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?