Started the great day with a great companion and a refreshing drink. It's coconut juice with tender coconut meat mixed with palm sugar, satisfying for a sweet tooth like me :)
After bidding farewell to my friend, I headed to Prambanan Temple (remember I bought a combined ticket for Borobudur and Prambanan which valid for 2 days only?) with Grab. From my research, Prambanan is best visit during sunset time, but since the weather was always bad around evening, I don't want to take my chance and might waste my ticket as well.
There are actually few Candi located in the Prambanan's compund. I would say Candi Sewu, which located the furthest from Prambanan, looks the most interesting. It's about a 15mins walk, but I would suggest to take the free tram (FOC if you purchased the foreigner's ticket) which will give you a ride all the way to Candi Sewu, and even gave us 5 mins of photo op when we arrived at Candi Sewu!
The exit of Prambanan was about 15mins walk from the nearest bus station. A sudden downpour caused me to take shelter and wait for the rain to stop. By the time the rain stopped and reached the bus station, I was famished! Time to fulfill my 'dream', which is to try at least one McDonald's in every country! So, I travelled all the way to Malioboro Mall by using Trans-Jogja, just for its McDonald's! Still, after trying out few countries', I still feel that Malaysia's is still the best!
Took another Grab to Taman Sari, also known as the Water Castle. One of the most well preserved areas was the bathing area, where it used to be an area where the concubines bath, while the Sultan observe and choose one!
It was soon time for dinner and a local young chap was nice enough to bring me to some nice food. We went for Mie Ayam, which means mee with chicken, topped with crispy keropok and bakso meatballs! It was a random shop by the roadside but it tasted quite good!
After the satisfying meal, we hopped on to his motorcycle and headed to Alun-alun Kidul. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't know that Alun-alun Kidul is so happening at night! Visitors can rent a car, or more precise, bicycles powered 'car', wrapped with LEDs which glow brightly at night! What a beautiful sight!
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| Riding in Jogja is a little horrifying, when everyone rode so near to each other! |
If you happen to visit Jogja, you must buy Chocolate Monggo, a locally made chocolate brand, as souvenirs! One of the branches is situated in the same location as Lotus Mio in Jalan Tirtodipuran, the street is located just opposite of Jalan Prawirotaman. Its chocolates are good, and you can believe me as I am a fan of chocolate! Visited here on my last day in Jogja.
Since my flight is at 5pm, I made use of my spare time to visit the Keraton again. This time around, I arrived in the morning and made it into the Keraton. It's a big place, with live 'wayang kulit' to entertain the visitors.
I had my lunch in the Warung Bu Ageng in Jalan Tirtodipuran, just opposite of the Chocolate Monggo shop I visited in the morning! Seriously, it was the best meal I had in my whole Yogyakarta trip! I will come back again if I happen to visit Jogja again!
