this is my story..: 14.05.2009

it's over..

i just came back from Indonesia 2 days ago, and i must say, it was a great trip.. the trip was from 5th to 12th may 2009 where we bought our ticket long time ago, in 2008. it was a long- awaited trip for all of us..much money was spent (very big dent in our savings) and now is the time to refill our bank account again, hehe..

We took off from KK on 5th at around 2200, where the initial time was actually at 2050..and arrive Jakarta at around 0030, but Indonesia is an hour late, so, we have another extra one hour..how nice =)

there were seven of us in the group: cynthia, syikin, roy, annes, yan, ah meng and i. and it was our first time going out of the country for holiday, on our own..since i was the one who arranged the trip and liaise with the travel agent, so, we are expecting someone at the airport waiting for us, holding a piece of paper with my name written on it..

our tour guide, pak surya was my parents' guide when they were in indonesia..and our supir was pak tami..our tour program is planned from Jakarta to Jogjakarta to Bandung and back to Jakarta again, where we will take our flight back to KK..

upon arrival, in the van, pak surya briefed us about the culture in indonesia, especially the food. according to him, although indonesia is a muslim country, but the muslims there do not mind having food in a food court where the chinese are selling pork, as long as they dont consume pork, it's fine for them..somehow, he assured us that the food that he'll provide are all halal, because there are a few muslims in our group..

sate ayam

we stayed in Triniti Hotel in Jakarta and we were hungry when we arrived there. so, one of the hotel staffs helped us to tapau some satay at the stall, just right in front of the hotel..

the next morning, we had our breakfast in the hotel, and went for sight seeing around the town. pak surya brought us to Chinatown, the place where trading were active during the Dutch ruling. and now, it's a small town where businesses are still going on, and most of them are chinese. next, he brought us to the Sunda Kelapa Harbour. according to pak surya, the harbour used to be very busy. though today it is still operating, but it's not as busy as before.

after sunda kelapa, we went to the national monument and shoot some photos. we saw lots of pak polisi around..they look very patriotic, in their uniform and we take the chance to cam-whore habis-habisan..

then, it was time for lunch, and we had our first nasi padang. it was something new for us. basically, nasi padang is rice serve with various style of cooking of fish, chicken, beef and vegetables.

kepala ikan pedas masak santan

it can be up to 6 types of dishes, and what i noticed was that, there will always be at least one dish that cooked with santan. for the first nasi padang, it was very nice, but what happen if you are served with nasi padang, for lunch and dinner, and lunch and dinner again on the next day? we had enough of padang and enough of santan..everyone is feeling fat already.

we went for shopping in Mangga Dua. Mangga Dua is an area which consist of ITC Mangga Dua, WTC Mangga Dua, Ibis Mangga Dua and many many mangoes..hehe. We shopped in International Trade Centre Mangga Dua where we can bargain with them up to 70% less of the price they offer. but most of us didnt get much there as it was still too early to shop...we have 6 more days to go..

after dinner, we were sent to the train station and head to Jogjakarta..

***** ***** *****

we went to Jogjakarta by executive train..it was 8 hours journey, where we departed from Jakarta at around 9pm. the train that we took was actually heading to Solo, and will stop by at Jogjakarta for a while..pak surya reminded us not to doze off in the train at around 3am (the time when we are suppose to arrive in Jogja, but our train delayed, and we reached at around 4:30 am- Indonesia time), or else we will wake up in Solo. so, he made everyone of us, set our alarm on the phone at 3am.

Jogja Train Station

it was so cold..the air conditioning system in the train was very good. even the blanket provided (they provide every passenger with little pillow and blanket), cannot warm us up..but, we were too tired and in need of sleep, everyone slept.. except for the two uncles in front of syikin and annes. we were amazed that they can talk, from the train started moving until we disembarked, they are still talking..

the garden in front of our room in puri artha hotel, jogja

when we reached jogja, our guide, korry was there waiting for us..he had been there since 3am..kesian juga. we were tired. he was tired. so, he sent us to the hotel. we were actually not allowed to check-in early, unless we make extra payment. but, luckily, the person-in-charge was kind enough to let us rest in the two rooms available (we have 3 rooms, all together).

there are 2 chairs and a table, outside every room

we finally got to sleep on the bed (sleeping on the chair in the train doesnt feel like resting at all) from 5am till 830am. then, we got ready for breakfast at 930am. our breakfast was in another hotel, and the food was quite nice..

