Adventures of Anette: Transportation

Showing posts with label Transportation. Show all posts

Thursday, June 28, 2018

Tokyo Trains: 5 Tips to Survive Your Daily Commute

Anette 9:57:00 PM

A messy glimpse into a regular day's commute in Tokyo
Photo: Anette

Eight years ago, when I had decided to study in Japan, I sat down and made a list of the universities I wanted to study at. Although I had many different criteria on my list, the most important to me was that the university wasn't located in Tokyo. Why, you ask? Well, that's simple: too big, too noisy, and...Packed trains

. Little did I know that a few years later I would make this city my home, and in turn have to face my fears of the packed Tokyo trains on a daily basis. Throughout the years I've learned a thing or two about commuting in Tokyo, and I hope that the tips below can be of help to you too!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Travel

Getting around in Kyoto: Bus Pass

Anette 3:40:00 PM

Did you know that Kyoto City has a one-day bus pass you can buy instead of paying for every ride?

A one-day pass for the Kyoto City Bus

This is quite practical for tourists, as 240 yen for a ride really isn't that cheap. With the bus pass you pay 500 yen, and you can ride as many times as you want during that day within the city (note that some outskirts areas such as Arashiyama is not included in the ticket).

In Kyoto you pay for the bus ride when you get off the bus, and if you want a one-day pass you can simply say "ichinichi jyoshaken kudasai" (一日乗車券下さい) to the bus driver.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Yogyakarta

Sightseeing in Indonesia: One day in Yogyakarta

Anette 9:31:00 PM

Inside Kraton palace

After having spent an afternoon in Jakarta Yuma and I traveled by train to our second destination in Indonesia: Yogyakarta. Yogyakarta is a city rich in history; this is where you find the royal palace, and in the short period between 1945-1949 Yogyakarta was even the capital of Indonesia.

We spent a couple of days in this city, which we found to be very cheap, easy to get around in and not to mention an interesting spot for sightseeing.

Browse places to stay in Jakarta on Agoda.com. Free cancellation.

Me sitting in the becak with the driver's hat on

To get around in the city we payed a becak-driver a set price for him to take us around the city for one day, and the first place he took us to was the palace, which was built in 1755 and goes under the name Kraton. This palace is where you, if you are lucky, can get to see the Sultan and his family. But even if you aren't, there are still some other interesting things to see here, so don't worry..

One of the things you can experience here, is a traditional Javanese puppet show with puppets made of buffalo skin.. Along with the puppets there were people playing different types of instruments, and a story-teller who probably told an interesting story which we unfortunately couldn't understand since it was all in Indonesian.

Yuma and a big statue

One of the main rooms of the palace

A rather cheap-looking statue.. Haha..

The palace is also a museum, with displays of traditional clothing.

A funny-looking face (or three..?)

After our trip to the palace our driver showed us around to some of the local souvenir shops in the area. First he took us to a place where we could see how they make the traditional puppets which are used in puppet shows like the one we saw in the palace.

A guy painting a leather puppet

This is how the puppet shows looks like

The next place was a store that sells pictures made with traditionally Javanese batik. Batik is a special technique of dyeing clothing which is designated by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Yuma negotiating to buy a batik picture.

..And the picture Yuma bought.

In the evening we went to check out the main street Maloboro, where we had dinner at a street restaurant. I can promise you that it cannot get much cheaper than this..

Probably the cheapest meal we had during the trip

Local street restaurant, try it if you dare;)

In the evening when we left for our hotel we passed by the big square right by the palace, and for some reason there was a light parade there.. We asked some local guy if there was a festival going on, and he told us that yes, it was a festival. We tried to ask him what kind of festival it was, but his English wasn't good enough to answer. We asked another guy about the same questions, and he told us that they were having this light parade every (?!) day.. I'm not to certain if it is true or not though, it sounded a bit strange.. Haha..

Light parade in Yogyakarta

As a final note: If you are planning to visit Indonesia in the future, then Yogyakarta is perhaps the place we visited that I would recommend the most so far on our trip. We had a really good time here, and besides just the city itself you also find the famous temples Prambanan and Borobudur just outside the city too. Further, if you are looking for a cheap hostel with good service you should check out Metro Guest House; they have cheap private rooms and a big pool in the backyard.

