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Day-1: Yogya here I came! - again

Yogyakarta Travel Blog › entry 2 of 8 › view all entries

As the name said - Dieng (Di - place/mountain and Hyang - Gods), this place was one of the early Hindu origin in Java. The name itself it's an appealing factor to come and see it myself! Nearly 200km road trip from Yogya - Magelang - Temanggung and Wonosobo then Dieng. Travelling with 3 kids - I was the eldest hence I must behave a bit!

Day-1: Yogya here I came! - again

Horse Cart in Malioboro

I studied in Yogyakarta for 4 years - long time but I didn’t really explore the town too much. Going back to this town just remind me the old times as this town hardly changed!

I escaped at the last minutes to catch my flight from the office, and travelling across Jakarta right in the middle of a busy day is not an encouraging thing to be on time. Luckily, I got to the airport in-time to hurriedly check in (and the enjoyment of having no-check in luggage!) and went inside the boarding lounge (where I managed to much some chocolate bars).

The flight was on-time and 1 hour later I was landed in Adisucipto Airport of Yogyakarta.

This town has confused people with the naming - as it’s normally called Yogyakarta or Jogjakarta or Jogja or YogyaJ.

Typical Malioboro street vendors
This town is known as the biggest student town in Indonesia with hundreds of universities and colleges. This province is also the only province in Indonesia which is ruled by pre-colonial monarchy known as Kesultanan Yogyakarta, whose ruling king is also the governor of Yogya. There a lot of influence from traditional Javanese culture in this town, the building, the daily life of the people and the food.

My sister and her friend picked me up in the airport and annoyed with me who always asked to grab some food firstJ - they drove me to a small Warung - warung in Indonesia means a small restaurant. This warung is typical in Yogya, with buffet-like display and you can just point out what you want and the lady will get it for you.

I used to eat here in my college time!
I used to eat in this place 8 years ago when I was in the college (now I revealed how old I am!).

After the quick and early dinner we continue the trip to Malioboro. Malioboro Street located in the center part of the town and most favorite tourist spot inside the town. It’s a long street which both sides are full with sellers selling traditional handicraft, souvenirs, clothes etc. At one end of the street there is a backpacker area (slash - a red light district - but you don’t know it from me:D).

And the other end of the street is the traditional cloth/wet market called Beringharjo Market.

Due to breakfasting time - Malioboro Street was unusually not crowded - even I could say it’s empty for Indonesian standard, which was very pleasant to wander around as you don’t need to distract your attention from watching the stuffs around and not-to-bump into other people.

Rice with fried tempe and vegetables salad
Walking along the street vendors and I bought several gifts for my friends and took some snaps of Angkringan (street food cart). Angkringan is another Yogya’s stuff, it usually open in the evening with dimmed light and sell coffee, tea and snacks. People, mostly men, like to sit around and chat till late at night.

We continued to go to Alun-Alun (town square). Yogya’s Alun-alun is divided into 2 parts North and South, the more popular one is the South. Basically it’s a winde open grass square with lots of street food vedors around for people (mostly the youngsters) to hang out and enjoy the local snacks.

The main attraction from this place is 2 huge banyan trees grow exactly in the middle of the square - around 5 meters apart. People said that if you can walk from one tree to the other with closed eye, your wish may come true. I did try before and didn’t succeed (that explained why I am still an incompetent bum here) hahahaha.

We took some Ronde - which is a hot beverage made of some jelly, lontar fruits, roasted peanut with sweet ginger syrup, a typical beverages here.

Alun Alun Selatan (South town square)

We wandered around the square, as I noticed there are 4 gates as a round fence of this square. The white gate with old design and led to the kampongs area. One gate led to a much bigger gate called Plengkung Gading. It looks very interesting as we can climb to the top of the gate and can see the broader view of the town from there. This gate linked to a kampong, still with a traditional looking street and wall, looks mysterious, especially at night!

This is what I like about Yogyakarta, that some parts of the town still feels old and preserved. Even there are a part where all the king’s servants and their families still live there - some said that they still paid as low as 30k Rp (~3 USD) a month, but they still willing to do the work as it is their dedication to their king.

I managed to visit my old college as well, felt weird to visit the old place where I used to walk to every day and it didn’t change a bit! I talked to the night guard and he know every names of my classmates I told him and all the lectors, but he didn’t have any idea at all about me - shows how popular I was in my college timeJ.

Yogya's street from Plengkung Gading gate

 

Went back to my sister’s place and zonked!

