Itinerary
- Day 1: Singapore - Jogja - Sunflower Garden
- Day 2: Mt Merapi - Prambanan Temple - Water Castle
- Day 3: Borobudur - Bukit Rhema - Jurang Tembelan - Pinus Pengger
- Day 4: Jomblang Cave - Goa Pindul + Oyo River - Odong-Odong
- Day 5: Jogja - Singapore
22 August 2018 Day 1:
On 22 August, three of us (Chloe, Katrina and I) took the morning flight at 11.15 from Singapore via Airasia to Jogja. As it was Haji public holiday on our departure date and we only purchased the air ticket in less than one month earlier, the ticket fare was about S$390 for a short haul flight. Please allow me to detour and share you my interesting flight booking experience. We purchased the air tickets from Expedia. In fact, we found Singapore Airlines tickets at similar price from trip.com but I insisted not to buy from trip.com given its poor review. Eventually the procedure didnt turn out to be smooth either. Upon payment for my booking in Expedia.com, there was not enough balance in my credit card to pay for the air tickets. Usually the entire transaction will fail when this happens but I was shocked to learn it can be handled differently. It actually processed the booking half. In my case, return ticket was purchased successfully without my departure flight. As you all know, the ticket fare is always cheaper when you buy round-trip. My return flight now was charged at ala-carte rate. The ala-carte ticket fare for departure was actually cheaper but since my credit card had enough credit to pay for a more expensive return flight, so the system processed my return flight instead. What a brilliant but lousy system. If you do not have money to buy departure flight what is the purpose of having the return flight? Thankfully we booked through Expedia, I called the customer service. I got my departure flight booked and was refunded for the fare difference having charged at ala-carte rate.
Back to the trip, we landed at 12.25 and we were welcomed by our driver Giarto at the arrival hall. In fact, Agus was the contact point while arranging for the travel package. I found him from tripadvisor and he was highly recommended. I was surprised that it wasn't Agus who led our journey for the next five days. I actually didn't expect Agus owns a travel agency but rather I thought he was a freelance tour guide. Unlike my previous Bromo trip where I had a tour guide and a driver, we only had a driver this time. It was my fault for making assumption based on my experience in Bromo and didn't communicate clearly with Agus during the arrangement.
Our first stop was to buy data sim card as requested by Chloe and Katrina. Along the way, Giarto did mention about wifi egg in the car but again because of the communication gap we didn't know the egg was actually included in our tour package. Yet, we were still fetched to nearby mobile shop to purchase our data sim card.
We were taken to a restaurant to enjoy our lunch. Our first meal of the trip was satisfying. The fried kangkung was unique and the guava (jambu) juice was concetrated.
We then visited our first sightseeing place which was sunflower garden. At the park entrance, we were told to pay for the tax and entrance. Again I was shocked. If this was not included in my tour package, what else could have been not included as well? I must be responsible for my two friends as I was the main person arranging for the trip. We decided to pay first and clarify with Agus when we checked in to his homestay later.
I was glad that we visited the sunflower garden during the golden hour as the flowers were gorgeous under the warm lights. The temperature started to drop and the gentle cool breeze was pleasant.
One of the main tourist attractions in Yogyakarta is Jalan Malioboro as a name of the street that become a iconic of Yogyakarta city. Malioboro situated in the downtown which an icon and also the busiest business district in the area. The street is alive 24 hours a day and extends for 1 km from North to South with historical Dutch colonial-era architecture, new modern building architecture mixed in with the Chinese and contemporary commercial districts.
We headed to Agus's homestay in a quiet village. We clarified about the package inclusion. The fees we paid for the sunflower garden earlier was refunded back to us. As the accommodation included breakfast, Agus kindly took our order for next day
As we stayed in village, it took us more time to travel. We set off from accommodation at early morning about 4am to catch up with the sunrise at Mt Merapi. We trasferred to a jeep which brought us to the base camp by local hired driver. We were just in time for the sunrise after 20-minute jeep ride followed by short walking. Personally I do not think the sunrise view here was nice especially if you have watched sunrise in Borobudur and Mt. Bromo before. As I was not much interested in photographing the sunrise, I decided to photograph yoga poses instead.
