Growing up in Jakarta, I have read about the Borobudur Temple countless times in textbooks and magazines, but do not have the opportunity to visit it. So, when my cousin announced that her wedding will be held in Yogyakarta, how can I not take this opportunity to visit the world renowned Borobudur temple?
So, the tentative itinerary is as follow:
Day 1: Singapore (SIN) - Yogyakarta (YOG) on Silk Air Flight MI151
Day 2: Attend my cousin's wedding
Day 3: Day trip to Dieng Plateau and come back down to Borobudur Temple at night to spend the night at the temple hotel.
Day 4: Wake up at 0430hrs to catch sunrise at Borobudur. Return to Yogyakarta at noon and explore Yogyakarta city in the evening,
Day 5: YOG - SIN on Silk Air flight MI152.
Our trip started on a rather interesting note when there was a last minute change of gate and aircraft. We went to the new gate and realised that we won't be using the aerobridge to board. Instead, our aircraft is parked somewhere out there on the apron and we will be taking the airport bus to reach the aircraft. I haven't done that since 10 years ago when flying from Shanghai to Singapore, and this it the first time doing it in Changi.
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| The "new" boarding lounge |
The first thought that came to my mind is, I'm going to have a field day with my camera, shooting things which normally cannot be seen when boarding via the aerobridge.
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| An SQ B777 in Star Alliance livery, 9V-SYL |
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| The Silkair A320 in the centre, that's our bird to Yogyakarta |
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| A320 registration number 9V-SLR |
After an uneventful flight, we landed at Yogyakarta Adisucipto International Airport (JOG). Built in the pre-budget airlines days, to describe the airport as "small", is an understatement. Even though JOG handles many international flights and even more domestic flights from the region, the international terminal building is barely enough to handle passengers from a single A320 landing at the airport.
To give a sense of the size of the airport, from walking down the stairs from the plane (there are obviously, no aerobridge) to the terminal building is 20m. From the door of the terminal building to the immigration counter (only 2 of them), is about 10m. From the immigration counter to the customary X-ray machine is about 5m. After which is a couple of money changer with very bad rates and a pre-paid taxi counter. The short luggage "belt" is located just beside (and parallel to) the immigration counters.
We were then met by my uncle and driven to our hotel, Sheraton Mustika Resort and Spa, just "across" the road from the airport. As we were early, our rooms were not ready yet, therefore we stored our luggage at the reception and went to the nearby Ambarukmo mall for lunch.
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| Our room at Sheraton Hotel |
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| Nice little touch |
The next day, was the wedding day itself, which I shall not bore you with the details.
The third day is the start of our 2D1N tour to the "nearby" Dieng Plateau. The initial plan is to hire a 14-seater mini-bus for the trip, but we ended up with more participants than expected, so it is decided to have another 7-seater MPV along, driven by yours truly. Now, I am someone who loves road trips, even more when it is through twisty mountainous road.
Dieng Plateau is the floor of ancient volcanic caldera, which has been settled by farmers for centuries. The volcano itself, is still in a semi-active state with various geysers and hot springs on the plateau. The temperature is a comfortable 18-20 deg during daytime and a chilly 10-15 deg in the night time.
On reaching Dieng Plateau at around 1pm, the first place we went to is the so called coloured lake (Telaga Warna). From there, we hire a local guide for Rp 100,000 (~ USD 10) who brought us around to explain the background and history of the various places of interest around the area.
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| Telaga Warna (coloured lake) from the treeline |
A tip to tourists, the guide will initially quote some ridiculous price, so remember to haggle/negotiate down to a price which you're comfortable with. It will be even better if you have an friend who knows bahasa Indonesia going with you.
We left Dieng plateau to head back to Wonosobo at around 5:00 pm. Dinner, is at a small eatery at the road side, serving Nasi Padang,
nasi goreng and
mi goreng.
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| Mt Sindoro in the distance as we head down from Dieng plateau |
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| Typical nasi padang dishes. Fried fish/chicken, potatoes, eggs |
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| Nasi padang, with my all time favourite, beef rendang and perkedel |
After dinner, we started the the 2 hour drive through moutainous road for Borobudur temple complex, where we will spend the night. Even though 50km looks like a short distance, the terrain and road condition means that we can only average about 20-25km/h.
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| The dashboard of the Toyota Innova i'm driving. Taken whhen the car is stationary |
To catch the sunrise at Borobudur, it is recommended to stay in one of the few hotels surrounding the site, otherwise you'll need to wake up at 3 am and make the 2 hour journey from Yogyakarta (and possibly missing the sunrise).
The best hotel to stay if you really want to see the sky turn from pitch dark to a gradual deep blue is the Manohara Hotel. Located inside the Borobudur park itself, it is just a 10 minutes walk to the temple main entrance. Also, as a guest staying at Manohara, the Borobudur sun rise ticket costs Rp 230,000 as compared to Rp 380,000 if you stayed elsewhere.
It's a short walk from Manohara Hotel to Borobudur Temple
We woke up at 4:30 am and gathered at the Hotel lobby to collect a customary
sarong and torchlight for the 10 min walk to the Temple main entrance. The sky is still pitch dark when we climbed up to the uppermost platform of the temple.
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| Gathering at the hotel lobby to collect the sarong and torchlight |
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| Walking from the hotel to Borobudur main gate |
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| Queuing to enter Borobudur |
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| It's an overcast sky covering the moonlight. Artificial lighting illuminate the temple at night |
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| It's pitch black at locations where the site lighting doesn't reach |
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| Peaceful morning as the sky slowly turn dark blue |
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| The orange glow from the sun start showing itself |
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| With Mt Merapi in the distance |
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| A statue of Buddha watching Mr Merapi |
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| Finally, the sun rises over Mt Merapi |
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| View from the topmost platform |
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| And the main stupa the centre of the temple |
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| One of the many walkways on the lower rectangular levels |
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| Immaculate carvings showing the teachings of Buddha |
After breakfast at Manohara hotel, I had some more time to walk about the hotel grounds.
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| There's a paddy field just outside the hotel ground |
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| The sign at the entrance of the hotel |
After checking out, we drove back to Yogyakarta for our last night in before the flying back to Singapore the next morning.
That night, we had our dinner at a restaurant called
Ayam Goreng Suharti, which literally translates to Suharti Fried Chicken.
The position given in Google Maps above slightly out. The exact location should be about 300m west of what's given in Google Maps. Nevertheless, there is a giant sign outside the restaurant which is VERY VERY HARD to miss.
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| You should get your eyes checked if you miss a sign this big |
As the name suggest, they specialty is fried chicken.
(There are also many other items on the menu, but the fried chicken is the only one which is worth mentioning.)
The frying is close to perfection (simply because there is always room for improvement, no matter how good one is). The skin and the batter is crispy, but the meat underneath is still juicy and tender. You can literally separate the bone from the flesh by a light pull.
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| Their speciality, fried chicken, fried to near perfection |
Best of all, the bill won't burn a hole in your pocket. For about 12 people, we spent less than Rp 1,000,000 (~USD100) and left the restaurant thoroughly satisfied.
Although this has been a short trip, I have fulfilled my childhood dream of visiting Borobudur. There are still a couple of attractions in and around Yogyakarta which I have yet to go, one of them is Malioboro shopping street, while another one is Prambanan Temple complex. But right now, I have set my sight to climbing Mr Merapi, once it has calmed down from it's fiery anger.