 

Malioboro Street was reviewed in this link: Malioboro blog

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Horse Cart in Malioboro
Horse Cart in Malioboro
Typical Malioboro street vendors
Typical Malioboro street vendors
I used to eat here in my college t…
I used to eat here in my college
Rice with fried tempe and vegetabl…
Rice with fried tempe and vegeta
Alun Alun Selatan (South town squa…
Alun Alun Selatan (South town sq
Yogyas street from Plengkung Gadi…
Yogya's street from Plengkung Ga
Sunset in Malioboro
Sunset in Malioboro
Malioboro street
Malioboro street
Pasang Beringharho - traditional m…
Pasang Beringharho - traditional
Displayed horse cart
Displayed horse cart
Angkringan - Yogyas typical hang …
Angkringan - Yogya's typical han
A weird tasted fruit
A weird tasted fruit
Salak - the weird looking one:)
Salak - the weird looking one:)
Longan fruit
Longan fruit
Typical street food vendor in Yogya
Typical street food vendor in Yogya
I used to call this lady vixen la…
I used to call this lady "vixen
Me and Sister
Me and Sister
Different kind of food - you can c…
Different kind of food - you can
Traditional stove - using charcoal
Traditional stove - using charcoal
Roasted corn
Roasted corn
Sellers around the town square
Sellers around the town square
Old gate to the kampong
Old gate to the kampong
Looks like haunted alley
Looks like haunted alley
Plengkung Gading
Plengkung Gading
On the top of the gate
On the top of the gate
Ronde beverage
Ronde beverage
Spot for "pacaran"
"Pacaran" is Bahasa Indonesia's word for dating - going out as couple.
This alun-alun (literally translated as town square) is one part as other parts is called Alun-alun utara (North town square).
This south part is known as the more relax part as the north one is a bustling part as it closer to the Malioboro. This is an open wide grass park with 2 huge banyan trees in the middle. These 2 Banyan trees are known as sacred trees. There is a tradition called "Masangin" which is walking from one trees to the other with closed eyes. If one can do that and reach the other tree - then he/she will be blessed with a lot of nice stuffs..but if he/she peeked when doing it, they said the person will be transferred to another world and will suddenly find themselves alone in the town square - yeap - me don't want to experience that!
Around the square there are a lot of sellers with dimmed light - makes is more comfortable for a date - (who said we don't have a candle-light-dinner concept here!)
The sellers start to prepare their tent around 5 pm, just before the sunset.
There are several choices, Ronde is one of them (which is a hot beverage) made of sugar and ginger syrup with some jelly and roasted peanut inside. Grilled corn and sweet dark tea is another choice offered by the street vendors.
It wasn't too crowded when I visited this place - just wandering around the square and watching people passing by.. this is a great - lazy option to do around here! The people, the street food, the ambience - that you can trully sample the locals activity
Alun-Alun Kidul
Old gate as the entrance to surr
Traditional oil lamp and corn
Street vendors around the square
ffransiska says:
Enjoy yogya for me! I missed a lot of stuffs when I was there due to limited time!
Posted on: Sep 01, 2009
DidiBeachBum says:
yeaaayyy im going to Yogya in october.. cant wait.. culinary tour to Solo, sunset pose in Borobudur, full moon ramayana ballet in Prambanan..batik shopping..cant wait..\(^_^)/
Posted on: Sep 01, 2009
Very cheap food!
A small food stall with no chairs and tables are very common in Yogya – it is called Lesehan, as the customers have to sit on the floor and eat on the mat or from a low table. This lesehan place normally sells either gudeg – a traditional Javanese dishes made of young jackfruit cooked in sweet gravy coconut milk.
Some other sells rice and several dishes to accompany the rice – a buffet type of food. This one stall also sells that kind of food. It’s open for dinner till late in the evening. This was one of my favorite in my college time as it is cheap and the food is delicious. The choice of dishes are quite a lot – from fried or grilled chicken, stir fried tofu and some seafood, vegetables salad, eggs cooked in several different ways. The rice is still warm inside a Tupperware and the lady served us when we point out what we’d like to pick with our rice. The drinks are on the side of the buffet, pretty standard – ice tea, squeezed orange and coffee.
For 3 of us I paid 12k Rp (1.2 USD), very cheap!
(I almost tempted to put "Free" rating in this review!:D)
My dinner - rice with deep fried
The lady started to get busy as
Very simple buffet!
Choice of dishes
TRaditional javanese beverage
Ronde is sweet dessert/beverages, particularly popular in Central Java and Yogyakarta. This beverage was originally comes from Chinese cuisine with sugar syrup, the Javanese version they add some ginger in the syrup to have a strong taste and warm the drink.
There are jelly, lontar fruits, some squared cut toast, rice flour dough filled with peanut paste, roasted peanut and some other different variation. The ronde sellers normally open after the sunset as this drink suits the evening when the temperature cools down a bit.
Ronde beverage
The seller and her cart - prepar
Lesehan style! Prepare your feet
Cheaper option to to to the town center
Yogyakarta's airport - Adisucipto is located just off from the main road which link Yogya and Solo known as Jalan Solo. Therefore it is pretty easy to reach the town center - in this case is Malioboro area for most tourists and UGM area for students.
There are several options to reach the town center economically - but the most recent option is by using Trans Jogja - the new bus route which station is located inside the Airport parking lot. The bus fare is 3000 Rp (0.3 USD) and the 1-A route brings you to Malioboro - from where you can search the hostels/guest house for accomodation as well as lot of seaight seeing around the Palace area.

Another option will be by taxi - just ensure that the driver is willing to use the meter or else - you need to bargain andset the price before you hop in.
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