Repository of Cultural Treasures – Todaiji, Nara

During breakfast in the hotel, I wonder why my travel friends brought quite lots of white bread wrapping them with tissue papers, I thought they would eat them in the bus during our trip to Nara. When we arrived in the park, I’d just realized that they would like to feed the deers. Nara Park (Nara Koen) is a large, pleasant park in central Nara, established in 1880. The park is home to hundreds of freely roaming deer. Considered messengers of the Gods in Shinto, Nara's deer have become a symbol of the city and have even been designated a National Treasure. Actually you also could buy from the sellers in the park, something crispy for feeding them. My friend gave me some bread in the tissue paper, the roaming deer was not patient enough, they even ate the tissue paper, there’s not enough time for me to open it. Unfortunately I could not speak Japanese :-), so I could not prohibit them to eat it.

It is the location of many of Nara's main attractions including Todaiji, Kasuga Taisha, Kofukuji and the Nara National Museum (specialized in Buddhist art). Todaiji ("Great Eastern Temple") is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. By paying 500¥ you could enter the temple, which opens 7:30 (8:00 from Nov through Mar), closes 17:30 (16:30 from Nov through Feb, 17:00 in Mar and Oct). The main entrance to the temple is through the 13th-century Nandaimon (Great Southern Gate). It features two impressive guardian statues of the Nio (Benevolent Kings), carved in 1203 and each more than 8 meters tall.

Todaiji, a temple complex in the city of Nara in Nara Prefecture, was constructed in 752 on the order of Emperor Shomu as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved from Nara to Nagaoka in 784 in order to lower its influence on government affairs. At the time Buddhism was at its height, and served as a state religion. Todajji's main temple building, the Daibutsu-den (Great Buddha Hall), 48 meters (157 feet) in height, is said to be the largest wooden building in the world. This is especially impressive in light of the fact that the present reconstruction (from 1692) is only two thirds of the original temple's size. Within the precincts of the temple, aligned along one-kilometer north-south and east-west axes centered on the Daibutsu-den, are an array of other buildings, including halls and storehouses, seven of which are National Treasures. By virtue of being one of the major historical temples in Japan, Todaiji Temple also possesses many valuable cultural artifacts. More than 20 of these Buddhist statues and other works of art are National Treasures. The repository for them, Shosoin, lives up its name of the Treasure House of the World.


The original complex also contained two 100-meter-high pagodas, probably the tallest buildings in the world at the time, but these were destroyed by earthquake. Todaiji is famous for housing Japan's largest Buddha statue. It depicts the Buddha Vairocana and, like the one at Kamakura, is commonly known as the Daibutsu (Great Buddha). The Daibutsu is made of copper and bronze, weighs 250 tons and stands 30 meters tall. His intricate hairstyle is made of 966 bronze balls.

Also of interest in the Daibutsu-den are the rear support pillars, which have holes through the bottom. Popular belief has it that if one is successful in squeezing through one of these "healing pillars," he or she is guaranteed a place in Heaven. So many Japanese students visited the temple during my visit, some of them were dare to try to go through the hole. The hole was very narrow, it’s almost impossible for a fat girl or boy to go through it. Whenever anybody succeeded to go through, the people would give applauses.

Outside the Daibutsuden at the bottom of the steps, don't miss the bronze Octagonal Lantern, one of the oldest treasures in Todaiji — it dates from the original 8th-century temple. The lantern's support post is inscribed with a Buddhist text on the merits of lighting lanterns.

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World Heritage Tourism - Prambanan

Prambanan, locally people called Roro Jonggrang is one of the largest Hindu temple compound in Yogyakarta, Central Java. It takes around 20 minutes (17 kilo metres) from Yogyakarta city. Built in the 10th century during 2 different kingdoms, i.e. Rakai Pikatan and Rakai Balitung. Since 1991 it became the member of Unesco World Heritage Center



Unfortunately some parts of the temple were ruined during the earthquake on the 27th May 2006 with 5.9 in Richter scale. Now it's under renovation, they do the rehabilitation step by step, as you could see in the photo, the main temple was on renovation during my trip on Nov 2008. If you want to donate some funding, I think it would be very helpful and it will speed up the recovery.

