Su ;: How to not Love Yogyakarta

Before I begin, I have a bad news to declare. I was almost done with my post before I accidentally undo my entire post by mistake and google actually autosaved my last modification. And yeah, which means this is my second time composing this post again. *heaves a deeeep sigh* But anyhow, I will work on it again for you readers.

# Disclaimer: Some of the photos are taken by my friends.

♥ YOGYAKARTA ♥

The Journey

C'est la vie!

Yogyakarta, more commonly written and pronounced as Jogjakarta is truly an amazing place to visit in Indonesia. The place is unique in its own way, with a rich culture and history city.

5 hours before the trip, the wanderlust mood kicked in. That's how the entire journey began with. We reached Bandung train station at dusk and settled in the train at around 6.30pm.

Bandung Train Station

The train then departed at 6.55pm and we reached at 3am. We actually opted for Business class to Yogyakarta and I find it bearable except that we've suffered from major neck and buttache from sitting too long during the journey. The journey took us 8 hours to reach our destination.

OHHH HAIII YOGYAKARTA! We're finally here!

Along our way out from the station, we could spot many rickshaws or "beca"s by the roadside. Surprisingly, angkot is such a rare scene here and in fact I haven't seen one there during my entire visit in Yogyakarta.

The beca

Here's a cute choo-choo train

Once we have stepped onto the ground of Yogyakarta, we rented a taxi to get ourselves checked into the hotel room to have a short rest and settle down. Me and ML decided to loiter around our hotel. We decided to hunt for some local snacks and delicacies along the morning street.

Their local "kueh"s

And more "kueh"s!

----------------DAY 1----------------

Destination 1: MALIOBORO STREET

"Life's too short to be anything but happy"

Malioboro street is known for selling souvenirs such as keychains, Yogyakarta monuments and candi printed tees, batik and many more trinklets and stuffs. Nearby there, many bakpia stores and factories could be found. Many brands, such as bakpia 25, bakpia 75, bakpia 999, bakpia 456789466346356 you name it. We went on surveying to see which brand suits our tastebuds best and we concluded that Djava and 25 is the best we could settle for. They have many flavours available. Among them are such as green bean (original and also the best), cheese, milk, chocolate, green tea, durian and etc.

Djava bakpia

At noon, we settled for a chinese restaurant to satisfy our growling tummy at Mahkota Restaurant. We ordered Mie Kakap, apparently it's fish paste noodle. We ordered both fried and soup one, together with a fishcake sidedish. They also serve us preserved cucumbers as appetizer.

Ohh did I mention they have nice chilli paste as well?

Soup Mie Kakap

Destination 2: PRAMBANAN TEMPLE

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever"

The Prambanan Temple can be reached by taking the bus (Trans Jogja) here at a rather low fare of merely 3.6k rp (approx. RM1). It's less than an hour in normal traffic condition from Jalan Malioboro. The entrance fee is 30k rp (approx RM10).

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Travel Tips

Bring along your sunnies, cap/hat, sunscreen and also a sarong. They might come in handy.

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The magnificent architecture standing proudly in a sturdy position

Close up

The scorching sun licked us alive Ialmostgotaheatstrokeomg

The temple is akin a storybook. Story scenes were depicted and meticulously carved on the walls. Ramayana? Mahabharata? Or..?

Amazing and sometimes even unbelievable

Temple built without the use of auxillary materials. Nowonder they say it's almost considered one of the wonders in the world

Every details must never be missed on these brilliant and impressive architectures

After lingering this place for hours, my skin tanned at least one tone darker. Thanks to my wonderful umbrella which decided to betray me at the moment. Hah.. well actually the strong wind there broke my flimsy umbrella :S

So after that, we headed back to Jalan Malioboro from our bus ride. For dinner, we settled for Yogyakarta's local specialty: Nasi Gudeg.

