Memory Visit to Yogyakarta

Yogyakarta is one of the historical city for me. Not only because this is where I have spent the longest time continuously (I lived there for 5 years, compared to the rest of the place I've ever lived in - maximum of 3 years), but also because since I was a kid, not knowing any other cool place, I always want to go there for university. So one of the day in 2005, where all of a sudden I realized that I got 65 days vacation balance and need to spend at least half of it, I joined a trip.

The trip was all arranged by a group of friends. I was only planning to go home to Jakarta from Balikpapan where I worked at that time. But this group of friends, they have planned it to go together (6 girls) when I asked if I can go too. So they end up bought me a ticket from Jakarta to Yogyakarta before I'm even arrived in Jakarta.

Yogyakarta or often called Yogya for short, is about 1 hour flying from Jakarta. There is flight available almost every hour (different airlines). Arrived in the airport, I paid 50,000 rupiah (5 USD) to catch up with another 6 girls who left earlier than me. We had dinner in a food stall, on the pedestrian area (in Yogya, eating under a tent built on the side of the street is very common during the night, and you actually not even sitting on a chair but on the floor  covered with some kind of plastic carpet instead). After that we went to a small hotel (guest house near by Yogya Kembali monument) called Rumah Mertua. The guest house is so unique, look like a house with javanese architecture, has a swimming pool and provide breakfast on its garden. Very cool. It only has about 10 rooms, that's why bit quiet.

The next day, we rent a car for 400,000 rupiah (40 USD) to go around. First, we visited the Sultan Palace, then we went to the beach, and then we went to see a cave with a river inside. This whole trip only took a day. We were already back in the hotel by 8 pm. Where then we decided to see some part of the Sultan Palace we missed during the day, took a pedicab to go around and look at traditional music on the palace. We went back to Jakarta the next day.