L-R: roy, ah meng, annes, yan, syikin, cyn and me

after breakfast, we went to Keraton of the Royal Family to visit the Sultan Palace. the Sultan is still staying there and yet, he allows visitors to enter his fortress. that is very kind of him. each group that came, will normally be escorted by the staff there. our group was led by a nice lady. and she happen to be the relative of the dancer that performed during our visit there.

the gamelan band

and we got the chance to have a picture with the dancer =)

the Sultan on throne, at the moment is Sultan Ke-10. and, according to the lady, he is a modernist, where the children are allowed to choose their own partner in life (not necessarily to be from a royal family). even the queen now is not of a royal background. and also, Sultan Ke-10 is the only king that married to only one person. all of the previous sultans had more than one wife. there was one sultan (i dont remember which one) had 7 wives and lots of concubines, and they had lots of children..up to 72 children.

sultan ke-9. the things on his ears is a symbol of wisdom

next, we went to Kotagede where the silver house, Ansor Silver is situated. Ansor is a place where silver products are manufactured. Silver 925 is actually made of 92.5% silver and 7.5% copper..hence the name silver 925. they have to add some other metal substance (copper) to make it hard and strong because pure silver is too soft to be molded into jewelery, etc.

he is making earrings

the exclusivity of the silver products here, are they are all hand-made and very fine. for this reason, they are quite expensive. thus, i dont get myself anything there, even though i like silver.. =)

it was already time for lunch, we had ours in there restaurant, next to Ansor Silver.

guess what we had for lunch? nasi padang again..luckily, there was only one dish that cooked with santan..after lunch, we went to Rumah Batik to do some shopping and get some souvenirs for those at home.

it rained when we were still in rumah batik. it is a small house that they turned into shop. most of the shops in indonesia (at least, the places that we went..may be not all), are transformation from houses into shops. while waiting for the rain to stop, we tried on more batik costumes without any intention to buy..hehe. luckily, the rain stopped after 15mins, and we proceed to Parangtritis beach.

Parangtritis beach

Parangtritis beach is a plain, very sandy beach with rocky hills view. Public is not allowed to be in the water because of the big waves, but there are still some (mostly locals), being brave, dip and swim in the sea.

According to Korry, it is forbidden to wear green to Parangtritis beach because they believe that the goddess of the sea will take away anyone who wears green, to the sea-world, a world where no human eyes can see..on that day, ah meng was wearing a bluish-green shirt..but Korry confirmed it , with condition if you believe it, then only it applies to you.

There’s nothing much to see at the beach, accept for the scenery. We wanted to wait for the sun sets, but, seem like too long. So, after taking lots of photos, buried our feet in the wet sand, clean them with dry sand, being forced (the locals that sell things in jogja are extremely persuasive) to buy peanuts, and laughing at each other, we left the beach.

there were much planning planned for our next activity before dinner (it was still too early for dinner at 530pm)..plans: facial in the saloon, pijat-pijat (massage), karaoke, Ramayana & Chinta show, etc etc..but not one is done. haha. our journey to the restaurant where we are supposed to go, took almost 1.5 hours. everybody slept in the van, exhausted. by the time we reached there, everyone was hungry.. and after dinner, the journey back to the hotel took another 45 mins.. then, we decided to call it a day.

***** ***** *****

the next day, we checked-out from the hotel in the morning and visited the Borobudur temple. we went to borobudur on the 8th of may, where the next day is Wesak Day (in indonesia, it's called Waisak Day).
There’s no crowd on the day we went, but I believe, it will be very very busy, the day after. We can see a lot of people doing the decoration and preparing the PA system for the big day. On the way to Borobudur, we passed by a smaller temple, Mendut, where the celebration will start there and they parade through to Borobudur, to conclude the celebration there.

L-R: Me, syikin, cyn, annes and ah meng

Borobudur temple is a place where you can see a lot of Buddha statues. Some of the heads are missing, consequence of those people in the olden days, who cut them off and sell, to get income. now, it became the uniqueness of Borobudur. the story of enlightenment of Buddha is crafted on the stone on the wall and i could say, Korry is very knowledgeable about the place.

we spent almost half a day in Borobudur, and then we proceed to a restaurant for lunch. after having our lunch, the guide brought us to Pasar Baru which is also walking distant to Malioboro street for shopping. there's a lot of things to see and buy, as long as you have enough fund to spend. ;p

done with shopping, we went for dinner. then we were sent to the train station again, where our next destination will be bandung.

pertamina: the local petrol company transporting their petrol

as i told u earlier, we checked-out from the hotel in the morning and went to Borobudur. the sunny day in the temple make us sweat like pig (i'm not sure how a pig sweat, but we were wet) and we got no chance to shower or even change our clothing.. i dont feel comfortable and luckily the washroom in the restaurant is good and clean for changing..

