681 yogyakarta city
Am back from Yogyakarta! Actually decided on this trip for quite some time, but just couldn't find the right time where everyone's schedule didn't clash! Skipped out on the Hari Raya breaks cos Yus couldn't join us, and finally when we decided on the Deepavali weekend, she decided to pangseh us for T-Swifty instead PFFFT. Anyway we still had a great time, and thank God that the weather cleared up mostly. The weather forecast was rain throughout, and maybe even a couple of thunderstorms. But we got nice cooling weather (although cloudy, which means we couldn't see sunrise or stars at night) and only one afternoon of drizzle!
Finally in Yogyakarta! There was a 2h flight delay courtesy of Air Asia. It wasn't so bad at first, because the first 1h delay was before the final gate check, which means we could still hang out at the DFS area and have Starbucks. The 2nd 1h delay was so argh because we had already boarded the plane, before they announced that they had to do checks on the plane before we could take off. Like why wasn't this checked before! I'd rather be sitting at Starbucks than sitting on the plane (which was actually ok because we somehow got the emergency exit row). But yay Yogyakarta!
Got a cab to take us to our hotel, we stayed at Grand Palace Yogyakarta. (Why not Grand Budapest Hotel hahaha) And for one night only, we got upgraded to the presidential suite! Which wasn't very presidential (but of course we had slightly high standards)
Then we took a taxi to Bukit Bintang to get dinner and to hopefully see stars (which we didn't). We opted to eat at an eatery where locals dined, instead of a hotel restaurant that was nearby. Awesome choice because the food was amazeballs. I think it was the best we had throughout the entire trip, and was quite sad because everything else we ate after was also nice, but didn't live up to this one. We had bakso sapi, ayam bakar, lele goreng and nasi goreng. Mega noms. Was funny cos we had to try conversing with our extremely limited bahasa. And then we also kinda got stranded after dinner because we only asked for a one-way taxi trip, and it's virtually impossible to get a cab from there. Finally contacted our driver for the next day who helped us arrange a driver to come rescue us hahaha.
Day 2! Our pickup was at 330am to go see sunrise. I can't remember the name of the hill, but apparently you'll be able to see Borobudur together with the sunrise. Well...it was super cloudy so no actual sunrise viewing T_T but the air was nice and fresh (minus some smoking uncles). Quite nice and rare to be up so early although I did have one of the worst sleeps ever because Yongc is a major snorer.
After that we headed over to Borobudur. These UNESCO places are all really nice to foreigners HAHA. We pay loads more but we get free drinks, a nice resting area to have our nasi goreng breakfast and whatnot. Well Borobudur's pretty interesting because Indo is a majority muslim nation but this is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) Buddhist temple found in the area. It's older than Angkor Wat too! We also became semi celebs because somehow kids kept wanting to take pictures of us. I guess angmohs are not as rare as Chinese there LOL
Then it was off to this other small temple. Which I can't remember the name of.
Next stop was Mount Merapi. It's an active volcano in Yogyakarta and most recently erupted in 2010. (Apparently it's supposed to erupt every 4-6 years, which 2015 nicely falls within hahaha so we were scared for a very short while) You have to take the land cruiser tour which will bring you around the area. First was this mini museum, I think it's one of the house structures that remained after the eruption, so they showcased all the items that were left behind and ruined by the lava and volcanic ash. There were clothes, home appliances like TVs and radios, motorbikes, animal skeletons. And also a completely destroyed Nokia phone.
Then another area where they were mining the volcanic rocks. The whole place is grey but it was actually really nice and scenic still! Fresh air, mountains in the background, and some random people doing a photoshoot with the jeep. We also went to this photospot called Alien Rock, where there's this gigantic volcanic rock that was flung 7km during an eruption and it kinda has features that looks human. Kinda like Prometheus.
Had lunch and then the next stop was Prambanan Temple! It's the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia (iirc) and is made up of 240 temples (iirc). It wasn't as bad a walk as Borobudur because less steps to climb, but it was also drizzling :( And my feet hurt from all the walking in sandals :( Didn't get a guide this time so we erm didn't really know what was going on but the place was still very pretty! Minus all the tourists (local & angmoh) because it was a Sunday.
Our final stop was Ratu Boko. It's on a hilltop and you're supposed to be able to see a super chio sunset (based on Google Images) but because it was cloudy, we didn't get to! It was still a pretty place though I think we sat there for longer than we expected just chilling and breathing in fresh air. Also, instead of just giving foreign tourists free drinks at the restaurant nearby (they converted the whole place into sightseeing + a hotel-ish complex with guest rooms, restaurant and function rooms), they also gave free food! We thought it was gonna be snacks like keropok but it was legit food like nasi and mee goreng.
No pics from Day 3 actually because we went caving in Jomblang Cave, and I didn't bring a little bag for my phone and I didn't have pockets. The place was really pretty although ruined by a group of super annoying (& rich) ahtiongs who wanted to take undisturbed photos (ie no one around them but how is that possible when there's only 1 photospot and a large group of people). But we bonded with a group of other Singaporeans and Malaysians who felt as annoyed as us. HAHA I rolled my eyes when the ahtiong photog was asking us to get out of their frame and the guide laughed because I think he could see how pissed off we were!
After Jomblang we went to Goa Pindul for tubing! Goa Pindul is this limestone cave (I think) and it's pitch dark with bats and swallows and so terrified that bats will shit on me but it was really nice to be just floating around on a rubber tube. Then took a lorry to Kali Oyo for river tubing. Apparently during monsoon season they just change the name of the attraction to water rafting HAHA but for now it's just river tubing. Somehow our tour groups also kinda merged so it became our big group together with another guide that had 4 Polish with him just for the end bit after the 5m and 10m jumps. The river tubing was actually quite boring la and also kinda gross cos the water was so mossy hahaha. But the cave tubing one was really nice!
Okay that's the end. Apparently there's still a lot more places in Yogyakarta that we didn't get to see - 3d3n is really too short. I'm also having holiday withdrawal symptoms at work so I'm doing this up and I actually did up my Taipei itinerary yesterday HAHA. Okay time to go be productive!