Day 8 - Keraton (The Sultan's Palace)

It was an exhausting day yesterday visiting Borobudur and Prambanan. Today is our last day in Jogja and we have about 10 hours before we had to catch a flight to Bali. We had super awesome breakfast at the hotel (an outdoor covered patio). This day we are to pay a visit to Keraton (a palace) where Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X currently resides.

It's breakfast time.

As you can see Ivory is eating the right-Indonesian-way, with her fingers!

This is our breakfast place at the hotel. It's called Joglo Bougenville.

And were greeted by this couple. This is the second "couple" I've seen in Jogja in a restaurant.

This is what I had for breakfast:

I started with a cup of clear vermicelli noodles with this awesome chicken broth that's so refreshing. I think they call this Soto Kudus. Topped with whatever kinds of toppings you like such as, shredded chicken, spring onions, cakwe, krupuk, and sambal.

For the second course, I had Gado Gado with spicy peanut sauce, rempeyek (peanut fritter), all kinds of stir fry vegetable (my favorite was Kangkung (similar to watercrest) and complete with sambal and shrimp krupuk

On our way to Keraton. The kids at the back of the van, unbuckled. They were in heaven!

The Keraton

Back in the days, these were the palace's security guards. See how harmless they are?

We were greeted with the soothing gamelan ensemble

  

Click to enlarge, these are terraces to have guests over or to have guests be entertained.

Sultan's bedrooms. The Sultan to this day still sleeps in this bedroom.

check out the carving on the ceiling!

   

Sultan Hamengkubuwono IX legacy, "Tahta Untuk Raya" which means 

(I think) "A Crown for Every One"

 

The Ladies of Batik Maker

   

Getting Around in Jogja

Becak!

  

Becak. The big guy gets his own.

Andong (horse carriage)

  

My sister Putri got to ride in front. I don't think she was too happy.

I don't remember what this is called. All I know that this is some kind of a mark that there's a wedding nearby. The totem pole like is made by weaving coconut leaves.

After Keraton, the Becak guys took us to Bale Raos, a wonderful restaurant serving some of the Sultans's favorite dishes. Unfortunately I did not take pictures, my camera batteries have drained out. I believe we ordered almost all of the dishes below that are marked as Sultan's favorites.

• Bebek Suwir Suwir (Sultan HB X)
  Special menu of Kraton Yogyakarta, made from slices of duck meat which is served with fried pineapple slices and rasped kedondong sauce.
• Semur Piyik (Sultan HB IX)
  Unique dish made of pigeon.
• Urip Urip Gulung (Sultan HB VII)
  Fillet freshwater catfish which is rolled then roasted and served with mangut sauce.
• Sanggar (Sultan HB VIII - HB X)
  Original menu from Kraton Yogyakarta, made from sliced beef with the spice flavor, which is roasted with coconut fiber and held by bamboo.
• Soup Timlo (Sultan HB X)
  Classic Javanese soup which is the combination of ginger and ketchup, along with various combination of ingredients.
• Beer Jawa (Sultan HB VIII)
  Original drink from Kraton Yogyakarta which is made from ginger, secang wood, clove, citrus fruit, etc.

Putri and I ended the day to go "haggling" I mean shopping at Jalan Maliboro near Keraton. Both sides of this main street if filled with souvenir sellers where we bought a ton of batik clothes (cheap ones, not hand made but stamped batik) and some knick knacks. The trick is once you speak English, they know you're not local so they jack up the price.