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

One Of My Simple Joys...

Sunrise from Punthuk Sitempu, Borobudur Temple. 

     I fell in love with this man when I saw him in Punthuk Sitempu, Magelang – Yogyakarta. It was 4.30 am, super hot, we walked quite far up to the hill just to get some perfect shots of sunrise and Borobudur Temple. First time to Punthuk Sitempu ( Close to Borobudur temple, I guess the best way to get there – you should ask the local people or hire motorcycle taxi )  I was surprised to see hundreds of photographers, from amateurs to the very professional – they all seemed ready with smart phones, cameras and tripods. We have one mission here : sunrise, what else ?   

    My friend next to me was busy with his camera. Just like everybody else here, he looked so excited to see the sunrise. I decided to keep the Nikon DSLR camera inside the bag and just using Iphone, very simple. In my head, coffee..coffee...I need coffee. Saw a lady with a plastic cup of coffee standing not so far from me, hmm where did she get that black coffee ? But then my eyes caught this old man sitting at the wooden bench, just behind her. He was wearing cool t-shirt, peci in his head, grey hair, tan skin, wrinkles, smiling to people in front of him. He’s definitely a local guy. Then he grabbed a plastic of tobacco and paper from his pocket, he rolled them and light a match then started to enjoy his cigarette. Instead of taking photos of the sun, I took photo of him. Forget about the sunrise, this guy got my attention. It was the way he looked at people, the way he giggled, the way he stare at the golden light came up from behind the mountain...the sunrise's like a new hope, new start, yes another day to live. He looked incredibly happy to start his day in this place, with his tobacco and all these tourists. Simple joy, aye ?

        Here, far away from home - an old man, sunrise, people and breathtaking view of Borobudur Temple, already made my day, even though it was too early to say that well, I had a good day. 

Good morning ! Rise and shine from Punthuk Sitempu

"Rokok, mau ?"

"That happy man"

Punthuk Sitempu

It's all about color, dance, passion

Goa Pindul, Yogyakarta

Rafting at Goa Pindul

June has always been my favorite month. No it's not really about I'm turning 24 soon. In fact 24 sounds a bit scary to me, where are the years going ?   I love that everyday always different, while last year I celebrated my birthday in Vietnam and Cambodia, this year I'm going to take it easy visiting Thailand with my best friend. Went to Yogyakarta last week – we met lots of interesting people and soon I’m going to share the photos and stories here on the blog, also been working on some projects, even did this mini show with some cool kids from one of international schools in Jakarta – which it really meant a lot to me. I love working with kids, simply because they’re always happy and energetic. Haven’t dealing with little crazy monkeys since I left Malaysia 2 years ago, so that morning when the principal invited me to the school, he asked me to create one dance for grade 3, I decided let’s just dance, be crazy, and have fun. I put some African songs, top 40, and few songs from Grease. Results ? They danced. They laughed. We all had fun. I found myself unbelievably happy dancing and moving with them, sometimes dealing with kids is so much easier than dealing with adults from oil and gas industry. And the other days, I spent a lovely evening with a good friend of mine. We were just sitting in front of the ticket box in the cinema, talking about dreams, tea, passion, and business. He’s such a big inspiration to me. To create, learn, dream and achieve more. Isn't it amazing to be surrounded by inspiring people. Never thought I’d get this far… Being 24 should be fun.

Kampoeng Ketandan

Pasar Beringharjo

         Anyway, to continue the previous post , InstaGoodies : Vesak at Borobudur 2013 actually I had no idea what’s the Vesak day like in Borobudur temple – Yogyakarta. My friend booked us train tickets to Yogyakarta, left Jakarta on Thursday evening at 9 pm from Gambir station, the Taksaka Malam brought us back to the beautiful Yogyakarta. We arrived at 4.30 am, just a perfect time to walk down the Malioboro street. Some people were busy cleaning up their food stalls while others about to open their small shops as the new day was about to begin. One thing for sure, Yogyakarta would be flooded by tourists coming to see the Vesak ceremony at Borobudur temple. We stopped by for a quick breakfast, when you visit Yogyakarta, you definitely have to try nasi gudeg at Jalan Wijilan. Only Rp 8000 for rice, krecek, gudeg and egg. Didn’t want to waste the time then we took Trans Jogya ( single trip ticket Rp 3.000 ) to Terminal Giwangan, we wanted to go to Wonosari, Goa Pindul. Some friends told me that Goa Pindul was worth to visit, so this time I thought I should stop by and check the place. Once you arrive in Terminal Giwangan, it’s easy to find mini buses to Wonosari. The journey takes around 1 hour and a half to Wonosari, I told the bus driver to stop at Desa Wisata Bejiharjo as the main gate of Goa Pindul. (  The single trip bus ticket costs you Rp 15.000. )

          Arrived in Desa Wisata Bejiharjo, we took ojek or motorcycle taxi to Goa Pindul, Rp 40.000 and the man will drop you to Goa Pindul and pick you up back to the bus station. 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.

