Short Trip to Yogyakarta, Indonesia – Part 1

It was great that finally I had this chance to visit Indonesia for the 1st time.  A very last minute decision made from my friends of 6.  Some of us ‘in-charge’ of air-tickets while others surveying on interesting places and packages.  So, after one day surveying…(actually was done by my friend… :P) we decided to book our room at www.1001malamhotel.com.  The package can be found in the same website as well and believe me, the person in-charge can actually re-arrange their tour itinerary based on your needs.  That sounds good… :)  They also provide airport pickup and drop-off services …nice huh?

There are plenty of reviews and advices you can find in the internet to remind us on the price offer if you do not want to take up the services from the hotel/motel you booked and also some local tour which actually promising you this and that but they are doing the other way round/miss out some of the places.  So, to avoid unnecessary situation happened during our trip, we decided to take up their services.  We signed up for Borobudur, Mendut Prambanan, Pawon, Plaosan and Boko Package, plus additional Merapi.  We requested to split the tour to 2 days starting from the day we arrived as our plane was the morning flight and also the airport pick-up and drop-off.  One shot package. Lolx……

So here’re the pictures spam:

 
Reach Yogja International Airport

 
God Figure at airport

We straight away went for our breakfast after we get into our van.  Our driver cum tour guide, Usha (sorry if I spell wrongly), brought us to this stall to enjoy Soto.  I believe if you are too picky of your food, you will miss out this place:

 

 
Our driver mistakenly ordered each menu for 6 pax!!!  Luckily we return some to the uncle.

Taste like our chicken noodle soup.

 
Chicken drumstick…it was like fried chicken.

Assorted satay, take as you wish but need to pay…

After filling our hungry stomach, we straight away to our hotel to check-in.  We were so surprise that the hotel was not located at a place where you can see from main road, it was located at a small pathway, where cars are not allow to pass through…well, it’s a pathway!!!  Only bicycle and motorbikes are allowed.

 

 
Place to brush your teeth and wash your face…and there’s a towel handler.

Clean bathroom

After taking short rest, we begin with our package to the Sultan’s Palace.  On the way to Sultan’s Palace, I’d took few shots just to fill up my time:

KFC advert in drawings…special…

Suddenly a Terra Cotta statue at the middle of the town..??

Beca ride

Horse ride for tourist

Theater Hall

The musicians occupied half of the hall…

Prohibited area for tourists to step-in as this area only for the Sultan and royal family.

The Dining area for Sultan, royal family and the national’s visitors

The music pavilion

The guard of the palace sits here.

See the huge door of the palace

 
Enter to the Library of the Sultan which now they turned it to a museum for tourist.

Luxury design

 
Some of the Sultan’s collections

Next station to Taman Sari Water Palace which is nearby the Sultan’s Palace.  According to the tourguide from Taman Sari Water Palace, This place is meant for the previous Sultan to “overnight” with the chosen girl.  I’ll tell the ‘story’ from my pictures:

The main gate (entrance)

This is another garden before entering the main area.  In ancient time, the dancers and musician will perform to the Sultan here.

The pool is for a group of girls, playing water to woo the Sultan where His Majesty will stand at tower. (see pic below)

This is the ‘tower’ the Sultan will stand and watch for his favourite girl from the pool.  The chosen one will stay a night with the Sultan.

 
While the rest of the girls will stay in this room (just like dormitory).

Wow!!…i smell food…foooooddd…..lolx …. this is like our chinese kuih kapit taste…crunchy and they put some peanuts inside.

This uncle is making the wayang kulit character

Batik

         This was shot from the ‘slave’ village located just beside the water palace.

Next station, the Pawon Candi which located near to Borobudur Candi.  Pawon Candi is just a small candi at a small village.  Candi in here means temple.  If you’d notice, in Indonesia, all these ancient temple, they called it as Candi, while if you are in Cambodia, they called it as “Wat”.  Yogjakarta previously was influence by Buddhism and Hinduism.  If you found stupa around the candi, this means, it is a Buddhist candi.

As in the wikipedia of Candi Pawon:

“Pawon (known locally as Candi Pawon) is a Buddhist temple in Central Java, Indonesia. Located between two other Buddhist temples, Borobudur (1.75 km (1.09 mi) to the northeast) and Mendut (1.15 km (0.71 mi) to the southwest), Pawon is connected with the other two temples, all of which were built during the Sailendra dynasty (8th–9th centuries).  Pawon literally means "kitchen" in Javanese language, which is derived from the root word awu or dust.  The three temples were located on a straight line, suggesting there was a symbolic meaning that binds these temples.”

You may see from the map here: 3 connected candi in straight line 

We have a short stop here to snap few pictures and then we continue to Candi Mendut.

The ruin of stupas at Candi Mendut

  

As in wikipedia about Mendut:

“Mendut is a ninth century Buddhist temple, located in Mendut village, Mungkid sub-district, Magelang Regency, Central Java, Indonesia. The temple is located about three kilometres east from Borobudur.  Mendut is the oldest of the three temples including Pawon and Borobudur. The Karangtengah inscription, the temple was built and finished during the reign of King Indra of Sailendra dynasty. The inscription dated 824 AD mentioned that King Indra of Sailendra has built a sacred building named Venuvana which means "bamboo forest". Dutch archaeologist JG de Casparis has connected the temple mentioned in Karangtengah inscription with Mendut temple.  In 1836 it was discovered as a ruins covered with bushes. The restoration of this temple was started at 1897 and it was finished at 1925.”

In between we stop by to have our late lunch.  Usha brought us to have their Bakso, but pitily, I don’t take beef, so I have to remain on Mee Soto Ayam (Soto Chicken Noodle).  My friends who ordered bakso, they said it was a recommended food that you must try..if you can take beef:

 

The main focus of the day was the Candi Borobudur.  Unluckily we need to rush to be the last group visiting the candi as the last group to enter the candi was at 6pm where they will close the entrance and visitors are allow to stay inside the candi until 6:30pm.  By 6:30pm, everyone inside the candi will need to leave.  I’m not really satisfied when visiting this candi because of time constraint, however, I’ll need to enjoy my half hour tour in there with the beautiful sunset view.

Before you entering the candi, you can have some tea/coffee/mineral water.  Take as many as you like….it’s FOC!!!

Everyone needs to wear the sarung to show respect when entering the Candi.  The ticket including the rent of this sarung.

What you gonna do if you are the last group? Just try your hard and climb to the top with your fastest speed.  I know most of you who had visited Candi Borobudur had snapped nice picture where you got the chance to stand just beside the stupa.  Unfortunately, the stupa area is closed for some repairment.  So, ended up my stupa pictures where shot from below. (~.~)

On my way down, I saw some of the figures has been ruined by the Merapi eruption on November 2010

As for our dinner, our driver a.k.a tourguide Usha, brought us to a local stall to have some nasi padang…I’m not so sure what is that, but after we walked into the stall, it was just like our normal economic rice.  What makes the different here is, they will serve you all dishes they have, the bill will counted in once you touch the dish with your spoon.  So, firstly, we look through all the dishes and start selecting the one we do not interested on to avoid the spoon ‘touching’ the dish…heheheh…..ended up…still we ate a lot:

I found this interesting packaging where hardly find in Malaysia….hehehe…and it does bring me back to my childhood…putting in a straw and drink from the bottle…. ^^ .. (note: I’m not that old..ok…)

So, this end our 1st day tour…!! ------> Continue part2