Deliciously Me

I stumbled upon priceless rubbishes!

Months after coming back from Indonesia, I finally cleared these papers off my bag to give way for the incoming papers from my incoming trip! I took a picture, placed them into a big envelope and put them in my memento box. I got a box full of stuffs – all collected from places I’ve been to

Ah, I couldn’t be more excited on my coming trip. 4 weeks to go! Can’t wait! <3

To read about the Indonesia trip, please click the links below.

Multiple post : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22

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! –”

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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.

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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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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 5^th 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.

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