I came to Yogyakarta, or Jogja as everyone here calls it, for the temples and stayed for the city. It is a place that still keeps time by a royal calendar: the sultan lives in his palace at the centre, gamelan plays on certain mornings, and old women sell gudeg from the same street corners their grandmothers did. Students fill the cafés, becak drivers doze in their seats, and on clear mornings Merapi shows itself to the north, a faint plume rising from its summit.
These twenty routes start in the old city and fan out to the great temples of the plain, the volcano’s slopes, the caves and beaches of the south, and a couple of longer journeys beyond. Each has practical notes and a little of the history behind it. Tickets, rules and volcano alerts change, so check locally before you go.
