Jogjakarta, Day 1 - The travelling & the preparation

Day 1 - 15th June 2009, Monday

When I have completed a complete entry records of Seoul and Greece into my travelogue, Hubby had requested for a story to be told of our memorable trip to Yogyakarta @ Jogjakarta as my next entry.

After our 2nd honeymoon, year 2007 in Cambodia, visiting archaeological site of Angkor Watt, hubby agreed to have the 3rd honeymoon to visit the twin temple of Buddhism and Hinduism pilgrims in Jogjakarta, only the 2 of us. During my home passage leave to Malaysia in June 2009, we booked a fly ticket through Air Asia to Jogjakarta on 1st June 2009. Thinking that the trip would be dull without the apple of our eyes, Nasrul, we mutually agreed to include him in. 3 air tickets only priced at RM1,026. We departed from LCCT Sepang at 1505 hours. We arrived at Adi Sucipto International Airport at 1640 hours.

We did not made any booking with Air Asia for hotel or travel agent to arrange our tour in Jogja as we thought that it would be cheaper if we booked on our own upon arrival. However, trust me, those Air Asia traveller should have faith that AirAsiaGo.com offers a wide range of hotel selections as it is much cheaper than trying to be a hero, Anyway, hero dies young ok! My recommendation is based on our bad experiences after Seoul and Jogja trips. Upon arrival, we secured with 1 local agent (available at the airport) for our accommodation and car rental (with driver of course) who will takes us around during our 4 days 3 nights stay. we had to sacrifice our 1st night staying at another hotel as there's no vacancy in Novotel for a night we arrived. We checked out the next day when the agent confirmed Novotel rooms availability.

The hotel that we stayed for 1st night. Not bad at all.

We were scheduled to return back to Kuala Lumpur on 18th June 2009 at 1705 hours and shall be arriving at 2025 hours. For the first time of our travels, we parked our car at LCCT Sepang for 4 days and 3 nights. On the last day in Jogja, we had planned ahead to just sit back and enjoyed our last stay doing what we like to do most. Nasrul will be occupied with swimming, I choosed to spent whole morning in Spa and Beauty parlor and hubby opted to go to the adjacent shopping mall. All 3 of us agreed that we should be back to the room at 1 noon so that we can check-out, had lunch at local restaurant (a tasty Nasi Gudek) and later we will go straight to the Airport. 

He eats!

He swims!

He made friends!

Jogjakarta is a tropical monsoon climate. The city features a lengthy wet season running from October until June and a short dry season that only covers the months of July, August and September. Thus July is the best time to visit Jogjakarta (provided there's no volcano eruption of its famous Mount Merapi). Jogjakarta is a city and a capital of Jogjakarta Special region in Java state. It is renowned as a centre of classical Javanese fine art and culture such as batik, ballet, drama, music, poetry and puppet shows. Jogjakarta was the Indonesian capital during the Indonesian National Revolution from 1945 to 1949. One of the districts in Jogjakarta, Kotagede, was the capital of Mataram Sultanate between 1575 and 1640. the city is named after the Indian city of Ayodhya from the Ramayana epic. Yogya means 'suitable, fit, proper', and karta, 'prosperous, flourishing' (i.e., a city that is fit to prosper').

Because of its proximity to world famous Borobudur and Prambanan temples, also because of having a unique Javanese court Kraton culture of kraton Jogjakarta, Jogja has become the 2nd most important tourist destination in Indonesia after Bali. Most tourists come to Jogjakarta as an accommodation base on visiting Borobudur and Prambanan and also for its strong Javanese culture and tradition. This makes it prominent among other Javanese cities, along with Surakarta or Solo, a city lying about 64 km to the east, Jogjakarta is the centre of Javanese culture.

He had all the fun!

Due to a short trip, I have structure this entry blog into 3 days. day 2 were occupied visiting the Kraton, Prambanan ruin Temples and Parangritis Beach, whilst, day 3 were a day visiting a Museum Jogja Kembali, the famous Borobudur Temple and Mount Merapi.

to be continued...