Day 3: YAKARTA - YOGYAKARTA
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Today we start the day at 4.00 in the morning, we have the flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta soon, so it's time to start the journey early.
We went down to breakfast (being a hotel near the airport, they already have it adapted to the early risers) and as soon as we reach the door of the restaurant, we realize that we are not alone, around us we have hundreds of children around the trays of the buffet
We have already begun to think that it will not be a very quiet breakfast. But we decided to stand in line and seeing that time is over, we take a coffee and a plate of a kind of rice three delicacies and some noodles similar to Pad Thai, but that are not Mie Goreng.
Before continuing, we must say that we are quite affected by the jetlaj or something similar, because we have not slept more than 3 hours so today we expect an aupa day! Why we have the most complete planning.
We see that the children begin to go out with their backpacks in tow and we understand that it is time to get going to catch the transfer from hotel to Jakarta airport. And by chance they put us in one of the buses that are full of children.
We are the center of attention during the 20 minutes of the journey from Hotel FM7 to the airport. And I can't stop looking at them, watching their reactions. We see that they take a picture of us in a furtive way.
At 4.30, they leave us at terminal 3 of the Jakarta airport, which despite being international flights, is the headquarters of the Garuda company and from where our flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta.
This terminal is much more modern and newer. Before entering we already pass a check and see that there are not too many people.
We go through the aisles and in less than 15 minutes we are in front of our boarding gate.
We see that the room is gradually filling up, but of all the passengers, possibly, we will be about 5 or 6 tourists in total.
The plane is quite new, so we confirm what they had told us, that within “the blacklist”, Garuda is the best company in Indonesia.
The flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta It lasts 60 minutes and is one of the best flights I have ever done. A movie view. Awesome to see the Central Java volcanoes from the air.
So between photo and photo and volcano and volcano, we spend the time flying, never better.
Flight from Jakarta to Yogyakarta
We arrived to Yogyakarta and having no luggage, we went out in 5 minutes.
At the door of the exits we find a boy with a cartel with our name. It is our transfer to Phoenix hotel in Yogyakarta. Already only with the car, we see the category of the hotel that we have booked for the next nights.
It explains a bit of Yogyakarta, we explain a little where we come from and decide that what we want to do is look out the window for the next 30 minutes of the journey.
We are impressed by every detail and we do not stop looking from side to side, trying not to miss anything that happens around us.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we relive the car registration and help us lower the 2 backpacks.
We arrive at the reception of Phoenix hotel in Yogyakarta and we already discovered a whole colonial building. We don't know how the rest will be, but rightly they consider this the best of Yogyakarta
We check in at the Phoenix Yogyakarta Hotel and explain to one of the receptionists the case of "lost luggage". Without too much concern, they tell us they will call the airport and tell us something in the afternoon.
We don't have the room ready yet, so we sort things in one backpack and in the other we put the cameras and the things we need to spend the day.
Before leaving, we value that it is better to do. We can stay at the hotel to have a coffee (what a good fault we do) or go out and discover Yogyakarta.
And look where ... what we decided to go to kick Yogyakarta!
Book the best rated tours and excursions in Yogyakarta in Spanish by travelers:
- Tour of Yogyakarta and its great temples
- Excursion to Borobudur at dawn and Dieng Plateau
- Excursion to Surakarta and temples of Cetho and Sukuh
We left the hotel with the typical uncertainty that we used to have on the first day that we are in a strange place, but just after crossing the first street of Yogyakarta , we started to find ourselves at home.
We go straight to Malioboro, the main street of the city of Yogyakarta and that we have a few meters from the Phoenix Yogyakarta Hotel (well, before we had to look at the map 20 times to be able to locate ourselves well).
As we move forward, we see that despite being so soon, there is a lot of atmosphere.
Yogyakarta streets
Then, right now, we realize it's Sunday! Most stores are closed, as are banks and exchange houses.
This is what makes us less grace, since we still have to book a car for the next 2 days and today, we do not have enough rupees.
We decided that we will see how we solve these things as they happen and we decide to enjoy the morning walk.
We cross Malioboro Street until we reach the Kraton, on this walk, we take an itinerary of Yogyakarta marked in the guide and that from the first moment is what we want to follow, but nothing is further from reality.
It always happens to us, we start walking and we forget the paths we have planned ... after all, this is the trip!
