14/4/18 Sat: We had to get up at 3.45am to catch sunrise at Setumbu Hill (entry at IDR 30K per pax) as it was some distance away from our Airbnb.
Climbed a short distance up to the photo spot filled with locals and tourists. A pity it was cloudy that morning, and hence we didn't get to see a proper sunrise at all. It was all bright before we knew it.
We stayed for a while, and then Adit drove us over to the nearby Borobudur temple, the largest Buddha temple in the world. It costed 3 of us IDR 1M for the entry into this Unesco site, and we had to queue to go inside in batches.
So majestic, ain't it? The 35m high Borobudur temple was built in the 9th Century to represent the many layers of Buddhist theory. There are 504 Buddhist statues and 2,672 reliefs. We walked up the 6-7 layers, and there is supposedly a direction in which one should walk, from layer to layer.
According to the Buddhist cosmology, the universe is divided into three major zones, and Borobudur temple uses rising layers to represent these: Kamadhatu, Rupadhatu and Arupadhatu. The lowest first section Kamadhatu describes human lives which haven't yet been able to control desires, Rupadhatu describes human lives having been able to control desires but still bounded by forms, and Arupadhatu describes nirvana and sunyata worlds, in forms of circles.
It tells of the life of Prince Siddhartha, who went on to become Gautama Buddha later.
A group of local students went around interviewing tourists as they were supposedly to put their English learnt in class to use. We helped them a bit, and those secondary school boys are still kind of shy la. *We felt like "stars" as a few of them came up and asked for photos with us lol.*
The sun was glaringly hot, and we couldn't resist some ice-creams in that weather of course! *Definitely worth paying a visit to Borobudur no matter what.*
Walked on and we saw fish spa, so we did a 20 minutes session of it. *痒死我了！*
We also saw a portable 4D ride nearby, and it was very cheap, but after contemplating for a while, we decided not to take it as I didn't want to do "dinosaur" theme, and Jess wasn't comfortable with "roller coaster" theme lol. *Bought 4 "木头人" keychains for IDR 20K.* Adit drove us to Kalibiru National Park (entry at IDR 5K per pax) afterwards, and we had Indomie for lunch randomly near the entrance of the park.
We were there for some scenic photo-taking at famous photo spots around the park.
Think we ended up buying for 2 photo spots (IDR 30K per pax), and we have to queue for each of them. It was pretty fast though, and we went up to take photos in pairs for the first one. The person-in-charge would then show us the photos taken using their laptop, and we could choose and have it sent to us. *We top-up a little bit more for the trio shots in order to take them all.*
WL and I loved doing jump shots on the platforms, and though Jess was a little afraid to, she still did one in the end~
Thankful for the hot but good weather! Our next stop was Ayunan Langit, and there was practically no tourist when we were there though.
We paid IDR 15K per pax for entrance, and hopped onto a scooter each, which would bring us nearer to where we would take our "big swing". *My virgin experience on scooter bikes~ quite shiok neh keke!*
We took a few photos around the area before and after the swing.
It costed us IDR 20K per pax to take the swing once. Yes, it does look scary as it's all high-up, but I thought I was brave enough to be the first to go for it lol! *Jess screamed till macham like "pig-slaughter" la lol! Okay I did too haha!*
Pretty exhausted after that, and we went back to our Airbnb to rest. Visited Malioboro street at night for some leg massage at GLOW Salon and Reflexy, that Adit recommended I think.
3 of us tried their GLOW VIP package (1.5hours) body massage, which costed IDR 399K for 3 pax. Quite a good experience, but again it got itchy for me at some parts haha.
I don't know if it has got to do with it being a weekend, but it was very crowded. We tried to find a proper dining place in a shopping mall, and stopped by at two or three of it, but the food were mostly sold out before we even got to buy them!
We were so pek cek that WL and I ended up eating at one of their roadside stalls. Jess was worried about hygiene issue, so she did not eat at all. Dinner was cheap, but my fried chicken wing rice was way too spicy.
After that, we continued to walk around the pasar malam as I wanted to get souvenirs for my family and friends. Only grabbed back to Airbnb very late at night. *Everyone were tired and ain't in good mood. There were misunderstandings I believe, but luckily, what's bygones are bygones and we left the unhappiness there.*
15/4/18 Sun: Had breakfast at our Airbnb, and then WL and I grabbed a ride out to Malioboro street to continue with our shopping.
Besides clothes, I also bought a few boxes of Bakpia to bring home, and I really enjoyed the two boxes (IDR 74K) below which has green tea, green bean and durian flavour ones.
Shared some satays with WL too. Headed back and we played Jenga together for a while while waiting for Adit to come pick us up to go to the airport at 3pm. *I learnt from Adit that Yogyakarta was the earliest region in Indonesia to go independent, and the reason why it has the old name "D'Jogja" was because they were once a Dutch colony.*
We boarded SilkAir MI 153 bound for Singapore at 5.20pm. What an adventurous visit to Yogyakarta which we will remember for a long time!
Comments