Yogyakarta Shopping

Contrary to belief, Yogya isn't that backward. It's more urban compared to Hanoi, and there is a sprawling mall in marlioborough that has hair salons, branded goods (with the likes of nike and reebok), chic coffee shops and fast food restaurants (KFC). Oh yes, there are a couple of HongKong (Giodarno) and Singapore ( Osim ) brand names here too.

What to buy: The sports goods here are a steal at USD6/7 for T shirts, the expressos served here are at USD1-2 and hair treatments ( eg. l'oreal hair spa ) cost about USD5-6.

If you visit Yogyakarta, don't ever miss the spectacular 'BATIK'. Well known from the origin, batik is famous in Yogya. You can visit the batik factory to the manufacture and retailer.I had one for my lovely mum & the rest of my family.

What to buy: BATIK!!!

What to pay: Its depends on the quality of the batik.

This is sort of a department store. It's two stories that sells various Yogya goods. I feel it's mostly designed for Indonesian tourists, but other foriegners would equally find interesting goods for sale. The first floor mostly sells clothes and batik. The second sell household goods and they have a small antique section.

Most of the shops selling food items/candies along Jalan Malioboro will sell packs of ready-to-fry prawn crackers. As it is, each cracker is grey in colour. Once you get home, dry it in the sun first to get rid of moisture (or the cracker will not fry evenly), then thrown them into a deep-fryer and watch them balloon up into those wonderful pinkish pieces of crunchy prawn crackers! Great as a snack.

What to buy: There are several brands - very competitive.

What to pay: A box should cost you between 15000-30000 Rupiahs.

All the shopping you need to do can be settled along Jalan Malioboro, the main artery of Yogyakarta. Here, strewn along the road sides are street stalls and flea markets selling a labyrinth of items, from arts and crafts, food items, souvenirs, T-shirts etc etc, that Yogya thinks that you will need to carry out of Yogya. In the middle is the Malioboro Centre, a modern shopping mall with a Departmental store offering the same type of shopping experience as you get back home. There is no need to stray far from Jalan Malioboro to get your shopping done.

The Batik Stichting got it's name from the Dutch and previously was a non-commercial organisation.

You get a good introduction to what batik is and how they make is. Also interesting: how can you see whether it's real or fake?

Their pieces of art have letters on them and each letter stands for a different price category.

Used to be the trendsetter of local teenage fashion. But now, seems like degrading to be a fashion shops in cheap.

What to buy: Worth to visit for jeans, and some casual stuffs. Girls, ladies.

What to pay: Jeans for Rp 50.000, about US$ 5

The main street of Yogya. There are plenty of shops and departmental stores selling a great variety of goods: clothes, electronics, antiques, local craft, stationery, gifts, food & drink, snacks etc.

The traffic is heavy and chaotic, and crossing is a combination of luck, timing and courage.

Watch your belongings if you want to explore this area as pickpocket is not uncommon.

Al lot of little things , made of wood , coconut wood or local materials...
Very stylish objects , made after European taste....

What to buy: A bought some fridge magnets in happy colors covered with handmade paper
2000 ir per piece (lets say 5 for a euro)
And 2 little books for the children with colorfull dragon flies on it..
Less then 1 euro pp

Toms Silver is probably the best known and biggest silver factory in the Yogyakarta area. You get the factory tour which shows you how they shape and polish the silver then of course there is the inevitable shop at the end to make your purchases.

What to buy: In the shop there is no end of silver jewellery, table ware etc. We bought a little silver model of a becak as a reminder of Yogyakarta.

Wanna get a nice wall decoration as appears here? It's mine and I buy it when I visit Mirota batik shop nearby Malioboro street.

What to buy: Many kind of wall decoration also batik and jamu (traditional medicine).

What to pay: About USD5 up :)

Along Malioboro street (otherwise Jalan Pangeran Mangkubumi), we can buy many kind of art tuffs made-in Jogjakarta. First is batik and second is wayang kulit (puppet made from buffalo skin). You can put this wayang as wallpaper decoration as my family did :)

What to buy: Wayang kulit with great characters. Like Dewarutji (presenting as the illustration), he's god of sea (can be compared like Neptunus in Greek myth) or Bima, Arjuna, Nakula - Sadewa (from the legend Mahabrata or Bharata Yudha/ War of Bharata family).

What to pay: About USD10 - USD50 in good quality (depends on the material).

Once in Yogya, loads of people will offer you to visit ther Batic industry, the best place to buy Batic and many other local crafts is sure the Mirota Batik shop.
They also accept credit card and do not ask for commissions.

What to pay: Cannot bargain there, it's full of locals, watch what they do and imitate:))

If you prefer to see Batik the Javanese sculpture for clothes, bag etc then you can visit this market along the Malioboro nearby the Palace

From clothing to electronic,acccesories to supermarlet. You can easily find what you want in mind. Its along the street of St Malioboro.

What to buy: Its depends on what you need