Already in front of the Kraton, we decided that with the body we have, we do not feel like visiting it inside. We have read some comments and we don't think it's worth it.
It's 9 in the morning and the heat is beginning to show, today promises to be hot.
From there we went to the Water Palace and once we are at the door, in the end it has not cost us much to follow the plan we took (and that in most of the opinions we had read in forums and the like, they said it was very hard to find) almost without realizing it, we find that we have a boy attached to us as a guide.
Look that we had read it, they had warned us ... well, there we were both "rookies", accompanied by the guide, without saying anything to either of us.
After 10 minutes, we looked at each other and decided that it is time to tell him that we don't need any guidance.
When we tell him that he doesn't need to accompany us anymore, he tells us that he is an official guide and that he doesn't want us to pay him (?). He even shows us a card with his photo.
We don't really want to argue, so we get carried away by the streets around the Water Palace of Yogyakarta, seeing a little of the city life of Yogyakarta.
Since we have a guide, we take the opportunity to ask some things about Yogyakarta, customs, culture ...
But as always, we get lost watching people, the daily routine, the details that would normally go unnoticed, but that when we travel, they make us turn.
Houses and people attract my attention, it is very different from what we have seen so far. I would not know how to define it, it is like an organized disorder.
Everything has a place, but at the same time it is surrounded by chaos, difficult to explain.
But I like it. And a lot…
Water Palace in Yogyakarta
After visiting the Water Palace, our makeshift guide takes us to a store, to see some paintings (we already said that there was a cat locked up!), But it does not bother us, because in that journey, we have gone through a little streets full of details that have been worth it.
Yogyakarta views
The truth is that this area is worth it, not so much for the Water Palace itself, but for the streets that surround it.
From here we decided to go to the bird market, in our map it says that it is right in front of the wall and despite being there, we only see some shops with a lot of variety of cages and enough birds.
But not a market, as we understand it. We ask a couple of times, but the answers only make us lose more than we are. Even a taxi driver tells us that we are more than 3 kilometers away ... We begin to feel tired and lacking strength to continue walking so we decided to go for a drink.
For a while we looked for something similar to a bar, cafeteria, restaurant ... chair ... anything to drink, but nothing. We didn't find anything, so we go straight to a store and buy a bottle of coke and water. We pay about 5000 rupees.
More practical information to prepare your trip to Indonesia
- 10 essential places to visit in Indonesia
- 10 essential tips for traveling to Indonesia
I'm still amazed at the price ... the bottle of coke was almost half a liter !!!
Our body begins to notice tiredness. It's 12 noon and it's unbearably hot.
Even having taken something, it doesn't seem to make us regain strength, so we decided to go back to the Phoenix hotel, to take a shower, eat and relax for a while.
Once we see what we have to go to get to the hotel, we do not think that the time has come to "test" the bike / tricycle, which is seen so much in Yogyakarta.
We bargained with a couple of drivers and after 5 minutes we got them to take us to the hotel for 15,000 rupees.
The problem is that the man does not know where the hotel is, although we show him the written name and the plan. In the end, it seems that he has understood and begins our "journey."
Every time we look back, we see it with a half smile, but busted. This is what you have to go with a man old enough to carry 2 people and two backpacks, pedaling.
Walking the streets of Yogyakarta, but lost
We go around several times and we get to the idea that we have lost, we see streets that we had not seen in the first leg and after almost 30 minutes, 2 stops to ask, we see from afar again, Malioboro Street.
So when we reach the middle of the street, we tell him that he is well, that he can leave us there.
As it turns out, we have almost gone around the city of Yogyakarta and we are 1 kilometer closer to the hotel than we were at the beginning.
But since it is not about flights, now I see everything positively, so we take the opportunity to enter an agency and look at prices for the next 2 days of car with driver in our trip to Indonesia.
We are clear about what we want, which is tomorrow to go to Prambanan, surrounding temples, Kaliurang and back to the hotel. The next day will be to go first to Borobudur, then Dieng Plateau and finish at Semarang.
We are more than half an hour, giving him the itinerary, explaining what we want to do and in the end, after haggling a lot and he called the “future driver” like 20 times, we managed to leave the two days in a total of one million rupees. The surprise comes when he tells us that we have to pay everything in advance.