What's so special bout it? You must wonder. In Indonesia, we have Nasi Uduk, Nasi Pecel, Nasi Kuning, Nasi Kuching (also one of the local specialty here) and many more. And for me, they seem common for me.

But for Nasi Gudeg, it comprises of a few sidedish: Krecek (cowskin), tahu, tempeh, egg, sambal and.. jackfruit. To be precise, young jackfruit. If you just judge it by its apperance, it would probably be tough to tell that it's jackfruit. I was actually sort of rummaging my order with my spoon to spot for a yellowish flesh of jackfruit before I found out that it's reddish-brown in colour.

Nasi Gudeg. You will familiarize yourself with this term when you are here coz they are everywheree

---------------- DAY 2 ----------------

Destination 3: BOROBUDUR TEMPLE

"A prayer for the wild at heart kept in cages"

Day 2 was an itinerary-packed day. We rose at midnight and depart to watch the sunrise at the Borobudur. This has always been in my bucketlist and I've finally ticked it off now, officially! :D

We reached the place at around 4.30am in the morning, got prepared and embarked on our journey of the day.

Was given a torchlight to guide the way and a card badge. Excited!

As it was only around 4-5am in the morning, everywhere was pitch black on the way to the Borobudur temple. Everyone carried the torchlight with them and make their ways to the temple's direction. Lemme tell you, if you're looking for a place for star gazing, add this place to your list.

Free from light pollution, and also out of sheer luck that day the sky was clear, no overcasted clouds. The stars were twinkling in abundance in the sky. Palm tree leaves juxtaposed with the night sky and it was ohh-so-amazinggg. I could lie down all night just to watch the sky. I could just toss my bag on the ground on the peak of Borobudur and lie down to watch the mesmerizing starry night sky. And.. I'm glad I did and fortunately no one was blur enough to stumble on me. It was just insanely amazing!

Never live life with regrets!

The sky was beginning to light up

And if you ever wonder what's inside these bell-shaped stupas...

They are buddhas! It was believed that whoever carries just one wish in themselves and touches the buddha inside the stupa, their wish would come true. (Photo courtesy of XZ)

And yeahhh. This is the peak/tip of the Borobudur Temple

Amazing scenic sight

Live without regrets! I love Borobudur!! :D

Amazing prefessional carvers from ancient history. Wonders oh wonders

Sun-kissed facade

I just want to throw my shoes away and run around the Borobudur. Ehhh.. just kidding. My sanity stops me from doing so before I get caught by the securities there xD

Staircase down down down down downnnn

Macam yes wor

Buddha basking the first morning glow

Just simply uhhhh-maazinggg

After visiting the world's largest buddhist sanctuary, next we actually headed the the hotel just opposite it. Through the winding road, we managed to get to the front guard house of Amanjiwo hotel. For your information, it has won an award in the International Top 20 Hideaway in the past before. Carrying all expectations with us, I must amused by the distant sight of a lil sneak peek of the hotel facade. Unfortunately, due to the flooding of hotel guest, we as outsiders were not allowed to visit the hotel in order to preserve the tranquility of it. Bummer much! But hey fret not we still have other places to visit more! :P

Destination 4: KALIBIRU

They say:

"If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects"

If you were to ask me to join another campsite activity, I would say.. really no thanks. If I really had went for it, it would have been my third time to do flying fox and other monkey activites for this year. I had too much and need a break from being too monkeyyish *laughs*. Anyway, the campsite activities here seems interesting as you can savour the beautiful sights here while doing your monkey business :P Photo-taking fare at a rate of 10k rp per person.

