Yogja Trip – Part 2

Salam everyone,

We’ve completed the 3rd days of the trip by touring around Yogja town by becak (beca). We got con on our 1st becak rental. He looks nice but he left us when we completed our visit to Yogja Kraton (5th place on that day) since we paid him the full amount (IDR 20K ~ RM 7.00). At that point of time, what does actually happened is that we don’t have smaller notes and we paid him the full amount. We should have given him 50% from the becak rental prices as agreed by both of us. Waited about 15 minutes at the Sultan’s Car Museum and he didn’t even turn up. We opt for another becak around there. And this is the recap of our 3rd days touring around Yogja town:

Find becak near to Malioboro Street – Batik painting workshop and showroom – Batik attire shop –Taman Sari Water Castle (with secret underground tunnel) – Pasar Burung Ngasem – Yogjakarta Kraton (Sultan’s Palace) – Benteng Vredeburg – Pasar Beringharjo –Back to Malioboro Street – Walk to Tugu Station – Malioboro Mal (late lunch) – Final shopping at Malioboro Street – Back to the hotel around 5.00pm.

Taman Sari Main Entrance

Taman Sari – Pool area for the sultan’s, wife’s and the kids.

Local handicraft at Taman Sari. The wayang kulit was made from cow skin and its actually the Sita and Rama character. Our volunteer tour guide, Mas Supardi keep insisting hubby to buy the wayang kulit and frame it up and put in the living hall for good life!

Batik

Taman Sari Underground Tunnel – It’s not easy to get here without any direction from local. Luckily, we took a tour guide just to bring us around since the underground tunnel is actually situated in between houses. Underground tunnel is used to channel the water underneath Taman Sari and there are actually a 2 storey mosque inside it. 1 level for the man and another level for the women.

Candy maker on the way out from Taman Sari Water Castle

At Yogjakarta Kraton (Sultan’s Place) – Local indonesian kids and she’s from Jakarta. Super adorable with local batik dress.

This is how local girls and womans dress up for an event.

Our tour guide. We’re the only couple in an indonesian group of 40 peoples. And our tour guide keep calling us Safee Sali. Safee Sali is super popular there! It’s compulsary to get a tour guide to enter Kraton and these tour guide can actually speak different languange as preferred – German, French, English, Indonesia, etc. Awesome huh?

Benteng Vrederburg – Kubu Belanda.

Again, we almost got con in the Malioboro Mal as well when hubby got confused with the note when paying for dinner. The guy supposed to return us IDR 4K instead of IDR 1K. When we asked him again, he passed the remaining amount where he’s holding the notes in his other hand! Imagine that! It happened 2 – 3 times. I’m sorry to say this, but it’s totally different from other places in Indonesia.

We took our flight back the next day. And not to forget to save another IDR 100K for the airport tax (only for the international passengers). It was so much fun since I really wanted to go to Borobudur and Prambanan. And finally, I’m there! Yogja is such an interesting place.

Simply me,
Zara~AB
The Province of Chroma

Yogja Trip – Part 1

Salam everyone,

I’ve booked the flight tickets way back in November’2011 during the Air Asia promotion. Made immediate decision to Yogja and Solo (from 3 – 6th June 2011) since some of the family members was there last year and they give such a good review on Yogja. Initial plan is to travel to Yogja only. But after being persuaded by the Supir, we then decided to do a day trip to Solo as well. Solo is just 1 and ½ hours away from Yogja by car. I started the day with the earliest flight, 7.ooam and reached Yogja 8.35am local time.

I’ve come up with my own itinerary throughout the trip. So, it will be very easy for us as well as for the Supir to plan on the journey. The traffic in Yogja is similar with what we have in KL.

Right after settling with the local custom at Adisupcipto Airport (by the way, I would say that all the custom is way too friendly especially to ladies); we rushed to the arrival hall to look after our supir. As promised by Mas Tri (the person that I liaise via yahoo messenger and facebook), he will be waiting for us. Unfortunately, I saw someone holding a paper with my name on but he doesn’t look any same like Mas Tri. He introduced himself as Mas Sulis and he did explain to us that Mas Tri is hosting some other Malaysian tourist as well. Yogja is packed with Malaysian since its school holiday. We are ok with that as long as he is capable to bring us around town.

We started the day by heading to our hotel, Hotel Jentra Yogyakarta. New boutique hotel situated at Jalan Dagen close to Malioboro. We purposely choose to stay in Malioboro since it will be easy for us to shop and eat around. We knew that we couldn’t check in since its just 10.00am but we just wanted to confirm with them so that our booking is still on. We managed to check in just after we completed the whole day tour with Mas Sulis.

We then headed to Candi Borobudur. It took us about 1 ½ hour drive to get there. Mas Sulis has purchased the tickets earlier with a lil bit of discount. Thanks to him! Pakai orang dalam nie. Hehe. Please be reminded that international tourist should not buy local ticket since there are having 2 different entrances which is local and international tourist entrance and they are having such tight security. Tak pasal-pasal kena tangkap nanti. As mentioned by the girls at the counter, started from May this year, all tourists should wear sarongs on (something similar to Bali when you entered their holy area). The staff there will tie up the sarongs for us once you handed out the ticket to them. But, what make us feel so awkward is that, in hundred of peoples there, it seems that there’s only us wearing the sarongs.

We were there somewhere around lunch time and it was super hot up there! Some sections were closed due to ongoing conservation works. And to climb up to the highest level was super tiring! With such a steep stair.

This is my first meal here in Yogja – Nasi putih, rawon and Teh Sosro. Awesome!


We then headed ourselves to Candi Prambanan. This is quite near to the town and it’s just the same road to the airport. On the way there, we passed by the biggest salak fruit farm in town but we didn’t make any stop since it can be viewed from the car. And there are small kiosk selling all this salak fruits along the way and it’s damn cheap!

We did pass Kawasan Sleman area as well. This is one of the most affected areas due to the latest eruption of Mount Merapi. If you were there, you will then know how they felt. There are traffic obstructions along the way since one of the main bridges there collapsed and still under repair. We have been told by Mas Sulis that previously, the main road was covered with almost 2 – 3 inch ashes and stones.

We then reached Candi Prambanan somewhere at 3pm. Start the afternoon walk with enough drinking water on. This is more tiring since we have to make a big turn to complete the whole area. The main entrance is located at one end and the exit is located at another end. Memang betul-betul exercise the whole day. I would say that Borobodur is much better than Prambanan since the place was well maintained, well managed and clean.

Hubby, Mas Sulis and Haslan at the Prambanan entrance. Pekena tea dulu!

If you wanted to get some souvenirs for your family and friends, this is the place. You can get 12-14 fridge magnets with the price of IDR 50K, key chain for IDR 3.5K each and etc. But, we make a very big mistake since we thought that we can get some better offer in Malioboro. Our bad!

Completed the walk around 5.30 pm and its almost dark. Headed to nearby restaurant for early dinner treat. We cancelled our trip to Parangtritis Beach since it would take another 45 minutes journey there. Fully exhausted and we decided to check in to the hotel. Unfortunately, Mas Sulis keep insist to bring us around Yogja town maybe because he promised that he will bring us around within 12 hours times. So, he brought us to the Kraton area to buy original Dagadu shirt like Djodjaholic, Jogker Dagadu and others. It’s different from the one in Malioboro Street compared to this outlet.

We wrapped up the whole journey somewhere at 7.30pm. 2nd day – Solo Trip!

Simply me,
Zara~AB
The Province of Chroma