Deliciously Me
Putting the 'licious' in everything
Posts Tagged ‘Indonesia’
Jl. Jaksa is famous among the backpackers. Since it’s a popular place, we see no harm in staying there. The place is so alive, with people walking around the area, and most restaurants on sides of the street were fully patronized.
We walked along the streets, scouting for reasonable local food. We stopped by few restaurants, with David occasionally walked in and asked for the menu. I was tempted to eat at one of the warong at the roadside, but Sat have told me earlier before the trip that he feared that some might have weak tummies; reminded me not to suggest that.
Done scouting all the restaurants, we walked back to a café somewhere near Hotel Le Margot as we felt that the place looks better until we saw ‘roti canai’ in the menu. We were puzzled for a moment, and then we realised, we’re actually looking at the menu that we can find back home!
Immediately we walked out of the cafe, laughing. Then one by one pointed out that we should have noticed the silver chairs that can be found at the mamak stalls.
Somehow we ended up at the Jasa Bundo Padang Restaurant, as our Taxi Alphard driver, Dade advised us on trying the nasi padang. But he did remind us not to grab everything from the served dish, not even use the spoon to scoop it up; as one need to pay for that plate the moment you did that.
Not really understand what he meant by that, we walked in – with that warning in our heads. We were welcomed by the owner or I think he’s the owner of the restaurant. The one by one the waiters brought small plates of dishes and placed them in front of us. The owner then explained that those that countable will be charged according to the amount of pieces we take. For example, if we were to take a piece of fried chicken out of the 2 available on the plate, we’ll be charged for that piece only.
I never have been to Jakarta before but I heard lots things about Jakarta, especially the bad ones. News about people snatching your luggage at the airport, pickpocket, and luggage bags forcefully opened by insider scared me, Not taking any chances (since I don’t want to spend money on buying backpack should mine being cut open), I wrapped my backpack again. Doing so costs me 30.000 Rupiah (RM11).
Though it was RM2 more than the wrapping service I did in LCCT, they sealed my backpack very tightly that I don’t think people would want to waste time opening up my backpack after looking at it. Lol.
We then checked in and paid our departure tax of 25.000 Rupiah (RM9.30) at one of the tax counter, before entering the Departure Hall. My turkey before leaving Yogyakarta weighted 9.1kg.
With about 2½ hours to kill before checking in at the airport by 3.30 pm, we decided to check out two Yogyakarta’s major attractions, the Taman Sari Water Castle and Kraton.
From Delta Homestay at Jl. Prawirotaman, it took only 10 minutes to reach Taman Sari Water Castle. The van driver parked his van at the car park area and again, knowing that we have to pay for the car park, we asked on the price. But our van driver told us to pay only when we’re leaving. Without wasting any time, we quickly got off the van. It was a sunny day, and I hate sweating after showering. Blah.
We then sent someone (can’t recall who) to check out the entrance fee while we waited near the van. He came back with surprising news – something about taking camera in and has to pay 50.000 Rupiah (RM18.50).
Shocked upon hearing the news, most of us decided not to take any pictures there. After collecting the money, we then walked in, with another two person (can’t recall who d) got the tickets on behalf of us at the ticket counter.
Then the two came back to us with another price! –”
I was very reluctant to wake up. The alarm set on the iPod kept ringing, yet I hit the snooze button as many times as possible… until I got so fed up and finally woke up at 7. Ah, so early!
Once opened the door, I saw Lasker and Elise all ready, walking to the ‘dining area’ for breakfast. So did David, Daniel, William and Aaron. I asked Sat to ask permission from Lasker and Elise on using their bathroom since he’s already out. They agreed and I went and had a very comfy, warm shower.
Done showering, I packed a little and then went for breakfast with Sat, Emily and Ailing. The kitchen served Indonesian breakfast of fried rice, egg cooked to our choices, fresh cut fruits and choice of coffee or tea. Definitely worth the money paid!
After having such a satiated breakfast, we made our way to Prambanan temple located about 18km way in the North-East direction of the Yogyakarta city. Could see that most of us had a good sleep that night except for David, who slept on the way there. Haha.
Remember I wrote about funny incidents at the traffic light junction? Well, we saw another one – this time it was the she-male, leaning over a truck, probably asking for business, while another one stood behind, posing provocatively. Secretly, few of us tried taking picture of them and William sitting next to the driver directly aimed his lens at them.
One of them noticed William and he called his friends and both of them posed for William! All of us laughed uncontrollably upon seeing this. Oh well, except for David. Haha.
We then continued our journey to Borobudur. On the way, we stopped at the petrol station for refueling, where the guys were calculating on the price of the petrol in Indonesia after conversion. Haha. Then the van moved.
I looked at the sky, there were dark clouds hovering above the area. I was praying hard for clear sky, so that our visit wouldn’t be in vain. After all, the pictures wouldn’t be nice if were to photographed in rain.
Few minutes later, we reached a small town. We then passed a small candi (temple) where the van driver pointed and said softly, “Candi Mendut” and Daniel being our translator, pointed to us and said aloud “Candi Mendut”.
A minute later, we saw the peak of Borobudur! From afar, we could only see the peak but as our van were driving towards it, it became bigger and bigger until it got out of our sight when the driver took a right turn to the entrance and ticket counter.
The moment we got down, the local armed with rock statues, shirts, souvenirs, keychains, and postcards; surrounded us and kept following us! But after telling them, “no, thank you” or “tak mau” while shaking my head, they got the drill and left me alone.
There are two entrances/ticket counters. The open air ticket counter on the left (which looks shabby) is the entrance for the locals. If not mistaken they only have to pay like 9.000 Rupiah (RM3.30). On the right, there’s this closed up building, with air-cond, and sofas and, water and coffee dispenser. That’s for the foreigners like us. How much we need to pay?
11USD or 120.000 Rupiah. And free small bottles of water – can take as many as one like.
So much of difference right? I know, but it’s bearable because after conversion it’s RM44~45. That’ll be the 5th interesting fact I found in the trip.
And we got a guide for 75.000 Rupiah (RM27). His name is Lambang. 
Lambang is a rather quiet guy, only spoke when he needs to explain about the temple. But once he got used to our presence, he joked with us nonstop.
From the ticket counter, we’ll need to walk about 10 minutes to get to the temple. The walk was a pleasant one, while the guys kept snapping and videotaking along the way and the girls talking and listening to the guide at the same time. Haha.
When the temple is considerably quite near to us (where the whole temple can be captured with our camera, all of us automatically stopped walking and snapped! Then Lambang said, “come, I show you a better place to take picture”, with his hands doing the photo shoot gesture.
