Deliciously Me

By 6 pm the Yogyakarta time, we were on the way back to our humble hotel after visiting Borobudur and Candi Mendut earlier in the day. Everyone was so tired that they fell asleep. I wanted to sleep too, but somehow I can’t. I just feel that it would be a waste for not staying up and look at the surrounding after coming all the way from Penang.

At the crossroad, I spotted a man walking around the stopped vehicles; one hand playing the trumpet, the other hand held out, begging for money. He then showing off his skill in front of a bajaj (like the auto-rickshaw in India) carrying an angmoh lady and her local guide; until the lady took out money from her purse and passed it onto the trumpet man’s palm.

Interesting!

50 minutes later (the journey back took longer as there were more traffic on road), we reached our hotel. Sat requested for the van driver to drop us off Jl. Malioboro before he drove home and he agreed. He asked the driver to wait for us for half an hour.

With such limited time to shower and rest, I quickly went to the public bathroom and shower while Sat went out to look for cybercafé to resolve some matter. He assured me that he’ll be back soon.

Now back to the public bath thingy, there’s no heater and public soap whatsoever, and I forgot to bring mine to the bathroom. I only remembered taking in the given towel, my clothes and hair shampoo! Goodness! Haha. So I used the hair shampoo as the body shampoo as well, washing myself in the blardy cold water! I was thankful for the clean water, but if the water was hot, then it would be better.

By 7.20pm everyone already started gather at the poolside, but Sat was nowhere to be found! My anxiety level increased, and I asked for Ailing’s help to sms him. Afterall I didn’t want everyone to think ill-ly on Sat for not turning up punctually.

He finally showed up and quickly took a fast shower. I asked him what took him so long after we got back to the van. He said there were lots people in the internet café; have to wait for his turn to use.

Our van brought us to this T-shirt lane, somewhere near Kraton, the Old Palace. We were clueless on why he brought us there, but we were very hungry and the shirts definitely wouldn’t feed us well. So, Sat told the van driver to directly bring us to the Jl. Malioboro where we can find decent food.

There was a fiesta in the town at Jl. Alun-alun Utara, near the Kraton. We could hear music blasting out loudly, laser lights dancing in the sky, people talking over the speakers, urging more people to come in; mini-train with loud honk going round the area; vendors selling balloons, snacks, drinks – the area was lively and full of people!

Our van driver stopped at the side of Jl. Senopati. Sat then told him to be here the next day at 8.30 in the morning as we engaged his service for 1 ½ day in total. That’ll be another 500.000 Rupiah (RM185 or RM18.50 per person) to be paid to him for the next day’s excursion and airport transfer.

From there, we walked towards the Jl. Jenderai Ahmad Yani and 5 minutes later, we reached Jl. Malioboro! Oh my, there are lots food vendors, especially ladies grilling satays on a small barbeque pit on the walk pavement, while yelling “Satay! Satay!” However, the price of the satays got cheaper, and cheaper as we walked. Lol.

Tempted and hungry, we tried those satays. We paid 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50) for 10 sticks of satays and their local lemang (if I’m not wrong, that’s the lemang). I took one stick to try. To be frank, I felt like I was biting on chicken skin or chicken fat instead of meat. I was confused if all satays in Indonesia are like that or only the one at the streets.

In front of the sate stall we bought from, is a kuih stall. Emily, Elise and Ailing were attracted to the colourful kuihs, therefore buying some from them. Can’t recall how much it costs but it’s definitely cheap.

The above kuih is almost the same as our kuih melaka, except that the filling is partially hard brown sugar whereas ours is the melted brown sugar.

Few steps ahead, I spotted a wooden stall bearing the word – RON DE. Curiously, I went to the stall and asked the old man what’s ron de. He replied in very heavy Yogya’s Indonesian language – from what I know he spoke about sup halia (ginger soup) and the ingredients (he pointed to the ingredients in the stall as he spoke) all mixed together. Knowing that that soup wouldn’t harm me, and would help me kick off the wind in my tummy (because of the ginger), I ordered one bowl, sharing it with Sat.  It costs 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50) too and it was heavenly!

After seeing 2 thumbs up from me and Sat, Emily and Elise ordered a bowl each too, sharing with Ailing and Lasker. Memang enak!

Jl. Malioboro is packed with people even on Wednesday night! There are shops selling cheap T-shirt (damn cheap like RM3 per piece, but lazy want to bargain more because don’t want to carry extra load on our back), all sorts of colourful snacks, souvenirs, shoes, bags, and so on. There are also food carts at the corner/side of the road, with mini tables and benches for their customers.

At the middle of the popular street, we decided to go to the funfair we saw earlier. That place looked more entertaining and since we don’t feel like buying things yet, we crossed the road to the opposite side, and walked the opposite way to the funfair. Along the way, we saw few angmoh and local kids playing 3-on-3 basketball on the pavement. There was a girl playing in there too! Fuiyo, girl power!

About 15 minutes later, we reached the entrance of the funfair. At the entrance there were carts selling fried snacks. We bought some there, if not mistaken 500 or 700 Rupiah (RM0.20) per piece which amount to 3.500 Rupiah in total. But the lady didn’t have change when we gave her 4 pieces of 1.000 Rupiah, so she gave us extra one piece.

And being so clumsy, while eating, one of the pieces – fried tofu fell off the plastic! Boohoo!

Done eating, we entered the funfair. I think we were the only foreigners there! It was quite scary but since we’re in considerably big group, it should be okay. There are plenty to things to see – colourful decorated hermit crabs’ shells (which remind me greatly of Wenyan because she used to have one last time), cheap jeans and leather jackets, DIY T-shirt prints, and many more.

Also, one can find their local rides there.

One that caught our eyes is the ‘twister’. Local would sit at the bench with their arms hold tightly at the wooden plank which acts as the back rest too, while the operators would pull and push the ride, making it swings up and down.

Interesting yet dangerous!

Still feeling hungry, I begged Sat to feed me more food. He then pointed to a Bakso stall near the ‘twister’ ride. Not knowing what bakso is, I simply ordered that and I was very, very, very hungry!

The bakso costs 6.000 Rupiah (RM2.20), Sat’s fried rice costs 10.000 Rupiah (RM3.70) and a bottle of Teh Botol costs 4.000 Rupiah (RM1.50).

After coming back to Penang only I knew that the meatball in the bakso is actually made of beef. Lol. But since I didn’t know about it when I ate that, I think I’m not that entirely sinful gua…

Tired for not having enough sleep, everyone agreed that it was time to go home. We walked back to Jl. Senopati, hailed two taxis for 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50) to our hotel, Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman.

As much as I want to shower before I slept, but the thought of the cold water I had earlier totally turned me off. I washed my face, brushed teeth and fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow.

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