As an Indonesian, I'm very much aware that I can't expect to visit a very well-maintained, organized, informative, with attractively and correctly (as in historically, or by theme) displayed exhibitions kind of museum in Indonesia.
I've visited
Fatahillah Museum (or Jakarta History Museum) in Jakarta few years back, and eventhough the museum itself boasts thousands of collection (which I found impressive at first), when I finally visited it, I was not impressed at all. Though I could totally see there were soooo many collections (that some of them were stacked together to save some space), it was messy, dusty, inorganized, lack of historical information - overall the only good thing about the museum is that it indeed houses too many collections (the ticket price was cheap too - I can't remember the exact price). And though I haven't visited many museums (government-funded ones) in Indonesia, often time I left disappointed.
So when I saw that
Ullen Sentalu is a private museum, I was very much intrigued.
The location is pretty secluded, it takes around 30 mins from Jogjakarta, and since the signage was quite lacking there, we stopped at a restaurant to ask for a direction - no one knew about Ullen Sentalu, and then made another stop at a police station - this time we were lucky and given a clear direction where to go.
Ullen Sentalu is not located right by the main road of Kaliurang, we had to make another turn to a smaller road (luckily there was a sign at the main road), and then we finally found it!
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| the entrance - somewhat looks hidden |
We paid 25k IDR each for the tickets (because we are Indonesian as opposed to 50k IDR for International tourists), and asked to wait for few minutes since the guide was not finished with the guests that came earlier. So it's a guided tour, interesting...
After few minutes, we were guided to a small pathway, passing a tropical garden and through an open door and down the stairs so that now we were directly below the garden. It was a little bit cold there - due to air-con and also the fact that it's sort-of underground.
Our guide was a bright and cheerful lady. She excitedly showed us the collections, which were owned by royal families of
Jogjakarta Sultanate and
Surakarta Sunanate.
The first building we were in was full of photos and paintings of royal families. She told us the history of both royal families in a way that it was like we were listening to a radio drama or a gossip show, as actually the lives of the royal family seems to be full of drama too.
Then we were guided to few other buildings full of collections after that; each building houses one theme of collection. There are 2 buildings that I particularly found interesting, they are the one where the letters for the broken-hearted princess written by her families/friends were displayed, the one with batik collection, and last one is the one dedicated for Princess Nurul, Princess Consort of Sri Mangkunegara VII (one of the board member - the owner of some of the collections).
After visiting all small buildings, we were guided to a souvenir shop - the price is definitely not cheap, but the quality seems good, and we finished our visit by having a late lunch at Beukeunhof, a European-style restaurant that is also inside the museum.
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| Beukeunhof - indoor seats |
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| Beukeunhof - open-air seats |
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| Seafood soup and grilled chicken - surprisingly pretty good |
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| View from Beukeunhof |
It's too bad that no photos allowed there as there are actually many collections worth photographed to share with my friends and family to show them that there IS actually a well-maintained, well-curated, well-displayed, and well-organized museum in Indonesia!
As precious stones are never easily found, Ullen Sentalu is indeed a hidden gem.
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| Od style gate near the exit gate |
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Monument commemorating sister province:
Jogjakarta, Indonesia - Kyoto, Japan |
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| Pathway by the exit gate |
Ullen Sentalu
Jl Boyong Kaliurang
Sleman - Yogyakarta
Phone: +62-274-895161
Opening Hours:
8.30 am – 04.00 pm.
Open Daily on Tuesday trough Sunday,
Closed on Monday
Last admission 30 minutes before close
Admission Fee:
International (adult & student) IDR. 50.000
International Child (5-15) IDR 25.000
Local visitor (subsidized) :
Child (5- 15) IDR. 15.000
Adult IDR 25.000
(Suggested to bring umbrella while visiting the museum)
