Jogja Days: Borobudur and The Gang

January 18, 2014

Jogja Days: Borobudur and The Gang

Hey fellas, back here in rainy Jakarta.
I guess the sky cried way too much this time. Last night I slept with a heavy rain sounding from outside my window. Yet when I woke up this morning, it still was raining! Don't get me wrong, I love rainy days. It's just that, in my place at North Jakarta, flood is a hot topic of discussion. Last year it was such a massive floody catastrophe, I had to go back to my hometown, Manado (we had 11 days off-campus haha).

And as all of you would have known, Manado was under the attack of massive flooding and landslides. I saw the pictures, videos, and TV broadcasts, and it breaks my heart. Everywhere is flooded, roads are broken, homes and cars are swept away. People are starving, some of them had to leave home empty handed. There was no time to save their belongings. It's such a huge disaster, and everyone is at grief. My heart and prayers go to all of you there in Manado. Stay strong people, this too shall pass. #prayforManado

Anyway here's a story about more of my Jogja days. After the GIMSCO fuss, I'm officially on travel mode! My friends from Jakarta joined me and Cicilia, my GIMSCO partner, for an extended trip at Jogja. And so this is about our day 1.

We woke up early in the morning, and had a quick breakfast at the hotel. And then we head to our first culinary spot, Ayam Goreng Suharti! Some of you maybe thinking what kind of girls are we to have such a large stomach capacity. Well, that's what happened when you had such a high culinary curiosity haha. Actually, Ayam Goreng Suharti has several branches in Jakarta, but we're just eager on tasting it on the first and main restaurant here in Jogja. Anddd it was truly delicious! The chicken was crispy, and moist, and to-die-for! Well maybe that was a little exaggerated, but it was good. Way to go!

selca before everything ;)

the famous chicken!

And then, we went to the beautiful and magnificent Candi Borobudur. It wasn't actually in Jogja, but it was located in Magelang. I guess it's about 2,5-3hours drive from Jogja. Candi Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist monument in the world, which was one of the seven wonders of the world. I think the list have changed now, and I'm not sure if Borobudur's still included, but anyway it was still stunning! The temple was built from giant stone blocks, rising up forming a pyramidal structure. On lower levels, the stone-carved panels tell the story of of the Buddhist Sutras, and as you go up higher each level represents the stages of enlightment.

The high terraces were circular in shape, and in this level you will find a total of 504 Buddha statues sitting inside perforated bell-shaped stupas. A stupa is a semi-hemispherical structure containing Buddhist relics. On the very top of Candi Borobudur is a super massive bell-shaped stupa, which diameter is approximately 10m. Interestingly, the center of this massive stupa is empty. And questions remain as to whether it has always been empty or if it had anything within before. I can't answer that, haha, so you might just as well enjoy the pictures ;)

the ganggg

higher levelss with stupas all around

can you spot the buddha statue inside the stupa?

doing the meditation

I love her dancer's pose! (mine was bad haha)

After the Borobudur visit, we were starvviiinnggg! And as planned, we went to this restaurant called "je-Jamur-an" which translates to moldy? or mushroomy? I'm not sure haha, google translate can't help me with this. Anyway, as the name told us, this restaurant sells and only sells mushroom dishes. So everything is basically made up of mushroom. I'll try remembering some of the dishes' names: Mushroom Satay, Mushroom Pepes (a traditional Javanese food cooked in banana leaf), Grilled Mushroom, Mushroom Karedok (a Javanese raw veggie salad, or in this case, mushroom salad, in peanut sauce). That was some of what we ordered. I'm pretty sure there are other mushroomy things like Mushroom Fried Rice, or Mushroom Noodle, or can you think of anything weirder that goes with mushroom? LOL.

very mushroomy

mushroom satay

mushroom pepes

this drink is called carica ice. carica is basically like a papaya.
the drink is very delicious and refreshing! yum!

Kay, that was too much of mushroom. My prayer back then was not to get moldy after that heavy dose of mushroom haha. Right after je-Jamur-an, we head straight back to the city (not the hotel :p) to go to Kalimilk. Kalimilk is basically a restaurant, but it was famous for its milk, and milk products. The interior of the restaurant was really nice. But I think the milk and yoghurt was so so, nothing really special. In fact, I enjoyed more of their snacks. But it was a fun place to spend your evening. Still worth the try :)