The man-made lake is what all the rave is about in Kalibiru

Macam yes Take 2! (Photo courtesy of ML)

Destination 5: Via Via Cafe @ PRAWIROTAMAN

"Eat, Pray, Love"

Calling all the artsy fartsy fannsyy people, here's your dreamland! I had withdrawal symptoms after coming into this place. (exaggerated of course). But what cannot be denied is that they really do have cool, innovative, creative designs here. From the interior to the details on the things, everything is sooo artsy. I was particularly absorbed to their souvenir department for their recyclable ideas on things. Their designs are so unique. Clean, versatile and pleasing to the eyes and most importantly, they look pretty cool and not tacky at all! Ok ok, I shall stop rambling about souvenirs for now.. back to food..

I ordered egg sandwich lover and I gotta love it! It's actually just brown bread sandwiching my favourite food (egg, hah) and veggies. Satisfying nuff for me!

And my first lassi drink. Plain, sour but love it! My love potion

And more sumptuous food omm nom nomm

Destination 6: TAMAN SARI WATER CASTLE

Taman Sari, which means "beautiful garden" is a leisure place for one the sultan of Yogyakarta in the past to settle down. It has got many underground passageways, swimming pools or baths meant for the sultan's women to bath and frolic (wow), gardens with beautiful western designs on the architecture. Today, it's just a ruin of the palace but it's filled with so much of great mystery behind.

Loving the western design with the lovely sweet vintage hue

Mysterious yet beautiful

The underground passge in the castle

Destination 7: Sunset @ PARANG ENDOG

"Life's a brief candle"

One of the most lovely place I have seen. Or maybe it's because I haven't really been to any place to really watch the sunset. Hah.

Anyway, the sea we overlooked was indeed such a nature beauty. Waves crashed in different direction, continuously. The soft shine of the sun basked the entire sea with shimmer. Gentle breeze caressed our face and the sun kissed our skin.

Lemme meditate here first. Macam yes take 3.

The setting sun was akin a bashful shy lady, submerging under the horizon within seconds and leaving a mysterious and captivating soft shine basking the dusk with golden rays.

Destination 8: ALUN-ALUN KIDUL

So the lonely hall of Alun-alun kidul is no longer lonely when the dusk falls in, with many illuminated toy cars (ride-able) blaring their pop and disco songs, breaking the silence of the night. You are required to pay a fair amount to ride the cars but we didn't go for them.

Eye-pleasing sight of the street

Destination 9: Mediterranean Restaurant @ PRAWIROTAMAN

Back to Prawirotaman again to feed the soul, we finally settled for this western restaurant after contemplating for some time from the list of restaurants we planned earlier.

Quirky designs of the restaurant

ML and my mushroom pizza! Yummms

More sumptuous food!

---------------- DAY 3 ----------------

Destination 10: WATU KODOK BEACH

"Live out Loud!"

When we reached this place, all of us had the same reaction: "Wow".

We were amazed by the beauty of the beach. It was clean, super clean. The waves were unusually huge. To summarize in one word, it's clichely:

beautiful.

We own the beach that day. No other souls were there

Waves were huge, really huge

Sometimes I find it daunting

Surfing, anyone?

Yishhh so prettyyy yishh

Welcome to my beach.. :P

Overlooking the insanely pretty place with raging waves

Destination 11: PINDUL CAVE

A brief enjoyable trip was made because we were able to avoid the messy crowds durind the Ramadhan month. We were leaded inside the cave in floating tubes by a guide to watch the impressive stalagmites and stalactites in the cave. We spotted birds making nest, bats, crystals in the short route in the cave. We also managed to do a short water jumping in the cave.

Taken using a GoPro. Credits to XZ.

Destination 12: Final stop @ BUKIT INDAH

Another sight seeing place located at this restaurant is called Bukit Indah. Overlooking the scene, you can spot the sky high Merapi Volcanic Mountain in the distance. When the volcano is erupting, the tour person said you can even see red lava flowing out from the mountain.

The amazing view from Bukit Indah Restaurant. Hills and the nature

Below us are scattered houses and some plantations. It was truly a beautiful sight. We dined here and feast on the good food here with our tongue and feast our eyes on the lovely sunset of the day before marking our journey with a full stop.