Yogya tourism hit by earthquake in Indonesia

Yogyakarta is unofficially the center of Javanese culture. Two of the biggest temples close to Yogya are Buddhist, Borobudor, and Hindu Prambanan. I visited both in 1993 and back then it was mostly school groups, with scattered tourists, who visited.

During the earthquake, Prambanan was damaged, and will be off limits to tourists for the foreeable future. Add that to the state of disarray in Yogyakarta itself right now, and you can rightly say that tourism in the area has ground to a standstill. A Guardian article talks about this and about the under development of the tourist industry in Central Java.

The Indonesian government doesn’t actively promote these great places, or create an image around Yogyakarta. Yogya has great food, history, dance, and the 2 huge temples. I’m sure Barrie could write a book on what’s great in Yogya. When I visited the temple at Borobudor, there was a religious festival going on in Yogya. All the guest houses were full and my friend and I ended up staying with 2 sisters from Surabaya, who we met at Borobudor. One was a flight attendant, the other a school teacher. The only fly in the ointment was their 16 year old brother was along for the ride. But anyway, they were nice enough to offer us a place to stay.

Its is possible to fly from Denpasar, to Yogya, check out Borobudor and be back the same day. Price of admission at Borobudor is now 100,000rp, which is steep, back them it was peanuts. Borobudor is 15 miles NW of Yogya, Prambanan 10 miles East.