Exploring Borobudur, Ullen Sentalu, Prambanan

Our plan for the second day was to go to these places : Candi Borobudur, Ulen Sentallu Museum, Merapi and candi Prambanan. After we had our breakfast at the hotel, we went directly with the car we hired with the driver to these places. Our first destination was Borobudur. 


When we arrived at Borobudur, the driver directly took us to the special entrance for foreign tourist. As you probably know, the entrance price for local and foreign tourists are different. For foreign tourist it is USD 15 and for local tourist it is 30.000 IDR. The difference is so high but for that high price, you are welcome to have some drinks before start climbing the temple. And, with the special entrance, you don't have to wait and queue in long lines. 

The famous Candi Borobudur

It was a Sunday morning and Borobudur was full with people. Not to mention the school students who were on study tour. Funny thing was my friend seemed to be the favorite object of all students. They kept on coming to him asking to take pictures together or just to have an interview. They all asked the same things : what was your name, Where did you come from, how did you like Indonesia and what was your hope for Borobudur.

Not too far from Candi Bororbudur, there was also another temple, Candi Mendut. It is a smaller one compared with Borobudur. We stopped by here to take some pictures then we went directly to Ulen Sentallu museum. 

Candi Mendut

This museum is located in Kaliurang area and it looks hidden from outside. When we arrived, all that I could see was big trees. I couldn't even tell where the museum was until we were inside. We had to wait for 10 minutes before we could get it because the English speaking guide was not ready yet. The guide was a young lady named Wiwied. She was very funny and tried as hard as she could to explain what was inside the museum. The museum is interesting. It has many collections of the Sultan's family. We also could learn the history of the Sultan from here. The only bad thing is that we are not allowed to take any pictures. They only allow visitors to take pictures in certain areas. 

Ullen Sentalu Museum

It was already lunch hour and we were both hungry. So, we rushed out with the tour and headed to the restaurant right next to the museum, Beukenhof restaurant. It is a Dutch restaurant which has international menu on their list. The restaurant is nice. It has tables indoor and outdoor. We picked the outdoor table of course. The view from the outdoor table is very nice. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay outside for too long because it was beginning to rain. So, we moved inside. Lucky that we already finished our meal. After we paid, we went to a small merchandise shop right below the restaurant. The shop is also nice but it's too pricey for me. 

Beukenhof restaurant inside and outside view

It was raining heavily when we got out from the shop. But we didn't want to wait until the rain stopped so we just walked through the rain under my small umbrella. And of course we were both wet. Then we went to Merapi Mountain area. It was foggy and cloudy especially because it was raining earlier. So, there was nothing much to see. Our driver told us that we could go up to the mountain by jeep. But since we didn't have enough time, we didn't stay there for too long so we could catch up with Candi Prambanan. 

Merapi Mountain

The funny same story repeated again in Prambanan. My friend Wolfi was again surrounded by a bunch of students asking exactly the same questions and request. There was even a woman asking to take picture with him. I felt as if I was a manager of a famous person. 


On certain days, you can see the Ramayana Ballet in Prambanan. Unfortunately, they don't have it on Sunday. So, we had to miss this one out. We also had to miss Ratu Boko temple because when we arrived at Prambanan, it was already late and the temple was closed at 18:00. But, we got to see the Prambanan museum, on the last minutes before it was closed of course. 

Candi Prambanan

We still had a few hours left for using the car. Since we had no idea of where else to go, so we went to Prawirotaman area again to have some drinks. This time we went to a Turkish restaurant. Just like the previous night, this area was still quiet. For this night, we decided to have dinner at the hotel. If I can compare, the price of the food in the hotel doesn't have much different from the food in the restaurant. Later on, we ended the night enjoying some Dominican Rum brought by Wolfi all the way down from Vienna. Oh, what a lovely day!

Yogyakarta, here we come!

A couple of weeks ago, I took a short break from work to have a holiday and went with my Austrian friend to Yogyakarta. At first, this was not our first holiday destination. But after a few considerations, we decided to go there on the last minutes. Our first plan was to Karimun Jawa. We already planned the whole things out, booked the guesthouse and bought the train and ferry tickets. But, only a few days from D-day, the guy who handled the ferry from Semarang to Karimun Jawa told me that the ferry would not sail that week. It was postponed until the following week. So, we canceled our trip to Karimun Jawa and decided to go to Yogyakarta instead. 


We started our journey on Friday night. My friend Wolfi was coming from Bangkok on Friday afternoon at 17:35. On the day of his coming, there had been huge demonstrations all over Jakarta for almost the whole week. Our first plan was to meet up in Gambir train station around 20:30, but due to this unsafe circumstances, I decided to pick him up at the airport. His flight arrived on time and we met up around 18:30. I was a little bit worried about getting into the train station on time because on my way to the airport, I saw a very long line of cars going to the city from the Airport exit. It looked like the line was about 3 km. It happened because the highway entrance to Cawang was closed. So, they only opened the entrance to Tanjung Priok and all cars were going that way. I knew that if we kept on going through the same way, then we wouldn't be able to catch our train on 21:30. After a few arguments with some drivers, we finally hired a car and I asked him to bring us to the train station but used a different way to get into the city.


Lucky, we got to the train station only in one and half hour. We had a quick dinner and waited for my mom to bring my suitcase. The train departed on time at 21:30. One thing that must be remembered when travelling with night train is that the air con is very cold. So, please put on your shoes and socks and wear sweater or jackets. They provide blankets though but somehow I think that it is not enough. Even my Austrian friend complained that the air con was too cold for him. 


