Yogyakarta (Jogja) Leisure Trip (5D4N)

15th - 19th 2014 (5D4N)

Currency rate: 100K RP = 275 RM

Time different: 1 hour late of  Malaysia time

Hotel: Dafam hotel, Malioboro (1.6M RP for 4 nights stay, ~RM120 per night)

5D4N Itinerary in Jogja
Day 1: Arrived at afternoon. Leisure walk in Malioboro
Day 2: Prambanan@morning + Ullen Sentalu Museum@afternoon
Day 3: Borobudur@morning + Ketep Pass@afternoon + Kaliade@afternoon

Day 4: PlazaAmbarrukmo@morning + Plosan temple@noon + Javanese Massage@noon + Night walk@Malioboro Street

Day 5: Shopping@Malioboro for only 2 hours

Recommended to shorten your trip if you have no other places to go. If base on my itinerary, I think 2 full days (3D2N/4D3N) is more than enough. Depending on your flight time.

Day 1 - Wed - 15th: Leisure walk in Malioboro
Weather: Rain

Arrived Yogyakarta airport... my impression of this airport are small and 简陋.

1. Immigration counter just a few steps walk of the arrival entrance. People not able to enter and have to queue outside of the entrance.

2. Custom/airport people not so friendly. Due to their limited space, some people was no way to enter and take the immigrantion form to fill in their particular. When people able to get the form and found a space to stand and fill in... Other people almost done their check in. And we are still busying fill in the form. Staff there already rushing us. Hey, this is your guy fault. Don't show me this kind of bad attitude. Facility is very bad! No pen provided at all.

3. After check in...your luggage just next to the counter. Very simple and small. Right behind of the immigration counter is the custom check already. If the flow of people is heavy, I'm sure it will take you more than an hour to complete the whole "check in". Is this also call international airport?! I'm faint.

Transportation fare:
From airport to malioboro=RP60k
From hotel to airport = RP50k (run with meter)

Hotel:

Staff - friendly

Room condition - good. Only 2 pillows. Bed and pillow not as comfortable as star hotel. Water flow is slow in bath area.

Cleanliness - good. Except there have some dirt along the sink and bath area... but it's still acceptable. Toilet has dry and wet partition. No lock from toilet door, haha. I will not use their kettle and glasses but my hubby said he will.

One of the view from the small junction of Malioboro street. Nice wall paint and 天真无邪的小孩 :)

Our dinner was dining here. Along the Malioboro street, what I most can see are KFC, BATA, BATIK and BATIK, BATA, KFC. A lot small "kiosk" selling batik and t-shirt. Yeah, 路边摊selling food some more. I must try their "mie ayam".

Batik resto@Sosrowijayan street. Rosted chicken rice 28k, chicken satay rice 35k, pieapple juice 12k, hot honey lemon 14k...total 89k. Food taste is out of my expectation. I will not come and visit this restaurant anymore.

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Day 2 - Thus - 16th: Prambanan (Hindu temples) + Ullen Sentalu Museum (Javanese Culture)

Weather: Rain@morning, Cloundy@noon

Even thought rain lightly in the morning but we decided to rent a motorbike and follow our today plan. We did our preparation: plastic bag, short pant etc and walked to the near by shop to rent a motobike. 

Cost: 70k for 24 hours, Rp50k for 12hours. We took for 12 hours. They will keep one of our passport and after you get your motmotorbike, they requested us to take the photo with their motorbike. The petrol type in here I believe only have 1 type. They called it as "bensin". Not like our country, RON97/95. And, I saw only 1 brand of the petrol station which called "Pertamina". We ride to the nearest petrol station and filled Rup22k petrol for full tank. let's go! Vroom... vroom~ 

1st breakfast In hotel. Not many choice but enough for me.

After ~30 minutes ride under the rain with smelly rain coat. We are arrived at Prambana. Motobike parking= Rup3k, entrance fee= Rup175k per person, tour guide=Rup75k. This compound actually consists of Candi Lumbung, Candi Sewu and Candi Bubrah. But tour guide only explain to you about the Candi Prambanan.

