My Vacation in Jogjakarta, Indonesia (Part 1) by GNEB

I was recently in Jogjakarta for holidays with some friends. I needed a vacation so badly but just didn’t know where to go to. Bali seemed to be too common these days, besides I’ve been there twice already. In the end, we decided to go to Jogjakarta instead.

A lot of people actually thought that I was going to Jakarta, but Jogjakarta (aka Yogyakarta) and Jakarta (Capital of Indonesia) are completely 2 different places.

Day 1

We flew AirAsia and reached Jogjakarta at around 4pm Indonesian time (which is an hour behind Malaysia). If you were to fly AirAsia, I’d recommend that you book early as you may get cheaper fares (as if you didn’t already know J).

This is Adisucipto Airport in Jogjakarta. A very small one indeed and in fact, it looks more like a school than an airport.

The arrival hall

Entrance to the airport…I think Jogja is generally cleaner than Penang..

We arranged for airport pick-up from the hotel. The driver Yunos, was already at the arrival hall waiting for us with a card board in his hands with our names written on it.

It was the peak traffic hour on our way to our hotel. Here’s a picture of the traffic condition. Nevertheless, it only took us about 20 min to get to our hotel – Rumah Mertua Boutique Hotel that we’d booked online earlier that week.

Rumah Mertua (literally means “Mother-In-Law’s House”) is located in a Javanese village in a small town called Sleman. Trust me, no one would have thought of seeing a hotel in such a place. It’s like seeing a hotel in say, Kampung Melayu in Air Itam, Penang! Who would build a hotel in a simple and unpretentious kampong like this? In Sleman apparently, there are many other hotels besides Rumah Mertua. Hyatt is one of them and in fact not far away from Rumah Mertua. Strange? Tell me!

We were all so tired by the time we reached Rumah Mertua, but the hotel was just so beautiful that we decided we should just walk about after checking in and shower. The hotel looks “Javanese” from every angle, from the architecture to the furniture. It has only 11 rooms, nevertheless equipped with basic facilities such as a very tasteful restaurant, a lovely garden with swimming pool, a homely lobby and a number of very friendly and helpful staff.

The hotel’s restaurant – apparently it’s very famous around this area. Many locals would come here to eat. It’s very dimly lit, but very romantic as a result.

These were our “welcome refreshments” – Javanese ginger tea and “Wajik” (a type of brown sugar glutinous rice cake).

The hotel’s garden was very romantic indeed in the evening - ideal for honeymoon ©©©

A little kerosene lamp by the swimming pool

The room was simple and clean. As there were 3 of us, we also asked for an extra bed, which by the way was a mattress on the floor. Even so, I had no complaint about it at all for the price we paid. Besides, the extra “mattress” also came with complimentary breakfast every morning, so what more to expect?

There were also cupboard, TV (little one) and several bottles of complimentary drinking water (restocked everyday). More importantly, the bathroom was very clean and spacious with clean towels and basic toiletries provided.

One thing about Sleman though is that there’s not much to see and eat. There are a few local diners and street vendors within walking distance from the hotel, but they were not the kind of food that tourists would normally go for, unless you’re really adventurous.

More decent restaurants could only be reached by taxi about 10 minutes away along Jalan Palagan Tentera Pelajar. In the end, we decided to eat at the hotel’s “romantic garden” restaurant instead, since we were all worn out and tired of going out again.

As it turned out, it wasn’t a bad experience after all. The restaurant served very delicious food. It was amazing to see how small the kitchen was but they were able to knock up the hot meal below in no time.

I think this was called Nasi Padang and there must have been about 8 or 9 little dishes to go with the rice.

The Indonesian Sangria was very nice indeed.

After dinner, we got the receptionist’s help to plan out our itinerary for the next day. With her help, we managed to squeeze most of the well known tourist spots into the next day’s schedule. We wanted to see sun rise at Borobudur Temple and we were told that we had to leave as early as 5am for that. This meant we had to wake up earlier than that to get ready. I wasn’t even sure if I could wake up so early!

Day 2

1. Borobudur Temple

Surprisingly, I was able to wake up at 4am and get ready to leave by 5am. This must have been the earliest I’ve ever woken up in my whole life!

“American breakfast” will be served if you pre-ordered it the night before. There were toasts, omelets, fruits and a generous pot of hot coffee (this should wake you up J).

Borobudur is about 45 min away from Rumah Mertua. You’ll know when you’re about to reach as you’ll see lots of billboards advertising the hotels in nearby areas.

We finally arrived at the Reception. Getting into Borobudur is not cheap for foreigners. It costs USD 12 (RM 42) per entry. You pay less if you were a local. I guess it’s just like any other tourist spots; the idea is to rip tourists off as much as possible!

The Reception at Borobudur

We still paid to get in. After all, you can’t say that you’ve come to Jogjakarta without having seen Borobudur, right?

A little sneak preview of Borobudur as you enter…

And finally…in “full frontal”

The view from the top of the temple was simply breathtaking! It was definitely worth every single cent of the USD12 that we paid to get in.

