6 Things ( Even More ) To Do in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Summer is just around the corner.  Indonesia is definitely one of the top destinations for travelers looking for daring adventures or simply the beach to relax and new cultures to experience.  The country with more than 17000 islands has so much to offer , including Yogyakarta the capital of Yogyakarta Special Region in Central Java – has everything you need to explore even if you only have 3 days. Find out 6 things..( .oh even more ) you should do in Yogyakarta, Indonesia this summer.

1.   Culinary at Malioboro

Trying Indonesian traditional cuisine is a must when you visit any places in Indonesia, especially Yogyakarta. Indonesia has well known for its rich culture and traditions, including wide variety of cuisine from sweet, savory to very spicy one. Yogyakarta has several famous traditional food that you can explore on the main street of Malioboro. Start with bakpia pathok – a small, round-shaped Indonesian Chinese-influenced sweet rolls, usually stuffed with mung beans, chocolate or  cheese, a box of bakpia will cost you around $2. It’s a great sweet snack paired with Wedang Ronde – typical Indonesian ginger tea. Wedang means beverages, while ronde means a soft dough of mixing corn flour and brown sugar in round shape, add together with fried peanut and bread slice into a hot ginger tea for only less than $1. Meanwhile for dinner or lunch, you can not leave Yogyakarta or the city of gudeg without having their most  famous dish made from young unripe jackfruit and coconut milk, served with hard-boiled egg, chicken, tofu, sambal and rice. Gudeg has a very unique taste since it can be sweet but also spicy and the very rich note from coconut milk and unripe jackfruit  make it something different you never try before, one portion of gudeg with rice cost around $ 1,5.    

2.      Shop at Pasar Beringharjo

Apart of culinary, if you’re a fan of batik or collecting vintage stuff then Pasar Beringharjo is the market where you can hunt souvenirs like leather post-officer messenger bags, rattan products, silver jewelries, clothes, wooden handicrafts, accessories and many more in a very affordable prices.  Javanese people especially those from Yogyakarta are very warm, polite and welcome – this market is one of my favorite places where you can absolutely interact with the local people and see the beauty of diversity. Take becak or pedicab to explore the little town  in the afternoon before dinner.

3.     Sunrise at Borobudur Temple

The largest Buddhist monument of the world Borobudur temple located in Magelang around 2 hours away from Malioboro by car or public bus. If you’re a morning person, Borobudur temple has a sunrise package for Rp 380.000 or $33 opens at 4.30 am, and $20 for regular pass opens at 6 am. Borobodur temple has always been adorned with stone carvings and history of Buddha, every year sometime during the full moon in the month May or June the Buddhist people in Indonesia will celebrate the Vesak or Waisak festival. A big day to commemorate birth, death and the moment when Siddharta Gautama obtain the highest wisdom to become the Buddha Shakyamuni.  The Vesak festival is one of the biggest religious festival in Indonesia, you’ll get to experience a  day full of colors, many celebrations and a lot of spectacular sights where the Buddhist monks will start a journey in the morning walking together with the local people from Mendut temple to Borobudur temple. They carry offerings like candles, fruits, flowers and incense, as they walk inside the temple complex all the monks would pray and meditate while lighting the candle and in the end of the procession, they would release lanterns to the sky.

4.      Cave Tubing at Goa Pindul

For the past few years, activity like cave-tubing at Goa Pindul has became so popular for both local people and tourists that if you really want to enjoy your time exploring the cave, you really should avoid coming to Goa Pindul at the peak season like school holidays, during the Vesak festival or any Indonesian national holidays. It’s very easy and convenient to get to Goa Pindul,

from Malioboro take the local bus to Terminal Giwangan, continue with mini buses to Wonosari. The journey takes around 1 hour and a half to Wonosari, remind the bus driver to stop at Desa Wisata Bejiharjo as the main gate of Goa Pindul. ( The single trip bus ticket costs you $2 ) When you arrive in Desa Wisata Bejiharjo, take ojek or motorcycle taxi to Goa Pindul for $4 and the man will drop you off at Goa Pindul and pick you up back to the bus station. Goa Pindul has several attractions like cave-tubing , rafting and off-road at different range prices starting at $5 for basic cave tubing including the local guide and equipment. We were lucky  when we reached Goa Pindul there were only few tourists there as normally the guides said hundreds of people lined up to get inside the cave. We decided to go on cave-tubing, explore what’s the cave like and a quick dip in the river before rafting and off-road. The friendly guide brought us to the cave. He explained that since couple of years ago local people decided to open Goa Pindul as a tourism destination in Yogyakarta, Goa Pindul has attracted not only locals but also international tourists. For me, it’s not only the beauty of the cave and the village, but also the smile and how friendly the local people there make our first experience cave-tubing in Goa Pindul super unforgettable.

5.       Visit Prambanan Temple

One of the benefits if you decide to stay around Malioboro area, the location is actually pretty convenient and easy to explore  some other places, including Prambanan Temple. Only 30 minutes  away from Malioboro by car or a litte longer when you take Trans Jogja or bus rapid transit, while Borobudur temple has well-known as the magnificent Buddhist temple, Prambanan temple remains as the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, famous for its tall and pointed architecture dedicated to the Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator, the Preserver and the Destroyer. Entrance fee is $20.