Rising above the centre of the last of these concentric squares are three temples facing to the East, decorated with reliefs illustrating the epic of the Ramayana, dedicated to the three great Hindu divinities (Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) and three temples facing to the West, dedicated to the animals who serve them. Each of this God shrines facing to a smaller shrines for their vehicles. The cow, Nandi, is the vehicle of Shiva, the destroyer god, and eagle, Garuda, is the vehicle of Vishnu, the creator god, and the swan, Angsa, is the vehicle of Brahma, the guardian god. The temple height is 47 metres, higher than Borobudur.

In the middle of the area, the government built a large green garden. You also could enjoy the water fountain with some beautiful water plants. Shiva is in the middle with 4 rooms, each room is facing to different direction (East, South, West and North). The first one contains 3 metres high of Shiva statue , while others contain a smaller statue for, Durga (his wife), Agastya (his teacher), Ganesa (his son).

The Durga statue is called as Roro/Loro Jongrang (slim girl) by local people. It's a legend that a king named Boko had a very beautiful daughter. Bandung Bondowoso was interested to marry her, unfortunately she refused him because she didn't love him. Finally she agreed to marry him as long as he could build 1000 temples for a night. He agreed and started building the temple helping by the spirit. Roro Jonggrang was worried that he could finish it, so she started to wake up her waiting maids to start hit the rice, it made the cock cackled as if it's morning. The temples had reached 999 temples, he was very angry to know that she was deceitful him, so he used his magic to make her the statue to decorate the last temple.

When we walked back to the park area, we could visit some stalls which sold souvenirs, such as becak and bicycle miniatur made from iron, various handicrafts, batik clothes, etc. You have to bargain to buy here, unless you would get a more expensive price comparing to buy in the supermarket or mall. If you like historical place, don't forget to visit it, take it in the morning to avoid hot.

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Hideous Lawang Sewu

The name Lawang sewu means Thousand Doors, but among the local Javanese the name conotates an eerie haunted house with a tragic history. This Dutch colonial building was built in 1863 by C. Citroen. It was the branch office for the Dutch Indonesian train company. The Dutch architect were Prof. Jacob F. Klinkhamer and B.J Queendag. In 1920 it was used as the head office of Nederlandsch Indishe Spoorweg Naatschappij (NIS).


When you entered the main door, then climbing the stairs, you could see a big beautiful mozaic windows, at noon when the sun shines, the beautiful colour painting on the window glass were clearly seen. Most of the rooms were broken and unconserved, but the building was still strong. It took quite a huge area in the middle of Semarang city, you could see a beautiful round garden accross the building. I could imagine that there used to be many people working in the building a long time ago during Dutch colonial.

The building were divided into some parts, the bathroom were separated from the main building, until now the guard still uses it for taking a bath. The building consists of 3 levels up, and a level down. A long alley with some pillars were surrounded the building, it's good to take picture he..he.. Some small domes were build on top of the building. There was a wide yard with some old trees in the center of the building. I'm sure the building was very luxurious during 19 century.

When the Japanese invaded in 1942, they used it as a gruesome interrogation headquarter where they jailed and killed a lot of Indonesians. They used the basement as the squat jail and standing jail with no windows at all, just a small square ventilation hole for getting air (oxygen) and sunshine. You could see the basement ventilation in the picture at the bottom of the building. Sometimes the basement were flooded with water. At the squat jail you could not even stand, because it's too low. I could not imagine how they could keep alive in that kind of rooms. Poor them.

Long standing reports of multiple ghost sightings in this building has turned it into a local destination for tourists who would make their visit on weekend nights to experience this legendary haunted house. I don't dare to visit it at night, how about you? If you visit it, there were some guides who could accompany you to tell the story, unfortunately some old pictures, the building itself seem not taking care well. Anyway Semarang government has counted it as one of the historical assets that should be maintained.

