Trip To Jogja: Yogyakarta, City of Awesomeness (part 2)

Howdy, yoo. How's life, human!?

Well, if you're not human, how come you read this blog anyway..

This is my second entry for my trip to Yogyakarta. If you haven't read the first, click here!

Let's continue our story.. Here we go..

Me, Gita, Sisca, Dita, and Aya departed from Senen Station at 19.30 pm. It was my second time to taste a trip by train to Yogyakarta. We board the business train. There's not much sightseeing since the window shows pitch, black scenery, which is boring as hell.

Instead enjoying the scenery of train windows, I enjoy the scenery of people inside the train. I see my team chatting, and once in a while I overheard other passengers, for fun. :-P

Anyway, the journey is not a pleasant one, at least for me. The train temperature is too damn high, so when it stops, it gets hot. I am one of many humans that can not withstand hot temperature. Well, I do can withstand, sometimes.. But by endure in the middle of the heat itself, I lost my focus.

It turns out the train is frequently stops when we reach in some random stations. When the train stops, people who sell food are swarming like bees, try to promote their stuff to us. They have unique way to sell their own stuff.

Some of them moderately shout their stuff. Such as food seller, they will just shout their stuff. Like, "Nasi, Nasi.. Lontong, Lontong.. Bakpia, Bakpia." Nasi is for rice. Lontong is also rice, and Bakpia is.. Some kind of cake, maybe?

While others, they shout their stuff and make noises out of their stuff.

One of them is the coffee seller. This guy right here is bringing a tray, on top of them is a nice, brewed, traditional coffee. He has a variation of black coffee, milk coffee, and so on. After he shout, he smash his steel spoon to the glass, creates clanking sound. I admit, I almost buy his coffee. But the heat keep me from doing anything at all, lol.

Finally , after almost 9 hours of departure, we arrive at Yogyakarta. City of awesomeness! And of course, out from the oven.

We made our way to Inna Garuda Hotel by walk. Of course, we take pictures along the way :-P

On our way to Inna Garuda Hotel. From left to right: Dita, Sisca, Me, and Aya, the photographer. 

Finally, we arrive at Inna Garuda Hotel, right in the street of malioboro. Technically, just walk around and you can find all that Yogyakarta stuff. A place with a lot of advantage, indeed.

Yogyakarta in the morning is really nice. It has a nice breeze, a great sidewalk to do some activities, and no traffic at all! Amazing, isn't it? In Jakarta, the road is already busy at this hour (fyi, it's 6 am).

We go to Inna Garuda to drop our luggage and then walking around to find something to eat. Finally, we found Bubur Ayam for breakfast. Not too delicious, but enough to keep us going until noon.

We wait for registration to open at 10 am. After registration, we go our separate ways. The girls are walking around and buy some merchandise, while I search for barber to cut my hair. Including the 'bottom part' of the hair. #pleaseignorethelastsentence

From barber I go straight to Mirota Batik, one of many places to buy Yogyakarta's merchandise. In Mirota Batik, there are a lot of merchandise such as shirts and pants made from batik, accessories, and unique stuff.

Unique stuff. I mean.. Pretty unique. There are swords, bags made from leather, a sakkat (hat for farmers, giving +1 AGI in Ragnarok Online), musical instrument, and so on. I will not able to mention all of the stuff because it is just too much! You should visit this place (no promotion intended).

And this is one of many unique stuff you will find:

Of course it's main function is for decorative purposes only. No porn intended.

Since I have limited amount of money, I mostly window shopping and look for interesting part of the store. The atmosphere of the store is very 'Javanese'. Jawa banget, coy! You can easily find decorative stuffs that shows the identity of a Javanese. You can learn a little bit about Javanese by just hanging out in this store. Nice. 

It is fortunate that there is no sign that said, "Javanese only, Sundanese or Batakese GTFO". (racial jokes, anyone?)

This store also had a writings about philosophy of Javanese. I find one of these while looking for something to buy:

A human should be patient
They can restrain their lust
Do not easily provoked by incitement
Do not ever forget one's righteousness
Because that kind of deed is just like animal

I bought some stuff for my own, and then I queue for pay my stuff. Again, I found another thing that tickles me to snap a picture of it.

If you ever complain about:
1. With our service
2. With our product whom we sell
3. With one of our staff
4. If you are in depression
5. If you want to commit suicide
6. If you are in broken heart state
Please call this number: bla-bla-bla

So this store serve a costumer's satisfaction from a quality of the object, the atmosphere of the store, and people who psychologically have problems with their life. My kind of store to work for.

After shopping, I take Becak to back to hotel. I take the Becak without horses. And the guy who paddle the Becak is a middle aged man. Yup, he just paddle a 136 kg of human. I feel guilty.

He shows me the place where people would buy the best Bakpia, a symbol of souvenir for people who have gone from Yogyakarta. By the way, it's a cake. Maybe.

I got back to hotel and straight to bed. I miss bed like I miss a feeling of relationship (I'm single, just so you know). Of course, I take a bath before going to bed. After that I sleep like a baby. A big baby who weigh 136 kg. I wake up at 2.30 pm when someone knocking the door. Hey, it's my room mate, Adjie. He is from Lampung and a victim of my fart.

After that we get ready for a zero conference. A conference to introduce what is Model United Naton is. After the conference, the opening ceremony start. 

At the ceremony there is a dance that mystify me. It feels like I'm watching a magic in action when I used to be a laymen. That kind of amazing feeling when you see something extraordinary. To put it simple, it's magic. The magic enhanced by the music. Very traditional music. It gives me chill a bit.

After that there are coffee break, dinner, and studium generale. This gives me time to get know each others, made some friends, and familiarizing myself with the field where I am now.

Long story short: awesome event is awesome. Part three are coming up, stay tuned. :-D