Day 3 - Off to Yogyakarta

Wow - 3:45am is very early in the morning and thats when we had to head off to the airport on Wednesday morning to make sure that we didn't get caught up in the Jakarta traffic.  There weren't too many of us that we're looking their best at that time of the morning.  After packing up our rooms we jumped onto the bus and headed to the Soekarno Hatta airport.  Once here we checked in and then ate our breakfasts that the hotel had packed into a box for each of us to take away.  There was a slight panic when we got to the airport, as our bags seemed to have already grown so much in terms of weight!!!  But it was all ok in the end as we were traveling as a group.   Then we had a bit of time at the airport to look around and explore.  Miss Cooper found a shop and did a bit of exploring in the M&Ms isle!!!!!! A few packets later - for emergencies she told me and we were on our way to the boarding gate to wait for the plane.  At 7:30am we boarded our plane with Garuda Indonesia to Yogya!!!!! 

 

 

 

It was a very smooth and easy ride to Yogya and we were out of the airport with our bags and onto the bus by 9:00am.  There we met our new guide Mr. Bin as we had left our Jakarta guide, Ari, behind in Jakarta.  Once we had left the airport we headed firstly to the Carriage museum of the Sultan.  Yes that's right the Sultan, because you see Yogyakarta is a  Sultanate. This province doesn't get to vote in a governor each four years like the rest of Indonesia, they have a Sultan who is like the king of the province.    So back to the carriage museum. 

 

 

 

 

The Sultan has a number of different horse drawn carriages which are in a museum called the Carriage  Museum.  We were given an escort around the museum who was able to tell us all about each of the carriages including where it was made, when, and who used it on a particularly special event.

 

 

 

 

 

Eric also enjoyed the carriage museum, although we are not too sure if he was really allowed to go exploring all of the carriages as he did.  The Sultan's largest and most decorative carriages was truly spectacular.  Eric certainly did not get to explore this one. 

There were many different carriages that are still used even today.  The Sultan's daughter, who had married in October 2011 used 5 of the horse carriages in the wedding parade. 

We left the Horse Carriage museum and then it was off to the Sultan's Palace.  The Sultan's Palace or the Kraton Yogyakarta was build in 1755 by Prince Mangkubumi not lon after the Giyanti Agreement was signed that created the sultanate.  The Kraton was built between the Code River and the Winongo River.  It was believed that being built between two rivers would bring good luck.

In the middle of the Kraton was a large open area, with an large roofed pavillion which was used for celebrations such as weddings or other large important celebrations.  Around this open area was a number of other buildings which in the past and still today played important parts in the running of Yogyakarta. 
On display throughout the Kraton were a number of displays about palace life and the history of the sultanate, including the family trees of each of the sultans with branches for each wife, a leaf for each daughter and fruit for each son. There was one sultan who had 28 wives - his family tree was very complex as you can imagine. 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished our tour of the Kraton back in the central courtyard of the palace where Eric meet a friendly dragon or two.