Day 1 in Yogyakarta
Exploring north of Yogyakarta - visiting Ullen Sentalu Museum and learning more about the royals who were once part of the larger Mataram Kingdom. Through the Giyanti Agreement in 1755 between VOC (Dutch East Indies Company) and the Mataram Kingdom, the Mataram kingdom was split into 2 - Sultanate of Yogyakarta and Surakarta Sultanate.
2024 YOGYAKARTA & SURABAYA
3/2/20242 min read
Thank you to our parents and family who came down to send us off for our trip this morning! We all gathered by 5am at Terminal 1 and look at all our energetic faces! <3 We will enjoy ourselves and miss you all at the same time! :)
On 1 march 2024, 19 of us and our teachers boarded the plane to Yogyakarta. After the 2h and 30 min plane ride, we finally reached our destination and were greeted by our friendly local guide, Mas Adi. Mas Adi shared that there are many different ways to address an older person in Indonesia and it is dependent on which location you are in.
Did you know that there are 3 special provinces in Indonesia? They are Jakarta, Aceh and Yogyakarta! What is more interesting is that Yogyakarta's king is also the statesman for his people!
Shortly after, we took a 1h and 30 min bus ride to the city centre to eat lunch, which was an amazing way of boosting our energy for our next activity: a visit to Museum Ullen Sentalu.


Next, we went to our hotel to check in and wash up for dinner. For dinner, we went to a floating restaurant, which was a unique and special experience for all of us. The food did not disappoint, with many of us going back for second helpings.








Yet, all good things had to come to an end, as we returned back to the hotel for debrief and to rest after the long day. During our debrief, we discussed about the role of royalty in the communities as well as the involvement of the foreign powers in dividing the land and reducing the powers of the royals. We were also tasked to think about whether the role of women has evolved from the 15th century till now. We discussed about the similarities between the royals in Yogyakarta and the past elites in developing Singapore (pre-independence) who have had the privilege to continue their learning overseas in universities from our respective colonial powers. (For the royals discussed - many of them went to the Netherlands for their university education and similar to Singapore - many of them had scholarships or were sent to the UK universities.)
That is all for today, thanks for joining us on our journey!
Louise & Abigail






At the museum, we saw many photos, painting, batik and stories of the Mataram kingdom. The guide was friendly and enabled us to understand more about Yogyakarta and Surakarta’s royalty. We learnt many new things about Yogyakarta and its origin story, through the fashionable clothes created as a result of influences from Paris and Europe, paintings, photographs and letters shared to each other among the royals.. It was shared that the kings are all expected to choreograph a dance repertoire! We saw how the 9th Sultan of Yogyakarta's dance had influences from Nepal, Javanese and the Arab world through the dance costumes worn by the princesses who performed his dance piece.
The museum guides shared with us how the royals played a role in preservation of their culture or to bring their culture to other parts of the world, bringing recognition to its' rich culture. This is also a reminder to us that without upholding one's culture, one day it will just be forgotten in the abyss of time.





