tourism culture. For one thing, everyone is laden with cartons of bakpia, the primary "oleh-oleh", or local souvenir, of Jogja. This oleh-oleh thing was mystifying at first, not least because bakpia doesn't even taste very good (like Malaysian tau sar pia, but less interesting). 

But it's not really about the taste (though I think many Indonesians don't mind any sort of snack). A Geek in Indonesia tells me that local tourists are obliged to buy cartloads of oleh-oleh for distribution back home. It's like what Singaporeans used to do with Tokyo Banana from Japan, or egg rolls from Hong Kong, before travel became so commonplace as to render these gifts worthless. 

Every Indonesian tourist place has its own oleh-oleh. Oleh-oleh must either have the place-name prominently displayed on the item (think tie-dye tees or phallus keychains emblazoned with BALI) or be decorated ostentatiously (Bali's bakpia, Pie Susu, comes in boxes with Balinese dancers all over them). Finally, the oleh-oleh emporium is an important part of your trip intinerary.

In Bali we found two such stores, Krisna and Erlangga 2, within walking distance of our Denpasar city hotel. And they are so. much. fun!! Imagine if Mustafa shopping centre was housed in a royal palace. Massive amounts of merchandise laid out neat as a pin. Massive car park (for coaches of course), air conditioning, clean toilets and most importantly, price tags on everything.

I was skeptical at first, but once we started trying out "resort wear", we went nuts. Each garment was only a few bucks and surprisingly well-made and comfy. It was like a real-life SHEIN, only ethnic looking, and yay no polyester was harmed in the making. I bought sandals, Jon bought knick-knacks, I bought pie susu, Jon bought keropok. We enjoyed the complete and surprising absence of sales people. It was awesome.

Here we are flaunting our batik garb.

Okay, but oleh-oleh was only a pleasant diversion. The main point of our trip was to experience Nyepi, aka Silent Day. On Nyepi the entire island goes dark and silent for 24 hours, the airport shuts down, no one leaves home, and pecalang (local police) roam the streets with flashlights to catch errant tourists.

Nyepi ate up all 3 days of our trip really. The day before Nyepi is like CNY Eve - businesses shut down early or don't run at all, and traffic is intense as almost all Balinese people head back to their villages in time for Nyepi eve celebrations. I had agonised over whether to visit Tanah Lot temple on this day, but turns out the choice was made for me - no drivers were online on Gojek or Grab. 

We just walked around and looked at Balinese kids getting ready for the ogoh-ogoh parade that night.

We settled ourselves at the roundabout 500 metres away from our hotel along with probably thousands of locals. After hours of not much action, and getting rained on, the ogoh-ogoh finally made their rounds on the streets, and the crowds went nuts. All this was happening without road closures, and you have to hand it to the pecalang for doing both crowd and traffic control in the chaos.

Then it was Nyepi, the day of silence... 

You're supposed to fast and meditate for Nyepi. But I opted for a hotel with a package, i.e. with all 3 meals and entertainment (pool, gym, movies) included. So in the end we didn't get the Nyepi experience. We spent the day eating, napping, eating again, reading, doing the crossword, and eating again. It's disturbing how much of one's activities revolve around food and entertainment. 

After dark we went up to the rooftop to look at the city. Bali was in total darkness and silence. (On Nyepi you're allowed only a dim light, and our windows were taped up to not let the light seep through.)

The day after Nyepi (most shops still closed) we made our way to see Omed-Omedan, a riotous street festival in Denpasar. The street was closed to traffic and lined with food stalls; this was where I had my longed-for meal of nasi babi guling. The pork was fresh, the little bowl of broth complex, but the highlight was the greens - I think they're daun singkong, or cassava leaves. Delicious.

After filling our tummies and washing the babi guling down with "es cappucino cincau" (quite nice, actually) we went to watch the celebrations. Well I say "watched" but we all had to take part, because the pecalang, armed with water hoses and buckets, gleefully sprayed the audience members. During the "pulling" ceremony, Balinese boys and girls rushed one another as the crowd roared and pecelang dumped more water on their heads. It was a crazy soggy mess but so much fun. Now I want to go for Songkran.

I liked that we stayed in Denpasar. Not many tourists stay there so it felt more real, less fake-pretty like a beachside or Ubud-type locale. You get a sense of the people working behind the scenes to make Bali an exotic fantasy. Not just the Balinese, but also the (probably scads of) migrant workers working as cleaners and hotel staff and powering the Gojek/Grab army. (Our Gojek driver came all the way from Papua!)