Pictures were taken by Made Agus S, thanks for sharing it with us

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Awesome Casa de Fruta, Fresno

During my stay in Fresno, we spent a night in Four Points Hotel by Sheraton, 3737 N Blackstone , Fresno, CA 93726 Phone: 1 559-226-2200. Its room was very spacious, modern and nice, unfortunately we didn't have much time to stay longer. We stopped by at a chinese restaurant to have lunch, its garden were very beautiful with some sculpture stones and small pool surrounding with beautiful gardens, the gate also showed Chinese decoration dominant with red color.


On the journey by bus to San Francisco the driver brought us to stop by at traditional market, it's called Casa de Fruta. He said that the market sold directly from the farmer around the place, so the fruit was still fresh. They had a wonderful selection of fruits, dried fruits, nuts, pumpkins and so much more. I bought a full basket of big sweet strawberries, it only costs around US$2.99.

It's October, so there were many pumpkins at the yard, they put it with nice decoration. Everywhere you could find the orange pumpkins, there were a train and hays, some scarecrows adding the decoration. You also could take picture behind a farmer picture with a hole for your face and hand, as if you are the farmer. It's fun and beautiful. I thought the pumpkin in the yard were real, in fact it made of stone, the real one is in the stand to be sold. They also displayed grapes, jam (home made), oranges, etc. on an old truck inside the store.

There was also Casa de Wine which sold wine, you could taste the wine before you bought it. There was a fish pool beside the store, also a playing ground near to the pool for the children. All the part of this place called "Casa de ...", you could also find Casa de Choo Choo which sells chocolate. The staff was usually so friendly, chatty, charming and fun. Great to get out from the bus and stretch our legs on the long drive to SF from Las Vegas.

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Classical Roman Palace of Fine Arts

Have you heard about Palace of Fine Arts? During my tour to US last Oct 2007, the guide brought us to visit it. It’s very fresh and idyllic with its beautiful lagoon, fountain, birds and swans. The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District of San Francisco, California is a building originally constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition. It was designed by Bernard Maybeck, who took his inspiration from Roman and Greek architecture.


A single dome remains from the eight identical structures that were originally constructed. Towering colonnaded walkways linked the buildings on the site, but only a few remain intact. The dome of the Palace of Fine Arts just outside the Exploratorium and the adjacent lagoon has often been used as backdrops for movies, even Indonesian movie (Eiffel, I’m in Love) used this place too when they took picture for meeting point of Tita (Shandy Aulia) and Adit (Samuel Rizal) in San Francisco.

The lagoon was intended to echo those found in classical settings in Europe, where the expanse of water provides a mirror surface to reflect the grand buildings and an undisturbed vista to appreciate them from a distance. In many places the edges are subsiding into the water, forming uneven and dangerous surfaces that are fenced off from the public and used by turtles to sun themselves. Australian eucalyptus trees fringe the eastern shores.

My friend and I ran to go to the other side of the lagoon to get a better picture, we had to rush, because we only got half an hour to enjoy the place. It’s a pity because the weather was very nice, unfortunately we had a very tight schedule. Of course we could not enter by the Exploratorium, the public science museum founded in 1969 by the physicist Dr. Frank Oppenheimer. It’s dedicated to teaching science through hands-on exhibits. Many of its exhibits are created by visual and performing artists as well as scientists and educators.

Palace of Fine Arts Theatre, 3301 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123

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Beautiful cherry blossoms in Ueno Park

When I joined Japan tour in April 2004, the tour directly brought us to Ueno area from Narita International airport, Tokyo. The bus parked in front of the zoo, but we didn’t visit the zoo, we went through Ueno traditional market and passed by Ameyayokocho gateway. Ameya Yokocho or Ameyoko Market in Ueno is one of those active retail markets. The name Ameyoko derives from America. Its history began soon after the WWII as a yamiichi (black market). At that time, there was a huge demand to daily necessities while there was little supply. Obtained from the U.S. military, retailers started selling the limited amount of goods at this market without the government permission. It was flourished throughout the post-war period, and is still active today. Purchasing a good you have to ask and bargain, most of the traditional market was disappeared nowdays, except at tourist site.


