Yogyakarta homestays offer friendly atmosphere
By Anis Suryani
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Despite the mushrooming star hotels in Yogyakarta, traditional home stays are still attractive and are able to draw and maintain visitors.
One of the traditional homestays is Indraloka Family Homestay located on Jl. Cik Di Tiro, in the center of the city.
The homestay, built in l947, belongs to Moerdiyono Danoesastro family. Over the years, it has been a favorite place for foreign guests, especially those coming from the Netherlands.
Moerdiyono started his business in l963 when he rented two rooms.
In l974, he expanded his homestay business and obtained a permit from the ministry of tourism. The homestay has eight rooms now.
In the same year, Moerdiyono, now 70, visited Australia to accompany former minister of tourism and telecommunication Joop Ave. It was a successful business tour.
Since then, he has received a lot of Australian guests, most of them are students or Australian Embassy staff who learn Bahasa Indonesia at local universities.
In Indraloka, guests are warmly welcome and treated like members of the family. Guests are allowed to cook their food in family's kitchen. A few years ago, the late Mrs. Moerdiyono used to teach guests how to cook Javanese meals.
Moerdiyono's children usually performed Javanese traditional dances in the living room. Mrs. Moerdiyono also acted as a tour guide, accompanying her guests to various tourist destinations.
Today, Indraloka homestay is managed only by Moerdiyono and his daughter.
"We won't add more rooms and room telephone facilities or television sets. We want them to come to the living room if they want to watch TV or make a phone call. That's the way we maintain contact with our guests," said Rully Bambang, Moerdiyono's daughter who is currently Indraloka's Managing Director.
Local tourists also are delighted to spend their nights in such homestays while vacationing in Yogyakarta.
For the last few years, numerous local guests have stayed at Indraloka. They were mostly students and lecturers taking part in various courses in Yogyakarta. Indraloka rates are Rp 60,000 to Rp 100,000 a night; quite affordable for locals.
Another company, Ani-Ani, was motivated to develop village- based homestays. Ani-Ani started its business in 1966 by inviting some students to stay in a Javanese traditional house joglo in Brayut Village, Pendowoharjo, Sleman, some 12 kilometers north of here, belonging to the family of Budi Utomo, the manager.
He later created a package village tour offering cross-country walks, bicycle riding, fishing, tours to local schools, viewing herbal medicine jamu making and traditional festivals and ceremonies.
The village tour package attracted foreign visitors from the United States, European countries and Japan.
"An American couple has just spent their holiday harvesting rice in the nearby village," Budi said.
They spent a day with farmers, having lunch together and they really enjoyed it, commented Budi.
Ani-Ani rates are Rp 47,000 per night or Rp 84,000 for larger room.
For bigger groups, Ani-Ani offers a camping package of Rp 25,000 per night. Lunch and dinner costs the guests Rp 7,500 and Rp 14,000 respectively. Ani-Ani offers only Javanese menu. "We don't serve bread or coke here. If you want some, you can buy them for yourself in the city," Budi said.
Another package is develop to accommodate those who do not want to spend a night in the village. It includes kambing guling roasted lamb dinner with traditional music and dance, and traditional food bazaar. The package is offered for Rp 45,000 per guest with a minimum of five guests.