Deliciously Me

After the satisfying dish, we left the Dewi Sinta Hotel for the famous Legian Street. It was already dark when we walked out of the hotel. Thankfully we need not have to walk to somewhere else at night as our van was waiting for us right in front of the hotel.

The journey to Legion Street somehow felt shorter. Probably the chat we had in the van made it shorter. I remembered us talking about the dessert we had in Yogyakarta, ronde to Yoga and Mr. Van driver.

We even asked them if we could find ronde in Bali since we were sort of carving for it. Sadly, ronde could only be found somewhere in Java especially in Yogyakarta as it’s a Javanese dish. Hearing that, we felt fortunate for able to try a local specialty in Yogya!

Mr Van driver revealed that he knows how to make that and revealed that it’s actually easy to do!

The moment our van entered Jl. Legian, we were excited and can’t wait to explore this street. The area is bursting with live as the whole street is aligned with pubs, shops, clubs, and restaurants on both sides!

Yoga briefed us on the bombing at Legian Street in 2002 and little did I know that the van actually stopped right opposite one of the bombed locations. I felt eerie looking at that place, even though the place is fenced with zinc board. A red banner hangs at the zinc board speaks of peace and criticises the act of bombing.

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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.

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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.

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