It was so crowded, there were so many fishes sold that I could not find it in Indonesia as we know Japanese people like to eat fresh fish. They sold a big red octopus, salmon, eel, trout, stingray, snail, seaweed, etc, although it’s fresh, the market was very clean. The fish were wrapped by plastic on a styrofom such as fruit, or they put on ice or in the water for keeping it fresh. Some fruits stalls were also available, even some food stalls selling Japanese foods. The unique attraction was the ¥1000 stall. The seller put everything (various snack or toys) in a plastic bag, it’s like an auction, he shouted to the crowd who would like to buy, one full bag items only cost ¥1000. If nobody was interested in it, the seller kept adding more and more items one by one into the bag, until somebody decided to buy it. If you’re lucky, you could get many items in a bag, maybe it’s very cheaper comparing to buy pieces. I didn’t dare to buy, because it’s the first day in Japan, and I didn’t know how much the normal prize for the items. Anyway it’s fun to see an attraction like that. All of the store names and the items were in Japanese language (kanji), so we didn’t understand at all, but don’t worry, the price was still written using number 

We kept walking through the market to the Ueno Park (上野公園 Ueno Kōen?). It is the first Tokyo public park located in the Ueno section of Taito, Tokyo, Japan. I really loved the park which was opened in 1873, it’s spacious and very shady by around 1000 cherry trees or Sakura trees. I went to Japan during Sakura blossom period, which was only 2 weeks period in a year. The cherry blossom (sakura) is Japan's unofficial national flower. It has been celebrated for many centuries and holds a very prominent position in Japanese culture. There are many dozens of different cherry tree varieties in Japan, most of which bloom for just a couple of days in spring.

It was very delighted, whenever the wind was blowing, Sakura flower were falling down, as if flower raining on your body. You could see Sakura flowers everywhere, pink, white without any leaves, it was so amazing and wonderful. So many families and people with their friends or colleagues had a party in the park called hanami (cherry blossoms viewing). They brought mats for sitting and eating under the blooming beautiful Sakura flowers in the garden. Japanese people were very discipline and very responsible, they never threw away the trash anywhere, they would put it in the garbage bin, even they put the wet and dry trash in different bin. To avoid pollutions, no motor vehicle was allowed to go through the park, although the street was wide enough. Some bicycles were still appeared in some places, some people with wheelchairs, baby with strollers also enjoyed the park. My colleague and I had a chance to take a picture with 3 cute Japanese babies on the strollers, of course by asking permission from their mom.

Ueno Park is famous for its many museums, especially art museums, namely the Tokyo National Museum, the Orient Museum, the National Science Museum, the Shitamachi Museum, the National Museum for Western Art and the Tokyo Metropolitan Fine Art Gallery. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to enter the museum. At the other side of the park, there was a fountain, some tame pigeons were assembled in the middle of the open area in the park. Many children were attempted to catch the pigeon, they also tried to give foods to the pigeons. If you go to Japan on April, you must visit this park, it’s very wonderful, you won’t regret it for the whole life of your age.

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Cool Lianhua Mountain Park, Shenzen

Before the trip, my friend introduced me to her aunt using sms. She was very kind and nice, although we didn’t know each other before. She was more than 60 years old, she lived in Indonesia before, but she decided to move to China when Indonesia government asked Chinese generation to select the nationality at 1959. She was very helpful, fortunate she still could speak Indonesian, so we could communicate well. Although she was much older than us, she was tougher and stronger than me. She arrived at our hotel in the morning around 8 or 9 o’clock when my sister was still taking a bath, because she set the alarm wrongly, it should be an hour in advance than Indonesian time, but she set an hour after Indonesian time ha..ha...


No wonder that we were frozen, although we had worn a jacket. Auntie showed us her clothes, she wore 3 layers of clothes to avoid the cold, so we imitate her behaviour. We had a fast breakfast in the hotel, auntie didn’t want to join us, she said that she’d had breakfast at home. In the lobby hotel we took a picture with her and we planned for the itinerary to go. We preferred to see scenery than only shopping, so she brought us to a garden around 15 minutes driving from our hotel. It’s called Lianhua (flower) Mountain Park, Shenzhen, in Southern China. As a city that is known for its natural beauty and captivating splendor, Shenzhen provides the traveler with some pleasant destination to breathe in the uncontaminated air of the unpolluted environment, something that is a far-reaching thought for the average human being, unless they seek solace in the idyll of rural life.