self-shot in the train station

our train arrived at 11:10pm (indonesia time), and will be arriving in bandung train station at 7:10 am, where, pak surya will be there waiting for us there.

the sun rise up, when we were still in the moving train. the feeling of waking up in a train is definitely different from the feeling waking up in your bed. =)

***** ***** *****

We arrived Bandung at around 730am. .as i told you, we didnt get to take our shower the day before (except for one, early in the morning)..when we arrived in Bandung early in the morning, again, we went to the hotel to drop our lugages there but we are not able to check-in to the rooms, until 11am. so, what we did was, we used the lobby washroom as our own, haha. the 7 of us went and locked ourselves in, where we did all our cleaning. and luckily pak surya had a fantastic idea..

he'll bring us to the Ciater Hot Spring for us to clean up. it was a very good idea..at least, we get to shower. the entrance fee to the park is included in our trip package, we just have to pay another Rp36.000 to get a private room each for ourselves, where they will provide you a towel, a small body soap, a small packet of Clear shampoo, and Teh Botol as a complimentry drink that will be served for you once you are done..

Bandung is actually a valley, which surrounded by hills and mountains. and the air is very cool at night...just like Kundasang, if u're in sabah =) after walking around and taking some shots in the hot spring, next, we went to another tourist spot, Taman Wisata Alam or also known as Gunung Tangkuban Parahu. the mountain is actually an active volcano where you can see smoke coming out of the stones and also the whole area smells of sulfur.

there's legend behind the mountain. and i got this form wikipedia,

The name translates roughly to "upturning of (a) boat" or "upturned boat" in Sundanese, referring to the local legend of its creation. The story tells of "Dayang Sumbi", a beauty who lived in West Java. She cast away her son "Sangkuriang" for disobedience, and in her sadness was granted the power of eternal youth by the gods. After many years in exile, Sangkuriang decided to return to his home, long after the two had forgotten and failed to recognize each other. Sangkuriang fell in love with Dayang Sumbi and planned to marry her, only for Dayang Sumbi to recognize his birthmark just as he was about to go hunting. In order to prevent the marriage from taking place, Dayang Sumbi asked Sangkuriang to (1) build a dam on the river Citarum and (2) build a large boat to cross the river, both before the sunrise. Sangkuriang meditated and summoned mythical ogre-like creatures -buta hejo or green giant(s)- to do his bidding. Dayang Sumbi saw that the tasks were almost completed and called on her workers to spread red silk cloths east of the city, to give the impression of impending sunrise. Sangkuriang was fooled, and upon believing that he had failed, kicked the dam and the unfinished boat, resulting in severe flooding and the creation of Tangkuban perahu from the hull of the boat.

and this same story is shown on the board there.

there's a lot of souvenirs you can get there..and also fresh strawberries. i'm not sure if they injected (is there such technology kah?) any sugar in it, because they taste very sweet..we bought some and had them as our dinner..very healthy, huh? hehe.

for the evening, we spend our whole time in the factory outlets..there's a lot of factory outlets in Bandung and believe me, the things are really low-priced, compared to stuffs in factory outlets in Malaysia, where the prices are still considered expensive.

the next day, we went to Pasar Baru for more shopping. haha. we were there from morning till evening. i planned not to take lunch, since i had a lot for breakfast, but at around 3pm, all of us were really hungry. Lunch and dinner for that day were not included, so we had to get our on food. we asked pak surya to bring us to McD (annes has been craving for the ice-cream) because we were tired of nasi padang and sundanese food.

the McD outlet where we had our food was located along the same street, the Cihampelas Street, where our hotel is situated. the hotel is at the other end of the road. so, we told pak surya that we will walk on our own back to the hotel, and do some more shopping around there. but, unfortunately, only after 2 stores, the rain started to fall..and it was a heavy one.. eventually, we still have to call up pak surya to fetch us up..luckily, pak surya was fine with it..

since we have to cancel our initial plan, because of the weather, we stayed in our rooms and watched tv. we finished up all the strawberries and rest until the next day.

we woke up, packed up all our things and had our breakfast in the hotel. we went for another round of shopping in the factory outlets. then, we had our lunch in a japanese bento fastfood restaurant, recommended by pak surya..and continue shopping again. at almost 5pm, all of us were tired and we headed back to jakarta.

the journey to jakarta took about 3.5 hours. and we arrive in the hotel at about 9pm. on the last day, pak surya brought us to Tanah Abang for our final round of shopping..

and before he sends us to the airport, he brought us for bakso. and i tell you, it was very nice..the meatballs are very meaty, unlike those you have in KK.