On February 12 at 1:00 in the afternoon, I was supposed to teach. However, due to a conflict of schedule, our coordinators in UNIPMA, asked the school that we are attending to reschedule it, because Tuesday is the only day that we can go out from Madiun.
And thus, for our agenda today… a Yogyakarta Tour!
At 3:30 early in the morning, after almost 3 hours, we reached Central Java and had our breakfast. I had soto daging for my breakfast.
We, the international students, some buddies, Ibu Tari, and school staffs, went to many different beautiful places. We just witnessed the famous Jogja!
The group visited the Prambanan Temble, but due to the expensive entrance fee for international students, we did not continue and because of that, the group has just visited the Candi Sambisari instead.
After, as a nature lover, I had so much fun as we were able to visit the place called Pinus Pengger in Bantul is a prized attraction among locals.
The place was full of super tall pine trees. And at one part, which is the highlight of the place, I was able to see a part of Indonesia. It looked so beautiful!
The photos below just describe how happy we are!!!
Then, we went to a palace called Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat. It is a palace complex in the city of Yogyakarta. It is the seat of the reigning Sultan of Yogyakarta and his family.
According to sources, the complex is the center of Javanese culture.
Walking around the place made us able to see the portraits of previous kings and queens, different Indonesian dresses especially with the dresses used during weddings, different things used back then, and vintage cars that were used back then. It contains a museum displaying royal artifacts.
After, we went to the street of Malioboro wherein I was able to buy souvenirs such as mini batik wallets, pencils, batik pencil case, rattan bag and most importantly, a batik dress. I was so excited. To see myself wearing batik is a wish of mine!
Then, as we had walked around so much, we then have our dinner and we all ordered the spicy yet delicious meal called gudeg, a traditional Javanese cuisine from Yogyakarta and Central Java. It is made from young unriped jack fruit, with stewed palm sugar, and coconut milk. We then reached our dormitory at 11:00 in the evening.
It really is a startling day! I was able to visit the famous jogja, but more importantly I was able to visit it with such lovely people – fellow international students, our buddies and our ever patient UNIPMA coordinators.