Entrance to metro hotel

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Indonesia

Label: South-East Asia Backpacking Trip 2012

Recommended Hotels in Yogyakarta

More Yogyakarta hotels

Melia Purosani Hotel Yogyakarta

Nibenia Homestay Yogyakarta

Hotel Tentrem
Yogyakarta

Eastparc Hotel Yogyakarta

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Yogyakarta

Sightseeing in Indonesia: Jakarta to Yogyakarta by Train

Anette 9:45:00 PM

People lining up to buy train tickets in Gambir Station, Jakarta

Arriving in Jakarta by plane from Singapore in the morning we went straight to Gambir train station to buy tickets with the night train from Jakarta to Yogyakarta that same evening. There was a long line of people waiting to buy train tickets, and when we finally reached the counter it was no tickets left on the evening train. Still, we were a bit lucky after all; there were still seats left on the train leaving at 5 pm, and we weren’t all that eager to spend a lot of time in Jakarta anyway so we decided to go for it.

Browse places to stay in Jakarta on Agoda.com.

Entrance to Gambir Station

We couldn’t really find anything interesting to do in the vicinity of the station, and since we only had a couple of hours we ended up staying inside. There are a lot of small restaurants and cafes, and most of them also provide free wi-fi, so we tested out some local food and spent some time checking our mails while at it. We were lucky, and discovered a small room in the station where we could get one hour foot massage for 60.000 RM. It seemed like a place popular among the locals; most of the time we were there all the seats were taken.

Foot massage in Gambit Station

Yuma and his hard-earned train ticket, waiting at Gambit Station

We had heard that it was best to avoid the cheapest seats and go for the ones that is on the so-called eksekutif class because of both comfort and safety on the trip. The tickets costed us 330.000 rupiah, and with that price we got quite alright seats. It was finally time for departure, and we found that the train to Yogyakarta was quite alright.

We happily drank two smoothies we were told were free of charge, but that turned out not to be the case..

Throughout the journey there were also some train personnel who came with food and drinks. When we were asked about the price of some fruit-smoothies we were told that it was free, so we happily (and probably a bit naive) took one each. Later that evening, however, another lady came and asked us to pay some 20.000 rupiah for the two drinks we had received. In the end we were forced to accept and pay, I mean, it was not a large sum but we did feel that the personnel had fooled us into accepting what we thought was free drinks in order to get more money. Just be aware that the things they offer to you in the train not are for free, and you can decide for yourself if it is something you want to pay for or not.

Jakarta seen from the train window

Me and Yuma on the train

Some of the poorer areas of Jakarta seen from the train window

Inside the Jakarta-Yogyakarta train; Eksekutif class

People waiting for the train to pass by

Children playing soccer by the railway

Outside the city the landscape has changed to farming fields

Arriving in Yogyakarta it was already 1 am, and we did not have any hotel reservation for the night. Luckily the people working at the tourist information were very friendly, and recommended a hotel for us called Metro Guest House, where they had cheap rooms available: we payed around 100.000 rupiah one night for a room with fan.

Trying out an Indonesian becak in Yogyakarta

After having accepted the deal we left the station in search of transport to take us to the hotel. By the entrance there was a guy with a becak, which is like a bike-cycle rickshaw. When we started talking to him he showed us a big smile, as if he had won the lottery or something. We asked him how much he wanted for taking us to our hotel, and he told us the price of the trip would be 40.000 rupiah. Since we had just arrived in Indonesia we were quite uncertain of how much we should pay, so Yuma and me started discussing with each other in Japanese. Another local guy must have heard us, because he mumbled just so we could hear it: takai!! I was quite surprised by this, and wondered if I had heard correctly, since "takai" means "expensive"in Japanese (Yuma is Japanese).. The guy waited a couple of seconds, and repeated what he just had said; takai; and held up two fingers. The first guy wasn't as happy as before when we told him we'd pay him 20.000 rupiah, but he accepted our offers and took us safely to our new hotel.

Related blogposts

All blogposts from Indonesia

Label: South-East Asia Backpacking Trip 2012

Recommended Hotels

More Jakarta hotels More Yogyakarta hotels

Pullman Jakarta Indonesia

Gran Melia
Jakarta

Nibenia Homestay Yogyakarta

Hotel Tentrem
Yogyakarta

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Thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below
- Anette