We were supposed to fly to Taipei, Taiwan using free flight tickets we won from one of AirAsia’s Contests but for some reasons, their Taiwan flights suddenly got all cancelled and we had to choose other international destinations available at that time (which happened to be Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia). We’ve already been there and I am not the type to re-visit a place unless I really wanted or have to so we thought of other plans for the trip.
Our travel dates booked were December 26, 2013 to January 4, 2014. That’s one whole week of we-don’t-know-where-to-go trip! A little over 4 weeks before then, we decided to surprise-visit Rodz’ mom in Jakarta so we booked cheap KL- Jakarta flights and vice versa, leaving a few days to roam around in Penang, Malaysia when we fly back to Kuala Lumpur.
Travelling from Baguio City to Jakarta then to Yogyakarta was a huge adventure. It is one of the most tiring and longest trip we’ve ever had! Upon arriving in Jakarta after two flights came our problem: Rodz’ mom is back in the Philippines for the holidays! O-M-G! Lesson number 1: Do not plan surprises like this. Haha! We eventually had to tell her we were in Jakarta while she was back in Manila. She told us she’s yet to get back on the 30th of December. So right there and then, we had to think of other travel plans: and what we chose was to take a 9-hour train to Yogyakarta until she’s back. It was around 7 in the evening when we arrived at the Train Station via a bus ride from the airport.
We were expecting things to not go so smoothly. After all, this was all unplanned. We were new to the spontaneity. The next train available was around 7AM in the morning and we had no choice but to take it. That was like 12 hours of waiting! We thought of checking in to a nearby Inn so we roamed around the area carrying our backpacks but to no avail. They were all beyond our budget and we didn’t find it practical to rent a room for a night of sleep. We then went back to the train station, bought ourselves evening snacks and did what other waiting passengers were doing: sleep on the chairs and newspapers on the floor!
I’d be fooling myself if I said I had a good night’s sleep. I DID NOT. It was a first for me to sleep with strangers watching as well as stink so bad because of almost 2 days of no-shower ever since we traveled from Baguio. There was only 1 fan inside the open-air station and I was sweating like a pig then! But what choice did we have? I managed to sleep on and off while Rodz was sleeping so comfortably! Share me your sleep-anywhere-skills please? :(( Then came morning and I was so happy to have survived the night! Ha!
Just when I thought I can finally rest as the train moves to our destination, we actually forgot to buy snacks for the 9-hour train ride. Haha! On top of that, our seats were not so comfortable. Huhu. They were economy seats, after all. We had a short stop in one of the stations and Rodz was able to manage to buy us bread and water for the rest of the trip. Ahhh my savior! Halfway along the ride was the only time I was able to snooze. Thank God!
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Arriving in Yogyakarta was like a sweet dream after a nightmare. FINAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYY! But the torture was not yet over! We still had to look for a good place to stay at! We were so tired and we wanted to take a shower immediately so bad that we endured almost an hour of walking around looking for a good place to stay at. Rodz finally found us a good deal! An affordable comfy room with a Swimming Pool bonus! YESSS! Jackpot!
After all that we encountered, we wrapped up the day with short walks to the historic neighboring street Malioboro, quick dip to the pool and a good Indonesian Cuisine dinner.
Malioboro Street
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Right after our Malioboro Street visit, we met a kind local (an elementary teacher whose name I forgot) who brought us to a Batik Workshop where we’d be able to see Batiks being made as well as other artworks by locals. He also taught us a few Indonesian words, one of which that got stuck in our minds was “Jalan Jalan” literally translated to “Walking Walking”.
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We woke up early the next morning to get ready to D.I.Y.-visit the beautiful temples of Borobudur and Prambanan. This time, we were able to experience our first reverse auto-rickshaw ride. Hihi! *TIP: Bring your school I.D.s! Entrance fees and Admission fees to both Temples will save you a lot if you avail the Student Discount. Luckily, we brought our Old College I.D.s then!*
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First Stop: Borobudur, a Unesco World Heritage known as the biggest Buddhist Temple in the world. The crowd during our visit was massive! We have barely taken decent photos because it was all flocked with locals and tourists. It was a holiday, after all. But even with all the people around, the beauty of the temple still stood out. It was beyond splendid giving off a strange charm with all its domes and statues. Rodz and I took our time to go around the whole temple, sat down for a while and eventually bid goodbye to the beautiful treasure. This was officially our first out-of-the-country Temple-visit together and I can still remember how happy and dreamy I was being able to see it up close! :)
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We stopped by for a quick late lunch and proceeded to our next destination: Prambanan Temple, another Unesco World Heritage! We had quite a hard time travelling to the temple because buses were limited and we were with a lot of people going to the same direction. It was already late afternoon when we reached the temple – which luckily was actually the best time to visit it! The beautiful Hindu temple was in all angles, so picture-perfect by itself. But add the setting sun and it becomes one of the most romantic scenery one could ever witness!