6.       Visit Ratu Boko Temple

You can continue exploring Ratu Boko temple right after you finish with Prambanan temple, take the pedicab or becak for $9 for return trip from the Trans Jogja stop just across  Prambanan temple complex. The driver will wait for you in the parking lot while you exploring the temple. This archaeological site located at the plateau was a palace complex which belonged to the Kings of Sailendra and Mataram Kingdom. Ratu Boko itself means Stork King, however there’s not a lot left of the temple and some tourists found the admission price $10 was quite expensive but  it is still worth a visit. After such a long day exploring the city or temples, give yourself a little break by having tea and afternoon snacks at café Ratu Boko. That small café is one of my favorite sport because they have an open space area with Yogyakarta view, it is very relaxing to sip your tea and rest your eyes starring at the lush greenery of Yogyakarta.    

Feel free to visit Weekend Getaway Yogyakarta and Goa Pindul

Postcards from Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Canon G16 apparently makes traveling more fun. For the past few years I took photos a lot using smart phone and my pocket camera, I thought it was very easy and convenient...you just have to snap, edit and upload but as I visited more places I fell in love with photography and somehow curious how to take photos like what those guys did at NatGeo magazines, focus at the back or front, perfect angle and brightness, etc. Nowadays Instagram is a great apps to stalk on talented photographers, I can literally spend hours just starring at beautiful photos from some of my favorite photographers and bloggers, like Jamie beck from AnnStreetStudio.com , Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier, Russel James, Mario Sorrenti, I truly admire them for every little details and ideas you can find on their amazing works. Then as I learn and explore photography deeper, little did I know they have changed the way I travel. Instead of rushing from one place to another, I like to take my time exploring a new place and train my eyes to find the unique details, capture everything that will remind me about that place and make short video too. It's fun to be a visual story teller. Canon G16 is my first proper camera I got last December, I absolutely love the size and it looks chic. I was thinking about to get one of the DSLR cameras but I realized it's very important for me to travel light, after doing a lot of research about camera I've finally found Canon G16  actually does an excellent job too like DSLR cameras - especially for a beginner like me,  the camera is super easy to use. Oh well, still learning and exploring, here's some photos I took from my previous trip in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico Iast January. 5th Avenue in Playa is a great place to stay, eat, shop, party, people-watching - basically you can find everything you need from the beach, cafe, good tacos, souvenirs for family at home, coffee shops, hotels, ferry terminal to Cozumel, even Adeo bus terminal that will take you to other cities or Cancun airport. While some people prefer to stay in Cancun or Tulum because it's quiet, I personally like the location of 5th Avenue Playa Del Carmen - yes it can be super crowded, but nothing can go wrong as long as I can have my favorite guacamole and tequila. In the next few days I'll post more about Tulum, cenotes, Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujerez. 

Also read Cozumel, Mexico

How I Afford Travel

Here's a quick Saturday post from Porto Cristo, Spain.

Few days ago I received an email from GoNomad editor. You know 60 % of new emails  in my mailbox usually just bad news like my articles weren’t good enough or other rejections – which is I’m totally used to it. But after few times trying and to be honest I almost gave up, this time he would  publish my article soon. Now that’s a good news, it’s not bad to have 2 articles published on travel websites for the past 2 weeks, at least I can use the money to purchase flight tickets to Barcelona and Paris, maybe a cup of coffee too . This reminds me of the same question people always asked me, after 3 months traveling from West Coast USA to a small town in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, they all wondered how could I afford traveling for so long ? Even the bank officer that helped me to open a new bank account in Orlando said he’s been working for so many years and yet didn’t have enough money for traveling.  Well, my parents didn’t support my travel funds at all, just like everyone else out there we all work hard, we save up. Some people chose to spend their money on expensive stuff, paying debt or student loan, while I prefer to invest on flight tickets.  That’s true traveling is bloody expensive but I believe you can always find ways to make it cheaper, such as join Couchsurfing, stay with Air BnB or hostels, book rooms and flight tickets in advance, eat at the local restaurants, take over- night buses, even I happened to sleep at the train station or airport to save my money.  When I'm on the road, I love taking pictures and writing. I'm not the best travel writer - but I try to write better, come up with good ideas about places I have visited and finally send tons of articles to travel magazines or companies, like GoNomad, Wanderlust, Transitions Abroad, etc. Here I'm telling you again I got rejected a lot, but some paid me too. My mission wasn't the money. Being 25, I feel like I've been fortunate to visit different places for the past 4 years. 17 countries and still counting, it's definitely priceless to experience live and work with people from all around the world, meanwhile I know some people out there have the same dreams, for some reasons they just can't travel as much as I do maybe because job, family, financial, etc, and my dream is as simple as I just want to inspire people. Of course it's nice when travel companies sponsor you, and I've been working hard to build good relationship or network with editors, travel websites, hoping that we would help each other and in the end this website will run until I turn 50 something, full of places, experience and stories. So for anyone of you out there reading this, or dreaming about traveling but still not sure how to start it, the only thing I can say dream big, believe and achieve. 10 years ago I could only dreaming about New York through a summer school brochure, and here I am in Spain after a year working with Disney World, Florida - still believe that I can go even further than yesterdays.  

