Tugu Railway Station, Train Stops in Yogyakarta

It is likely no other railway station that is located as strategically as Tugu railway station. It lies in the center of Yogyakarta city, close to traditional and modern shopping centers; it only takes a little time to reach five-star and budget hotels and it is close to some tourism objects. One other thing that most people neglect is that this station turns to have tourism potential because of its characteristic building and more than a century of its age.

Tugu railway station started to serve transportation need since 2 May 1887, around 15 years after Lempuyangan station, another railway station in Yogyakarta that is located to the east of Tugu station. The construction of Tugu station was part of the efforts by the Dutch government by that time to distribute crops in Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. Passengers service from this station as one of the oldest railway stations in Indonesia began to function since 1 February 1905 and the first out-of-town line was to Surakarta that was built in 1899.

Starting as a small station, now Tugu station becomes one of the biggest railway stations in Indonesia. With 6 train lines, this railway station serves transportation from almost all big cities in Java. More than 20 train departures and arrivals - economy class, business and executive ones - occur everyday. There are various options for train types and time departures to go to a certain city.

Being built during the Dutch colonial time, the architecture of the building is so close to European nuance. Getting down from the train, you will directly notice it from the big doors in brown color and the high roof accentuated with robust walls painted in white. You can enjoy the original shape of the building from the front view. The building looks so great with big entrance and two high roofs sheltering two platforms on the north and south sides of the main building.

Unlike other big railway stations that function as a place for transit, Tugu railway station still preserves its function as a place of train maintenance. For the reason, you have an opportunity to wander about the corners of the station to see technician activities and to trace the oldness of this railway station. Some of the workers know well about the history of this station so that they can be good sources of information.

If you walk to the west part of the station, you will get to the place for locomotive maintenance. You will admire details of components in a locomotive. You can even observe the lower part of a locomotive since there is a ladder that enables you to reach the lower part of it. An old, black train monument can be another object to enjoy.

Walking a little bit to the south of the place, you will come to an area where compartments are maintained. You can see them from distant through the iron fence painted in blue-white colors. Looking above, you will see a train part that is located on top of a yellow tower. That part that has been utilized since the Dutch time is a crane that functions to connect train compartments. When you walk to the north, you will see workers cleaning the trains.

If you arrive in the afternoon, take your time to stand in between line 4 and 6 and look westwards. Beautiful scenery of the dusk will be seen on bright days, combined with railways that look like lines and finally end as a dot. The train crane and singing street musicians complete the exotic scenery of the dusk.

Then, you can start your tour in Yogyakarta after you are satisfied to enjoy the beauty of this railway station. You can travel by pedicab to go to Yogyakarta Sultan's Palace and to buy bakpia - special cake of Yogyakarta - in Pathuk. For farther travel, you can travel by public bus or taxi. If you want to go shopping directly, you just need to walk along the Malioboro Street that is located right to the south of the railway station.

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Junk food of the week: BAKPIA

If you go away for a few days, you will likely be bombarded with requests for oleh-oleh (souvenirs) when you get back: from your office-mates, your friends, even, in our case, the woman who runs the shop on the corner where you buy your drinking water. Everyone will pretend they're kidding ... but you'd better bring something back anyway, because you don't want to be known as that person who never gives out any oleh-oleh.

Bakpia is a food that was made from the mung beans mixture with sugar that was wrapped in previous flour be roasted. In several areas in Indonesia, food that was felt sweet if being eaten this was known by the name of pia or the cake pia. The contents bakpia could adapt with the consumer's wish including being brown, cheese, the green fish basket, and the black fish basket. Bakpia that was enough to be known by one of them to come from the Pathok area, Yogyakarta. For who has try it, don't say what delicious it.

These little flaky stuffed pastries called bakpia are a good choice when you go to Yogyakarta because they are

1. food, so you avoid matters of personal style;

2. affordable;

3. strongly associated with Yogya;

4. pretty universally acceptable (as opposed to, say, durian candy); and

5. tasty.


This box confused me at first because it said purple yam on the front, but then listed the flavors on the side as chocolate, mung bean and cheese. The latter turned out to be flavors added to the purple yam, which is why the fillings above have slightly different colors.

Perhaps it's a measure of how long I've been here that yam-and-cheese doesn't strike me as a weird filling for a cookie. It does seem like gilding the lily, because yam is perfectly tasty on its own. Needless to say, that didn't stop me from eating the whole box.

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Melia Purosani Hotel in Yogyakarta Indonesia

Meliá Purosani boasts luxurious Five-Star Accommodation in 270 rooms, consisting of Presidential suite, 4 Executive suites, 5 Junior Duplex Suites, 34 Standard executive rooms, 34 Superior deluxe rooms, 145 deluxe rooms, and 47 Standard rooms.

Melia Purosani offers its guest an excellent choice of guest rooms and suites, each carefully conceived for comfort and convenience, with individually controlled air conditioning, IDD phones, satellite and local TV with Radio, mini-bar en-suite marble bathroom.

Meliá Purosani's leisure facilities are among Yogyakarta's best. Within the beautiful gardens, guests enjoy a large lagoon-style swimming pool with waterfall and water slide. Alongside is a professionally run gymnasium and spa, which offers massage, sauna and Indonesia Mandi Lulur beauty treatment. The city's Royal Palace. Old colonial buildings and shopping heart are just a short walk away, while further a field are some of the most spectacular sights in Asia; Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple, Merapi Golf Course and other monumental masterpiece, Mt. Merapi and the sulphurous volcanoes of Central Java.

Guest of Meliá Purosani enjoys an excellent choice of cuisine at a number of restaurants: Parangsari, poolside garden restaurant is the venue for casual dining. El Patio, 24-hour coffee shop offers Asian and International fare while in more formal surroundings, the Ching San Chinese restaurant offers Cantonese and Szechuan cuisine. For cocktails and entertainment there is the Soka Lounge, while the Pub Med offers live bands nightly with Mediterranean atmosphere.

Yogyakarta's cultural legacy creates an extraordinary environment for imaginative meetings and conferences. And with its dedicated service, good communication facilities, secretarial support services and splendid function rooms, Melia Purosani provides an unparalleled corporate base. Among the facilities are five meeting rooms for 60 to 95 Theatre style and 600-guest for Amarta Ballroom with separate entrance and reception.

MELIA PUROSANI
Jl. Suryotomo 31 Yogyakarta 55122
Phone: +62 274 589521, +62 274 589523
Fax: +62 274 588071, +62 274 588073

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