Located just at the foot of the New City Hall which in common parlance is known as the Civic Center, the Lianhua Mountain Park in the Futian District of the Prefecture of Shenzhen is an oasis of green where the visitor would love to languish in the rolling lawns, shady greens. We welcomed by a gate decorating with red paper lantern, what a nice that there was no admission fee. The government provided the garden free of charge for their people. Although it’s free, they kept maintaining it well. So many cars parked along the street in front of the garden. We saw many children run around the field, chasing each other and enjoy the fresh weather. They went with their parents and family, brought meal and snacks. Some family gathered under trees by spreading out mat for sitting on the grass or ground. It seemed that the government was still renovating part of the garden by adding new facilities for the people.

There is also a nice lake on the adjacent ground for fishing and boating, it’s so windy. You could go around by boat to enjoy the lake. When I wanted to go to the restroom, there was a very long queue, maybe because it’s Sunday, many family went out with their relatives for enjoying the holiday, so the capacity of the restroom was not enough. After accomplish the natural call he..he.., auntie brought us to climb the hill to go to the top.
It’s quite high, I was not too strong, I seldom did sport activities, so I gave up in the middle of the trip, and asked auntie and my sister continued it without me. Unfortunately auntie didn’t want to leave me alone, so we sat together on the stone, eating the fresh sweet small oranges that brought by auntie. After restoring my energy, we continued the climbing. What amazed was so many small children were practiced by their parents to climb the hills. I must be ashamed that the children and auntie could defeat me for climbing.

Finally we could reach the top of the hill for around an hour climbing. In the center of the park at the top hill, there was a bronze statue of Deng Xiaoping 106 meters high surrounding by beautiful flowers. We also could see Shenzen from top view. The trail of the Lianhua Mountain Park is a precarious walk, parts of which have been hewn out of the cliff and also includes a suspended bridge. There was also a museum, unfortunately the office was closed, so I could not buy postcards there, anyway we still could see the history and master plan of Shenzen. If you want to stay overnight, there is a small hostel run by retired soldiers who farm for a living, providing accommodation.


The next destination was shopping, but we were starving, so we should go for lunch first. Auntie brought us to a restaurant in the shopping area by taxi, unfortunately it’s closed, so we walked to the other restaurant which was still in the same area. My eyes kept looking at the attempting bags, accessories, shoes etc, during the trip to the restaurant. We had a very nice lunch in a Chinese restaurant, I don’t remember the name, but it tasted very delicious. The customers were so lots, until we had to queue for getting the seat. We had to select the food by ourselves in many counters, then they will put the name or price on the card that we had to bring anywhere. You could pay after you finish ordered all food that you want. Although we didn’t eat rice, we were so full, I don’t know the name of its food, but I like all of them, you could see it in the picture.


