Vikingess Voyages

Sunday, February 26, 2012

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

Thursday, February 23, 2012

South-East Asia Trip 2012

The Iconic Singapore Rooftop Pool: A night at Marina Bay Sands

Anette 11:21:00 PM

Approaching Marina Bay Sands

One of the things Yuma and I wanted to do while in Singapore was to check out a the iconic swimming pool that you probably might have heard about already: The one on the top of a hotel building that looks like a ship! So far in or journey we had consequently been searching for hostels fulfilling the criteria cheap and good, with cheap being the most important factor. This time, however, we had decided to go for a far more expensive lodging just for one night, mostly just because we wanted to try out that swimming pool on the top. The price of the room was probably more expensive than all the previous nights on our trip combined. But if we were going to have just one night of luxury on our trip than this had to be it.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Tioman Island

Taking a diver’s license in Tioman Island, Malaysia

Anette 7:58:00 PM

The second destination in Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur was Tioman Island. The main goal for our visit was for me to take the beginners course for scuba diving and getting the so-called Open Water Diver License. My friend recommended me to do this in Tioman, because this island supposedly is less touristy than the more famous islands such as Langkawi and Penang, and thus cheaper as well.

Learning about the diving basics

For diving, PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) is the leading scuba diving training organization in the world today, and they have schools all over the world. Through their webpage PADI offers an online learning package, which means that you can basically go through all of the theory online in your own home before you leave for your diving destination. This saved me a lot of time, since I was able to finish not only the theory but also the theory test before leaving Japan. Normally it will take you between 3 and 4 days to go through the diver’s course, which is valuable time particularly when you’re on holiday. However, I managed to go through the whole course in 2 days, thanks to the online theory I had taken beforehand! :)
B&J Diving Centre was the school I decided to use; it's history goes back to 1987 (they're even older than me! Haha..) and they seemed to be very professional. I had a great time with them, and can recommend this school to anyone willing to try out diving in Tioman;)

Pool exercises!

The first day my instructor Sammi showed me all the basic stuff such as how to put on the diving equipment. After that there was a lot of practical training, and all these exercises were done in a small swimming pool next to the dive center. This took most of the morning to get through, since there are a lot of skills one needs to practice. If you don’t feel comfortable being under water it might take quite some time to get a hang of it too, but don't worry if you can't make it at first; apparently it is quite normal.

Sammi ready to show me how to dive

The diving equipment is somewhat heavy.. :p

In the afternoon however, I had gone through all the pool exercises, and was ready for my first dive! Yuma tagged along with some snorkeling equipment and an underwater camera, so thanks to him I got some great photos from my first dive!

My first dive.. Oh yeah! :p

Peace! Little too confident on my first dive, perhaps?

..And of course, a picture with my personal underwater photographer! My boyfriend is a handyman<3! Haha..

Practicing some skills under water

A false clownfish! Look how cute they are:)

Another one.. There are loads of them!

Coral-sightsseeing

Corals and fishes

Some more interesting underwater creatures

Another picture of the underwater world

Again, I have Yuma to thank for all of my photos from this post!

As you can see there are a lot of cute fish here..

After an hour-long break I had my second dive for the day, which included practicing some more skills as well such as using a compass under water.!

The second day we went in a large group to go diving by some smaller islands about half an hour away from Tioman. I have to admit I didn’t feel too energetic that day, but once I got into the water I forgot all about that. The underwater world was so beautiful:) Since I was little my family always spent the summer holidays in my grandparents’ cottage by the sea, so I have always liked activities such as swimming and snorkeling. With the diving equipment it felt like taking snorkeling to a new level.

This day we had two dives as well, with a lunch-break in between. We saw a lot of pretty fishes and even a sea-snake. I have to admit though that the other groups were luckier; they saw a turtle as well..
Soon we’ll be in Bali, and hopefully we can do some diving there too. Because by finishing the diving course I now officially have a diver’s license, which means that I'm certified to dive again also in other parts of the world!