Sandboarding di Gumuk Pasir Parangkusumo yang Seru Banget!

Sudah berkali-kali ke DI Yogyakarta sejak kecil, saya belum juga bosan dengan provinsi ini. selalu ada saja hal baru bagi saya, yang menarik untuk dicoba, dilihat, atau dicicipi. Di bulan Juli lalu, saya dan Diyan ke Yogyakarta dengan tujuan utama menghadiri resepsi pernikahan teman.

Tapi tentunya lebih banyak jalan-jalannya, dong!

Di sini saya akan cerita tentang salah satu saja aktivitas kami di Yogyakarta waktu itu.

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Dimulai dengan niat berangkat jam 5 pagi, kami molor jadi berangkat jam 5.10. Lumayanlah, ya, cuma telat 10 menit. Untuk standar Indonesia, itu nggak telat!

Jadi, ngapain berangkat pagi-pagi amat?

MAU MAIN SANDBOARDING DI GUMUK PASIR PARANGKUSUMO!

Horeee!

Kegiatan ini sudah beken mungkin sejak 1-2 tahun yang lalu. Beberapa teman saya juga sudah mencobanya. Akhirnya saya pun punya kesempatan mencoba!

Bakpia, Via Via, And Meeting An Old Friend

DAY # 6


BAKPIA KURNIA SARI

This is where the holiday ended. We took an afternoon flight to go back home. In the morning, we picked up bakpia which we ordered the day before at Bakpia Kurnia Sari at 91 C Glagahsari street, in the Umbulharjo area. What is bakpia, you wonder?

Bakpia is a small round-shaped pastry, usually stuffed with mung beans, but in the past couple of years it also comes in other fillings like chocolate, durian, and cheese.

Getting Around in Yogyakarta And Ended the Day in Kafe Via Via

DAY # 5



MIROTA BATIK and a stroll on Malioboro Street


Yup, we went back there again on our last full day in Jogja. Some of us still had some souvenirs to buy. Isn’t that what a last day is for?

This time, I bought a batik dress for a friend of mine for Rp 42,500 and a batik wide pleated skirt for Rp 84,000 which I forgot to photograph. Darn!

And then, while waiting for the others to finish their shopping, I went and checked out the sidewalk market, which is consisted of a lot of stalls – which are made of only tables and hanger poles. Most of the goods sold there are t-shirts, batik products, and other traditional mass products like rattan purses and silver jewelries. Mind you, these are even cheaper stuff than the ones in Mirota, so don’t expect too high of quality. I got myself a tie-dye t-shirt for only Rp 15,000.

Getting out of Windy's house for another shopping stroll

We took becaks to get to Malioboro street

Surabi, the breakfast that Aunt Tung provided for us in the early morning

GADRI RESTO


We got back to Windy’s house, waved goodbye to Aunt Tung, and put our bags in the trunk of a taxi. We were heading to Perwita Sari on Prawirotaman street, but first we made a stop at Gadri Resto for lunch on Rotowijayan street. It’s actually the house of Prince Joyokusumo of the Yogyakarta sultanate, he’s the little brother of the ruling sultan in present time, Sri Sultan Hamengku Bowono X.

The front porch is turned into the restaurant with a little spot in the corner by the cash register dedicated as a batik workshop.


You can go inside to see the antique Javanese decorated house. The family still live in that house, but mostly in the back part of it.






The serving took a while, we had to reconfirm with the waitress whether our orders have been cooked or not. Turns out that there’s been a mix-up in our order. Oh well. After taking our time by checking out the bakery next door, finally we got our food. The taste was okay, but to my starving tummy it was a blessing!

Kania & Mia decided to just split a portion
because they didn't wanna wait for another one,
due to the mix up in order...

I had Blawon Rice, Rp 27.500 a portion. It’s consisted of rice, boiled egg, deep fried chicken, meat, salad, and a cracker. But from what I read in this guy’s blog, the name ‘blawon’ doesn’t really describe what’s on the plate, but the plate itself. He wrote that it came from the tradition in the colonial time where the kings used to be served food on dutch plates which mostly had blue paintings on it. Blue = ‘blauw’ in Dutch, and transformed into Blawong or Blawon in Javanese. Interesting, eh?