I didn’t remember the shopping area, but auntie said that it’s cheaper than Luohu. You could shop for handbags, apparels, shoes, electronic products, souvenirs, etc. The commodities here are cheap which were suitable for all pockets. Bargaining was the common activity of the place. I like accessories such as bracelet, necklace, pin, comb, small mirror, etc. I only selected which I wanted, then I asked auntie to bargain for us. She could get a best price that I could not imagine, it’s so cheap. My sister and I also bought some blouses and shirts for us or friends in Indonesia too. Winter clothes were very fashionable here, so we bought 3 winter clothes to be worn during the trip, and also for my sister in Jakarta. It seemed that half day was not enough. Unfortunately we had to go back to Hongkong that night, so we had to terminate the fun shopping activities to catch the train. A small noodle restaurant was our option to have a fast dinner, it’s so cheap, it cost not more than 5 RMB per portion. We rushed to go back to the hotel to take our luggages, auntie were waiting us in the taxi, than we directly went to the train station in Luohu. Luohu Commercial Centre, Shenzhen is an enclosed shopping centre in the economic heartland of China. Luohu Commercial City is known as the focal point of transgression within the political boundary of PRC. Tourists might be upset about the social situation of the city. Begging, pick pocketing, homelessness, sick, destitute, drugs and many more are found in plethora in this part of the most populated country of the world. Anyway Louhu is still heaven of shopping for pirated stuffs, so tourists kept coming to this area for shopping. Luohu Immigration Control Point is inside the mall, Auntie was kind enough, she was guiding us to fill the immigration form, and waiting us for repacking our shopping items into the luggages. It’s around 21:00, she refused when I asked her to go home by taxi, she preferred to go by public transportation. I don’t know how to thank her for accompanying us the whole day through. Thank you auntie, our trip in Shenzen wouldn’t be as fun as this if you didn’t guide us. Don’t be afraid if we visit Shenzen again, definitely we’ll contact you :-)

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Wonderful show in Windows of The World, Shenzen

I went to Shenzen with my younger sister last Dec 2006 from Surabaya via Hongkong. Our flight was arrived very early morning around 05:00 o’clock, we didn’t know that the earliest boat to Shenzen was at 09:00, so we had to wait for a long time in the Hongkong airport, lucky that the toilet was very big, very clean and very comfortable. We brushed our teeth and washed our face to refresh, then we searched some brochures about interesting places in Hongkong. We could not go too far exploring Hongkong airport, because we had to bring along the luggage, so my sister and I took turn for watching the luggage while others walking around. Finally we could get the boat ticket (HK$200), then we had to wait in another waiting lounge.


We didn’t know that the weather was so cold, we didn’t prepare for cold weather, so we bought some long sleeves T-shirt in Shenzen. We were shivering when we arrived from the boat from Hongkong in the morning waiting for the luggage. We went by cab directly toward the Century Plaza hotel for check-in. We were cold and starving, so RBT a nice ambience café with tea as their speciality became our place for lunch. My sister loved the hot pomelo tea, it’s unique and delicious, especially drinking something hot to warm the body, she hadn’t ever taste it before. We stopped by a supermarket to buy waters and breads. “Windows of The World” was our main destination, we went there by Shenzen Metro. Tourists would need minimum two hours to cover the total area of this entertainment park which is often dubbed as mini-globe. Splendid China, Shenzhen treasures the replicas of the Seven Wonders of the World, chronological heritages and renowned sites of beauty and glamour. The Mahamuni Pagoda of Rangoon located within the periphery of Splendid China. This Buddhist shrine is one of the major pilgrimage sites. European styles has been imitated in this part of Shenzhen. You could take peep-a-boo in the streets of Manhattan accompanied by towering skyscrapers. Soak your heart’s desire in the jingles of Niagara fall and Sydney Opera house with the bridge could also be found here. It is not possible for people to visit every country in the five continents of the world, this boundary is a magic that needs to be ventured with only cost 120 Yuan. Splendid China of Shenzhen remains opened from 9 o’clock in the morning to 10:30 at night.

Some Disney characters also could be found there, lucky we were there during Christmas season, so most of the decoration were Christmas tree and it’s ornament. It’s very beautiful as if we were in Christmas celebration party. Everywhere you could see Christmas tree, bells, and the beautiful bright red Poinsettia. I was lucky that I could take pictures with Snow White and the handsome Prince. My sister took picture with more than 10 Santa Clause, they prepared to parade in the amusement park. A long queue was happened when we want to see a show provided by Fuji, it’s more than an hour, but we had bought a ticket for the main show at 20:00, we still had time for it. During the queue, lucky that we bought bread, so we could fill our stomach with the bread.