Some carvings on the wall on the way up to the temple.

Under the glory of the morning sun

You’ll see many local students around all of the tourist spots in Jogja. It seems like they have some kind of project from school that they’ll have to meet up with foreign tourists and communicate with them in English. They’ll come to you for pictures (and some for signatures) and offer to explain the history of the places in English to you. I actually thought they did it for money when a group of them approached me at Borobudur.

The Stupas

More of the Stupas…

And many more…..

The only nuisance though was that there were just so many vendors who’d come pestering you to buy the souvenirs. One of them actually followed us from the moment we entered the temple till we came out. In the end, we had to take refuge in the Maritime Museum. Apparently, they would only bug you when you’re out in the open areas as they’re not allowed in any of the buildings.

The Maritime Museum

We realized that we could not hide in the museum forever and we had a long day to go. When we came out of the museum, Ali Baba (his name apparently) was waiting for us right at the exit. In the end, we had to succumb to his persistence and purchased a few bookmarks (made of Bodhi leaves) from him.

One of the many souvenir stalls at Borobudur. The souvenirs are generally pretty cheap. One of these Buddha miniatures would cost less than RM10. Even with that, there’s still room for haggling. Yunos told us the cheapest place to get souvenirs is still Marioboro (the city centre).

The mini van that we rented. That’s Yunos, our driver hiding behind the van

One of the local food stalls.

2. Gunung Merapi

We headed straight to Gunung Merapi next. Gunung Merapi is one of the few active volcanoes in Java. Yunos told us it erupted few years ago and 2 people actually died from it. As the volcano is so high, you could almost see it anywhere from the city of Jogja.

Unless you have not seen a real and active volcano, otherwise there’s not much to see in here seriously. There’s no shelter and the entire place is very dusty as well.

I’d never been this close to a real volcano! I heard you can get closer than this by climbing up the hill.

3. Sultan’s Palace

Next stop is Sultan’s Palace. It is located in Marioboro, which is the city centre of Jogja. Apparently, the Sultan still lives in the palace till today. I managed to take a few pictures of the Sultan’s collection of antiques.

4. Kota Gede

By the time we came out from Sultan’s Palace, we were starving and in desperate need for a rest. Yunos took us to Kota Gede, which was approximately 10 min away from Marioboro. Kota Gede is a place famed for its silver products and we wanted to check out the silver factories to see if there’s anything good. But first, we were in dire need for food and a place to rest. We ended up in Dji Sam Soe Restaurant (Jl. Mondorakan, No. 252, Kotagede) and tried out the food below..

Snapper Curry Rp 41,252 (RM13) - coconut milk curry with rice and stir fried vegetables

Pepes Ayam Kampung Rp 65, 500 (RM 21) – spicy chicken with vegetables, rice and bean cakes.

Mie Udang Rp 45,252 (RM15) – Prawn noodles. This was the only dish I was familiar with as we have this in Malaysia too. It was quite delicious.

You should also try out their Sour Sop Drink, it was very nice and refreshing. Only Rp 18,252 (RM6)!

After lunch, we visited one of the silver factories but there was hardly anything in there that we felt like buying.

5. Prambanan Temples

You come to Jogjakarta to see 2 things, the first being Borobudur and the next is Prambanan. These are the 2 icons in Jogja that you shouldn’t miss.

Of course, you’ll have to pay to get in. This one costs USD 11 (RM39) for foreigners!

The souvenirs here are reasonably priced. We stopped at one of the stalls to get some key rings and Prambanan miniatures. The Prambanan miniature only costs Rp7500 each and that’s like RM2.50!! I began to like shopping here very much!

Prambanan Temples from far..

Nearer view..

This is so nice!

6. Finally…dinner!

It’s been a long day and I was happy that we covered most of the well known places, especially Borobudur and Prambanan. The thing with Jogja is that it has so many other smaller temples which are not as famous. My thought is that you could just give them a miss as they look almost the same. Besides, you may even have to pay to get in as well, while you should save up the money for more shopping instead since things are cheap here.

We ended our fruitful day by having dinner at a Chinese restaurant recommended by the hotel – Sin Ta Wang (Jl Mangelang 9). Here’s what we had that night:

Ayam Goreng Mentega, which translates into Butter Fried Chicken.

Hot Plate Seafood – I didn’t think much of this though…

Stir fried Kailan again – I’m boring, ain’t I? This was salty, so didn’t like it too..

I guess this was my favourite of all – Bintang Beer! Only Rp25000 (RM8) per bottle, this is heaven for drinkers!

The entire meal costs Rp 162000 (RM54). Not bad in terms of price.

As if the Bintang Beer was not enough, we continued the booze-up with Sangria when we got back to the hotel. A few glasses of Sangria under the moonlight by the hotel’s pool, with traditional Javanese instrumental music playing in the background – hmmm…isn't life wonderful?

[Stay tuned for part 2….]