Jump ! Goa Pindul

Bats 

Goa Pindul offers several types of tour package you can choose. For cave-tubing only costs Rp 30.000 per person, that is including the tube, guide and insurance. While for river tubing costs Rp 45.000 including transportation, tube, guide and insurance. Off-road costs Rp 300.000 for maximum 3 people. If you plan to spend a night in Goa Pindul, experience staying with locals at the homestay with a room Rp 30.000 per person.

Mbah Ireng - our guide, flying !

BIG FAILED !

Happy People

Indonesian Next Top Model !

 

My favorite part was definitely off-road. Ibnu, our guide brought us around the village, the river then jungle. We were covered by mud, my head hit the car door several times. It was even more fun when the car stuck for hours in the middle of the jungle. We had to wait for an hour til these kids with high school uniform came to rescue us, they looked so happy, kept telling us that they just graduated today. My friend recorded a short video below :

 

We left Goa Pindul back to Wonosari at 4pm. Some people said the last bus back to Yogyakarta leaving at 5pm from Wonosari, at the beginning we thought the worst case could be if we missed the bus then we  had to spend a night at Wonosari, well thank God we saw the mini red bus was waiting – our next stop would be Yogyakarta then Magelang for Borobudur temple. Another 1 hour and a half journey back to Yogyakarta. Back in Terminal Giwangan, we took the last bus to Magelang. Again we were lucky we didn’t miss the bus, the local people said normally the local bus leaves the terminal at 5 pm and after that, if you want to go to Magelang then you should take bus to Semarang first or Solo which the journey will take even longer. Well just another 2 hours to get to Magelang and I was super excited about the Vesak day, Borobudur temple, visiting old friends and AmanJiwo resort. Will write a different post about Vesak day and Aman Jiwo, stay tuned…

Weekend Getaway : Yogyakarta

Living in a big city like Jakarta, go to work every morning, deal with crazy traffic – which seems to be the loudest and biggest thing people would mostly complain about this city  -  and sometimes tough days at work, one of my best friends told me, if you can survive in Jakarta then you can survive anywhere else in the world. While complaining wouldn’t change anything, I always make sure I have bunch of stuff to do on the weekend. Something fun and easy to refresh and recharge my mind. A bit sick of those malls and skyscrapers, I decided to bring Mike Buchanan this time to go to Yogyakarta – Central Java for weekend, visiting an old friend of mine, Tiko. We were studying in the same department in university, was always a fan of him, he was a great radio announcer and simply a fun, loving person, just the kind of great friend you would always ask for opinions, he motivated and inspired me in a lot of ways. Tiko has worked in Singapore for nearly 2 years, he decided to quit his job, move to Yogyakarta and pursue his dream to be an artist. Really appreciate those people who leave their comfort zone and start over to chase their dreams.

Left office earlier on Thursday afternoon, Mike and I caught a night train to Yogyakarta. As a person who never really plan her trip, I never booked my ticket or hostels in advance. I know this is risky, but I kinda like it that way. Except in the afternoon Mike reminded me to book the ticket first as we never know what's gonna happen later that night when we arrive in the train station. Reached Pasar Senen station at 5 pm, we were quite lucky to get tickets at price Rp 173.000/person. The train was a bit late, so we left the station around 8.30 pm and arrived at 5.30 am  in Yogyakarta. It was funny to see Mike didn't really enjoy his first trip by train to Java. He didn't complain tho, still very excited to explore Yogyakarta, it's just he wish the train got  enough space for someone with long legs like him. Sitting for 10 hours might really kill him, but at least he got me and I knew from the beginning he would enjoy this trip. 

No skyscrapers or big buses, it was very quiet and lovely . Our first stop would be breakfast then walk around town, take some photos, go to Prambanan and Boko temple, after that meet up with Tiko for lunch. I told  becak / rickshaw man ( Rp 8.000 from the station to Malioboro street ) to take me to the best place to eat nasi gudeg ( gudeg is a traditional food from Yogya, it tastes sweet, it has eggs, chicken, krecek, tempe, and toufu served with rice, Rp 28.000 . Deeeeliiiish ), this old man with a big smile took me to the street just next to Alun-Alun Yogyakarta where many small restaurants serves nasi gudeg for breakfast. Perfect, big breakkie is all I need before exploring this town.        

