The Special Region of Yogyakarta: Taman Sari Water Castle

9/26/16

Finally a sequel of my trip to Yogyakarta! This would be the last journal of my impulsive trip to Yogya and I believe some of you might wonder why I only wrote about two tourist attractions on a three day trip. Did you actually only go to two place for three days?

















Wearing H&M top, H&M outer, thrifted flare skirt, Adidas sneakers, Stradivarius quilted backpack, unbranded glasses, and ughlala_ pom-pom earrings.


The answer is no, I went to many places and common tourist attractions like Malioboro, Affandi museum, Alun-alun, bars, ice cream shops, et cetera. But the thing is, I only write what inspires me, what caught my attention, what lingers in my memory for a long time, and what I enjoy the most. And turns out Ullen Sentalu and Taman Sari Water Castle are what I found interesting the most!

I've heard a lot about Taman Sari Water Castle a lot before I went to there. They said it was a place where the mistress(es) of the king bathed in a very large pool. Then the king would show up from the balcony and threw a flower to the mistress he chose to spend the night with.

Basically an ancient version of take me out, huh? But sometimes I keep wondering what if the king missed the target and the wrong girl catches it. Does that mean he has to spend the night with the wrong girl? If somebody know the answer please let me know because I'm dead curious.

By the way, the castle will charge your IDR 3K for domestic visitor and IDR 7k for international visitor. But don't forget that they will charge you more if you're bringing camera and planning to take some ~artsy~ pictures. I forgot how much they will charge you but I believe it won't be more than IDR 10k.

There should be a tour guide around but unfortunately there were no tour guide who offered their help when I was around :( but a tour guide will cost you another IDR 10K so I think it is better to roam around by ourselves and find the information about the place from the internet. #protip

The place itself is very crowded even it's on weekdays, so I suggest you to come in the morning because it'll be less crowded and less burning hot. I learned it in a hard way and came in the middle of the day. Bad life decision.

I like Taman Sari merely because its background story. I love to think that there were beautiful mistresses with their sanggul and tube tops, bathing and gossiping at the same time.

Oh, another thing that's interesting is their underground mosque with the famous stairs. I'm lucky enough to take pictures on the stairs without any photobombs because people literally queuing to take pictures in the stairs!

Well, no, I lied. there were actually a lady in hijab at the left tunnel opening, staring innocently as she didn't do anything wrong. I was so pissed and eventually photosopped the shit out of her existence. There were also another lady on the second floor opening sitting and taking selfies. We have to wait until she left otherwise I have to crop the shit out of her existence.

Pro tip: try to not stand too close at the tunnel opening when someone's taking pictures. It'll made their day.

TL;DR Taman Sari is cool, but it's actually cooler on pictures. I don't know if they're actually having rustic themed castle but I guess maintenance and preservation won't hurt right?

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