Maybe I should check out the same-named menu in other restaurants. See if they do serve it on ‘blauw’ plates, unlike the one I had in Gadri Resto.


BATIK RUMAH.. again

You must think that we are suckers for shopping. Well, we probably are. But as I’ve said before, my friends are here to shop, partly, for their new batik quilt business. So sometimes they had to look around in other places before deciding which ones to buy.

In our second visit to this shop, I finally came out with a bag purchase. Well I didn’t get anything for me, only a shirt for my dad and a loose blouse for my sister, both Rp 162,000 in total.


PERWITA SARI HOTEL

We then took off to our booked hotel on Prawirotaman street. Put our bags in the room, failed to swim in the pool because it didn’t look clean enough.. too bad.




When night was coming, we just rested at the hotel before finally went out for dinner.


KAFE VIA VIA


Dinner was only across the street from our hotel, at Kafe Via Via. I always go there whenever I’m in Jogja.


We were satisfied with our meal there. Es dawet (sweet beverage with ice that’s basically made of coconut milk, palm sugar, and rice powder jelly), Banana lassi, java coffee, fried tempeh, various pasta, sausages, and garlic bread, all for Rp 157,500.




They provide both local and international food and beverage, also free wi fi connection. Visitors are both local and international. Kania played fortune telling on us with the playing cards that's provided at the cafe before we went back to our hotel...

Beautiful Places in Yogyakarta, Among Others

We started the day with a big breakfast at Soto Kadipiro, continued with visits to beautiful places like Ullen Sentalu Museum... 


SOTO KADIPIRO

This day we’re gonna go to Kaliurang, a district north of Yogyakarta city, to attend my good friend Koko’s wedding. In the morning, Tante Tung, Windy’s aunt next door, took us for a breakfast at Soto Kadipiro, on Wates Street. The menu was chicken soto (soup-like dish), mainly consisted of shredded chicken and vermicelli, and you can also plunge your steamed rice in it or prepare it in a separate plate.





What made the diner interesting to me is not the food – chicken soto is always just an okay to me, never been my first choice of food, but it’s just something personal, no offense to the soto – but the decorations. They’ve got pictures of wayang (Indonesian puppetry), vintage stuff like bottles, photos of the first president of Indonesia Republic showing so much respect to his mother and other oldie photos, and then there’s a sign that says “Please smoke cigarette as much as you like”.



That’s wrong, I know, but it's kinda crazy and you wouldn’t see that anywhere else.


KALIURANG

Kaliurang is actually reachable by bus, but I didn’t feel like it cos I wanted to look fresh at the wedding :D I’ve phoned a car rental service previously, they could rent us a 7-seater for Rp 500,000 including the driver for a day (contact us for the rental phone number). Luckily Kania got us a way cheaper rent through her friend, so we only had to pay Rp 300,000 including the driver, for 12 hours.

We rented the car from 9 AM, which means we got in Kaliurang at about 10 AM. The wedding didn’t start until a few hours later, so we visited Ullen Sentalu museum which is only across the wedding area, Wisma Kinasih.


ULLEN SENTALU MUSEUM



Ullen sentalu is a Javanese art and cultural museum. They’ve got lotsa pictures of the Javanese royals, paintings and crafts with historical themes (some are considered as mystical), old musical instruments like gamelan, and a collection of handmade batik which the princesses had to fast for days before making them. Batik at that time was something sacred, every pattern has meaning, and they should be worn for the right purpose. For instance, there’s a pattern for wedding, for giving birth, for funeral, for royal events, etc.

The architecture of the museum is awesome, made of stone walls and it’s labyrinth-like. The main building is built on a lower level, it’s like you’re going into a cave. There’s also stairs and narrow pathways with fences connecting the buildings. Too bad they don’t allow visitors to take pictures at all in there.


(Click here to take a peek of what the inside is like and the complete story about the whole museum.)

The prohibition is only applied in the museum. In the gardens, restaurant, and souvenir shop you’re free to take as many picture as you want. And here’s us in the colonial-styled Beukenhof restaurant.




The entrance fee is Rp 25,000/pax, including a complimentary drink once we got out of the museum.


