Travelogue : Jogjakarta Day 5 & 6

We started the day off pretty late, considering everyone was suffering from muscle pains due to our rigorous "off road" experience the night before. That morning was a short revisit to Malioboro for last minute shopping.

Then it was off to Prambanan, which i regret to inform, I have completely forgotten the entrance fee ^^v. Will update if i remember hehe. We reached pretty late in the evening, plus there was some precipitation going on which gave the whole area a bit of an eerie feel.  Prambanan is said to sport 1000 temples including the 3 large central ones as a tribute to the gods Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma. 

We searched high and low for a famous statue figure of Roro Jonggrang also known as Durga, (zhafarina's twin sister) whom it was said was cursed into becoming the largest candi because she had forsaken the love of Bandung Bondowoso. For the full story see here. We finally found her in the Shiva temple. These temples were actually pretty steep. I was nervous climbing up and down the steps, especially considering that it was also wet. We were given hard helmets for safety. Though mine kept slipping off -_-.

We had our dinner at a unique little place called Gudeg Sagan, where we enjoyed a traditional Gudek meal (a savoury dish which includes jackfruit, chicken and cili) with a live band. Good Food ^^

Later that nigh we visited the Taman Pelangi, i think something similar to our ICT here in Malaysia. Luckily Arum joined in berposing maut. 

And that was pretty much it. I think even then we were more than slightly exhausted. I can honestly say my legs were on fire. But i was thoroughly satisfied with the whole trip. At least i could say we crammed a whole lot in just 5 days.

The day we took off, our bags had conveniently doubled along with a whole list of food (pisang salai, kacang salut, amanda cake and what not). Before coming we had had the genius idea of sharing 20kg of luggage per 2 people since it would lower the cost of the flight ticket. I strongly don't recommend it. ^^v. It's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about baggage limit and being fined when things are so cheap to buy.

Welpz thats pretty much it. I would definitely visit Jogja again when i have the time. And the mone ^_~. There are still so many other things to see according to Putri. Maybe the next trip will be when we're all working. Hehehe

Travelogue : Jogjakarta Day 3

We were finally able to squeeze in some informative sight seeing on the third day. Given the previous shopping, we chose to start off our day with a visit to the Taman Sari water castle. But before anything else, we stopped by an awesome little place for breakfast. Syarifah bubur ayam or chicken porridge. Definitely could give McD a run for their money. Hands down the best I have ever tasted so far, not counting the cheapest too ^^, and I am an avid supporter of bubur ayam anywhere anytime. The thick rice porridge is served with all it’s condiments and the sauce is supplied on the table in simple ketchup bottles. You can choose to have either spicy on savory or both. I honestly didn’t think the spicy was even spicy at all, but whatever it was, breakfast got 5 stars in my book, along with a serving of hot lemon tea.

It was still drizzling when we arrived at the water castle. Putri told us that if it rained any harder, they would close the place to visitors due to the slippery floor. Thankfully, the rain was just letting when we bought our tickets for 5,000 rp. An extra charge is imposed on those who bring cameras for pictures. The water castle was where royalty bathed back in the day. The king would be able to look down upon his mistresses from a tower at the end of the pool. And if he sought one out, they were privileged to go into the back private pool to bathe with him. We ventured up to the top of the tower, though the staircases were quite narrow and steep. Another thing, I would advise those who come to bring extra wet tissues as well as hand sanitizers if possible. The stair handles were pretty sticky and after a short consensus our group agreed that it smelled of wet socks. Now not to put shame to the place, maybe because it was raining, but I do implore anyone who goes to be prepared. It was a bit sad to see that the inner walls of the tower were quite heavily vandalized. All it needs is a little paint job and all will be good.

Our next stop was the Kraton or castle. Till this day, royalty still resides in these premises, so the kraton is only open up certain hours and not fully accessible to visitors. The tickets cost us around 7,000 rp.Our tourguide was an easy going lady who seemed to have her fair share of photographing tourists. It was nice to let go of the camera and pose together with the rest of the group for awhile ^_~. The castle, though nothing like the towering edifices in Europe was intricately made with architectural influences from several place such as Dutch and France. I was particularly attracted to the royal seal. It looked so old and classic. Here we were once again swarmed by high schoolers on a class trip and Putri, being the ever vigilant noona recognized the same batch from Manding.

 

Afterwards we took a considerable walk to the famous Molioboro Street. If you haven’t set food here, then you have not been to Jogja. Something similar to Jalan T.A.R in Malaysia. Our first pit stop was Mirota Batik. There were endless assortments of blouses, skirts, bags, and telekung to choose from. I myself sought out cloth to make baju kurung. Some of the designs were very cheap ranging from 14,000 – 35,000 rp per meter. We also bought a couple souvenirs here on the 2^nd floor. Our keychains cost around 6,000 rp each. If you decide to go cheaper than this however, Malioboro street has plenty of different styles in packets of 10 =)

We stopped by a small store to try some Pempek for lunch. What is pempek? It’s kind of like surimee, combined with other things like tofu and eggs etc. What’s special about it is the sauce. Putri said it’s made out of vinegar, and there is a slight tangy taste to it, but not as sharp as you would expect. The combination with the pempet however is sooooo delicious. The menu size is suitable for snacking. It is advisable that you take more than one order to fill a hungry belly. To be fair though, mine cost I think around 6,500 RP. Which is hardly up to RM 2. (So freaking cheap I can’t even.)