The train arrived at 04:30 in Semarang and we went directly to the minibus pool station to catch our ride to Yogyakarta at 06:30. Personally, I think the minibus had more comfortable seats than the train. For a 3,5 hour ride to Yogyakarta, we had to pay 50.000 IDR/person. They also provided a snack and a small glass of mineral water. I should say that I enjoyed travelling with this minibus because I got to see some beautiful scenery. I am a city girl who have always been living in a metropolitan city.So, seeing green trees and mountains through my window seat was such a good treatment for my eyes. Along the way, we passed these following cities : Ambarawa, Magelang, Muntilan, Sleman and then we arrived in Yogyakarta. The driver dropped us in an area where there was a taxi that could bring us to the hotel. So, we continued with a taxi and went directly to our hotel. I thought
it was still a long way, but actually, it was only about 15 minutes drive. 

The hotel where we stayed in was superb. It was Dusun Jogja Village Inn. From the pictures I had seen earlier,  I thought it was far away from the city. In fact, it was IN the city. Fifteen minutes away from Keraton Yogyakarta, 20 minutes away from Malioboro and
4 blocks away from Prawirotaman area. The location was perfect and so was the hotel itself. It was a very cozy place with many trees. If you need more information, you can visit their website : www.jvidusun.co.id. 

We arrived at the hotel at 10:30 so it was too early to check in to our room. They let us wait in the lobby and gave us welcome drinks and towels to fresh up. They also offered us to use a waiting room next to the lobby to have a rest before we went to our 
room. But we decided to stay in the lobby because it was comfortable enough for us. They had a big cupboard displaying some antiques, like old radio and old typewriter. From the lobby to the main hotel area, there was a small fish pond and above it there was a small wooden bridge. There was also a small library where you could borrow some books for reading. So, there were many things to see and enjoy while we stayed in the lobby. 

While we were waiting, my friend Wolfi checked the travel desk help. After having some look at the brochure, we finally picked some destinations for our visit in the next 3 days. The girl who was in charge in the travel desk helped us to arrange it. For the next day, she suggested us to visit all temples and Ulen Sentallu Museum because they were all outside Yogyakarta. For this, we decided to hire a car from the hotel. And for the day after 
tomorrow, we planned to visit Keraton and Taman Sari. 

Our room was located on the second floor, second room from the corner facing the small garden. It had a small balcony with long chairs and two pillows where you could sit, read and relax. You could even sleep on it. The balcony was our favorite place to hang out. The bed was big enough for both of us and it was covered with curtains. The bathroom was also big and had a bathtub where I often enjoyed my bubble bath in it. 

The first thing I did after we got into our room was taking a quick shower. The last shower I had was on Friday morning before I went for work. After that, the first thing we decided to do was to get some lunch because it was already the time and we were both hungry. After walking about 10 minutes, we found the area Prawirotaman. Seriously, we hadn't realize that this was a tourist area if we didn't see a big board showing the names of the hotels and restaurant on it. So, we decided to walk through this area and see if we found a nice restaurant to have lunch. 


One thing that we need to pay attention when travelling in Yogyakarta is that you will find Tukang Becak everywhere offering their service to take you for sight seeing. But pay attention because they will take you to some stores that you don't want to go to. So, you need to be prepared with some answers to refuse them.  As we were about to enter Prawirotaman area, we were faced with one of them. Insisting that he would take us around for 10.000 IDR for an hour. We didn't bother this and just kept on walking. 


After lunch, we decided to go to Keraton Yogyakarta (Sultan's Palace). And to go there, we took the Becak. When you want to go to the touristic places in Yogyakarta, please pay attention on the opening hours. Keraton Yogyakarta and Taman Sari are closed at 15:30. When we reached Keraton Yogyakarta at the first place, the becak driver told us that it was already closed and offered us to take us to Taman Sari. And guess what? Taman Sari was already closed too. I knew that he had known that both Keraton and Taman Sari were already closed by that time. So, we stopped at Taman Sari and followed some people who went to the right side of the building. The becak driver still insisted that he would wait and show us around. This time, I had to struggle to give some arguments that we didn't want his service anymore. Then I saw a couple of local girls and I asked them that if they didn't mind we would like to join them to avoid the becak driver. They agreed so we went through the other side of Taman Sari together with them. This way, I felt safer otherwise, people (the unofficial tourist guides) would chase us everywhere since they saw that I was 
walking with a foreigner.  

So we walked through a tunnel, which was called Tajug, which connected Taman Sari with Keraton and Pulo Kenongo. The tunnel was used as a hideout by the Keraton when they faced dangerous moments. There are also many secret chambers in the tunnel. So, if I had to go alone, that would be pretty scarry for me. As we walked out from the tunnel, we saw Pulo Kenongo where in the past, there were many Cananga  flowers planted around it. From there, we also could see the local houses built around this area. From the top, we could feelthe wind blowing and it was very relaxing. 

After we enjoyed some sceneries there, we decided to go and walk to Malioboro area. It was very crowded with people especially because there was a demonstration. As I mentioned earlier, there were many demonstrations about the rising of the gasoline price
everywhere. And now I saw one in Yogyakarta. 

As usual, Malioboro was always full with people selling batik and other merchandises. So, we decided to walk out a bit from the crowd and took a more quiet street. It was fun just to walk and take pictures in the afternoon. When we were tired, we decided to hire a becak to take us back to the hotel.

After we arrived at the hotel, we decided to go to the swimming pool to swim. I was only sitting for a few minutes there and then suddenly the rain poured down. So, no swimming for me for my first day. Instead I decided to take a bubble bath and relax in the bathroom.

In the evening, we decided to have dinner in the Prawirotaman area again. For a tourist area, I would say that this area is so quiet. I had been in tourist areas in Jakarta and Bali and they were always crowded with people and there were music everywhere. But in this area, I barely heard anything. After dinner we decided to go back to our hotel and called it a night.