Enter one of the world heritage, UNESCO. A lot student around. Most of them are coming for the school assignment which interview the tourist by speaking English.  They train their English skill. Also so been stopped and interviewed by few group of them and requested to take photo. Some other student act as tour guide. I'm very impressed their initiative and programme.

Our tour guide was explaining the structure of Candi Candidates Prambanan.

All the Candi Is build In lock system. Those candi were fallen down is due to the earthquake which the movement was in jumping type. If the movement is waving type, it will not fall as serous as what we seen here where all been departed become piece by piece. People were spent 40+ years to "lego" back the structure.  They just try an error. I wonder what I have seen here is same as the original Candi structure.

The steps here are high. This is because when you decent, your butt would not facing the statue/god. You will decent by siding your body.

View of Prambanan.

After visited Candi Prambanan, there have the mini tran waiting there. It is free ride... ride around the compound which you can visit the rest of the 3 temples. Less people notice it. We had took a sit and waited for few minutes.. trans havent started to move.

We decided to rent a bike which cost Rup20k each. No time limit. Rider has to follow the bike track.

Overview of the Candidates Sewu. Peaceful because not crowded. Inside do not have any statues. I believe this is why this Candi is less people come to visit.

Lunch at the food stall next to the Prambanan. Bakso (Beef meatball soup with noodle, Rp7k). Mie Ayam (Chicken soup noodle with vegetable, Rp7k), Milk Tea (Rp5k) and Coffee (Rp3k). Portion is small. Coffee serve with power without filtering. The taste of tea is not similar as tea in M'sia.

 

After ~30 minutes ride from Prambanan, we had arrived Ullen Sentalu Musuem. This Musuem located at the foot hill. Passed by some villages. You can see padi fields.

Entrance fee: Rp50k each person including tour guide. No camera is allowed. Visited Javanese music instrument, painting, origin poems, batik etc. Honestly, I'm not so interested on this :p

Motorcycle rented by us... Honda, auto gear. Cushion not very good... sit until butt pain.

 

Mt. Merapi! On the way back, we saw a sign board which showing somewhere of Mt. Merapi. We believe that area called Kaliadem. This is out of our today plan. ~4pm now... time allowed, we turned on GPS and set the coordinate ( S7°38'24" E110°23'13.2" ) which found from JogYes.com. Unfortunately, the GPS took me to somewhere that incorrect. End up, we gave up and heading back to Malioboro.

On the way back to the Malioboro and had a dinner at this MariMari Ikan Pakar restaurant.

We ordered grilled fish set Rup15k, fried chicken set Rup15k, and black pepper squid Rup12.5k. I think those foods were ready cooked for a while because they are cold. I was not so satisfy their food display. Totally not same as the photo. Their advertised "bali style cooking. Special and healthy". I dare to bet that it would be the left over food from yesterday. But their fried chicken is tasty.

Walk by a road side food stall which along our hotel. I saw this stall have visited by a lot of their local people. So I intended to have a try.

Noodle, chicken and soup are different with the one we had in Prambanan. One thing they are similar is their chicken also been fermented. Alfonso commented that Prambanan is nicer. We thought the price of this stall would be cheaper. We were wrong. There are same price, Rup7k.

We engaged a travel agent to bring us to Borobudur and Mt. Merapi since they are a bit far and tomorrow would be a raining day. We just walked around our hotel and got this agent. The tour package list they shown us was Rup500k per mobil, 10hours. At first we think it is expensive because we online search, it should around Rup180k per person. When we intented to say no and leave, he asked us how much do we want. I just simply told him Rup30k. He suggested bring us 3 places where is Borobudur, Ketep Pass and Kaliadem with Rup350k. I guess we got a good deal here.

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Day 3 - Friday - 17th: Borobudur (Buddhist temple) + Ketep Pass (volcano museum and viewing point) + Kaliadem (gunung kaki of merapi which area been impacted by eruption on 2010)

Weather: Sunny@morning, Cloundy+Rain@noon

upert Friday,   per person which buy from travel agent. As the driver told us, normal price is Rup220k.

