Previous Day (City Tour + Borobudur)
Destination: Yogyakarta,
Indonesia
Duration: 4 Days 3 Nights (Oct
20~Oct 23, 2012)
Day 3: Borobudur + Mt Merapi
We were supposed to wake up at 4am to catch the sunrise
tour to Borobudur temple but we were simply too lazy. Guess I might have bang
my face too many times on the table last night. We had a late breakfast in the
hotel with a kitty before going to the temple site for last minute photoshoot
before getting back to the hotel for more National Geographic again. Hahhaa..
what a trip!
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| The Fruit |
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| Bread all in Oven - the bread was HARD! |
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| Some Local Food - Fried Rice Again! |
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| Omelet |
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| Kitty accompanying us after we fed him Fishies |
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| Morning View of Borobudur from Manohara Hotel |
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| The Private Gate to Borobudur Temple from Hotel |
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| Borobudur in the Morning |
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| Last Minute Photoshooting |
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| Beautiful Flower on the way back to Hotel |
Han picked us up and made a short stop at Pawon and Mendut Temple – Buddhist temples near Borobudur before continued our journey to Mt Merapi. These temples were used as a ‘pitstop’ for the pilgrims in old time when they walked to Borobudur.
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| Pawon Temple |
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| It was really Small |
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| Relief Panel |
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| Going to Mendut |
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| Mendut is Bigger than Pawon |
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| Front View |
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| A Look from Inside |
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| Sammy was there! |
Mt Merapi is the most active volcano in Indonesia. In fact, the last eruption happened in year end of 2010. We could smell sulfur in the air (DEMON??!!) when we reached the area. Basically we had to hike our way to be nearer to the mountain under the hot and windless weather at an uphill slope. On the way we could see the houses which were destroyed during the volcano eruption as well. The road sign there were quite confusing and after a few rounds of back and forth, we simply gave up to get any nearer to the mountain since there were simply no obvious path at all since the main path was shutdown due to construction. There are actually guided tours to hike Mt Merapi in case you want to get closer to the lava underneath but you would have to wake up at 1am to do so. =P
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| Starting our 'Hike' |
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| The Map looks Simple? The Actual Path was Not!!! |
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| Still Climbing |
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| At a Junction |
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| A Zoom into Mt Merapi |
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| The Main Road to Mt Merapi but It was Closed!!! |
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| This is the Nearest we could get... |
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| Mt Merapi getting Swallowed by Cloud |
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| Destroyed Houses |
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| Walk Walk Walk |
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| At one of the Plateau |
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| Goodbye Mt Merapi |
After Mt Merapi, Han dropped us back to Phoenix Hotel – this time we had the Deluxe room. Our balcony was right above the swimming pool and I must say the room was AWESOME!!! In fact, I must say with the hot and windless weather, the hotel was definitely our salvation during this trip.
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| Our Deluxe Room @Phoenix Hotel |
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| View from Balcony @Phoenix Hotel |
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| Complimentary Fruit & Candy! |
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| No Bathtub though... |
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| The Bathroom |
After some rest, we walked to the famed Malioboro area which took us around 15-20 minutes. There were lots of street vendors selling food and souvenir along the road but we had our sight set on Malioboro Mall – one of the biggest malls in Yogja. We finally reached the mall and it was kind of disappointing. The size was similar to Penang Sunway Carnival mall and there was nothing much to see. The most important of all – the air conditioner was basically non-existent!!!! GOSH!!! *Bangwall*
We ended up in the mall’s foodcourt since we were starving. Here came the next problem – what to eat? Frankly speaking the stall there simply didn’t appeal to my appetite but we ended up ordering some food from Bakso Sen – I think it is a franchise in Indonesia. We had fried rice, fried Javanese noodle and some deep fried stuff served with peanut sauce.
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| Malioboro Foodcourt |
The fried rice was just typical fried rice – nothing special about it. In fact, I had eaten so much fried rice during the trip until I get ‘Fried Rice Phobia’ even until today! The Javanese Noodle was kind of horrendous as it had overpowering taste of a certain vegetable. The deep fried stuff (otak-otak?) tasted like fish cake and tasted strange with peanut sauce as well. Definitely not a good meal…=(
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| Otak Otak with Peanut Sauce |
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| Fried Rice *facepalm* |
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| Fried Javanese Noodle |
We accidentally saw a local ice cream stall on the way out of the mall and got ourselves an ice cream. It was basically frozen milk coated with chocolate – totally different texture of a normal ice cream. It did taste nice though and I remember it was super cheap.
