Trip To Yogyakarta

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So finally I've realized my dream to visit Yogyakarta last October. It's the first time I didn't have to do the itinerary nor being the banker of the group, my cousin, Syifa did it for this trip instead. She was the one who searched for the tour package and she chose the package offered by Mas Agus for us. 

The package included all entrance fees, transportation and accommodation for the whole 4 days except for which I've stated the expenses in my previous expenses post. Mas Agus was the owner of the travel agency and Mas Hendra was our driver. They were super nice and easy to deal with. I totally recommend them if you want to visit Yogyakarta.

Here is Mas Agus's contact number: +62 819-627-065

Day 1 (02 October 2019 - Wednesday)

We took StarShuttle bus from Ipoh to KLIA2. Our flight was at 4.00pm and we arrived at Adisucipto International Airport at 5.20pm (local time). It was already quite dark when we arrived. Our drive, Mas Hendra brought us to buy Indonesia's Simcard and then to dinner at Lombok Idjo. I loved our dinner, we ate something like Nasi Ayam Penyet but I found that their Nasi Ayam Penyet had a unique taste, totally wasn't like ours. 

Then we head to Alun-Alun Kidul for a walk. It's like a park where people just chilling for the night. We didn't spend so much time there, we just had snacks and head to our hotel at Malioboro Garden Hotel. The hotel was a budget hotel so it was quite small and cramped but it was clean and cosy so our stay was pleasant nonetheless.

Day 2 (03 October 2019 - Thursday)

We departed to Bukit Panguk early at 4.00am as we wanted to see the sunrise. The view of the sunrise was mesmerizing, never failed to amaze me. There were a few spots for photo taking but we just went for one spot. Then we head to Jurang Tembelen which was located just a few minutes from Bukit Panguk. Initially, we didn't want to spend much time there as it's just the same concept as Bukit Panguk but we couldn't help ourselves as the photo spots in Jurang Tembelen were free of charge.

Then we went to Rumah Hobbit around 6.55am and finally had our breakfast. After a few more photos at Rumah Hobbit, we went to Hutan Pinus. Hutan Pinus reminded me of Nami Island in South Korea as the setting of the trees were quite the same. It was beautiful.

After we were satisfied with all the photos we took, we continued to a more adventurous activity, which the first one was caving at Gua Pindul. Gua Pindul offered 4 stages of caving but our tour package only included stage 1. We wanted to go for at least stage 2, but we didn't have much time. But the stage 1 caving activity was fun nonetheless. I loved how peaceful the caving activity was as we didn't have to swim ourselves. We took the photographer service as we were afraid we couldn't get the best shot. But in my opinion, you don't have to get the service if you got yourself a waterproof camera. The activity only took around 20minutes but we took a long time to wash up and change our wet clothes. 

We then head to the most anticipated location for this trip, which was Pantai Timang. We had to change our transport to a jeep to reach Pantai Timang because of the off-road journey. I loved how friendly and kind our jeep driver was. Before we reached Pantai Timang, we stopped at Lobster Pak Sis for lunch. We had a hearty lobster set meal as it was way cheaper compared to lobster sold in Malaysia. We arrived at Pantai Timang around 2.00pm after a much exhausting jeep journey. There were two ways to cross to the other side of the beach, which was by a bridge or by a gondola. It wasn't allowable to do both bridge and gondola as they were of two different companies so we decided to go for the bridge. The bridge package was definitely better as they even provide free photographer service. We could stop for photos in the middle of the bridge which we wouldn't be able to do so if we go for the gondola. We actually spent so much time there, just chilling and admiring the view.

Since we spent quite some time at Pantai Timang, it was a bit late that we arrived Pinus Pengger, we didn't even take many photos and spent only a few minutes looking around. We had our dinner on the second day at Pokmi Java and went to the hotel.

Day 3 (04 October 2019 - Friday)

We were so exhausted from the previous day, so we decided to miss the sunrise at Gunung Merapi and had our breakfast at the hotel since our accommodation included it. We started day 3 activity to Pule Payung which was located near the famous Kalibiru. Basically, the two spots were quite similar but Pule Payung was a new attraction, it was opened only two years ago. I had a blast riding the giant swing and flying fox there. We had our lunch at Rocket Chicken which was a bit similar to KFC. We tried one of the meal sets, Ayam Geprek, which was a very famous food here. It was the spiciest meal I've ever had in my whole life.

We continued our trip to the most famous temple in Yogyakarta, Candi Borobudur. But it's a shame that we only got to spend about an hour at Candi Borobudur as we were running out of time to go for the volcano, Gunung Merapi tour in the evening. We even went for a jeep to return to our van from the temple as it would take us quite some time by walking. 

It was quite late that we departed to Gunung Merapi, we reached the mountain around 4.00pm. We rode a jeep for the tour. The tour included a few stops, the first one was at Bunker Kaliadem, which was some kind of a safe house during the volcanic eruption a long time ago. Now, the bunker was just served as a museum of history for it. The second stop was a nice photo spot, then to a museum of the volcanic eruption that happened in the year 2010. The museum was originally a house to a man who they called the keeper of the volcano. Unfortunately, he also was one of the victim who died during the eruption. Somehow it saddened me to visit Gunung Merapi because of the 2010 eruption history.

After the sorrowful Gunung Merapi tour, we went shopping for t-shirts, the famous cake in Yogyakarta, Bakpia and souvenirs. We had our dinner at a stall, just to try Yogyakarta's bakso. It was delicious. Finally the last stop in Yogyakarta, we went to Malioboro Street which was only a walking distance from our hotel. I loved the street so much. It's like Jonker Walk in Melaka where they sold all kinds of souvenirs, snacks, accessories and fabrics. 

Day 4 (05 October 2019 - Saturday)

Since it was already late the previous day we went to Malioboro Street, we continued walking around the street in the next morning. Obviously, all the shopping made our cabin baggage exceeded the 7kg limit so we had to purchase the airport baggage adds-on in the last minute. We shared the unexpected extra cost.

I definitely missed Yogyakarta, I could still feel the excitement of the trip while writing this. I hope you felt it too, and I hope my sharing would benefit you in any ways if you want to visit Yogyakarta.

Till the next trip,

Lya.