Gyscha Rendy on VOA Indonesia

...and then you have dreams. You tell the universe about it... The next morning you wake up, you'll be surprised how they conspire to make it happen. Just for you."
 

Last June I went to Washington DC to attend an interview with VOA Indonesia. On the way to the studio, I thought life is funny, sometimes. The universe has its own way to make any dreams come true. I remember few years ago I had this dream to work with VOA as a TV Presenter. I applied many times, I failed - maybe because I didn't have any experience working for media, but you know at least I tried. Then at that time I was chatting a lot with my friend's sister Nurviana Mubtadi who was a radio announcer then moved to work for MediaCorp Singapore. She told me she was working her way to be an international broadcaster for VOA, I'm glad she actually made it. We haven't spoken to each other for a very long time til we reunited again at VOA Studio and she happened to interview me regarding my current job with The Walt Disney Company. One afternoon sitting with VOA Indonesia team reminded me that every time I thought I was being rejected from something good, I was actually being re-directed to something better. The key is, open yourself to new opportunities and never give up. I'm not yet an international broadcaster, but I'm doing a pretty cool job with Disney. This short clip somehow show me how far I've come, I was a college girl working part time as a tourist guide, dance teacher at elementary school, I've always wanted to travel the world and curious about people, culture and entertainment industry. I didn't know how to get there but from the beginning I knew I was on my way. Been through some ups and downs, quit my job, lost and had to start all over again, I am lucky my best friends were and will always be there to support me. Their love made me stronger. As I keep traveling from one place to another, I feel like I find myself, my passion, life teach me to never settle for less and you can only begin the real adventure in life when you decided to step out of your comfort zone.

This is How I Vegas

"Whatever happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"

It seems like everyone has stories in Las Vegas. Including me .My story started on a last minute decision to take Megabus from LA to Las Vegas. You know when you're in California - you just can't skip Las Vegas. First, i've always wanted to see Grand Canyon, and second perhaps I'm lucky enough to get a good deal on Cirque Du Soleil shows. I arrived early morning, dropped my bag at Hostel Cat ( $22/night ) and met a girl from Vancouver before we decided to explore the city together. She told me she knew the city really well so could be my tour guide for a day. Sweet. I only heard things about Las Vegas obviously from media or movies, it's been on my bucket list for a while but to be honest I never thought I'd make it. Las Vegas is ... something.  When you walk along the Las Vegas strip, you can feel the dynamic energy. For a second I feel like playing a cameo in a hip hop video clip where girls with nice booty passed by with shopping bags, ridiculously good looking gentleman, street performers, and just when I thought only Disney World can do an excellent job at creating world show case themed park, Las Vegas does it pretty neat with different hotel themes you'll catch easily as you keep walking towards the Mandalay Bay. From New York to Paris, Venetian to unique Excalibur, each hotels not only rich of details, but they also offer different nightly show, wide variety of entertainment and of course casino casino casino - isn't it why you're going to Vegas ? Even rumour has it they're about to expand the hotels by building some more and adding new themes like Philippines, China, Japan , etc. Wow now I Look forward to seeing little Asia in Vegas.  

In the evening I went to see Cirque Du Soleil One at Mandalay Bay. Never imagined myself would sit in theater at Las Vegas dancing to Billie Jean and daydreaming it would so cool to be a part of Cirque Du Soleil dream team ( I am not doing circus, of course ) The show was amazing. Beautiful set, costumes, talents, lighting, sick sick sick choreography. One of the dancers has only one leg but he proved everyone including me that sky is the limit. The key is believe.  Later after the show I went out for drinks with the Vancouver chic I met earlier at the hostel. She told me she was a little upset as she didn't get the job.

"What job ?" 

"Stripper." 

She left Vancouver few days ago to do few auditions to get some dance gigs. Unfortunately the competition is tough, it was a very long day for her line up with other girls - she complained the manager was horrible but she didn't stop there. She excitedly told me she would head back to LA and give it a try at LA famous night clubs. After few shots of tequila, she kissed my cheeks goodbye "Nice to meet you. But I gotta go, darling. I met a guy.."

"Good luck in LA" 

I have only spent less than 24 hours in Vegas but the city and people inspired me a lot. She wasn't the only girl fighting to get a dance gig and behind Cirque Du Soleil stage there's even more talents, courage, hard work and opportunities, right before I left the Las Vegas strip I turned my back for the last time - all those buildings, hotels, night clubs, casino, every single thing in this city have kept so much stories and secrets. I wish they could talk. I don't know how many other girls feeling broken or torn apart behind those show curtain, people celebrating life, or perhaps runaway from frustration and anger, some people sacrifice their life, struggle really hard, while others just won big things and craving for more. That's life. And what was my story ? Tonight I am one of those who won the big things, no not money, but my dreams came true and I am proud to have come so far after years struggling and work hard. I promised myself I won't give up, I am ready for more...including my little adventure toGrand Canyon South Rim tomorrow.