Yogyakarta or 'Yogya' is easily the most popular city in Indonesia. It's a cultural and intellectual centre, crammed with prestigious universities and academies, and its influence far outweighs its size. Sure it has noisy and chaotic traffic like any Javanese city, but just a short stroll away from the main streets are the kampungs where life is still unhurried. Despite its veneer of modernity and westernisation, the city clings strongly to its traditional values and philosophies.

Traditional performing arts (Ramayana Ballet, gamelan performances etc) can be seen at the Yogyakarta Craft Centre and the Agastya Art Institute. It is also a major craft centre, especially for batik. The walled-in kraton compound, in the city centre, is a city within a city. The kraton is home to 25,000 people and includes the sultan's huge palace, the Taman Sari (also known as the water castle or fragrant garden), a bird market and several craft industries. There are several worthwhile museums in the city, including the Sono-Budoyo Museum and Benteng Vredeburg. The suburb of Kota Gede has been famous since the 1930s as the centre of Yogya's silver industry, and is still a great place to wander around and watch the silversmiths at work.Yogya offers an excellent range of accommodation, restaurants and food stalls, most of which are on or just off Jalan Malioboro. The most interesting way of reaching Yogya is via the rickety backwater ferry from Kalipucang, which crosses Segara Anakan and stops at a string of fishing villages. There's a beach 27km (17mi) from Yogya at Parangtritis, which is popular with locals on weekends. !

Borobudur is one of the greatest Buddhist relics in South-East Asia and is Indonesia's most famous attraction. Rulers of the Sailendra dynasty built the colossal pyramid of Borobudur between 750 and 850 AD, but very little else is known about the site's early history except that a huge workforce must have been harnessed to shift and carve the 60,000 cu m (196,800 cu ft) of stone used in its construction. With the decline of Buddhism and the shift of power to East Java, Borobudur was soon abandoned and for centuries lay hidden under layers of volcanic ash. It was only in 1815 that the site was cleared and the technical skill and imagination of the builders was revealed. A mammoth US$21-million restoration programme undertaken between 1973 and 1984 returned much of the complex to its former glory. The Mendut and Pawon temples nearby are important parts of the complex, though easily overlooked by visitors to the main site. Borobudur is 40km (25mi) north-west of Yogya.

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