This is the second in a two part series in which I share about my trips to Semarang, Magelang and Yogyakarta. Make sure you don't miss reading Part 1
here! ;)
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Got at Dita's house we were greeted by Daniel a.k.a Iyel and Victoria a.k.a Vicky, 2 dogs with opposite personalities. Cute Iyel is very active, barks and stalks Vicky at all times whereas old Vicky is very quiet and kindly let Iyel stalks her... oh, she's such an angel!:o3
Dita's parents were so kind to let us stay at their home. Her mother even cooked and prepared hot water for us (thanks so much Dita and family! >:D<).
Dita showed us around her hometown on the following day. So, where did we go on the first day then? Yogyakarta!
YOGYAKARTA
Taking a bus we went to Yogyakarta accompanied by a new friend, Bondan. Normally it only takes less than 2 hours, but due to the traffic jam it took us more than 3 hours to finally get there.
#:-S
We also got caught in the rain twice, first when were looking around
Taman Sari complex, and the second one when we were on our way back to Magelang.
The province of Special Region of Yogyakarta (we simply call it Jogja), with its capital Yogyakarta City, is well-known for culture, tourism and education. It has a long history as the former capital of Indonesia and also home to a number of great temples. One of them is
Prambanan which is one of the world's most beautiful Hindu temples. Javanese cultural heritages deeply entrenched in this province, such as
Batik,
Wayang (shadow puppet),
Gamelan (Javanese orchestra) etc. Known as a City of Education because of its numerous educational institutions that attract people across Indonesia to study there.
The territory is ruled by a Sultan who lives in
Keraton (palace). Our only destination there was an ancient relic named
Taman Sari. We picked it because we'd never been there before (been to Jogja once and passed by a couple of times). What is the connection between the Sultanate and
Taman Sari? It then functioned as a recreation garden, hideout, and hermitage place of the royal family. The complex is quite huge and divided into some parts.
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| the entrance |
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| Taman Sari bathing pool |
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| the same pool |
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| Taman Sari complex |
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| a big earthquake damaged some parts of the site |
It was funny how we thought we had finished walking around the complex until someone told us that there was a separated part of the complex connecting by an underground tunnel. But, to get there you have to get out first through the back gate, walk pass residential houses and you'll see the tunnel that leads you to get into the complex again. More about
Taman Sari can be read
here.
MAGELANG
Surrounded by mountains makes this small city green and peaceful. The most popular tourism object in Magelang is
Borobudur, the world's biggest Buddhist temple. Actually we planned to go there, but the news on TV reported it was visited by huge crowds of Buddhist pilgrims to celebrate Vesak (holy day in Buddhism). They came not only from the surrounding areas, but also from all over Indonesia and even overseas! We all knew that it was a public holiday that day, but we just figured out that it was Vesak after watching the news. :))
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| Welcome to Magelang! |
Ayam Kosek (chicken with chili paste) at Rumah Makan Panjiwo (Panjiwo Restaurant) is the thing I like most about this town. The key that makes this food so special is its spicy sambal kosek (chili paste). They deep fry chicken, flatten it out and put the sambal on it while it's still hot. This is how the chicken will adsorb the sambal well and make it very spicy and savory. =P~ ^:)^
I'm not exaggerating but this is one of the most delicious foods I've ever tasted. The restaurant is situated across a mental health hospital which Dita often brags about as the biggest mental hospital in South East Asia (I'm wondering if she used to be one of the patients there :-?).
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| drown in the delicacy of Ayam Kosek |
Dita only had not even a day to show us around as we had to be at the bus station by 5pm to get back to Jakarta. :(
We went to a hill located not too far from her house named
Bukit Tidar (Tidar Hill) where people usually come on a pilgrimage to the graves of Muslim figures there. It's not too big though.
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| Tidar Hill |
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| Not even halfway to the hilltop #:-S |
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| one of the monkeys around the hill |
Okay, as I said previously it's not too big, but reaching the top of it was not an easy thing for us. We had to stop to take deep breaths for several times (girls, we need more exercise!). I was expecting something spectacular up there, but when we finally managed to get there, there was nothing to see but a large flagpole in the middle of it. But after taking some steps, one thing drew my attention... a huge Banyan tree! The first thing that came into my head was doing one or two Tarzan swings. :D
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| Aulia the Banyan girl |
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| swing... swing... swing... |
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| the local children who watched our "show" ;)) |
Next location, a park called Taman Kyai Langgeng. To be honest we didn't have much time to explore, so we don't know much what they have there. They have some wild animals like snakes and crocodiles but I'm sure they have more to see as it's such a huge park. We only spent our limited time around a river on the park. It took some time to go there since it's located far behind the park.
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| favourable weather with a beautiful view |
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| the river |
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| cotton candy girls |
How I wished we had spend more time there. But we had to race against time to come back home. Quoting Aulia,
"It's not a matter of where you go, what matters is how you enjoy your time", if I can add
"It's not a matter of how much time you spend". :) Crazy friends has made this trip a fun and wonderful experience although it was just a short one.
By the way, we arrived in Jakarta at 8am and I had to work at 1pm. (:|
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