Yogjakarta Palaces

Yogjakarta has a strange political status as it is part of Indonesia and controlled by the national government but also has a Sultan and royal family of its own.
After waking up early (even earlier than intended due to a forgotten time zone change) we went to the main royal palace, the Keraton Yogyakarta. Inside we wandered around the old buildings and rooms with old photos and objects with lots of batik clothes and costumes. We also watched the musicians play traditional Javanese music for a little while.
After that we went to another palace nearby called the water palace. This one isn't in use these days and we were warned that it had been badly damaged by earthquake. To us it still seemed quite well preserved and was definitely a really interesting place. The building is built around several big pools and we could walk around them and go up to the top floor to look down. It used to be a bathing and relaxation place for the Sultan and his family.
When we finished with the palaces we went to a puppet workshop where a puppet maker told us about how they use bison leather to make the puppets to tell old folk stories about heroes and ancient gods. There were lots of different coloured puppets and some really cool masks for sale but unfortunately our baggage allowance meant that we had to control our souvenir buying!
All in all Yogjakarta was unexpectedly one of our favourite and most interesting places we've visited in Asia so far and we are really glad we came, even for just a short time.Read more