We went back to the jeep and continued the ride to the museum. Along the way, we made a photo stop where it offered a great view over Mt Merapi. At times we saw a local carrying a DSLR randomly taking pictures of visitors. Because of his poor photography skills you may not even realize he was actually running a photography business. Those pictures will be printed and sold to you at Rp.20000 per piece. As expected, the pictures were not fantastic but the price was affordable.
The museum is a small museum of showing things remain from the volcanic eruption. This place is basically taken care by the local people, it is not a proper set up.
Next, we headed to Prambanan Temple, which was made the Unesco World Heritage list in 1991. Built in the 10th century, this is the largest temple compound dedicated to Shiva in Indonesia. Prambanan Temple itself is a complex consisting of 240 temples. Rising above the centre of the last of these concentric squares are three temples decorated with reliefs illustrating the epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and three temples dedicated to the animals who serve them.
After walking for two hours under the hot weather, we left the temple and went for lunch at Ayam Gantung where we enjoyed our grilled fish meal. The two different versions of grilled fish were equally good, especially the sambal chillies. The avocado juice was on the other hand too light. The lunch costed Rp.189750 for three of us.
Our last stop of the day was the ancient royal bath house, also known as the water castle/Taman Sari. Tamansari was originally built for multiple purposes yet now only several buildings remain. Some of its original functions were a place to rest, to meditate, to work, to hide and to defend the Sultan’s family. The most famous place in Tamansari is the bathing and resting place of the Sultan and his Princesses named Umbul Pasiraman. The Sultan loves to go hunting during his free time and The Umbul Pasiraman was designed to appease the Sultan of that desire. It was designed for the Princesses to take a bath and for the Sultan to relax and ‘hunt’ for a wife. To catch his ‘two-legged prey’, it is said that the Sultan would throw a rose from the high tower on the south of the pool and the Princess who caught that rose will be his ‘wife’. Usually, the ones who would catch the rose would either be the Queen or his concubines. There are three different pools at Umbul Pasiraman, each at different area for the daughters of Sultan and his potential wives to bathe.
As I missed bakso so much since I ate once in my last Bromo trip few months back, I asked the driver to take us for good bakso. Bakso is Indonesian meatball, or a meat paste made from beef surimi. He brought us to a stall along the way back to our accommodation. Unlike the bakso I had in Malang where I could choose different types of items in one bowl (like yong tou fu in Singapore), here served only 4 different bowls with different serving size and different mixture of bakso. We chose bakso uwoh as it had everything, and the serving was just nice for 3 of us to share as we were quite full after lunch. The bakso was good, especially the chewy mini "bowl" at the center which was actually made from meat.
We also ordered a bowl of cold dessert which was supposed to be served with durian but we asked to exclude it. At first, I was worried it would be very sweet and come with very thick coconut milk. I don't quite like coconut milk and luckily it didnt have it. The dessert was actually quite good.
We went back to our accommodation and our host, Agus shared that there would be carnival in the evening. I believe the carnival was hosted for the coming Haji Day. Most of the performers were students. It was not really an attractive carnival, and there was not much to see. Most teams sung the same pray song.
We were supposed to visit Jomblang Cave today but we decided to do day-4 iternary first. I was relieved that we did the swap because we later found out that Jomblang Cave was closed today.
Early morning, we set off to Borobudur Temple for sunrise. Many people comment that the sunrise tour is too expensive (Rp. 450,000) and it is not worthwhile. My doubt had completely gone as the scene turns from pitch black to all the beautiful shades of morning. The sun was breaching the horizon through the morning fog.
Borobudur Temple sits majestically on a hilltop overlooking lush green fields and distant hills. In Buddhist belief, the closer you are to Heaven, the closer you are to the gods. As you climb the steps of the temple, the jungle landscape of Indonesia revealing itself in every direction, you can understand how the people who built this masterpiece felt more connected to the ethereal than the earthly.
The world’s largest Buddhist temple is made up of five large square terraces, with three circular platforms on top of them, and then a magnificent stupa at the very top. From a distance it is stunning… but close up the true magic is revealed with intricate carvings on the walls throughout the whole complex.
