Land of the Garuda - Day 3

As planned, we woke up super early at 5.30am (Indon time) to have breakfast, checkout and left hotel to head for Parangtritis Beach. It was about one hour’s drive from Jogja, and you can see the scene changed from small town buildup to countryside as the car (which was the same one which we booked yesterday) sped down the 1-lane unidirectional road, which was probably Jogja’s version of the expressway cos there wasn’t a single traffic light all through to the beach.

It was raining from the Jogja city to the beach though..so when we reached, it was the gloomy overcast sky but the view of the cliffs and the crashing wave on black sand was quite spectecular. We decided to stop for Fenny’s sister Sanny to have breakfast (she chose to nua another hour instead of joining us for breakfast) along one of the many sea front shops, though those opened for business in this morning were only a hanful, and also..they were not the type of alfresco dining in more developed beacg resort, only makeshift stalls kind of setup. In the end we chose one which looked reasonably clean.

After the quick breaskfast and quick shots of the place, Sanny suggested that we check out the nearby Depok beach (the other white sand beaches have to make a big detour), before we returned to Jogja. Ok..the beach wasn't any more exciting too :/ So it was back to Jogja

Our next stop was the Keraton, the Sultan Palace. Built 10 generations ago, the Main Court was the only part opened to public, while the residence was still the current Sultan’s private domain. The Sultan was also the governor in this case, and they still used the Main Court for ceremonial events such as weddings, celebrations using around the Ramadhan and Adilfitri period. Although the place regretfully was not well maintained, the architectural structure and details were still beautiful and symbolic of the heritage of the Javanese culture influenced by Hinduism, Buddism and Islam.

After that we went to Taman Sari, the “Garden of Flowers”, which was originally the private swimming pools for the Sultan and his harem (reminded me of playboy mansion), followed by the former lookout wall that offered a panaramic view of Jogja city, where you can see how Parangtritis Beach, the Keraton and Mount Merapi were actually aligned in a straight line, with Keraton right smack in the center.

After Taman Sari, it was lunch - Soto! With choice of ayam (chicken) and daging (beef), this was a place suggested by Vanda the night before. Fenny and Sanny have been really keen in letting me try all the local cuisine since that was what I told them too :p

After lunch there wasn’t anything planned and we were supposed to head to the airport shortly, so Sanny told the driver that we want to “jalan-jalan”. He drove around the city area (and there was when my cam batt died, and with the spare batt refusing to work, I am without digi cam for the rest of the trip :((( Though Fenny offered me her Sony digicam, but its just not the same as snapping away with your own cam). Although at some point of time, all 3 of us fell asleep :p Thankfully the driver didn’t bring us to sell or something, cos when I woke up, we were at the airport already. Haha~

Fenny’s brother fetched us from the airport and after steamboat dinner at their place, we headed off to Fenny’s uncle’s place to pick up the keys to his new condo apartment, where he had loaned to Fenny for our stay in Jkt . I can only say, there are houses and there are HOUSES. So his place belonged to the second category :p

So our abode would be the apartment at Kelapa Gading– The Summit for the next 3 days. The view from 25th floor was amazing looking at the city lights. Looking forward to good food and good shopping!