Done with my nasi gudeg, we walked along Malioboro street. Enjoying Malioboro on Friday morning and these friendly Javanese people. Here are 2 things I love most about Yogyakarta : food and the people. Very open-minded people, smiley, very open and welcome to tourists, but the culture is still there, while some of area in Indonesia seems to lose the culture, Yogyakarta looks the same as I was there 7 years ago.

Taking Mike Buchanan to Yogyakarta 

We took a busway from Malioboro street to Prambanan temple ( thank god they have busway, only Rp 3.500, so I don’t have to catch a taxi ). Tiko actually recommended me to see Boko temple, he said the view just amazing, better than Prambanan temple. Well, I’ve been to Prambanan three times and I thought it’d be worth it to check Boko temple. Skip Prambanan and go to Boko temple instead, another old man, look pretty small but actually very strong to ride the becak / rickshaw up to the hill to Boko Temple. Boko temple was quiet that morning, you can see the whole Yogyakarta from Boko temple while having an afternoon tea at a small restaurant just next to the temple.

My rickshaw driver was waiting patiently outside the temple. As a man who’s earning money for living from rickshaw, low season was never easy for him. He got 5 children, and he told me that all the rickshaw in Yogyakarta owned by a group of people, everyday he has to give the big boss Rp 30.000, of course he can keep the rest of the money if he gets more, but when you look at this old man working hard ( plus it was so hot that afternoon ) tho sometimes life’s hard, he told me he’s always grateful, to have healthy and beautiful family. He just wanted to see the kids go to school, study, and get a better future. It was so nice to have conversation about simple life with him on our way back from temple.

Tiko picked me up in Kasongan, a village where the local people made ceramics and other handicrafts .I stayed for two night in his friend’s house, Laire Siwi Mentari, the daughter of famous poem and author in Indonesia. I love how Laire and her family made every single thing in their house very artistic. Table, doors, windows, bookshelf, even the room I was staying in…wow ! The next morning Tiko, me, and this energetic , gorgeous Nadirah ( Tiko’s friend from Singapore who also came to visit him ) went to Borobudur temple. I got a friend of mine working in Borobudur so he guided us around temple and oooh we didn’t have to pay for the entrance fee, it was free ! But for you who wish to see the sunrise in Borobudur, the admission ticket is Rp 150.000, come super early at 4.30 am so you don't miss the gorgeous sunrise ! Meanwhile, the normal admission ticket costs only Rp 30.000 per person. We watched the sunrise, took lots of pictures, sat for hours and enjoying Borobudur, seriously couldn’t ask for a better morning. After had breakfast, we drove for another 3 hours to Sardanan beach. The joy of lazy weekend, slept on the beach, had some great seafood and talked about our next step. Tiko is going to take traditional dance lesson ( let me tell you one thing, Javanese traditional dance is super hard ), his biggest dream is being an artist, he knew it won’t be easy to get there but he’s on his way for it. What I love best about this guy, his passions about life and always 100 %.  He also planned to teach English and learn more about web designing. Meanwhile Nadirah was busy preparing her engagement party and wedding, aww congrats baby girl. We ended up our day by having  drinks and dinner at Via-Via, a backpacker hostels with a nice café and shop, then had noodles and went shopping in Malioboro

Borobudur Temple

Waking up in Borobudur temple

Caught the man taking photos of Tiko & Nadira

Sardanan Beach. 3 hours drive from Borobudur temple. Thank you Tiko for bringing me there

Culinary and shopping :)

My two happy boys

So yeah, that was a great great weekend with lovely people in a lovely place. Just like what wise man said, people you’ve met and those experiences you’ve had - made you who you are today. Call me ( one of ) the luckiest girl on earth,  I’ve met amazing people, they gave different colors into my life and, just like a painting, I see myself as a canvas where life, my days, my mom, people come and go, and experiences are a painter – ready to create a beautiful piece of painting, and it’s me.

Flew back to Jakarta on Sunday afternoon, not only me - but Mike definitely had good times from trying Javanese food, riding becak like a pro, went to temples, overall it was sooo good to be away from the hustle bustle of Jakarta. Cheap trip, I spent Rp 900.000 for 3 days, not bad. Now we're all ready to get back to work on Monday.

Feel free to check new post about Yogyakarta : Goa Pindul - Yogyakarta ( including a short video of our crazy off-road ) and InstaGoodies : Vesak at Borobudur 2013