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We were already hungry by the time we got back to town so we indulged ourselves to Hawker food from the carts near our guesthouse. Indonesian Satay sold be street vendors is still my favorite Indonesian food up to date! ;)
Third and last day in Yogyakarta before we get back to Jakarta to meet up with Rodz’ mom! For this day, we decided to visit the Water Castle (Tamansari). This was a Royal Garden of the sultanate of Yogyakarta. We also learned from a kind local about the garden being the “playground” of his concubines. This is where they sang, danced, and entertained the Sultan. It is now a bit old and rusty but it still has not lost its charm. You can easily imagine the beautiful women lively dancing through happy music right in the pool!
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A delicious late lunch at Legion Garden Restaurant concluded our Yogyakarta adventure. I admit I wasn’t ready to leave! We wanted to stay longer but we already pre-bought train tickets back to Jakarta so we couldn’t really stay even if we wanted to. :( We bought a few snacks, went straight to the train station and nine hours later, we were already back in Jakarta.
Jakarta, honestly, didn’t leave that much mark in me aside from our food trips with Rodz’ mom. It was just like Manila but there were only buses and overpriced rickshaws for transportation. We spent two nights in Jakarta and hung out with Rodz’ mom, who by the way took us on an amazing and filling food tour during our stay! Yay! If it weren’t for her, we would’ve just bummed out in the Hotel the whole time. Haha!
For our 2-day stay in Jakarta, she brought us to Cold Stone Creamery, Pizza Marzano, Starbucks, Sushi Tei, Fat Burger, Tokyo Belly, Fook Yew and Pizza E Birra. We were really grateful that she was there to take us around! (Thank you Tita Lelet for treating us to lots of good food and for the fun times despite you being busy at work!) :)
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We also celebrated New Year’s eve during this time and participated in the countdown and fireworks at the center town of Jakarta! It was a memorable night I can still clearly remember since it was our first time celebrating New Year’s eve together outside the Philippines. :)
January 1, 2014, our Indonesia trip was over and we flew to Kuala Lumpur for the second half of our first Backpacking travel together! (On a separate post. hihi)
We would definitely be back to visit more of Indonesia! Bali soon, hopefully! :)
5D/4N Estimated Budget for two in PHP (Based on our experience last 2013-2014)
Flights CRK-Kuala Lumpur-CRK via AirAsia: FREE (we won it from a contest)
Flights KL-Jakarta-KL 2800php
Airport Tax Philippines: 3240php
Airport Tax Indonesia: 1300php
*Starting February 2015, tax is already included in tickets flying out from Jakarta
2-night stay at Bladok Guesthouse Yogyakarta: 2000php
2-night stay at Amaris Hotel Jakarta: FREE (Rodz’ mom paid for it hihi)
Food in Yogyakarta only (Restaurants, Cafes, Streetfood): 1500php
Admission Fees (Temples & Tamansari): 1500php
Train Fares to and from Yogyakarta: 3000php
If you have plans of visiting Yogyakarta from Kuala Lumpur, AirAsia flies directly from KL to Yogyakarta. This was a mistake we did because we already booked our KL-Jakarta Flights way before we planned on going to Yogyakarta.
Bus rides from and to Airport: 600php
TOTAL: 15,940 php for two pax
Grand Total for Indonesia and Malaysia 9D/8N trip: To be Updated
***Please note that this is based on our personal experience. Although we do backpacking, there are times when we would flashpack and spend more on accommodation, food or airfare for comfort. We didn’t yet know AirBnB during this time! We don’t always choose the cheapest so we’re pretty sure you could do this so much cheaper than we did!
Indonesia’s Wonders We were supposed to fly to Taipei, Taiwan using free flight tickets we won from one of AirAsia's Contests but for some reasons, their Taiwan flights suddenly got all cancelled and we had to choose other international destinations available at that time (which happened to be Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).