JOGJA...JOGJA!

Finally, after delayed for at least three times, I made it to Jogja…!!! This time no sleepover, no waking up early in the morning and taking a walk along Sosrowijayan Street getting a pack of Nasi Gudeg, watching early vendors getting ready to sell their items. No giggling with friends in any ‘warung lesehan’ along Malioboro Street til late at night. I was alone! It was a one-woman-show.

JOGLOSEMAR: JOGJA-SOLO-SEMARANG

I left home as early as 5.40 AM. This Bus JOGLOSEMAR departed at 6.05 AM. I promised my friend, Desita Terbritish Abish (The-Britishest-Ever Desita), to take a pic of this bus because she said she had never seen it, but I forgot to do it because I saw no ‘JOGLOSEMAR’ written on both sides of the bus, instead, I found “Bus Pariwisata” written on its both sides, which made it no difference from the other tourism buses, except that this bus is smaller in size. Desi…! I’m sorry, Bune!

JOGLOSEMAR is a tourist bus with destinations to and from Jogja-Solo-Semarang. However, the route is divided into three: to and from Jogja-Semarang, to and from Jogja-Solo, and to and from Semarang-Solo. I don’t remember when exactly this bus was launched, but I remember when a friend, Ben Clanchy a.k.a. Pak Satir visited my city in May 2005—just three days before I moved to Bali—and was going to continue his trip to Jogja, I reserved him this bus and it was new.

I didn’t know where to stop. I just knew that the place I was going to was Ngaglik, Sleman. I had never been to Sleman. I just knew that this place was a part of Jogja.

Anyway, after two long days at work, waking up and leaving home so early made me sooo sleepy. I slept all the way to Sleman. Thanks to the nice stewardess, she woke me up just before the bus reached the Ngaglik Junction. She said I should stop there, and take left to Nganglik.

And so, I didn’t know where to go. I was going to take any taxi, but it looked that I can hardly get a taxi. There were some ‘tukang ojeks’ (motorbike taxi riders) ready to deliver you anywhere, and I told one of them if he could take me to this place I had to go. So after searching for a confusing address (no number, just the street and the name of the building) for about 10 minutes or so, the Mas Tukang Ojek finally dropped me in a nice house with a Javanese architecture, five minutes before 9 in the morning. Gosh…I felt like I was in The Amazing Race, taking a Road Block task.

The building itself was so nice and comfy. Located in a suburb of Sleman, facing a paddy field, I like the breeze blowing from the trees surrounding the building.

I’ve done my things in 1.5 hours, and off to AmPlas (Ambarukmo Plaza). I was hungry and this was the only place crossed in my mind of where to get lunch. So I took a comfy place close to the window on the mall’s foodcourt on the third floor, having a dish of Chicken Curry with rice which was not as good as Akbar’s Tandoori’s at Plaza Senayan (Akbar, I miss your curry and massala tea!) and a cup of Thai Tea which was excellently good. Yeah, I was a bit disappointed with the chicken curry which I considered a bit too salty and yet not so tasty and not so spicy (curry must have much coriander and whatever other spices), but I really liked the Thai Tea which was a bit similar to Indian massala tea.

I’d had enough with my lunch so I continued observing the mall. I like AmPlas and that was the second time for me. I found an outlet which used to be one of my favorites in Jakarta (because of the low price and the nice designs), Number 61. So I entered this outlet and took some cute stuffs to be added in my wardrobe.

MALIOBORO
I’m a girl. A trip is never really a trip without shopping. A trip is a good reason for spending your money on shopping. And to me, every vacation is a moment to be myself—eating my favorite food, seeing things I want to see, and buying things I want to buy.

I left AmPlas and continued my trip to Malioboro Street. I missed this place, no matter how different it was than years ago when I used to walk with my Dad and Mum and bought those unimportant things—clamp necklaces, wooden bracelets, key rings, carved sandals.

I’ve been here for hundreds of time. Twenty to ten years ago, I used to come with my parents, and sometimes with my cousins. And then I came with my classmates. And since my Dad passed away, I came only with my mum. And now I did it only by myself. Hmm…things changed. And guess life changes.

It was a real struggle to Mirota Batik, my mum’s favorite place. I don’t know why is this place always be the first place she thinks of. She always says “I’ll meet you in Mirota Batik,” or “Let’s search some things in Mirota Batik”. But it did give me an impact. I walked along 300 meters or so on high heels and a skirt from the starting point of Malioboro Street to this spacious store with a “Mirota Batik” banner outside, just to find one thing or two as presents to I-don’t-know-who-yet.

The owner of Mirota Batik has a brilliant idea to present all the stuffs of Javanese culture in one store. Batik fabrics, handycrafts, wayangs (Indian-Javanese puppets), paintings, traditional herbs beverages called ‘jamu’, traditional delis, Javanese coffees, Javanese tea, even Javanese Chocolate (!), Monggo Chocolate. I think the best corner of this store is the corner where a Javanese lady wearing traditional Javanese outfits sitting on her bended knees, painting batik fabrics using ‘canting’ complete with the boiling wax in a pan on a small stove, various plant seeds as the natural color ingredients in bottles. It’s said that a person won’t finish this work in less than one month, just for a 2 meters piece of fabric. What a patience. Anyway, I like the smile of this 'ibu-ibu' when I asked for her permission to take a picture of her. (Desi, does her 'konde' remind you of something?)

Releasing myself from the crowd of Mirota Batik, I continued seeking cute stuffs in Malioboro Street. My favorite moment in Malioboro is always the time I bargain half or one third of the price and I win it!

TOURISTS
One thing that surprised me was, not many tourists in Jogja! I’m wondering if it was an impact of the political crisis in 1998 followed by riots, and then the first Bali Bombing in 2002 and again, the second in 2005, and not to mention the Tsunami Disaster in Aceh and North Sumatera in end of 2004? But I mean, wow! What an impact. What is Jogja without tourists? What is Malioboro without foreign shoppers? What is Sosrowijayan without backpackers?

Sosrowijayan! I remember spending my nights here with my parents and my cousins when my Dad was still around. Watching the backpackers, becaks, old-skool bicycles passing by, getting an early morning breakfast from an ‘ibu-ibu’ selling nasi gudeg Jogja complete with a piece of chicken’s breast or wing or head, super-tasty coconut milk, spicy sambal goreng and a piece of cassava (yes, cassavas in gudeg!), wrapped in a piece of banana leaf.

Across from our hotel was a narrow alley I never knew the name. There was “Superman Bar and Restaurant”, a quite spacious place where we used to have our lunches and dinners. Here I met a person who looked like Stephan Jenkins, my favorite celeb of those years, the lead vocal of Third Eye Blind. I remember looking at that face, and just when he realized I was looking at him, his pretty girlfriend showed up. :P

I left Jogja at 7.59 PM (according to the clock of Joglosemar Bus. Man…this bus is so punctual). It’s always been a nice trip to Jogja, even when I had to do it alone. Eleven hours in Jogja and I went home, seeing my beloved faces, watching the last episode of this season’s Ugly Betty (which wasn’t a good ending…what will happen to Santos?), crawling up my dearest bed and pillows, sleeping, and having a day off today!