Trip to Jogja

This trip is quite long ago. Yeah.. about 3 months or so during my work trip for Monev. The followers: Nadia, Sofie, Any, and me. No more joined us. Even though Nadia has published this holiday thread to Facebook. Many wanted to join, but, could not make it! Many reasons, since "mbulet" has been our trade mark for long times.

I join the team in Caruban. Since I had spent a week in Ponorogo. It is better to meet them at the middle than back to Surabaya. We had wonderful journey. As usual, Nadia was behind the wheel. During this trip, Any proclaimed that she was on diet. We laughed. Did not believe on her plan to diet. We were really sure, that dieting would be in pain. As we know, culinary is part of every journey, either in or out of town. It was our holiday since one in Singapore and Malaysia last 2006. Actually, Any did not join us. Judith joined us instead. I was really glad. Finally, we could make it! HOLIDAY!

We stopped in Solo for Dhuhur in Dewi's place. Dewi is Nadia's younger sister. She studies Medical in Universitas Sebelas Maret. We were in Solo for about an hour. Then, decided to have lunch in Kartasura. Nadia told us that there is a really nice stall (aka warung) of fried duck in Kartasura, named Pak Slamet. Unfortunately, it was sold out. We took another warung's. But, the taste was really good. The service was also good and the warung was also clean. Any broke her vow! She ate fried duck with jerohan. Sofie and I ate chicken instead.

We spent our first night in Motel Sala 4 in Dagen Street. My girl friends, complained about the hotel. Since I recommended this motel, for sure, they complained me! They said, about XXX hotel, hehehe. I just laughed.
I said, "I guess, you're guys want a cheap holiday. Some kind of backpacking..."
They answered, "No way... We work. We want a better place..." But, we already paid that motel. So, we had to stay. Fortunately, we just booked for one night. As I remembered, I used to stay in this motel when I visited Jogja. It was clean and tidy. But, when we stayed that night, this hotel was untidy, the sheet and the cushion were smelly. Weeeekkk...Like million years not being washed. Fortunately, I brought my jarit.

In our first night, we went for the most complicated dinner we've ever had. We wanted bakmi Jogja. Nadia recommended bakmi Kadin, on the other hand Dewi - who finally joined us - and I recommended bakmi Ketandan. I read about this warung from Umar Kayyam's Mangan Ora Mangan Kumpul (MMOK). Ketandan street is near Malioboro. We looked for this street, we found nothing. After an hour here and there finally, we found this street. We found dark street, with no sign of well-known warung bakmi was there! We stopped and ask someone. He said, that there was not warung bakmi around the street. Nadia and the rest asked me, where did I find the name of the warung. I answered, "Umar Kayyam's book..." They burst into laugh. Oh Gosh, Umar Kayyam lived years ago, Any said.

We, finally, headed to the other warung bakmi. Bakmi Kadin. It is well-known bakmi restaurant in Jogja, Nadia said. It has special way of cooking. By boiling the bakmi in arang, and by using duck's egg. Since it lies near Kadin office, it is then well-known as Bakmi Kadin. The restaurant was very crowded. It was not Saturday evening. But, the next day was holiday. We waited more than an hour until our food was served. The waitress said, that two of their rombongs had been booked for the wedding of Noe, the vocalist of Letto, and also the son of Emha Ainun Najib.

According to our opinion: the bakmi was plain. Not as the promotion, everywhere, in blog, mostly. It was less spicy. We did not eat them up.

The next morning, we ate the delicious Nasi Gudheg Yuk Jum, near Gadjah Mada University. It is well recommended. After that, we're heading to Baron Beach, in Gunung Kidul District. Dewi did not join us. Since she had class at noon.

It was Friday. At first, we had decided to use GPS in my mobile to find that beach. But, the price of GPRS was too high. So, we decided to use other GPS (Gak Pake Suwe) a.k.a our ability to ask direction. Mates, we don't live in Europe or San Francisco, we do not need maps, because asking people direction is better than anything. The villager knows many things, even if it is miles away from him/her.

We found Baron at mid day. The route was very fantastic. Sometimes, we just found houses. Sometimes some plantation or rice field. Sometimes, we found forests.

Baron actually has beautiful cliffs. He also has fish market. But, the beach is average. The beach line is not too long. We decided to have lunch there. We ate seafood: lobster, octopus, and some other fishes. After that, we went to Kukup Beach. It has more beautiful beach than in Baron. The cliff is also magnificent! The coast line is long... and we saw many people were looking for small fishes (ikan hias). Kukup Beach reminded me to Tanah Lot. They have the same structure. The air was fresh, and the sky was really blue. The sand was also white. We played in the sand. Oh, I felt the air of freedom!

Before getting dark, we left Baron. This night, we stayed in awesome hotel: Indraloka Hotel in Cik Di Tiro Street, near UGM. This hotel is actually a house that is designed as motel. It consists only 8 rooms. Four in the downstairs and others in the upstairs. We felt like home. It also has internet access to the room. In upstairs, it has library and also pantry. It is designed like many motels and hostels in abroad, for backpackers. We loved this place very much!.