So, Jogja was the last trip I went with my friends before we head back to Malaysia. It's actually a very sweet and comforting trip for me, after a month of stressful student exchange life, we completed our finals and we are finally free. The trip should had been a little bit longer but they could not stay even one day extra as their visa is gonna expired on the 21st December 2018, so we had booked our flight back to Malaysia on the 20th December.
We went from Surabaya to Yogyakarta by train ( it's the cheaper alternative compare to flight ), the journey from Surabaya Gubeng Station to Yogyakarta Station took approximately 5 hours, the ride was pretty smooth , we didn't want to repeat our terrible ride to Mount Ijen so we decided to fork out more and take the executive, where there will only be 2 person per seat, which will be more comfortable since it was a long ride. I'll link my trip blog down there if you are still interested to know why I didn't take the cheaper alternative of economy. But turns out, the Sancaka (Train name) is not alike the train I took for Ijen, even for the economy, the seats are for 2 person and it looks ok. Maybe for the executive, it's more spacious that's all. So make sure and do your research before booking the train cause apparently different trains have different types of economy/business/executive seats. Its really easy to use the traveloka app, just install, book, and if you're a foreigner and your credit card is not working, or you simply do not feel its safe to put you details, just book and confirm purchase. You will have around 30 minutes to go to any Alfamart ( It's a famous minimart/7-11 kind of store, some operate 24 hours, some not ) , go to the cashier, show your booking number and pay on the spot. A charge of IDR 2500 will be apply per transaction. The price per way is IDR 230000 .
There are actually many lodging area just walking distance from the train station. We book our at IDR 320000 per room for 4 pax at Setia Backpacker. The room is pretty standard, but I'm thankful for clean sheets , it has 2 double decker beds, aircond, 4 small cupboard, no table, a small TV. You can only get Wifi at the front lobby (sad) and you can refill your tumblr for free. Cleanliness was ok, they have heater but sometime not really functioning. Host was pretty friendly and always smiling. But I do not get the logic of only providing 2 set of toiletries per room? There is 4 pax, 4 bed, 4 person staying in a room but they only provide 2 towels. And when I question them and asked for extra, they simply said : "Oh, its a family room, we only provide 2 towels for family room ." . Ok, I cannot brain that, how does a family room with 4 person only qualify for 2 towels. But I asked her if she is able to give extra, she nodded , went into the store and gave me 2 extra face towels. Ok, fine, I'll just take it.
Reached on the first day, after putting out stuff in the Hostel, we walked to the famous Malioboro and had our lunch . I had the famous Gudeg, you can get it at almost every stall. It tasted quite good. They have light the dried sweet jackfruit in it and the beef's skin. Yes to dried jackfruit, no to beef's skin. It tasted very weird and oily and gummy.
After that, we went to our first location. Mind that many tourist location closes early so we were only manage to visit this one on today, Fort Vredeburg Museum . It's also just a walking distance from the place we had our lunch, walking pass row after row of vendors and tender on Malioboro Street. Fort Vredeburg museum offers a pretentious building from the Dutch era, which many character of the historical background of Yogyakarta as the city and the first King himself.
Ticket was IDR 3000 ( local price) , foreign price is IDR 10000.
The place itself is suitable for history-lover , but the sculptures are really interesting, the design of and flow of the whole thing was pretty amazing, just a little bit sad that the wordings ( mostly in English ) has either faded or shifted, you will have a hard time reading , especially under dim light etc. On the day we went, there was a bunch of kids from some school that also came here, I presumed they are on an education tour, and they were toooooo noisy, generally not interested to learn and study, just making tons of noise and running around. They have some instagram worthy shots and for that small fee, I say go with it.
And then after that, we went back our hostel, bath, take a nap and head out to dinner.
We had our dinner at a normal Warung, but order this drink for dessert. I don't remember what it is called, but its a combination of ginger water, sweet water, bread, jelly , tang yuan kind of thing. ( Hot ) . It's like one of those healthy hot beverage herb thing that my family always likes to drink.
