Landmark of Pekanbaru city
Ryan and I , two people who happened to meet in the most boring city in Indonesia, became friends and ended up being travbuddy.
Pekanbaru is a city located in Sumatera Island and basically there is nothing you could enjoy in this city. Sorry if I’m being too frank, but that’s the truth. Employment is the main reason why people are here. I’ve been stranded in Pekanbaru almost a year working for Schlumberger while Ryan had been stranded here for about 6 months teaching English.
It was only 2 weeks away for Ryan to leave Indonesia for good and he wanted to visit Yogyakarta and Bali before he left.
Yogyakarta - Lesehan..
He requested me to come along with him for the urgency of needing a local tour guide and since I got a YES from my boss to take a week off, both of us started making plans for our trips.
It was Monday afternoon when we flew from Pekanbaru to Jakarta which took us about 1.5 hours flying. Once we arrived in Jakarta, we took care of Ryan’s belongings to be drop off at his friend’s house and we caught our connecting flight to Yogyakarta. It was only 8:00 PM when we arrived in my beautiful hometown, Yogyakarta.
My sister’s boyfriend, Febry was already standing with a big smile on his face to welcome us at the airport. I introduced them and we walked towards the parking lot. It shows some improvements at the airport. It has a connecting tunnel from the arrival section to the parking lot which is very clean and convenient.
YogYakarta - Alun-alun selatan
There are train station and bus way station that make people easier to travel to the city. Everything looked good.
--- Arrived at home --- Such a good feeling…
Things are pretty different from Pekanbaru. Ryan was so happy to be in Yogyakarta. "Feeling normal again" that’s his term.
It was 11:00 PM when we left my house and headed to Gejayan Street. I brought Ryan to have late supper at Lesehan Gudeg Bromo. I know for sure this is the first time for him to experience eating traditional Javanese food, GUDEG on the sidewalk of the road. But, he enjoyed the food and the environment. It’s all good.
Afterward, we went to Alun-alun Selatan (South Section of Sultan Palace). There were two big banyan trees and people like to hang out there. Once upon a time, people believe when you can walk between the tress with closed eyes, what you wish could come true. It doesn’t happen now, but people still try. We were laughing so hard to see the people who were walking, covering their eyes and didn’t make it to walk between the trees. They went all over directions. Indeed, it was such a good entertainment for us.
It was a bit late when we were home. I asked him “Did you enjoy everything we do today?”
He said “I enjoyed every single thing and tomorrow will be better”
Then we said good night to each other.