At some point in history, Borobudur Temple was abandoned and left to the wilds of nature. For at least five hundred years the jungle was all that climbed the steps towards the celestial. Trees, vines, and animals overtook one of man’s greatest creations and embraced the rocks again. The temple became hidden from the eyes of humanity. It wasn’t until 1814, when Java was under British control, that the English governor, Thomas Stamford Raffles, heard stories from local villagers about a mysterious and abandoned structure. He sent his people to investigate and for two months a team of 200 men had to cut down trees, burn vegetation and dig away at the earth to reveal the temple at Borobudur. Until the 1970s, there were small restoration projects but there were also far too many instances where people were allowed to take away parts of the temple as souvenirs! And by clearing all the jungle away from the site, the temple had been exposed to the elements and was being damaged by the weather. In 1975, a complete restoration of Borobudur Temple began. Led by UNESCO and the Indonesian Government, it had funding from five other countries. The whole project took seven years to complete, with more than one million stones dismantled, cleaned, catalogued, and put back in place.
Only one is uncovered (I’m not sure why) but the rest seem protected and disconnected from the daily pilgrimage of the tourists.
https://www.timetravelturtle.com/borobudur-temple-largest-buddhist-indonesia/
On the way to the exit, we passed by museum. What attracted me was not the collection but the fish foot spa. It was just Rp. 5000 for half an hour. Hence three of us decided to have a try. Armpits and ribs are my two common ticklish zones so I never expected myself having such huge reaction towards the foot spa.
Just 15 minutes away from Borobudur Temple, if you venture a bit into the jungle, you'll find yourself standing in a clearing, looking up at the largest chicken you've ever seen. This is Bukit Rhema, also known as Chicken Church. Despite being called as Chicken Church, this building was in fact created following the shape of Pigeon with a Crown at its top. Chicken Church was the dream of Daniel Alamsjah, a Christian. He experienced a lot of resistance from people in the neighborhood, who saw him as bringing an unwelcome Christian presence to the majority Muslim area. By 2000, about eight years after construction had begun on the church, Alamsjah was going broke and tied up in red tape. He was forced to quit construction.
Now, the dirt floors have been replaced with jeweled tiles by local artisans, and the plain walls have been transformed with gorgeous, full-cover murals depicting the history of Indonesia. It provides some quite private prayer rooms for anyone who wants to pray. The place of the prayer rooms is located in the basement of the Dove-Shaped Building. The rooms are special to pray because Bukit Rhema as the Chicken Curch is not only known as a Church but also the house of prayer for all nations.
The entrance ticket Rp. 30,0000 included free local snack, which was actually a few small pieces of tapioca served with sambal chilli. They did not look good in my first impression, but I loved it once I took the first bite. They were not as dry as they look, the skin was slightly crispy, and they were not oily. The sambal chilli gave an extra kick. We also ordered few more fried fritters and they were good too.
Our driver brought us for chicken noodle as lunch at a local coffee shop. The noodle texture (I believe it was called Bakmie) was springy. It was perfectly seasoned and tossed in onion oil. I always like dry noodle but it is rare to find good ones in Singapore. Our lunch was cheap and satisfying.
Our next stop was Jurang Tembelan. There are several spots where you can take photos with the stunning nature as the backdrop. The "engineering" of the platforms may look scary but you have to trust the ingenuity of the locals. No entrance fee and there are stalls along the entrance.
En route to Jurang Tembelan, we also stopped by at Pinus Pengger. It is a pine threes forest with few quirky man made structures some of which are Hobbit like. It happened to be late evening when we visited and we caught a nice sunset view at the "hand of god".
Last but not least our day 3 ended with a sumptuous dinner opposite of Pinus Penggar. We opted to dine at the balcony and I remember I was freezing.
We headed to Agus's homestay in a quiet village. We clarified about the package inclusion. The fees we paid for the sunflower garden earlier was refunded back to us. As the accommodation included breakfast, Agus kindly took our order for next day
23 August 2018 Day 2:
As we stayed in village, it took us more time to travel. We set off from accommodation at early morning about 4am to catch up with the sunrise at Mt Merapi. We trasferred to a jeep which brought us to the base camp by local hired driver. We were just in time for the sunrise after 20-minute jeep ride followed by short walking. Personally I do not think the sunrise view here was nice especially if you have watched sunrise in Borobudur and Mt. Bromo before. As I was not much interested in photographing the sunrise, I decided to photograph yoga poses instead.
