Jogja - 19 to 22 Oct 2011 - Part 1

Jogja was not part of the travel plan for this year. Memang dah lama berangan nak posing ala Lara Croft kat Borobudur.. Mayan Ruins... or Angkor Wat. Tapi tak sempat-sempat nak plan. Plus dah kopak pulak after so many sessi berpoya-poya tahun ni.

Akan tetapi tiba-tiba tepikir pulak challenge baru. Can I do a tri-nation visit within a month? Well not exactly a month, but a few weeks apart from each trip. 14-17 Sept to Bangkok, then 8th-10th Oct to Singapore and 19th-22nd to Yogjakarta, Indonesia. All I can say is that, I'm still alive. But between these 3 trips, tah berapa kali aku MC, tah berapa klinik aku pergi and tah berapa kali boss aku geleng kepala sebab assortments of sakit yang kuar including measles scare! Sigh, note to self, lain kali, please allow longer period to regroup and reenergize!

Anyway, back to the trip. Makanya sampailah aku and Kay and Jiben ke Jogja. Flight pagi buta pukul 6 pagi ke. Again note to self, no more early flights please. Nasib baik naik bas dari KL Sentral ramai orang. Dapat la aku tido dengan aman sampai airport. Tahun ni ni la trip aku mencemar duli pergi LCCT. Seriously, the terminal need a bigger space. Lain kali, buat je la semua benda besar-besar, even if half of it is occupied by hantu ke penunggu ke... eventually nanti tak muat jugak. Tak payah la susah-susah asyik nak buat construction nak extend itu ini.

Jogja just had a festive weekend sebab anak raja dia baru kawin. Dengar kata 3 hari 3 malam pesta tari menari gilang gemilang diadakan. Satu bandar tutup, makan semua free la apa la. But by the time kitaorang touchdown, dah habis la pulak. Perhaps it's a good thing jugak, sebab semua orang dah balik. Kang nak pergi mana-mana susah pulak. Tapi if dapat sibuk-sibuk ambik gambar best jugak kot.

The taxi driver who drove us to the hotel patiently explained what had transpired over the 3 days before. All of the who's who that came over. He tried to console me by saying, "Takpe.. ada lagi anaknya yang masih belum kahwin. Nanti bisa datang lagi ke Jogja". Somehow, this is one thing that I am amazed of the Indonesian people. They are very proud of their heritage and culture, they love to share and tell you everything. And they tell it so beautifully, terpegun aku dengar. Macam best sangat, padahal takde la apa pun. This driver who spoke so softly manage to answer all of my questions about Jogja in that just few minutes ride. Tak payah nak wiki-wiki.

Unlike aku naik teksi kat KL ni. Somehow conversation always get tangled into politics. Just last months, the uncle behind the wheel, tetiba riled up and keep on repeating..."dia cakap dia main punggung... lepas tu dia cakap balik.. ha itu C4 punya case macam mana... dia main punggung ... dia C4...kita semua tengok wayang hari-hari" We started of talking about a chinese restaurant, tah macam mana end up here. No doubt memang kelakar. Aku gelak gila babi dalam teksi tu, but makes me wonder what kind of conversation would he have with  tourists. Sama jugak la bila naik cab kat Singapore. Asal tau je kita dari KL, "So how's your Mr Najib?" Macam la aku PA dia kan.

Opps... sudah masuk simpang lain pulak ni. Back to the trip. Sorry.

We booked ourselves into Ibis Malioboro. A bit pricey sebab charges tak included breakfast. Damn. The room is very nice and most important, memang sebelah mall. Tu sebenarnya sebab nak duduk sini. Unfortunately it was too early to check in, so wandered off to check the place around.

Keluar je hotel, ada la pulak pakcik-pakcik kayuh beca ajak ronda-ronda. Since we have nothing better to do, on aje la. Yang lawaknya, tah kenapa la kitaorang ingat yang kitaorang ni boleh muat dalam satu beca. Bontot aku aje dah 3/4 beca tu. Pendek kata after the ride, aku rasa bontot aku kecik sket sbb padat sungguh dalam beca itu. Pakcik tu bawa la kitaorang jalan along Malioboro, then around the Kraton which he said is still closed and stopped at Batik shop. Ibu Kartini tertewas disini, dan telah memulakan sessi membeli belah tak hengat dunia.

Dah almost nak balik tu, baru la aku tersedar yang pakcik kayuh beca tu tak pakai kasut. Untuk menjadi lebih dramatik, dia turun pulak tolak kitaorang bila ada tempat-tempat yang naik bukit. Kitaorang offer nak turun, dia kata tak apa-apa. Tapi dok terjerit-jerit panas bila pijak jalan tu. Macam la aku ni mendera hamba abdikan. Imagine it's ripe in the afternoon, memang la tar atas jalan tu gila panas kan. Aku dah start la masuk mode hati batu. I told Kay, be prepared to get ripped off. I told her to pay the guy. Sebab karang kalau aku yang bayar, mau naik darah bila dia nak buat sob sob story. Nasib masa bayar tu, it was he price that he said before. Still la mahal kot, sebab sebenarnya murah aje naik beca ni. It was 30K rupiah = RM10 la. Aku saje je tanya, kenapa tak pakai kasut... there you asked for it... siap dengan muka nak menangis dengan tangan-tangan ... cakap la pulak tak mampu nak beli selipar. I just rolled my eyes and walked off. Ingat aku tak nampak kawan-kawan dia dok gelak-gelak kat tepi tu. Kay kata aku tersangat skeptical. Hahahahha.

By then dah tengahari, so soru time. Katanya kat sini food sangat sedap. Tapi aku rasa takde la sangat. Ada certain kedai sedap, ada yang macam hampeh. Along Malioboro ada a lot of stall called Lesehan. I think it meant kedai yang bersila atas tikar getah, on the kaki lima. Which is ganguan perasaan sebab nanti perut berlipat bila nak makan. We went to a stall which has proper stool and table. For the first meal in Jogja... wah sedap banget! I had Nasi Gudeg? Which (aku hentam aje ni kalau salah sorry).. I think meant the gulai/ kari urat/tunjang yang ada kat kedai-kedai nasi padang. Kay had Nasi Goreng apakenda. Rupa macam lemau, tapi rasanya 1st class!

And wash it down with bergelas gelas Es Teh. Aka Teh O Ais. Tapi sedap. Rasanya macam teh botol. Aku assume semua teh kat sini berasal dari teh botol. Es Teh is the source of my horrid coughing for the next 3 weeks sampai doctor almost nak suruh aku pergi chest scan!

Cheers!