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| Ice Cream!!! |
We then walked along the Malioboro Street to look at the stalls selling food and souvenir. The weather was again leaving us ‘breathless’ even though it was night time. The street food was basically carted along the street and looked lack of hygiene whilst the souvenir was not clearly priced as well. We ended up empty handed and started to walk towards the hotel.
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| Train Station on the Way back to Hotel |
There was this ‘warung’ along the way which we spotted on our 1st night there which was swarmed with locals. So we had decided to stop there to experience the local experience by sitting on the floor mat to enjoy our meal. The food was extremely cheap at RP1,500-RP3,000 per packet for a rice packet with ingredients such as chili anchovy and spicy chicken inside. You could also add more dishes by choosing the fried stuffs or ‘food on a stick’ in the stall.
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| Look at all the Foods! |
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| More Foods!!! |
We got ourselves 2 jasmine teas, 2 packets of rice, a deep fried fritter, Satay and quail egg on a stick to try it out. Frankly speaking we have no idea what is the rice set that we chose! When we opened the packet, apparently we got a pack with chili anchovy and another Chicken “Tongseng”.
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| Our Food before Opening |
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| Just like a Local! |
The portion of the anchovy was very small and it rested on top of banana leaves on top of the white rice. It was like Malaysia’s Nasi Lemak but with normal white rice and little anchovy. Chicken “Tongseng” packet came with a pack of the spicy herb gravy with meager piece of chicken inside with ordinary white rice. There was lots of rice indeed!!!! The fried fritter was very oily with a bit of carrots and vegetable inside. Satay and quail egg were just normal.
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| Look at this! |
There came the fun part, there was a street performer serenading the patrons with Indonesian songs with his guitar. He would stop right in front of you and start singing so that you would tip him. Hahhaa…. Definitely an unforgettable experience.
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| Our Singer! |
After the supper, we went back to the hotel to enjoy the air conditioner and watched more National Geographic. *facepalm*
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| Nightview @Phoenix Hotel |
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| Another View @Phoenix Hotel |
Day 4: Yogyakarta -> LCCT -> Penang
This was the day we were supposed to get back to Malaysia so we had a long breakfast in Phoenix Hotel. We noticed that we actually missed out a portion of the breakfast spread during our 1st stay there – the western session which provided all the sausages, hashbrown, omelet and egg quiche. After days of fried rice, it was simply HEAVEN!!! The egg quiche was scrumptious!!! And I never thought hashbrown with ketchup could taste so good.
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| Soto Soup |
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| Porridge |
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| Chinese Breakfast - DimSum |
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| More Food! |
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| Western Style Breakfast! Love the Egg Quiche! |
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| Some Pastry & Cake |
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| Yoghurt |
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| Apparently the Hotel wins lots of Awards! |
After breakfast, we decided to walk out to look for the local market. We noticed that it was a wet market and got lazy so we returned to our room to enjoy the air conditioner and National Geographic again before Han picked us up to the airport.
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| Hmm... Where were we? |
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| Getting to the Airport |
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| Air Asia Counter |
The waiting area for international departure was very small and cramped with people. Our flight departed on time and reached LCCT in 2 hours and 30 minutes. We had a few hours of transit time for our flight to Penang so we’d decided to kill our time in Merry Brown. Funny thing was I never ate Marry Brown in Penang even though the restaurant was like 10 minutes walk away from my house. =P Anyway I wouldn’t say this was a very enjoyable trip, I guess it was mostly spoiled by the hot weather with no airflow. I think airflow was definitely a big problem as I’d been to holiday in even hotter weather but never had this problem. So remember to bring a mini-fan with you when going to Jogja!
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| Hmm... Lots of People |
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| Still Waiting! |
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| Goodbye Yogja! |
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| A Panoramic View of the Airport |
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| Merry Brown @LCCT |
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| FAT!!! |
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