Updating while waiting for the rest to go for breakfast, before proceeding to our planned itinerary for today. Bearing in mind that Indon is one hour behind Sg, it's only 6.20am here >.<
Yesterday the day also started early. We left the hotel at about 8am (Indon time) to go to Borobudur.
Thanks to Fen’s sister Sanny who did all the callings, we booked a car that came with a driver for 175,000RP (1SGD = about 7000RP. Go figure) for our use up to 12 hours, which was a good deal by my standard :D When we left the hotel, it was raining the kind of sian-sian rain, ie the drizzling type where you know you can still walk about but you have to juggle the umbrella, getting wet feet and stuff. But not only the weather cleared, it became blazingly hot! In the end all 3 of us became sunburnt after only one and half hour :s
Borobudur was definitely worth the visit. Even after over 3000 years, almost all the carvings on the reliefs were still vivid, although a big part of them had been erorded over time. The work and extend of planning that went into the construction of this place was overwhelming by today’s constrcution methods, and some of the carvings were so beautiful! Each panel depicitng various stories and stages of Buddha’s life was 栩栩如生 (I cant find a better English description for it). Even the stone lions which guarded the stairways were so cute that I was petting one of them like a puppy unknowingly when we were stopping and listening to the guide during one of the stops
As the guide explained to us the origin of the relics, a point that amazed me was how trade and commerce had spread ideas, influenced culture that had brought Buddism, Christianity, Islam to this land, shaping its history and current political affairs. For example, the Buddisht temple was built 3000 years ago (with pure manual labour with ingenious engineering and architectural designs); within this century, a church was built in the hills facing the relic; and now the site was in the countryside dominated by Muslims.
One thing about visiting Borobudur though, was that you would to brave the varous vendors hawking souvenirs – from souvenir books,buddha statues, to kites and hats. We were accosted from the time we got off the car, when we were buying the tickets, up to the stairs leading up to the relic. When we came down, they zoomed in on you in flocks and more or less “escorted” you to the car. But then one good thing about that was that you can bargain with them all the way, and they would usually give you a good price at the end of journey just before you jump into the car. Fen bought the souvenir booklet for aobut 65,000RP (about $8SGD) which explained many details of the relic. Though we didn’t buy the miniature statues , they were offered to be sold at about 5000 RP (less than a dollar). I’m not sure how true was that or the vendor was just 漫天开价。
After Borobudur, Sanny instructure the driver to bring us Amanjiwo, a 5 star resort, which she told us that Princess Diana had stayed when she visited Borobudur. So we went on the drive and ended up at a deadend along this kampung road. It was quite weird cos there was only one straight road and no other turn offs. The driver went to ask around, and realised that he had missed the entrance, so we drove back. We almost missed it again if not for the fact the driver spotted the guard house at the entrance, and we realised it – the resort was so exclusive that it didn’t need an entrance sign cos you either know it’s there cos you ARE going there, or you don’t if you happen to just pass by :/
So we went to the restaurant in the resort and ordered our drinks (pretending to live the high life :p) when the waitress asked if we were interested to viisit the rooms. Those on my FB will get to see how luxuriously-inducing-drool the room was. And we were still dreaming about the rooms over coffee. Hah~
Dream coming to an end, we returned to Jogja before Fen realisedthat we missed the opening hours of our next destination Keraton, which closed at 2pm, and it was ranining so we couldn’t visit the beach. So we focused on our next immediate goal – lunch! Which led us to this local famous fried chicken place – Mbok Berek Ayam Goreng. Yummy~ No wonder I don’t see any KFC in this town..
After lunch we were just whiling away time around in town, checking out another famous t-shirt shop called Bintang Dagadu, one silver shop (basically all touristy stuff) before we returned to the hotel and wait for Sanny’s friend Vanda and her husband Frankie to bring us out for dinner. Dinner was at another local fried chicken place (their beef dunno-what,a bit like bak kwa, was very good). After dinner, Sanny was talking to her friends and then she suddenly turned to me and said “We go try Nasi Kuching” . The so-called “cat rice” are small packet rice with different simple condiments such as shredded fried egg,tempeh, chicken gizzard , sold along the road side, and usually sold out within half an hofur from 9pm, thanks to the students patronising from the nearby universities (who according to Vanda, love cheap food with lots and lots of rice,eating at least 3 at one go) .
Each portion is only about 1750RP each. It was a real authentic Indon experience sitting on the roadside on a mat and eating with the locals But I must say I quite liked it!
According to the Frankie, you haven’t been to Jogja if you had not taken a photo at the Monument Tugu.No..Borabudur doesn’t count cos it’s not within Jogja. The monuement was aligned with the beach in the south, the Keraton the Sultan's palace and to Merapi the volcanic mountain. So we took the mandatory photo on the way back. So here goes the pic :p
Just hope that the weather holds up tomorrow for the beach and Keraton.
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