My 2nd breakfast In hotel. Similar as yesterday.

Our driver has arrived very early. He already waited at the lobby when we just finished our breakfast on 7:50am. This our car...Avanza.

Ticket to enter Borobudur. Driver suggested me to buy It thru agent because Cheaper Rup10k. Thus, Rup210k per person plus parking Rup5k. Total Rup425k.

We had arrived Borobudur after around 1 hour drive. Driver really did not bluff us on the ticket price. For local people only Rup30k per person...huge different. The foreigner entrance is different with local people. Mineral water, Coffee and Tea are free serve. Same as Prambanan.

For the tour guide servics, yes, same price as Prambanan. If you did not do the study or read their history, better hire one. Else you just go there and take picture without knowing its story. our tour guy is nice and funny. He talked non stop until we don't  have much chance to take photo... haha. Good tour guide if compare to yesterday one.

My 1st impression: HUGE. Few big group of student are here. Hope we has a nice visit here.

Borobudur ground plan.

 

Lowest floor of Borobudur. It has total 9 levels. Total 504 Buddha statues. But we only can see few.

Our tour guide explaining the story of Prince Siddhartha and the birth of Buddha.

 

Alfonso with our tour guide. We were at level 8.  A main dome, located at the center of the top platform (@level 9), is surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside a perforated stupa.

View from Borobudur top.

Tour guide told us that here is the nice angle to take photo of Borobudur.

 

View from front. Captured aliens :p

On the way go to next station, Ketep Pass, we stop by a restaurant to have a lunch.

Big compound. Due to hot weather, I choose to sit indoor.

The chicken soup is surprising us because they serve with many pieces of chicken. The drink on right is watermelon juice. I wanted to ask whether they sent me a wrong order. Usually, watermelon juice should be in red, but here is light green. I guess they are blend with watermelon inner skin. Not bad, instead.

Driver's lunch is include in our bill.

After 30 minutes drive, we had arrived Ketep Pass. RAINING! 

This is the view point of Mt. Merapi. Inside has musuem (small and simple, nothing to see (to me la~)), small theater which showing the eruption of Mt. Merapi on 2010.

 

View of Mt Merapi? Hmmm... we are not sure. I guess should be a mountain next to Mt. Merapi. I feel that not a must to visit this place.

Almost 1 hour drive, we have arrived our last station of today tour - Kaliadem. The closer look at the real face of Mt. Merapi. Entrance Fee: total Rp11k where Rp3k per person and Rp5k for parking I guess.

 

Ticket for used of Merapi Jeep tour. There have 3 options: low, medium and high. We took low which only bring us to the foot of Mt. Merapi. Rp:250k, ~90minues. They suggested us took low is good enough to see the Mt. Merapi. At first, I not really want to go for it because it was raining. But since we are here, just bet a luck.

Our young driver. Rock road along the way go to the Mt. foot. Riding a jeep is dangerous but fun!

Small museum... which is the stuffs were found/left after the eruption on 2010.

It was a bad day for people here. Total 200 peoples were dead.

They ding deep to get the sand and rock. After few years, we can see that a heat still under the ground. You can imagine how damn hot of the volvanic.

2 peoples were dead here on 2006 eruption.

Mt. Merapi face...

 

One of the view point which found a rock has an alien's face.

It is a nice experience. I'm glad I have been here and see a real face of Mt. Merapi which is an active stratovolcano. It would be great if I able to climb to the top of Mt. Merapi but I chicken :p

Dinner time! After 45 minutes drive from Mt. Merapi and back to Malioboro. Gudeg... is a traditional food of Jogja.

We ordered a "Nasi gudeg paha atas+telur", Rp64k...a "Nasi gudeg data",Rup64k and "teh panas manis", Rp3k. I'm disappointed again... why their food is served in cold?!