We went back to the jeep and continued the ride to the museum. Along the way, we made a photo stop where it offered a great view over Mt Merapi. At times we saw a local carrying a DSLR randomly taking pictures of visitors. Because of his poor photography skills you may not even realize he was actually running a photography business. Those pictures will be printed and sold to you at Rp.20000 per piece. As expected, the pictures were not fantastic but the price was affordable.
Next, we headed to Prambanan Temple, which was made the Unesco World Heritage list in 1991. Built in the 10th century, this is the largest temple compound dedicated to Shiva in Indonesia. Prambanan Temple itself is a complex consisting of 240 temples. Rising above the centre of the last of these concentric squares are three temples decorated with reliefs illustrating the epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and three temples dedicated to the animals who serve them.
After walking for two hours under the hot weather, we left the temple and went for lunch at Ayam Gantung where we enjoyed our grilled fish meal. The two different versions of grilled fish were equally good, especially the sambal chillies. The avocado juice was on the other hand too light. The lunch costed Rp.189750 for three of us.
We also ordered a bowl of cold dessert which was supposed to be served with durian but we asked to exclude it. At first, I was worried it would be very sweet and come with very thick coconut milk. I don't quite like coconut milk and luckily it didnt have it. The dessert was actually quite good.
We went back to our accommodation and our host, Agus shared that there would be carnival in the evening. I believe the carnival was hosted for the coming Haji Day. Most of the performers were students. It was not really an attractive carnival, and there was not much to see. Most teams sung the same pray song.
24 August 2018 Day 3:
We were supposed to visit Jomblang Cave today but we decided to do day-4 iternary first. I was relieved that we did the swap because we later found out that Jomblang Cave was closed today.
Early morning, we set off to Borobudur Temple for sunrise. Many people comment that the sunrise tour is too expensive (Rp. 450,000) and it is not worthwhile. My doubt had completely gone as the scene turns from pitch black to all the beautiful shades of morning. The sun was breaching the horizon through the morning fog.
The world’s largest Buddhist temple is made up of five large square terraces, with three circular platforms on top of them, and then a magnificent stupa at the very top. From a distance it is stunning… but close up the true magic is revealed with intricate carvings on the walls throughout the whole complex.
Only one is uncovered (I’m not sure why) but the rest seem protected and disconnected from the daily pilgrimage of the tourists.
https://www.timetravelturtle.com/borobudur-temple-largest-buddhist-indonesia/
On the way to the exit, we passed by museum. What attracted me was not the collection but the fish foot spa. It was just Rp. 5000 for half an hour. Hence three of us decided to have a try. Armpits and ribs are my two common ticklish zones so I never expected myself having such huge reaction towards the foot spa.
Just 15 minutes away from Borobudur Temple, if you venture a bit into the jungle, you'll find yourself standing in a clearing, looking up at the largest chicken you've ever seen. This is Bukit Rhema, also known as Chicken Church. Despite being called as Chicken Church, this building was in fact created following the shape of Pigeon with a Crown at its top. Chicken Church was the dream of Daniel Alamsjah, a Christian. He experienced a lot of resistance from people in the neighborhood, who saw him as bringing an unwelcome Christian presence to the majority Muslim area. By 2000, about eight years after construction had begun on the church, Alamsjah was going broke and tied up in red tape. He was forced to quit construction.
Now, the dirt floors have been replaced with jeweled tiles by local artisans, and the plain walls have been transformed with gorgeous, full-cover murals depicting the history of Indonesia. It provides some quite private prayer rooms for anyone who wants to pray. The place of the prayer rooms is located in the basement of the Dove-Shaped Building. The rooms are special to pray because Bukit Rhema as the Chicken Curch is not only known as a Church but also the house of prayer for all nations.
The entrance ticket Rp. 30,0000 included free local snack, which was actually a few small pieces of tapioca served with sambal chilli. They did not look good in my first impression, but I loved it once I took the first bite. They were not as dry as they look, the skin was slightly crispy, and they were not oily. The sambal chilli gave an extra kick. We also ordered few more fried fritters and they were good too.
