Yogyakarta - Yogya's pyramids

Led by a 66-year-old tour guide, one of Yogyakarta's few Mandarin speakers, Chen Liang explores this centuries-old Indonesian city.

The majestic Borobudur temple near Yogyakarta is Indonesia's most-visited tourist attraction. Photos by Chen Liang / China Daily

While a host of factors contribute to the success of a sightseeing trip - an attractive destination, good planning and convenient transportation - there was one big surprise that went into making my recent visit to Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a pleasant one.

And that was our tour guide's age.

We were in Yogyakarta as invitees of Garuda Indonesia, the national airline carrier of Indonesia.

We landed in Yogyakarta, also known as Yogya, in the evening, and are greeted by our guide, 66-year-old Nana Liem.

"Few fourth-generation Chinese Indonesians can speak decent Mandarin here," Liem, who prefers to be called Nana, explains. "That's why I, a third-generation Chinese, am still in this business."

The Shiva Mahadeva Temple in Prambanan.

She is the oldest guide I have had in all the many organized tours I have been on. Her easy-going and unhurried manner makes this one really special.

In Yogya, the cultural heart of Java, we first visit Borobudur. Located about 42 km northwest of Yogya, this massive Buddhist temple, built between AD 750 and 850, is Indonesia's most-visited tourist site.

The entrance area is packed with numerous handicrafts shops and crowded with peddlers and tourists. Nana manages to guide us through the crowd and lets us enjoy hot tea and coffee in the air-conditioned ticketing room, before our visit to the World Heritage site.

She asks us to follow her saying "the exit is in a different direction". Most of those in our group comply, but I decide to take advantage of her slow pace to do some exploration of my own.

Moving away, I soon find myself standing in front of the pyramid-like Buddhist monument built in the shape of a massive symmetrical stupa.

Related stories of Indonesia

Indonesia's Batik selected for UNESCO cultural heritage list Photo

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) would add Indonesia's traditional dyeing technique to its intangible Cultural Heritage list, the Jakarta Post reported on Tuesday. Full story >>

UNESCO recognizes Indonesia's Javanese alphabet in computer character

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has ranked Indonesia' s Javanese alphabet among other internationally accepted sets of characters used to write in computers like Latin, Chinese and Arabic, the Antara news agency reported here on Monday. Full story >>