Then, we started our walking and explore what Malioboro street is all about. There were so many Vendors, and my friend Sermala, the bargain queen started to bargain one shop after another, we didn't really buy anything on the first day, it was suppose to be just a survey day. Haha You have to familiar yourself of the price range, go store to store and ask for price, bargain for the lowest, do not get cheated because they hike the price up to 200% . Be smart because eventually when we went on the next day, we were already quiet familiar with the price we expected for the things we wanted to buy, so we brought tons and tons of things on the second day. They have stall selling 6 shirts for IDR 100000 only.
Ended the first day after doing the survey and witnessing the night life. Pity the horses were use to work to carry people on carriage , I hope this tourist animal exploitation will stop one day.
Woke up late the next day, and we went to The Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat , which is also located along Malioboro street. Different place, same kids. I guess we were unlucky, or was it a school holiday? A bunch of kids again in the palace, making noise, talking and shouting like their father's house. Not much really in this palace, besides seeing the guards walking around, and they have people playing the traditional instruments, and live human guards actually sitting on the post in front of the temple or specific locations . Many antique and light and vase stuff that were left behind by the British, other than that, nothing much really. Entry fee was quite cheap too.
Then, we took Grab to Tebing Breksit to watch the white wall/ limestone . Entry is fee, but there will be people waiting at the front, and will be collecting " fee" , give as generous as you want. We went for some pretty nice picture taking spots, and then my muslim friends went for prayer.
After that, we went and had our lunch at Gubug Lestari 88 ( Highly recommended) , there was no one else but us, food was super delicious, we took the set for 4 person. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves, the main reason there were no other customer because the restaurant is not walking distance after you exit the Tebing Breksit, we took grab from tebing Breksit to that location at around 15 minutes. Anyway, food was good, I will definately come back again!
After that, we book Grab again and went to Prambanan Temple ( yes, we didn't go for Borobudor temple , first because its too far, and secondly, its quite expensive ) , we were lucky that we got to purchase the ticket to Prambanan Temple at a local price , it was IDR 40000 . It is one of the world UNESCO heritage and it has three great Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and three temples dedicated to the animals who serve them. It was not really crowded, but I do feel a sense of peace and calmness visiting this place. Was not there for the sunset, but we got a sunset view that was pretty decent, I sat and it took literally 10 mins for the sun to disappear. Wonders!
After that, took Grab to a famous Gelato outlet called - Tempo Gelato , serves decent Gelato at a cheap price ( You can't get Gelato at the price in Malaysia ) and then had a quick dinner and back to Malioboro street and our shopping spree continued till the late night. It's quiet exciting and fun actually watching my friends doing the bargaining. Went back to Hostel, slept.
3rd day, woke up and went to Taman Sari Water Castle ( this time we didn't manage to get the local price , hmmm ) IDR 15000 if I am not mistaken. I didn't enjoy that place at all. First, because it was too crowded. Secondly, that day was super hot, like seriously so hot and the place didn't really look as nice as in the pictures. The place is a little bit complicated and turns out we didn't /miss some spots like the Gedhong Lopak that we were suppose to visit . But no one was interested or wanted to put the effort to find that spot as it was a burning afternoon, we called it a off for that location.
Then, we went back the Hostel and we seperated, some wasted to go for the chol=colate factory, some wanted to buy more stuff at Malioboro street but I went with Syed and Yani to a famous place call House of Raminten , the food and atmosphere was amazing. Super cheap! We waited for quite some time as there was so many people, but thankfully our order came in quite smoothly, had a fulfilling lunch and then took grab to the Train station.
Waited for the other guys to meet us there, hop on the train and went back to Surabaya.
We had our late dinner at a cafe and went back to our University. It was a pretty enriching and fun last trip.
Tips if you are travelling alone, try hopping on Transjogja buses,I read that its super cheap and there are stations along Malioboro street, I wanted to try that out but as we were in a group of 9 person, Grab will be an easier alternative.
Merry Christmas everyone.
Till Then,
Cheers.
