Yogyakarta Palace and Malioboro Street

The Kraton Yogyakarta entrance

Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat or Yogyakarta Palace is a historic building with its classical Javanese architecture. The kraton was built in 1755 by Prince Mangkubumi. It is located in the center of the city and stretches from north to south, in line with Mt Merapi. Each part of the Kraton has its own name. For example, the front yard of the palace is Alun-alun Utara (North Square), the back yard is Alun-alun Selatan (South Square), the front gate known as Danapratopo, the meeting hall known as Pagelaran etc.
There are two main parts of the Kraton, namely Purworetno, where the Sultan conducts his daily duties; and Gedong Kuning, a building where the Sultan and his families live. You also can see many sets of Gamelan instruments, antiques, Sultan's family pictures, and paintings at the Sultan's Palace.

Then, from the Palace, I went to a building to see the collection of the Sultanate's unique 'andongs' or horse carts. Each cart serves different functions ... there are carts serves for the Royal family wedding ceremony, carts for carrying coffin, carts that served the Royal family members as the transportation mode in the past etc.
The Kraton open daily from 8am-1pm, except Friday from 8am-12noon. There is admission fee to enter the Kraton, but I can not recall how much I paid for the fee.


A cart from the collection (1)


Another cart ... they are really unique, aren't they?

In the evening, I walked around the Malioboro street. In Malioboro street, you will find food stalls along the pavement and souvenir kiosks. You can have dinner here and enjoy 'Gudeg' rice. Gudeg is a specialty of or Yogyakarta. It is made from young jackfruit cooked in coconut milk. I do not like it because it is sweet. But you have to give it a try though, just to know how it tastes. It is not bad, it is just sweet. My friends like it. If you wish to have dinner here, make sure that you ask and know exactly the prices of the food that you want to have before you order. And do bargain if the prices of the dishes are unreasonable or if you want to buy souvenirs.