 airlines even on such short flights as this (flying time some 45 minutes at most?) but it wasn't bad either. The FA even managed to ask if I wanted to have another drink – which I politely declined. The service was fast, friendly and organised – and that's all you can ask for on flights this short.
There were some stunning views flying past a volcano with its peak sticking out of some clouds. Not a sight I see often on my usual flights within Europe!
There were some beautiful views as well over the Southern Javanese coastline upon descent into Yogyakarta.
I am actually never scared when flying, but somehow there were some moments upon landing when I felt a bit insecure. I don't know if it is the knowledge of Indonesia's not-so-good safety record, but making some abrupt, very sharp turns at relatively low altitude over the foothills of the volcano surely did not contribute either. I still feel a bit weird about it, as on I don't know how many of hundreds of flights before I only had such a feeling once in my life as a teen before boarding a plane. And on the 18 or so flights I took after this, flying again felt like taking a walk in the park. I guess no matter how much we fly there are always such moments!
Once out of the holding pattern and having cleared the volcano, it became much better as it was a straightforward descent over the coastal plain straight into YOG.
YOG seemed to be a very friendly airport on arrival. There are several taxi stands at the airport offering fixed fares to the city centre – which is just a few miles away as the airport road basically leads straight into the city centre. A short 20 minute taxi ride later and I arrived at my hotel for the next three nights.
In short: You can't complain much for a short domestic hop like this. Sure, the flight was not groundbreaking. But the seat was super comfortable, the crew friendly and efficient, the meal decent. And the price for the ticket was excellent – with J only some 40 or 50 EUR over the cheapest tariff in economy at the time of booking. With such a relatively small surcharge for business class – I would definitely book like this again the next time I travel domestically in Indonesia.
Next up: The Phoenix Hotel, Yogyakarta, and the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Borobudur and Prambanan.
There are power outlets between the seats almost at floor level on Garuda J 737 and 330 seats. You would have been flying around Mt Merapi, my last visit to Yog - Merapi was erupting, YOG had been closed on the Saturday and Sunday - as the ash cloud was hovering over the city - but on the Monday the winds changed and the plume went North east - I have amazing pictures of the volcano going off as we flew past.
Borobodur and Prambanan are wonderful temples - I great enjoyed my visits there.
Jakarta has little to offer except shopping - I prefer to go to either Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok if thats what I intend to do.
Indonesians are very hospitable, and if you manage a few words in Bahasa and show respect - they will treat you with great respect.
I indeed heard and great reports similar to your tale about Garuda. Would love to try them out once on a longer distance route, like ex-AMS or LHR. Do they actually still have a first class cabin on board too on these flights? As I read many conflicting reports about Garuda taking it out/keeping it as it seems the airline bosses doesn't really know in which direction to take the company.
For my three nights in Yogyakarta I opted for the Phoenix hotel, another Dutch-era historical hotel. Built in 1918, it began life as the luxury house of a rich Chinese merchant, became a hotel in the 1930s, and after Indonesian independence even served as the mansion of the Chinese consul, before becoming a hotel again in 1951.
Check-in was a quick and friendly affair and I was escorted through the large complex to a separate building overlooking the hotel's courtyard pool. I contacted the hotel in advance for a pool room view, and got an answer that for an additional 10-15 EUR per night surcharge I could have one. It turned out to be well-worth paying it.
The room was comfortable and was nicely decorated, although there was quite some wear and tear.
By far the best in the room was the balcony which had a lovely view over the pool.
The swimming pool was a nice feature during the day but got quite crowded in the late afternoon! It was however much, much better early in the day and in the evening.
I didn't had breakfast included with the room rate as 2 of the 3 nights I had to wake up early (one for a sunrise visit to Borobudur, one for a very early train on departure to Surabaya). Instead, I just visited a nearby bakery for some yummy buns and pastries, and made myself some instant coffee with the water boiler in the hotel room and complimentary coffee (and tea) available. Nothing beats enjoying breakfast on the balcony!
As I wrote in my earlier post, due to unforeseen circumstances I had to work for most of my time in Yogyakarta. Most of the time I was just sitting behind my laptop at the desk of my room or out on the balcony working.. Fortunately I was still able to see Borobodur and Prambanan, but apart from that did not manage to do as much as I hoped to. I only managed a quick 2-3 hour walk around time. Yogyakarta seemed like a pleasant enough city with some friendly locals.
As I was working remotely on normal European office hours, it meant my “working day” started at around 2pm and lasted until 9pm. Unfortunately, this meant it was not really feasible to visit any of the restaurants in town, so I decided to eat for three nights at the hotel. For two nights straight I ordered some Indonesian dish from room service – the food was OK but certainly not memorable.
One of the nights, one of the hotel restaurants organised a “foods of the world” themed buffet – which at around 15 EUR was decently priced. There were some live cooking stations (for example one for Indonesian food, one for burritos) and a wide variety of other dishes.
In short: I liked the Phoenix hotel and wouldn't mind staying again at all, but it didn't blow my mind away. If staying here I would certainly recommend paying a bit extra for a pool view room as it was well worth it having a nice view. Service was friendly throughout the stay, the room nice enough, the food OK. And they were of great help organising the trip down to Borobudur and Prambanan, offering a very decentlly-priced private transfer. Yet compared to the Hermitage in Jakarta, and my later visit to the Majapahit in Surabaya, it clearly fell short in many smaller details.
Next up: The amazing UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Borobudur and Prambanan.
offerendum and Chinatrvl like this.
Borobudur is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple some 40 kilometres or so out of Yogyakarta. It being the world's largest Buddhist temple, Borobudur has nine stacked platforms and is topped by a central dome. It has more than 2,600 relief panels and 500 Buddha statues depicting scenes out of daily life back then among the locals and royals alike.
Access is fairly straightforward from Yogyakarta, and any hotel can organise a tour. I opted just for a private driver to take me to Borobudur and Prambanan, which was very decently priced at about 30-40 EUR. Entrance fees were extra. I woke up early at 3.30am as Borobudur allows visitors in before official opening times to climb the temple for the sunset view. At around 4am, I was picked up from my hotel by a friendly driver in a luxury SUV – with complimentary water bottles being handed out. It was about a one-hour drive to reach Borobudur.
It was quite crowded this early in the morning. I'm bad at guessing the amount of people, but it would easily have been around 100 to 200 tourists who had turned up this early. Even though I'm bad at guessing numbers, I have a talent when it comes to sense of direction at the huge grounds. Even though arriving relatively late, I was one of the first in the queue at the entrance gate after buying my ticket at the main office. Thanks to my mobile phone, it was also easy to determine the exact side where the sun would rise, which allowed me to snag a great spot high up on top of the temple where hopefully not as many other people would ruin the view. All I had to do now was wait and wait for about 30 to 40 minutes until the sun would come up.
The two silhouettes in the far distance are the twin volcanoes; Mount Merbabu and Merapi – which made an awesome backdrop. The only thing less great are some very bright lights of some buildings towards the East shining directly into your eyes, which of course makes it much harder to take a good photo.
The sunrise was beautiful, but not as great as I imagined. At one point also the crowd became a bit too loud, and instead of quietly observing the beautiful sight some idiots started shining their flash light (which were handed out at the temple entrance) into other people's faces. Needless to say, this was not helping with taking pictures either, nor was it nice for those wishing to just take in the view. I decided to have a walk around the complex