THE WEDDING

Getting out of Ullen Sentalu complex, we went directly to Koko’s wedding. I loved how he decorated the yard, and yes he and the wifey Deni arranged everything by themselves, he even bought the symbolic doves himself the day before the wedding.



The food was great. Our main dish was Salat Solo, which is the usual salad dish modified with addition of potato and sweet-soya-sauced meat (or known as semur).



AFFANDI MUSEUM

Affandi Museum came next. Located on Laksda Adi Sucipto street, the entrance fee was Rp 20,000 / pax. Affandi is Indonesia’s well known artist, mostly known for his expressive abstract paintings. He passed away in 1990, and here’s the official website of the museum, galleries, and about the respectable man himself: http://www.affandi.org/index-en.html

Gallery 1 only displays Affandi’s works, while Gallery 2 displays others’. We didn’t go into Gallery 3, but I think it also displays other artists’ works.

Galley #2

The graves of Affandi & wife in between galleries

Across Gallery 1, which would be on your right side when you just enter the gate, there’s a café where we hung out for a while, sipping some bottles of Teh Botol (my favorite bottled tea, especially when served cold).


Next to the café, there’s a caravan-like bamboo building that now functions as mushalla, a prayer room for Moslems. It was initially built by Affandi for his private room with his first wife who passed away before he did.





PHOENIX HOTEL

When we asked the driver to take us to Phoenix Hotel on Sudirman Street, he was confused. Luckily we remembered where it was, cos we just went passed by it the night before and were impressed by its exterior. Turns out that he knew the hotel by another name because it used to be named Mercure.




And why did we go there? Obviously not because we stayed there. The cheapest room rate there was Rp 750,000 / night, definitely out of our budget. Well, we just wanted to see what the hotel was really like, what facilities they’ve got, what their rates were, for, you know, just in case next time we got richer. Plus, they must’ve had nice bathrooms. I really wanted to go when we were still at Affandi Museum, but I didn’t like their bathrooms. So to Phoenix we went.. Tee hee…



But hey, staying at this hotel does make a to-do point in my travel list. I loved the design of it, classic yet with a modern touch.


PARANGTRITIS BEACH

At that time, I didn’t know much about beaches in Yogyakarta. Parangtritis was the only beach I had heard of. And I didn’t bother to find out because I wasn’t in the mood for snorkeling or anything that would get me soaked. But it would be nice to relax a bit at the beach.. haha.. inconsistent me. My friends agreed to go to Parangtritis, while we still had a lot of time to use the car and too tired for any shopping, it was already almost 5 PM.

An hour ride was the length from Sudirman street to Parangtritis beach. Too bad when we got there the sun was setting and we weren’t really at the right spot to view a beautiful sunset. And I didn’t realize that the beach wasn’t as beautiful as I had remembered. It was brownish sandy beach. Or was it because already almost dark? I guess I should go back there again one day to make sure about the beach :P

The interesting part was that I bought these fried undur-undur (ant-lion) at some stall on the beach. It’s a kind of small animal that’s seen a lot on beaches. And from the name of it, I guess they do walk backwards? ‘undur’ has a similar meaning with ‘mundur’ which means going backwards. The fried undur-undur cost Rp 2,500 / box. Taste-wise, it was too salty for me. But it was alright, I was starting to get hungry anyway.


And then we also bought grilled corn on the cobs, costing Rp 2,500 each, sold by a lady who sits her equipments on a mat on the beach.



There were quite many visitors on the beach that day. I guess because it was in the weekend, and around the school holiday. Lots of cars and buses parked about 15 meters from the shore line, and a lot of commercial stalls were built. I remember going there with my family some 18 years ago, and we went on this horse carriage (delman) ride, it was lovely. I wonder if they still have that kinda service for tourists.


CAK KOTING DUCK


Alright, being on a dark beach when you’re not equipped for it is just not fun. Plus, our tummies started to growl… so it was time for another hint from the culinary guide book. Cak Koting Duck on Dr. Sutomo Street, across Mataram Theaters was our next destination. Another one hour ride.


I had the grilled duck which cost Rp 20,000. It was yum yum. But of course they also provided other menus such as fried duck, pigeon, tempeh, and a lot more. The ‘restaurant’ was these tables and chairs arranged on a sorta like parking lot, open aired.