The main show at 20:00 was at the front part of the park, right after the entrance. We could get the seat in the middle of the area, if you didn’t buy ticket, you could see from the edge of the area. We faced the giant globe, when the show was started, it’s amazing that the globe could open, and the stage with the dancers appeared from inside of the globe. It’s very windy, although the spectators were crowded, we still felt freezing. My sister and I kept sitting close to each other to keep us warm, the show was very spectacular, that we felt a pity to leave it. There were many attractions from different country with a story, the background and the stage kept changing depended on the story. The dancers were very professional, although it’s cold, they didn’t show the suffering wearing an open costume. They kept dancing gracefully, with various costumes and accessories. In one of the story, our seat became moving to the right, split the seat column into two parts. From bottom of the split, some dancers were running from downstairs to the main stage. It’s unbelievable, they must have a very huge power to slide the place where there were many persons. There were also giant big screen at the left and right side of the main stage, so people could see the expression of the dancers. We kept shivering, but we didn’t want to miss the attraction.

At the end of the show, some of dancers using big cars with beautiful ornaments were parade around us. I tried to take a picture, but it’s rather difficult, because they kept moving and my pocket digital camera it’s not capable to take a moving target at night. The show was ended by producing beautiful frameworks with a beautiful Eiffel tower as the background. The Eiffel tower also had some lights, finally after the fireworks ended, the lights at the Eiffel towers formed a Christmas tree. It’s very wonderful. We had to rush to the metro unless we missed it. It’s almost ten o’clock when we arrived near hotel, so we tried to find food, lucky that a restaurant in the mall accepted us as the last customer, so we wouldn’t be starving at night. The funny thing were happened when we wanted to order, the waiter could not speak English while we could not speak Mandarin. He didn't understand our order, fortunate there was a customer who's kind enough to help us translating the order into Mandarin. During we were eating that started closing the restaurant.

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Yogyakarta, the friendly and cultural city

There was a holiday in the middle of the week last July 08, I decided to go for vacation with my niece to Yogyakarta while she and her family returned home from her husband’s relative wedding party at weekend. I think all of you know that Yogyakarta is popular as an educational city. According to special status granted to the Yogyakarta state when the Republic of Indonesia was formed, the hereditary king is to hold the position of governor of the province. Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X(born 2 April 1946) is the hereditary king of the historical Yogyakarta Sultanate in Indonesia, and is currently also the elected governor of the modern Yogyakarta Special Region. The city is quite safe, the people are gentle and also conversable. I stayed in her house, so I didn’t need to spend anything for accommodation. It took more than 6 hours driving from Surabaya to Yogyakarta. During the trip we had the special timlo Solo for dinner, just right before the restaurant in Solo closed at 21:00. Almost midnight we arrived in her home in Yogya.

Although she had to work that Monday, she’s still kind enough to take care of me. Lucky that I was there with her mother, so I could go shopping with her. Soto Kadipiro was our menu for breakfast, then my niece’s husband dropped us at Pasar Beringharjo, the traditional market which sells many batiks. Beringharjo has been functioning as a trading place since 1758. Now, it offers more merchandise, ranging from batik, traditional snacks, Javanese herbs, to Buddha effigy costing hundreds thousands. In Indonesia, currently batik is not only for formal occasion, but people are wearing for shopping, clubbing, traveling, or moreover to the pub/cafe too. The model becomes more fashionable, it makes even teenagers love to wear it. So many stalls selling batik in Pasar Bringhardjo, you could find many models of blouse, skirt, or baby doll; some stalls also sold the batiste, in case you want to design by yourselves sewing by your regular tailor. The clothes were so cheap, firstly I wasn’t too clever to bargain, so I got Rp. 40.000,- for a blouse, but exploring the alley of the market made me more expert in bargaining he..he.. I could get Rp. 25.000,- for a blouse, and it’s unbelievable that a baby doll only cost Rp. 15.000,- I bought many clothes with different color and models in two hours, I was satisfied that I could get the best price for the clothes. I could not imagine, how they could produce such clothes with very minimum cost.
Around 14:00 o’clock we left Bringhardjo, we crossed the road and we found a restaurant named “Cirebon”. The decoration was still used the old style, there were many old photos on the wall, the windows were so large with trellis, and the cupboard was antique too. Confuse to select from the long list, we ordered Mie Yamin, I ordered Liang Tea for myself while my niece's mother ordered Beras Kencur. Actually Yamin noodle is popular in Bandung, it’s a very sweet chicken noodle with fried wonton. The restaurant often used to make film.

