profile i'm a girl who have stepped into the unknown called work and decided that schooling is better. i also have a propensity to go crazy over fried chicken wings and simply love to squeeze and over-feed my obese hamsters. my blog is a mode for expressing my love for food, movies, travel and shopping! contact qiuuing@gmail.com email me if you don't feel comfortable leaving a tag :) Lijit Search tagboard resolutions for 2011 exercise once a week start saving more than half of my salary every month find a boyfriend (added by lily) shopping list 2011 lancome flextencils basic black pumps one whole set of nail art (pedicure) a car (!!!) reads friends adrienne bren bobby cheeks farah ivy jeannie sharon sijing vic other blogs beatrice tan camemberu grocery list ieatishootipost sixpegs sparklette recommended shops accessories ivbelongings mykillerheels mysummerdiary mytreasurest clothes hervelvetvase lollyrouge loveandbravery lovebonito myspringfling missypixie modparade robotninjas trooops vaingloriousyou food cupcake divinity food infinity mad baker periwinkle bake shop others concierge.sg iconceptz snugg the little happyshop uniquegrabs whimsnfancies toys an ufo-catcher addict's woes lain lain plushie paradise previous entries by post
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 Tuesday, December 15, 2009 @ 16:39
day 1: singapore to jogja caught a very early flight to jogja. second time flying with airasia and i must say airasia indonesia gave a smoother ride than its malaysian counterpart.  since it was so early, the train was rather deserted. missed the morning rush. good for us! we got to sit.  we arrived 2 hours ahead of departure. however, we had a long wait at the airasia check in counter. extremely inefficient. by the time we got our boarding passes, we only had 15 minutes left before boarding time for breakfast. the flight was short, approximately 2 hours. the moment we stepped out of the airport at jogja, we were bombarded with offers from taxi drivers. after hackling with a particular driver, we got a good rate of 50,000rp (sgd$7.50) for the six of us. the usual price for a normal taxi (saloon car, seats 4) is about 30,000rp/trip.   the model of our taxi was suzuki apv (kind of like a mix between a mpv and suv), which seats 7. most of the rented cars and taxis there are of this model. our first stop in jogja was our hotel--asia afrika hotel. the front and lobby were newly and nicely decorated. gave a very resort-like feeling. it was all a facade.    this is the side view of our hotel. they put on a nice front. when we got to our rooms, they were disgusting! the rooms were old and dingy. dirty handprints on the walls, toilets not well maintained, no hot water. in fact, it seems like a norm there for hotels not to offer hot water. so from this experience onwards, we made sure we viewed the room and tested the bathrooms for hot water before putting our money down.  after checking in and washing up, we decided to scout for lunch. while looking around, i noticed they have many forms of transports in jogja, ranging from modern cars to trishaws to horse-drawn carriages. for the duration of our trip, we observed that they do not treat their horses well. most of the horses were dehydrated, skinny and made to stand in the hot sun all day. my dad even saw someone beat his horse when the horse refused to move.  we settled at a restaurant opposite our hotel. we tried almost everything from mee goreng (fried with maggi mee, apparently when you order mee over there, it's equivalent to maggi mee) to soto ayam to main courses. the food was quite pleasant but pricey (for their standard of living).  couldn't help but pick out weird english phrases in the menu.  we walked off lunch along jalan malioboro, which is a major shopping street. the street was hot, humid and crowded. we were warned beforehand of pickpockets. the street was separated into few sections--souvenirs (near our hotel), t-shirts (middle portion) and bags (last stretch). we took note of potential souvenirs to buy on our last day. it was around dinner time that we went looking for day tours to occupy our time (we had 6 full days in jogja). there isn't much to do in jogja, it's like a home-base. you have to venture out of the town to other areas.  we found ari tours & travel in an alley off jalan malioboro (where we coincidentally found a good hotel for our last day). ari, the owner, and ecko gave us really good rates (we compared them to a few other operators). we booked 2 tours with them. a 1 day tour to dieng plateau, 350,000rp (sgd$52.50) for 6 people and a 2 day 1 night tour to bromo at 320,000rp/person (sgd$48, with transport to and fro, hotel and jeep ride up the mountain). it's actually better to book at these operators than to find a driver to drive you around and book everything else separately. the roads are messy there, without traffic lights or road signs. they do not allow tourists to drive there. car rental services there tend to quote outrageous prices and leave out many things which you have to pay later. we had a really bad experience.   dinner was at a shopping mall opposite jalan malioboro. we had texas chicken, which closed down in singapore long time ago. wasn't as good as i remembered. we were really sleepy by the end of the meal and headed back to our hotel. Labels: family, food, holidays |