Our driver brought us for chicken noodle as lunch at a local coffee shop. The noodle texture (I believe it was called Bakmie) was springy. It was perfectly seasoned and tossed in onion oil. I always like dry noodle but it is rare to find good ones in Singapore. Our lunch was cheap and satisfying.
En route to Jurang Tembelan, we also stopped by at Pinus Pengger. It is a pine threes forest with few quirky man made structures some of which are Hobbit like. It happened to be late evening when we visited and we caught a nice sunset view at the "hand of god".
We stayed through the night and enjoyed the stunning views of the city while having a plate of nasi goreng.
Last but not least our day 3 ended with a sumptuous dinner opposite of Pinus Penggar. We opted to dine at the balcony and I remember I was freezing.
25 August 2018 Day 4:
It was all about outdoor adventures today. We set off early to chope a good queue number at Jomblang Cave. According to the driver, visitors are brought down to the cave via manual rapelling, two at a time. There is a limit on number of visitors per day (75 pax) so we had to go early to avoid disappointment. We were not the first group reaching the place but we got the first queue number as other groups did not write their name down on the reception book.
We had waited for nearly two hours before we started to gear up. Being the first to go down, I was excited and yet little nervous. I was not afraid of height but the rapelling system did not look convincing. The moment when we were released from the cliff, I was frightened for a bit but soon after I enjoyed the thrilling rappelling ride, 50m down to a valley that led us to the entrance of the cave. The ride through the ancient forest was slow and we had good time enjoying the scenery while singing.
Visitors were split to few groups with size of over 20 persons. Being the first to get down, we waited patiently for the rest to come before we started walking into the cave. Each pair gave different response during the rappelling ride, some were actually screaming.
About another an hour later, we started to hike down to the cave. The path was muddy and dark. I refused to use the torch from my phone so there would not be any chance that I might drop my phone. After a short walk, the cave turned out to be very amazing with a beam of sunlight that filtered through the lush foliage at the mouth of the cave, this was the most wanted thing by people who visited this cave. The trip included a simple lunch box.
After Jomblang, most visitors will head to Kalisuci for tubing activities. At Goa Pindul, there are several packages which vary from locations and activities. We purchased the package that included two spots, Goa Pindul and Sungai Oyo at RP 110,000 per pax. A rubber tube and life vest will be provided before starting your lazy river adventure.
The ride began by going through a pitch dark cave filled with bats, swallows and giant Stalactites which were pointed out by our Bahasa speaking guide. I helped to translate to my other two friends with my moderate Bahasa standard. There was a short 3m high rock where we jumped off in the cave — a good warm-up for what’s coming up! The adventure began after reaching the end of Goa Pindul, hop on a pick-up truck to Sungai Oyo 2km away. Midway through, our guide stopped where there was a 5m bridge and a 9m waterfall. Here I did my highest dive so far. Katrina and I stood at the platform for quite a while. Despite I had done a few dives in other trips, I was still scared to step out from the cliff. Soon after she did her dive, I took a leap of faith, huddled my fears and jumped into the river below me. I hit right into the chilly waters, feeling refreshed. I did not think of climbing back up the slippery rocks for a second leap as I was quite sure I would still have the same fear.
We were taken to 25 Bakpia Pathok to buy the authentic Jogja traditional baked pie with choice of filling such as monk bean, sweet potato, chocolate, cheese or pineapple. This is the factory so Bakpia was still warm and very fresh. I tried the samples given generously by staff, it's really different. I like this brand being not so sweet.
Gudeg Yu Djum, as the name suggests, is famous for the traditional Gudeg dish — a Javanese cuisine made from young unripe jackfruit boiled for several hours with palm sugar, and coconut milk. I am not a jackfruit person so personally I do not like the gudeg, though the small was mild.
Our last itenerary was to ride odong-odong at Alun-Alun Kidul. Odong-odong were donned with cute and colourful cartoon characters such as Doraemon, Hello Kitty, and Pikachu in neon light. Each ride had its own sound system with popular pop and EDM tracks. It was as though we were kids again, boisterously pedalling the colourful Odong-odong around the city square. As the route was a square field which also use by other vehicles like motorcycles and cars, the traffic was terrible.
