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Journey of our SHOCKED Vday trip Part 4 - End

Coming to Day 4, we thought the rain and so much of the “shocking” incidents have this trip really unique. But here comes the best moments...

The most worthwhile moments in Yogyakarta; Gumuk-pasir-parangtritis. This sand dude is located near Parangtritis Beach. We managed to take a quick look at the area before heading to our next destination. This “quick” pit stop turns out to be really fun and enjoyable. We really love it. At this sand dude, you can also do sand boarding.

Here comes our another “SHOCKED” moment. The famous Water Castle, Tamasari is not as sacred or beautiful. I would say so due to the really lack of maintenance by the locals. (We did pay entrance fee). Of course, the architecture is amazing but we could tell that some of the paintings or structures is going to fall off really soon. 

We do highly recommend travellers not to pay for the tour fee.

Around the water castle, there is a Cyber Kampung or Cyber Village. Mark Zuckerberg visited this technology village in 2014. It is quite interesting on how this village turns out to be the first internet saturated community.

That night SJ actually planned for a ‘real’ Valentine dinner at Mang Engking, which is known as the castle restaurant in Jogja aka Yogjakarta. 

It pours really heavily that night and it seems that no one celebrates Valentine’s Day at this castle restaurant. The entire restaurant only have 2 groups of customer, us and a group of family. 

It was really hilarious and both of us is amazed that we only spend less than hour to complete this special Valentine’s Day meal.

Ultimately we still had a good time together, enjoying those moments of sun, nature, mozzies and the heritage.

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Journey of our SHOCKED Vday trip Part 3

Well not everything is as bad as the overrated accommodation or the number of mozzies that attacked us during our stay. We saw more Sunshine!

We visited Prambanan Temple & Sewu Temple and was blown away by the amazing heritage. Same as Borobudur Temple, Prambanan Temple is listed as one of the UNESCO Heritage Site. This largest Hindu temple was built in ancient Java in the 9th - 10th century. 

In Sewu Temple there is around 240 temples and what we see is the remains today. 

We also visited Abhayagiri Restaurant, which was located near Sumberwatu Village, Prambadan. If you are looking for a restaurant with good skyline, this place is a must-visit. Of course, we didn’t acknowledge that the food served was fantastic.

Just to beat in the momentum of Valentine’s Day, we went to the next pitstop: Roaster and Bear. As much as it is named, it is a bear themed cafe with lots of honey, roast and desserts. The cafe is very commercialised and the owner really invest a lot on customising almost everything. That includes: utensils, apron, tableware, table mat and such. 

But i kinda love the bear graphics on the walls.

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Journey of the SHOCKED Vday trip Part 2

It is indeed a must to catch the famous Borobudur sunrise. 

We managed to wake the Resort’s motorist at 4am in the morning and be the first to get to Manohara. That is the only place where you can access the Borobudur temple for that captivating view. We were excited.

Things started to get a bit disappointing when it started to be cloudy. And we didn't get great skyline. We started thinking if its really worth it to spend IDR 450.000 per person = $47 (SGD) just to catch that morning view. There were mix reviews and some even shared that you can get good skyline even at the regular ticket price. 

We just did whatever we can to make that $47 (SGD) worthwhile.

Definitely, we need to do justice to Borobudur Temple. It is indeed a magnificent architecture that was built in the 8-9th century. It is one of the greatest Buddhism monument in the world. I was mesmerized by how each stupa’s base was carved with lotus design. Lotus, which is the sacred flower of Buddha.

Next, in the afternoon we headed to Parangtritis Beach. It is about 2 hours car ride from Borobudur and we thought the villa that we have booked will be relative much comparable with Iudia @ Ayutthaya. But it was not. 

Villa Alcheringa is a expensive small boutique resort. We think that it is really over-rated and felt cheated (SHOCK x 10). It is inaccessible and the Villa is way up at a small hill. It rained quite badly over our 2 days stay at the Villa and Parangtritis Beach was indeed overrated. The beach is dirty and run down. Definitely not recommended to any beach lovers out there. 

Perhaps we are kinda unlucky. The weather was relatively bad. It was pouring heavily that later half of the evening. We just have to entertain ourselves with food and more Bintang.

