Summertime Ritual: Jogja 2015

Summer 2015, I decided to spent a holiday in Jogja. The city I've always wanted to spent my holiday long time ago. I've been there three times before visiting Jogja, however the first time was when I was I kid, while the second and the third time was just there for transiting. So, this 5-days-holiday was my fourth time in Jogja.

With Fadly

So, this is Fadly, my companion in Jogja. Fadly is a student of Universitas Gajah Mada, lived in Terban area in Jogja, so nothing to worry about the accomodation and transportation. We took train from Pasar Senen Station, Jakarta, and after 8 hour of rail trip we arrived Lempuyangan Station, Jogjakarta, at 5 AM. We took a rest for few hours at Fadly's place, had a breakfast, and then using motor scooter we went to Bantul area. First, we had a lunch at Depok Beach, we were tasting local seafood while our eyes looking to the sea and our ears hearing the waves. After having our senses pleasured, we went to Parangkusumo Sand Dunes, and watching sunset at Parangendog Hill. Those three tourist attractions are located in Parangtritis Beach area.

Seafood time!


 

Sunset at Parangkusumo

Another beaches time! The second day we managed to visit some beaches in Wonosari, southwestern of Jogja. But before that, we visited a place called Kebun Buah Mangunan in Imogiri. This is a popular photo spot for tourists, where you can see the hilly landscapes with a river splitting the hills from the heights. Simply beautiful. From Imogiri, we headed southwest to Wonosari, about 2 hours with motor scooter. We wanted to visit Nguyahan Beach, Ngobaran Beach, and Kukup Beach. But we need to race with the time, so we only went to Nguyahan Beach and Ngobaran Beach which is located next to each other. Nguyahan Beach was a calm beach where you can go for a swim or splash, while Ngobaran Beach was more extreme with big waves and steep hard rocks.

Selfie at Mangunan

Beach! Ngobaran 

Beach! Nguyahan

The next day, we met Fani, my college friend which coincidentally also in Jogja with her friends, Hafidz and Adrian. So I, Fadly, Fani, Hafidz, and Adrian, spent the day together, visiting some of historical sites in Jogja. We visited the historical Kraton Palace of Jogja and Taman Sari Water Castle. We also visited Ratu Boko Palace, which we can see a very beautiful sunset from the top. After the night came, we went to Bukit Bintang to had some light meals and close our day in Tugu area with kopi joss and "sego kucing", it translates to cat rice, but actually it was "rice in a portion for cats", it was really cheap, like with 10.000 Rupiahs you will get your stomach full.

Taman Sari Water Palace

Keraton

Ratu Boko

The famous Malioboro Street near Tugu Station

Fourth day! Still holiday! We went to jeJamuran restaurant, "Jejamuran" roughly translated to "everything is mushrooms". Like it's name, all of the menus here is made of mushrooms. It was a very good experience for mushroom lover like me, especially when I tasted Es Dawet with mushroom. We also visited Malioboro Street, my favorite street, shopping for souvenirs, and at night we ate gudeg at Gudeg Sagan Restaurant, not the best gudeg, but still delicious, I prefer the gudeg that I ate from street food stall in C. Simanjuntak Street the next day.

Mostly Mushrooms

Jogja has it all. Nature and culture. From highland landscapes to romantic beaches, from historical sites to cozy hangout place,
Jogja also has many tasty foods for gastro travelers out there. While I'm not into gastro traveling, but some of Jogja's food were really capturing my taste. Besides the tastiness of the foods, Jogja also, somehow, has nice ambience for your soul. Like eating roasted corn while seeing Jogja city lights from distance in Bukit Bintang, laughter and warmthness from friends when drinking Kopi Joss in the  angkringans, eating pecel in the middle of the crowd in  Beringharjo Market, also don't forget the seafood in  Depok Beach and the famously gudeg which can be found anywhere in Jogja.

Beautiful view from Kalibiru

Magical gamelan music

Tiwul

My favorite. Pecel at Beringharjo Market

So, my time in Jogja was lovely. Well, Jogja is lovely. Definitely will go back there.