Jogjakarta, the Maiden Indonesia Travel

Somehow I felt that culturally, I’m more accustomed to Thailand than Indonesia. Then again, I have thai friends by the handful before I had Indonesian friends. Quite unfair to make such statements.

There were many crazy moments and teasings throughout the trip, that rambling all of in detail may just as well be written as an article. Perhaps I’ll just highlight some funny incidents in brief that made the jokes last forever and likely remembered a little longer.

DAY ONE – 21 January 2011

• Our meals at McD LCCT is somehow always at the same spot.
• All of us dashed to the gate and plane, after hearing our names being called over the PA system as “late passangers”. Quite embarrassing, for it’s our first time and we just had our passports stamped, which was very much 20 minutes ahead of time.
• I have no idea why JH didn’t keep his return boarding pass into his bag. He ended up having minor issues on the plane, realizing the staff tore the RETURN boarding pass instead. It’ll be very funny if the stewardess shooed him down from the plane.
• Being blur as she is, AQ deliberately RAN past the ground staff after the immigration at Adisucipto Airport. We do not want to be associated as some suspicious traveler!
• Intan has no sense of direction in her own hometown. And Ary the human-gps is a solar type (she gets lost at night).
• DISPOSABLE is the Word of the Vacation, no thanks to IW. Everything and anything is disposable.
• JK also GARBLES in his sleep. ARGH!!!! Don’t wanna share room with him next trip!

 

 DAY TWO – 22 January 2011

• With the rain that poured the night before, the mist was too heavy for the Borobodur Sunrise at 5am. The restoration works of the Unesco World Heritage site after the Merapi incidents was incomplete for the stupa areas. So that’s a double whammy. Yet, it did not deter us to take refuge at the holy site of history and camwhoring. Mainly ridiculous ones…. 

• The overflexible KS TORE his famous flowery pants while doing the Buddha jumpshot. That left us in rolling in laughter all the way.

• The girls who went to Candi Mendut (while the guys weren’t keen) had a swinging time with the huge Banyan Tree roots.
• Passing by a town that was affected by Merapi ashes was something beyond us our imagination (or at least for me). Later upon going to the hillside of Kaliurang despite the rain, the destruction of the hills from the flowing hot water of Merapi and steam practically valleyed its pathway through the hills and burnt off tress. Mother nature is definitely at its scariest then.

 

• Changing into dry clothes at Nonix’s family villa at walking distance, KS’s pants was another roll of laughter, seeing the size of the damage done. Must have been intensified for about 6 hours since the tear and forced to sit decently. We claimed that his countless winning streak of our regular Chor Tai Tee was attributed to the pants! The game was probably my worst, only winning ONE measly session out of more than 30 rounds! JH points to all the possible reasons that he hasn’t been winning much either.
• At Alun-Alun, one makes a wish, blindfolded and spinned. Without supposed assistance he has to walk to the direction of the 2 trees and walk past in between. AQ, with 2-3 tries, walked in a perfect circle. Also had the chance to ride on the tandem bicycle (multiple seater)!

 DAY THREE – 23 January 2011

• Right after purchasing the tickets for Prambanan, the rain poured heavily. To kill time, JK went onto Facebook and to check out the BFF pictures. For security, one is asked to recognize the friend’s photo. We learnt a risky thing of tagging items/indirectly related as people as JH was one of the identity – and 2 out of 3 photos were NOT HIS FACE (and 2 of it was my pix).

• Right after we rented umbrellas, the sun blared away. More photos were taken, to the point that the guys were climbing up the stones also. Whereas IW has a thing of shoving the umbrella into any holes he see, big or small….

 

 

• The official biggest spender goes to JH as he also bought a Casio watch. Told him the amount spent on the watch is was much of my Jogja expenses *glared at me*. At the same time, we were predicting the watch’s lifespan of less than 1 year, to 9 months, to 9 weeks, to 9 days, and the ultimate from Nonix, 9 hours! Not wanting to damage his watch under the rain nor scratches (from our attempts), JH switches to the Rp60000 free bight orange plastic watch instead.
• The dinner with Nonix’s family was a total maximum noisy affair. All shameless stories were exposed. JH has a gay personality with his orange watch that Nonix’s mum even claimed that he’s kenit (flirting). KS is now known as Kucing, for the host’s father found difficulty in pronouncing names. KS was totally not spared at all throughout the night. December birthday is way too long to give a Hello Kitty pressie. JH shared his sentiments with KS…”now you know… don’t worry you’ll get used to it… etc”.

 DAY  FOUR – 24 January 2011

• VAT only works at certain shop, and one has to get a written INVOICE in order to claim. We’re now a little smarter for Medan – CHECK first.
• AQ didn’t realized that she and Nonix became a Gossip Girl (jogja special) season, that she truthfully corrected us on the current season. We burst into laughter.
• Si Kucing still lasted (and until today) whenever opportunity arises.

Sights and Sounds

As I had very little exposure about Indonesia (despite having Indonesian friends) but dwelling into its culture, language and food (besides ayam penyet) was a new thing for me.

Some words in the Indonesian language are quite similar, yet certain vocabulary (depending on context) differs. The minimart staff were puzzled with panas and sejuk, when the daily usage is hangat and dingin. The language also carries English words in their sentences.

Small eaters will flourish. I don’t lable myself as one, but the portion size of lunch would enquire snacking on a normal day. Also, somewhat just one small side dish to accompany the rice. The names of food and drinke are quite interesting. Es Jeruk is mandarin orange juice (cordial). Es Sirsak is Soursop. Mee is spelt as Mie. Jahe is ginger. And the many Indonesian words unknown to us had to be described by our hosts.

Jogjakarta (or even Indonesia) is somewhat a land of motorbikes. The population in jogja travel mostly on the 2-wheeler. Even public transportation of busses were not that obvious in every corners. The ratio of 4-wheel transport to the motorbikes could probably be 1:15-20. so the ratio may be wrong, but it’s motor everywhere, that even on a Monday market morning, the roadside is filled with neatly-arranged motors (and several trishaws). Motor honking wasn’t anywhere near offensive as the short honks were meant for look out, unlike Malaysia that vulgarity and scolding long honks.

The trickiest part was handling money. The dealing with the figures by THOUSANDS. The domination runs in coins of 100 and 500. and notes of 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000, 50000 and 100000. too many zeros, we omitted the figure from the thousands (ie 1000 = 1) and dividing by 3, that’s how much it’ll roughly be in Ringgit Malaysia. Thus, Rp1000 is equivalent to RM0.30.  and RM500 for 4 days expenses is NOT enough. Being a millionaire is insufficient still!!!

The trip albeit a little marred by the wet weather, it was relaxing and nothing of a rush. We took our time, adjust the schedule as necessary. Being adventurous with food (with the extra precaution for JH) and drinks. Zonked off between travelling. Endless teasings and picture jumping and digging up old stories.  Also without Wifi connection, it was really a relief of not having to be tied to our mobile gadgets.

Looking forward for the next trip to Medan in August (with a bigger group this time tho). But will be nice to visit Jogja for more food and Bali and Solo nearby!

Many Thanks to our hosts – IW, Nonix and Ary for spending their time with us, taking us around, feeding us and being silly together!

FB photos uploaded from JK, JH and IW . and my Picasa also