After filling our stomach for gaining energy, we continued hunting to Mirota which sold many stuffs from all around Indonesia. The ambience inside the store made people love to stay, it’s cold and there were many kinds of batik, clothes and materials, handicraft, and also furniture. I attempted to buy a silk scarf with batik style, it’s quite expensive comparing to what I’d bought in Beringharjo, but the hue is quite soft and elegant. Some handicrafts also picked for souvenirs for my friends, relatives and also my maids. Seeing our hands were full of items purchased, we decided to go home by cab. The taxi in Yogya was quite convenience, it used argometer, so you don’t need to negotiate for the price. If it’s not too far, you also could take becak or even a horse cart. At night we had dinner in a Thai restaurant, called Phuket. The ambience was quite nice, it’s open area with a garden and the decoration used bamboo. The cuisine was quite delicious too.

The next day, on Tuesday we went to Kasongan at the southern part of Yogya, where you could find many ceramics either for wedding souvenirs, glassware, furniture, or decorations. It took around 45 minutes driving from Yogya. Some stores had produced for export purpose too, the quality is not beaten by the other country. If you bought more you would get more discount too. Ceramic handicrafts with various forms and modern as well as artistic motifs and other handicrafts are magnets of Kasongan at present time. Kasongan is a tourism place full of stories and beautiful goods resulted from skillful hands of local community to knead clay.

After resting for a while at home, we went to Bakso Ito for dinner, then continue exploring Malioboro at night from the start until the end of the road. As usual at the pedestrian street were full of pavement seller sold clothes, bags, sandals, souvenirs, etc. They raced to offer the merchandises competing with the stores in front of them. Although it’s not holiday, the street was full of people, sellers and shoppers.

We went to Semarang on Wednesday, because it’s a national holiday and we need to drop my cousin’s mother to her sister’s house. It’s nine o’clock, so we decided to have lunch first at a modern restaurant but selling traditional food, named Eny. You could take anything with your portion, then they will calculate at the cashier for the total. They only count based on the variety of how many meat and vegetable, not the portion. Various ice is their speciality, such as jack fruit ice, mix ice, durian ice, etc. There was no traffic jam along the trip, but the distance was quite far too, it’s around 3-4 hours driving. We stopped for a while in Muntilan to drink “ketan hijau” ice, it’s popular for souvenirs. A small shop sold some traditional snack was our next stop for preparation if we were hungry on the trip. At Semarang we had lunch at Oen restaurant, the old fashion restaurant which has a home made ice cream and snacks. After buying moon cake “Kemuning” and Gemini moci, we went back to Yogyakarta. It’s night time when we arrived, we didn’t have energy anymore to go out for dinner, so we ate at home.

Thursday was my last day in Yogya, I had to go home by train. It would departure at 14:55, so I still got a few time to explore Yogya. After having breakfast in the popular restaurant named Trubus (I loved its baked kroket), I went to the photo store to print some photos for my niece's daughter. Then we picked her daughter up from the school, towards home. After packing, I brought my luggage and we stopped by Banyu Mili country club as a part of Griya Mahkota regency, Jl Godean Km 4,5 Kwarasan Yogyakarta. You could enjoy a fantastic culinary experience in the restaurant, gorgeous swimming pool, and also beutiful unequalled lake view with hut surrounding it. The high class of arty interior features red-brown brick wall, full of artistic paintings display, and granite floor makes this place more stunning to visit. We still had time to visit batik store called “Kencana Ungu”, and I still bought a blouse there although I’d already had many things to bring home. Soto Surabaya at the station was our menu for lunch, unfortunately the meat finished, so we only got the mix one. The soup taste was so delicious, although the place was only a very simple booth with long wooden seat. While waiting for the train, I still had a chance to buy another batik blouse at the store in the station :-). I was satisfied that my unplanned visit to Yogya were quite refreshing. Do you also have any experience traveling in Yogya to be shared with us?

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