In Reply to: JOgja trip is fantastic... posted by bahama on Monday, 1. March 2004 at 09:48 Bali Time:
Let's see... two people could pay me US$215 each, making US$430 revenue.
Let's assume US$1 stays around 8400 rupudoos...
2 return tickets, denp-yogya = around 1.3 million Rp = US$155
Experienced Driver/guide = no more than 400,000 (Or... driver at 200-250k plus individual guides at each site... works out around the same)= US$50
Lunch... available anywhere in Yogya for no more than 5000rp per meal, but let's say we eat indoors at a standard restaurant with 3 course meal and soft drinks. More than 100,000 for 2 would be considered very expensive. = US$12
Miscellaneous comlimentary stuff... water, sunscreen, umbrella hire, mints, 2 t-shirts that say "I saw the biggest Buddhist temple in the world, an amazing Hindu complex, a live volcano, some great scenery and met some of the nicest people in the world all in one day and all I got was this lousy t-shirt"... Maximum 100,000 = US$12
Entry to Prambanan (US$7) and borobudhur ($US8) = US$15
Stuff I haven't thought of... say US$20
Making a total of... US$264 expenses(if I've added right... feel free to check)
Leaving me with a profit (for the day) of US$166 =1394400rp = approximately 2 months wages for a house servant.
And I think I've been pretty generous with the costing.
The beauty of it is that they'll probably want to go back the next day, because there is no way in hell you could possibly absorb the beauty of the two main temples/complexes in a single day, let alone cram anything else into the trip. And it leaves no time whatsoever to indulge in the yogya nightlife or experience the culture.
Of course, if I were running a tour of Yogya, I'd make sure that my driver/guide had an adequate supply of silver stuff to offer the tourists, and ensure that he stopped at every batik shop where he gets a kickback.
Also, and I'm not sure if this is so all year-round or just around Ramadan/Idul Fitri, but a lot of the museums/galleries closed at 1pm, so you have to get up early to catch them.
There's no more point in going to Yogya for a single day than there would be in going to Paris and expecting to see everything in 10 hours. You might as well just read a book about it and pretend you've been. (If the book costs US$30, that's a total saving of US$400)