Nasi gudeg paha atas = Gudeg rice with chicken tight

Nasi gudeg data = Gudeg rice with chicken breast

Telur = egg

teh panas manis = Hot milk tea

Gudeg is made from young Jack fruit boiled for several hours with palm sugar and coconut milk. The white container in cylinder shape is filled with gudeg. I would said it is sauce. Fermented chicken is serve with this sauce. Taste is a bit sweet and I tasted coconut taste is stronger that the jack fruit taste. I like the sauce but I do not like the rest of the side dishes and it is not hot.

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Day 4, 18th, Saturday - Plaza Ambarrukmo + Plosan temple (Hindu and buddha) + Javanese Massage + Night walk@Malioboro Street
Weather: Sunny@morning, Cloudy@noon

No pre-plan schedule for today. After online search, we decided to go to Rancang Kencono Cave which is a historical cave under tree giant klumpit. We rent a motorcycle again and heading to this destination.  Unfortunately, GPS device is low battery. Thus, we changed our plan go to the place that we think we can go and back without relying on GPS. We heading to the shopping mall which is Plaza Ambarrukmo. After that we moved further along the main road, Plaosan temple is just located further 1 more junction of Prambanan.

Candi Plaosan surrounded by a padi field in a small village. It also been called as Twin Tower. No entrance fee needed but they requested to do some donation. (donation: Rp10k, motorcycle parking Rp3k in people private house compound). Candi Plaosan consists of 2 main temples: Plaosan Lor and Plaosan Kidul.

Size is not as big as Candi Sewu but inside there have Buddhist statues. This is Plaosan Lor.

We met 3 local children, 8 years old. At first, I saw they follow us and whisper. After that they gather courage to speak with us by using English: What's your name? After introduced ourselves, they started asking a lot of question and acquired to follow us. They are so cute! These 3 children followed us along this visit. 2 of them, Salsa and Tera are girl who very talk active. The other 1 little boy is a bit quiet and shy to speak with us. This boy is the only one kid in his family and that 2 little girls, each of them has a younger brother. Nice to meet them all :)

This is the place they put all statues. They brought us here and shown us only 1 statues is in good condition.

Another temple, Plason Kidul is just located 50 meter away of Plaosan Lor. Not much to see here actually. No statue. Other temples feel less significant after you been to Prambanan.

Late lunch at Joyja Kopitiam which near by our hotel. Nothing much special :p On the way back, a kind uncle told us our tyre was pinted by a nail while we were waiting for the traffic light turn green. So, we better ride back near to our hotel.

Alfonso told me this kopitiam is owned by Malaysian. Why he said so? Because of "Kopitiam" is only use in Malaysia. Is that true?

We went to massage center which just in front of our hotel since we still have plenty time after lunch. We took Javanese traditional massage package which include full body massage + aroma therapy + hot oil + body scrub/foot reflexology/face tapping -> RP175k each person for 90 minutes.Felt great with Javanese body massage if compare to Thai body massage because I do not like to bend my body... it is painful!

View of Malioboro. Taken from roof top of our hotel.

Dinner at the Malioboro Mall. It is suck!

Recommended by our tour diver >> Kopi Joss! Burning charcoal put into the coffee. Their local signature coffee. A name "Joss" is came from the sound while burning charcoal put into the coffee. We ordered 2: with and without milk. Local coffee usually serve without filtering a 'coffee powder'.

"Smoke get in your eyes"~ Taste is normal actually.

Few stalls are selling Kopi Joss a long the street. It is just located the other end of Malioboro stree which cross the train trail. People like to sit beside the road which putting large floor mat and enjoying their drink and snacks.

Behind is the happening Malioboro street. The gate is closed and train is coming. First time walked in Malioboro street at night. A lot of people is gather around. Or maybe today is Saturday night, so it is more happening.

Street art!

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Day 5 (last day) - Sun- 19th: Shopping in Malioboro@morning and "FLY" back to Malaysia@noon
Weather: Sunny

Last breakfast in hotel. Gudge... I can't take it... really.

Shopping time! Don't forget to gaggle, gaggle, gaggle at Malioboro street. Their clothes/t-shirt is cheap! I got a great deal on the batik clothes. Well, for t-shirt, we can't bargain more.. RP30K each for good quality t-shirt.