We explain that we do not agree and despite discussing we do not get anything else ... That makes it quite clear that being so sharp is that there is "cat locked up." So we left there without a car for the next 2 days!
I have to be positive again! This episode has helped us to get an idea of the price we can reach at the next agency we enter.
I want to be positive, I want, I want… but they just told us, that being Sunday, the agencies close at 2 in the afternoon !!! And they do not open again !! And it's 1 noon and we're busted !!! But I am positive ... and much! :))
Roger proposes to go to the hotel even just for a moment, to rest and see how the subject of the suitcase is ...
I listen to him and there we go. On the way we see that in the corner of the hotel there is an agency that does not look bad. What we least want is to haggle now, so we prefer to carry out the first idea we have had.
As soon as I arrived at the reception and asked, I was surprised by the day: they found a suitcase, but the other one does not know where it is ...
“I still have to remain positive Roger ??? Of courseoooo Vane, it seems a lie, that we are on vacation !!!! ”
After being 10 minutes in the room, not wanting to think too much about what the missing suitcase will be, more than anything for not letting that ruin my day, we decided to go back to see how the prices are in the agency that we have seen before.
We enter determined to be very explicit and not leave any loose ends, so we explain what we want and let him give us a price.
We begin to haggle and after 15 minutes, we reach the end of the operation. 1 million 100 thousand rupees for the two days. It's a little more than we thought we would pay, but we don't feel like haggling any more and this guy has given us more confidence than before.
And most importantly, we pay only a deposit of Rs 200,000 and the rest at the end of the two days, we will have to pay the driver.
From there and much happier, we are running to try to change some euros and we go directly to the exchange office that they recommend in the travel guide to Indonesia, the one of the Garuda Inn hotel and without realizing it, we remember that it is Sunday and that it is closed !!
Who is more tired?
There, right at the door, we meet a man, very well dressed who tries to help us and for the second time since we are in Indonesia, without knowing how or where, we see ourselves running behind him, he was doing a paint market that he recommends ... and while we were running we were asking “And why are we going there? If we don't want to buy anything !! ”
Well, in the end we end up at his cousin's shop, which paints and exhibits paintings. Without wanting to be too abrupt, we tell you that we are not interested and we are on our way to our hotel, we need to eat and above all rest.
We are rendered and we no longer know if it is the jetlaj or what, but we really need to lie down even for a while.
I, without thinking twice, ask Nasi Goreng for the first time. Roger opts for a rissotto.
The service is very friendly and the food is very good. The quality of the Phoenix hotel and when we remember the price per night, it is almost ridiculous. This in Europe we could not pay even jokingly.
We ask for the account and they make us sign the account, to add it to the final payment. The change is about 20 euros. The truth is that it is expensive to be Indonesia, but being the place it is, we did not think it was cheaper.
After eating, all we can think about is going to sleep in the room for a while.
Half a nap they knock on the door and we jump out of bed. It is the suitcase !!!
Roger returns to the room with a smile on his face, it's his suitcase !!!
Determined, I have a few more days (at least) to remain pessimistic, thinking that my suitcase will never appear! I don't want to think positive anymore! :)) Even if you are on vacation.
After seeing the suitcase, I turn around in bed and go back to sleep (I feel childish behavior, but I have to give thanks that I did not throw the suitcase on the balcony for not being mine ... hahaha)
It's mid-afternoon and we appreciate going for a walk around Malioboro or going down to the pool for a drink. In the end, the second option wins.
We don't want to "bust" so soon. What are we on the second day of the trip! There we are 2 hours, reading and taking advantage of the afternoon to relax and acclimatize.
Phoenix Yogyakarta Hotel
The atmosphere is great and makes you want to stay here for weeks.
We have dinner time and Roger this time decides for a pizza and I for an Ayam Goreng. Great again. I see that I will love Indonesian cuisine !! And I am also seeing myself in full operation bikini!
This time a little cheaper comes out (we have asked for water to drink and it shows) and we add about 15 euros to the change to the final account.
It's 9 o'clock at night and for being the second day of travel, we have almost adapted to the schedules here.
After resting for a while in the hotel restaurant, we go straight to the Phoenix Yogyakarta Hotel room to rest.
Tomorrow we start at 5.50 in the morning, we will see Prambanan.
Sweet dreams.
Day 4YOGYAKARTA - PRAMBANAN - YOGYAKARTA
