Destination: Yogyakarta,
Indonesia
Duration: 4 Days 3 Nights (Oct
20~Oct 23, 2012)
Day 1: Penang -> LCCT -> Yogyakarta -> Prambanan
A lot of people were giving me blank look when I told
them my destination this time – Yogyakarta. The most common reaction was: Huh?
Do you mean Jakarta??? Even I had no idea what to expect – the 2 things I knew?
There was an active volcano there which erupted in 2010 and there was a plane
crashed during landing in the airport. Hmm… Should I write my Last Will of
Testament before my departure?
One of the biggest reasons we booked the plane tickets
back from 2011 – more than 1 year before departure date? It was Air Asia
promotion tickets and it only cost RM60per pax for a return ticket (Excluding
airport tax & fuel surcharge). Not to mention our transit from Penang to
LCCT was zero fare tickets.
Since it is Air Asia, flight schedule changes are common as
there was timing changes to our flight to/from Yogyakarta. Thankfully Air Asia
allowed us to re-schedule our PG-LCCT flight without additional charges after a
few calls to their ever busy customer service.
The trip was planned in last minute – Literally few days
before our departure. We got the contact from Lonely Planet website and he
helped us to arrange the hotels and ground tours. In fact, his rate for the 5
stars Phoenix Hotel was actually 35-40% lower than Agoda.com! His name is Wiedy
Antara – one of the agents or maybe owner of Borobudur Tours Agency (www.borobudurtourandtravel.com). Our fee was USD135 per pax for 4D3N private tour and USD250 for hotels (2
nights Phoenix Hotel & 1 night Manohara Hotel).
Thus we departed from Penang to LCCT on Oct 20 with the 1st
flight of the day, had some breakfast at LCCT McDonalds (what else? *facepalm*)
before embarking our 2 ½ hours flight to Yogyakarta. Our plane landed safely at
the Yogyakarta airport which was infamous for its short runway. Hooray to our
Air Asia pilot!!!
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| There is our flight! |
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| But not before we having some breakfast 1st!!! |
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| Coastal Line of Indonesia from the AA Plane |
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| Prepare for Landing |
The 1st thing that I noticed once I stepped
off the airplane was the hot weather and the stale air. There was hardly any
airflow at all. I could hardly breathe in this place. Mind you, I had
experience travel in hot weather (Up to 37-40 degree Celcius) but never felt so
‘breathless’. I guess it might due to its proximity to an active volcano? Then
there came another nightmare – we had to queue up under the hot sun and the
outdoor stale air to get to the custom checkpoint. Basically we were on the
airport taxiway! Oh my Gosh!!! Apparently the building is too small for all the
passengers to queue inside at once. We queued for around an hour under the
disastrous condition before getting through custom.
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| See the line? |
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| Still waiting... *yawn* |
Our driver ‘Han’ was waiting for us and we were told that
the city has lots of names such as Yogyakarta, Yogjakarta and Yogja etc. I must
say the traffic there was pretty crazy as well! The narrow road was jammed full
with trucks, cars, motorcycles, trishaw and even horse chariots! Our 1st
destination of the day was a temple.. did I mention that other volcano and
plane crash, Han told us that Yogja is full of temples? Apparently the temple
was so famous that pilgrims from other places would walk all the way here by
foot in old time.
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| Random Photo at Airport |
Kalasan Temple is an 8th century Buddhist
temple and it was basically just off a main road in the city. Our tour included
entrance fee so normally Han would purchase the tickets for us when we reached
any destination. I noticed the entrance ticket for Kalasan was RP2000 (only
around 60cents in RM or 20 cents in USD). It was a very small temple and it
took us less than 15 minutes to take pictures.
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| Lots of Buildings were in Ruins due to Earthquake in 2010 |
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| Plaosan Temple and its Keeper |
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| View from the Front |
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| Inside the Temple |
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| That's Sammy!!! |
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| That's me! |
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| Another Plaosan Temple... the Twin! |
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| The 'Roof' |
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| Panoramic View of Plaosan Temple |
Our main event of the day was Prambanan – A Hindy Temple
constructed in the tenth century. The slim building soaring up to 47 meters
makes its beautiful architecture incomparable. One of the buildings was still
in construction and we basically had to wear a helmet to enter it. All the
reconstruction was due to earthquake in 2010 caused by volcano. We did have an English
speaking guide but I just couldn’t remember what he said since my brain was
already turned to scrambled egg due to the hot weather.
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| Prambanan from Entrance |
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| Getting Nearer... |
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| Caused by Earthquake again... |
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| We are here! |
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| Magnificent huh? |
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| Safety Helmet is Required! |
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| Stories on the wall... |
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| A View from the Top |
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| Beautifully Crafted... |
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| Sammy was there too!!! |
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| Goodbye Prambanan |
We took a train (RP5000/pax) at the Prambanan site to get
to some of the temples at the area and the train driver gave us like 10 minutes
to take some photos.
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| Train Train Train! |
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| Another Train behind us... |
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| Yet Another Temples in Ruins |
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| A Nearer View |
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| Leaving the Park.. |
Our last destination of the day was Sambisari Temple (RP2000/pax),
a Hindu temple under ground level. Apparently the temple was discovered by a
farmer when his hoe hit the carved stone of the temple. Hahhaa… tough luck!
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| The Underground Sambisari Temple |
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| The Main Temple |
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| The Model |
We finally got to have our late lunch/dinner at around
5pm at a fried chicken restaurant. Apparently Yogja is famous for their fried
chicken and according to Han, this place offered the best fried chicken ever. We
ordered fried half-chicken (RP39,600), fried rice (RP22,000) and Gudeg
(RP19,800). The fried rice was typical Malay style fried rice that you could
get in Malaysia whilst gudeg was a local specialty of Yogja. It looked scary to
me actually. :p
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| Suharti Fried Chicken |
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| Inside the Restaurant |
Then our fried chicken was served with a plate of chili
sauce. The fried residue from the chicken tasted very nice with the spicy chili
sauce but some part of the chicken was quite hard to bite. It was not like what
was introduced online “crispy on the outside and tender from the inside”. I
guess I should comment it as “crispy on the outside and HARD from the inside”?
Hhaha…..
We also ordered Es Jeruk (RP7,700) and Es Asem (RP7,700) –
the Es Jeruk actually tasted like mandarin orange juice, very nice!
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| Fried Rice |
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| Fried Chicken |
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| The Chilli Sauce! |
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| Gudeg - the traditional Yogja Food... |
After a long day,
we finally checked in to Phoenix Hotel for the night. I must say I was
impressed with the hotel – you can’t get the place with the price from anywhere
else in the world! The place was tastefully decorated and we noticed most
patrons were western. We met Wiedy during check-in and paid him the trip fare. He
told us he booked a standard room for us tonight but would put us in Deluxe
room during our final night stay.
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| A KFC on the way to our Hotel |
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| The Lobby @Phoenix Hotel |
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| The Standard Room |
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| TV & Mirror |
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| Complimentary Fruit & Candy |
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| Toilet |
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| No Bathtub... :( |
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| Night View @Phoenix |
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| Look! Phoenix on the Door Handle... |
Our hotel was around 15-20 minutes away from the famous Malioboro
area but we were simply too tired to venture there. Thus we just wondered
around the hotel area before heading back to call it a night. Btw, traffic was pretty messy there so one needed to be extra careful when crossing the road. Oh… did I mention
that someone got a terrible diarrhea after eating the gudeg? *facepalm*
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