We’re doing a separate post for this because the actual Yogyakarta post was long enough, and street art isn’t for everyone. Normal service will resume with the Thailand / Koh Lipe post coming next; until then, if street art is not your thing – feel free to skip this one.
For me the best thing about travel is not the big ticket items that you’re expecting to cross off your bucket list: it’s the sights and experiences you didn’t expect, that caught you off balance, that pushed you to consider something completely new, or even better something old in a new way. It’s the people you meet and the food you have for breakfast and – the topic of this post – the crazy street art splashed along the back alley on the shortcut to your local coffee shop.
Street art is everywhere in Yogyakarta.
Soundtrack
We were listening to this as we explored the city. It’s a mix of old and new, just like Jogja:
Prawirotaman
We stayed in Prawirotaman, just south of the city centre. Here is the alley between our AirBnB and Adam’s Coffee, our local coffeeshop:
Kraton
The Kraton district is even better. This is a UNESCO world heritage-listed historical walled city, filled with ancient ruins and – weird juxtaposition – amazing street art.
Finn gets stuck in
On our way home one evening, we found these guys just around the corner from our place with a piece in progress. They had a DJ and a crowd of about 20 people looking on.
Finn was transfixed. After a while he unfroze and went up to the artist and offered his critical assessment, “I really really really like your picture.” They were so chuffed they kept him up there and took selfies with him.
Then it was straight to bed because Finn is four, it was late and this is the real world. But the next morning over brekkie he got his pencils out and drew us a rainbow T-Rex (with some assisting scribbles from Alex).
The Whiteleys in Asia 