After hanging out for a bit, since our legs were getting numb while our shopping bags were multiplying, we headed off to the t-shirt vendors on the street itself. So far, I think the best quality t-shirts that I’ve seen for under RM10 / 30,000 rp. Good thick quality fabric with up to date designs. Not like the langkawi or pangkor t-shirts we have here (with kain like plastic -_-). Even then we had the cheek to ask the ajushi to reduce the price since we were buying bulk.. eheheh ^^v. All in all probably close to 30 t-shirts total. They even came in cute paper bags. A note of caution though, just like their small fingers, the shirt sizes in Jogja are slightly smaller than normal. More towards slim fit if you know what I mean. And some of the t-shirts have slightly different sizes even when both are written “L”. My experience was that the white t-shirts with print were slightly of smaller cutting compared to the black ones. So choose carefully. By the time we got all we wanted, our limbs were hardly functional. We decided to wait for Putri’s dad at Malioboro Mall. Here we lazed around at J-co with some donuts which were hecka cheap. Then we went to the department store where Zafu decided to borong 30 packets of Nano2 for her personal stash.

Putri’s dad dropped us off at Kedai Rakya Djelata for dinner, where we revisited the roti bakar but this time we went savory. I must admit though I preferred the sweet dishes better, but it was still good food. Before we left, Zafu got a little lovin from one of the workers. (Dititipkan salam lah dikatakan). I guess he couldn’t handle the hot pink blouse she was wearing. How nice to witness love blossoming in Jogja. Mwuahahahah, to bad, that was our last visit and thus, woe to the dude who had set his eyes on my single friend. Ehehehehehe.

Day 4: Borobudur & Kaliurang (Mount Merapi)

Travelogue : Jogjakarta Day 1

Before I begin I must first relate to you some important happenings, or rather “happening” that occurred a day prior to my Jogja flight. While shopping at Jusco I had unceremoniously rendered my black box of 3 years ( aka nokia phone) to a watery grave in the 3^rd stall of the public toilet. This, I might add will be the third phone I have lost to toilets to date -_-. Thus the panic of finding a phone and phone number before my flight the next morning began, which ended with the purchase of my new companion the HTC Desire 300. You can say that the timing was just perfect, seeing that I had considered buying a new phone as soon as my old one showed signs of faultiness. I guess, it decided to go out in the most memorable way possible. You will be missed =(..

And so on with the rest of my travelogue, we boarded the plane at slight past noon, and reached Jogjakarta at approximately 2. The time lags an hour there. We were greeted with sudden downpour as we made our way from the tarmac into the modest sized airport of Adisucipto. By modest I mean positively cute compared to the sprawling lcct. The staff were friendly though and the check through hardly took any time at all. Outside our faithful tourguide Putri was already waiting with water bottles and cookies in hand. Our first stop. Food =). We ate at Pondok Cabe, which true to its name served some pretty fiery stuff. 

We headed to Putri’s humble abode afterwards, and unpacked in her room which would serve as our 5 star hotel for the remaining of the trip. I must say 80% of our time at home was spent here. We were event sent breakfast in bed. Such antisocial kids I tell you. Our first stop, due to the constant downpour was decidedly the Galeria Mall. But before that, we made a small detour to XL, the local telecommunication provider. I, dengan pandainye, had not realized that my new phone required a small sized sim. And thinking we could downsize the thing ourselves, Midah dengan penuh confidentnya grabbed a pair of scissors and went wild. Needless to say, an hour later we were comfortably seated in their office awaiting my new custom sim. We choose their weekly data plan at around RM 7, with 200mbs. I, being a true newby on smart phones hardly understood anything. But thank god I had plenty of senpais to guide me.

Later, we went to a store at the Galeria Mall called Matahari, where our first official purchases were jeans, which were freakishly cheap. Tambah lagi dengan offer beli dua gratis 1, you can imagine how round our eyes went. I personally preferred the clothes choices there. They had some pretty awesome blouses at good prices. Being it the first day, we were a little weary about our spending. But we still came away with matching t-shirts anyways (which will be feature in Jogja day 3 ^_~). It's pretty shocking at how slim jogjakartans are though seeing that my jeans were labelled XL. It has never ever happened to me before o_0. Gede2 rupanya org Malaysia nih. hukhuk.

Dinner was served at an awesome little place called Kedai Rakyat Djelata. Here we had some pretty amazing roti bakar. I ordered chocolate banana, and gulped it down with jasmine tea and rock sugar, which came in a cute looking tea set. I really liked the inner deco, and the place felt really cozy. Great for lazing around and laughing at nothing, (which we were pretty good at). Of course, after the meal was a short photo session tanpa segan silu, and then back home. 

That was pretty much the first day. Nothing too rigorous. Just laying back and relaxing. Day 2, SHOPPING. Mwuahhahahahahhahahha