It’s our last day in Yogyakarta and today we visited the beach, Pantai Parangtritis is said to be the most popular beach in Yogyakarta. Parangtritis located south of Yogyakarta and accessible by road. Afternoon near sundown is the best time to visit the most popular beach in Yogyakarta because the sun set is absolutely romantic.

We arrived earlier and stopped at the cliffs behind the beach, called Gembirawati, from there we could survey the whole of Parangtritis, south sea, up to the boundary horizon, it wasn’t very impressive, there didn’t seem to be many tourists, visitors no shops or facilities of interest.

Well Parangtritis is more famously known for the legend of Nyai Rara Kidul, Nyai Loro Kidul is a legendary Indonesian spirit, known as the Queen of the Southern Sea of Java in Javanese and Sundanese mythology. She is also the legendary consort of the Sultans of Mataram and Yogyakarta.

A significant amount of the folklore that surrounds Nyai Loro Kidul, for example the violent waves that crash on the beach from the Indian Ocean originates from her heart, and there is a local belief that wearing green clothing in these areas will anger her, as green is her sacred color and if you wear green, she will take your soul.

One Sundanese folktale tells the story about Dewi Kadita, a beautiful princess of the Pajajaran Kingdom, in West Java, who desperately fled to the Southern Sea after being struck by black magic. The black magic was casted by a witch under the order of a jealous rival in the palace, and caused the beautiful princess to suffer horrible skin disease. She jumped into the violent waves of the Ocean where she finally cured and regained her beauty, and the spirits and demons crowned the girl as the legendary Spirit-Queen of the South Sea.

A similar version of the story above mentions that the king (at the time), having her as the only child, who was planning to retire from the throne, remarried, but having a queen (instead of a king) was forbidden.

The king's new wife finally gets pregnant, but, because of jealousy, declared an ultimatum to the king to choose between her or his daughter. If he chose his daughter, then his wife would leave the palace, but if the king chose the wife, the daughter would be banned from the palace and the new child would be king.

The king solves this by ordering a witch to make his daughter suffer a skin disease. The daughter, now banned from the palace, hears a voice that tells her to go to the sea at midnight to cure her disease. She did, and vanished, never to be seen again.

And so the legend of Nyai Rara Kidul, Nyai Rara Kidul has many different names, which reflect the diverse stories of her origin in many sagas, legends, myths and traditional folklore. Many Javanese believe it is important to use various honorifics when referring to her, such as “Nyai”, “Kangjeng”, and “Gusti”. People who invoke her also call her Eyang (grandmother). In mermaid form she is referred to as Nyai Blorong.

Sometimes Nyai Loro Kidul literally can be spoken of as a "naga", a mythical snake. This idea may have been derived from some myths concerning that the princess suffered from the skin disease that caused her to shed skin like a snake.

A very interesting story surrounding the origins of this seemingly simple beach, don’t expect much though, the waves are too violent to swim in (swimming is prohibited), and too weak to surf either, but there are other forms of entertainment such as horse carriages and ATV rentals for 50000-100000 rp per half hour.

The bike wasn’t powerful, it struggled up some obstacles and couldn’t do a wheelie.

After that we went to the neighbouring beach, Pantai Depok which is supposedly famous as well. Famous for what? I am not really too sure, the beach isn’t exactly picturesque and the seafood along the coast isn’t exactly spectacular. So I guess much of the popularity revolves around the traditional Javanese folklore and history behind this place.