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Journey of the SHOCKED Vday trip Part 1

Here we go, archiving the 1st trip of the year ( Feb 2017). It is a kinda like a SHOCKED Valentine’s trip. We will tell you why.

First, we stayed near Borobudur Temple, at a rustic small boutique resort; Graharu Boutique Hotel and Spa Resort. Its located at the rural area. Very Kampong. We wasn’t expecting it to be so quiet.

We anticipated much from the name "Resort & Spa". But we have pretty nothing much to do at this place. The spa is just the definition of having a bath tub in your bathroom. Around the resort, there is nothing accept the Kampong and villagers.

To kill boredom, we had a lot of Bintang and took couple of snapshots.

There goes our day 1 self entertainment.

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Here we are at Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Quick! we need some boost and sun.

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If you miss the annual Guinness event, here is some parts of what’s happening before we get into that drinking session !

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Day 3 @ IPTL. Singapore Slammers did a good job. Thanks alot for aunt yenna and rossen for the wonderful tickets. Really had agreat time cheering for all the big stars especially #rogerfederer. Tennis is really amazing

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Day 1 @ IPTL A MILLION thanks to my aunt, Yenna for the complimentary tickets to IPTL match in Singapore ! Goodness the legendary Roger Federer is right before our eyes. The moment he got out, the entire crowd just went screaming. Probebly just short of the crazy teary scene of chasing after some super J POP stars. Indeed Federrer just as extraordinary as he could be, walk in and out of the court smartly. This is going to be a crazy 3 days !

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Dining at the Qing Dynasty Restaurant

Yes, i am kidding. Thanks to Kenny, he brought us back to the past and have a taste of the Qing Dynasty ‘s western culture. The restaurant filled with the flavor of its culture and making every single corner unique and seems to have a little story of its own. Waiters are maturely suit up with that black bowtie that make you feel like as if you are 黄飞鸿 having a date with 十三姨. 

Photo from Time Out Hong Kong

Tai Ping Koon restaurant has been operating and serve its western specialities since 1860s. The famous roast pigeon, smoked promfret and swiss sauce chicken wings is a must-try. 

If you are wondering what exactly is that “swiss sauce” got to do with western cuisine? Based on the restaurant’s book, there is nothing really swiss about that chicken dish. Its just that during the olden days, the chinese was trying to explain the taste of the chicken wings and tried to describe it as “sweet”. What the western traveller heard was “swiss”. And that “swiss” explanation of that famous dish became its name.

Now may i order you by the name of the Tai Ping Fan, you must really visit here.

60 Stanley Street, Central, Hong Kong

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Checkpoint gesture, way to say hi!

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Day 1 - Wee Flight to Divine Scenery (190915)

Wee hours flight again. 

Well, that’s the sacrifice that we have to make for buying “valuable” tickets through scoot. We had an early check-in and took our own sweet time to do some shopping at Terminal 2. Thou most of the time i was trying to rush some work. Anyway, we are dead tired by the time we reached Hong Kong. But that mental excitement kept us awake and thrill like some kid searching for some outdoor adventure. We carried our backpack, like some contestants in amazing race Asia, taking train ride to our very first pit stop; Tian Tan Buddha 《天壇大佛》at Lantau Island.

If you do have any intention to travel straight from the airport, do bare in mind not to bring your luggages with you. We had a challenging time carrying our backpacks going around these mountainous areas. Luckily some kind hearted Buddhism followers allowed us to deposit our bags at the foot of the hill. 

Sitting at the peak of Mount Muk Yue, the Big Buddha was build by Po Lin Monastery. It took 12 years to completed and in 1993, it was known as “Ten Engineering Wonders in Hong Kong”. The Tian An Buddha symbolises the stability of Hong Kong and its representation of peace on earth. Climbing up a total of 268 steps, we are mesmerised by the panoramic view of Lantau. 

The beautiful balance of divine, nature and sound of living, makes that every steps ahead meaningful. 

We had our beautiful and sumptuous vegetarian lunch at $198HKD offered by Po Lin Monastery. Really, it taste as good as how it looks. 感恩阿！