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The first night of our first adventure together
(Malioboro, October 5, 2016) |
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
My alarm went off at about 5 am. It was a really cold morning and, though my eyes still felt pretty heavy, my brain told me to wake up and get up. I sat down on my bed for a while before starting to get ready. Two train tickets that had been bought and a plan that had been discussed for months were the main reasons why I had to get up. Besides, I’m rather a perfectionist. It always takes me a long time to prepare whenever I travel. I have to check my list over and over again to make sure that everything that I think will be needed has been packed.
I arrived at the Bandung train station at 6:50. My husband took me there and dropped me off at the gate. After saying good bye, I ran inside. My sister, whom I traveled with, had been waiting for me. She was a little confused when she saw me coming with a big backpack and a big purse. She was somewhat concerned and thought that she may have forgotten some stuff, and I was just smiling at her. But, of course she knew me really well and when she realised that she was traveling with me, she became more relaxed. She didn’t forget anything. It was just me who tended to overpack. Then, before we got on the train, I stopped by one of the fast food restaurants in the station to get some breakfast to take away, and finally the train left our home town on time, at 7:20.
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Working on students' writing
on the train that was taking us to Jogja |
My sister and I were traveling to Jogjakarta, a city and a province on the island of Java. Actually, this wasn’t my first time taking the train to Jogja. In 2012, I went with my husband, but at that time, we took the night train, so this time I had the opportunity to enjoy the view of the eastern part of Java as the train was moving. Generally, we were pretty happy with the train. Although we only traveled in a business-class compartment, it fulfilled our standard of comfort as the compartment was clean, wide and air conditioned.
We arrived at Stasiun Tugu, Jogjakarta, at around 3:30 pm. The clear sky and hot weather welcomed us; therefore, we decided to walk to Prawirotaman, an area where a lot of cheap hotels are available. Based on the information that we got from the internet, it would take us about an hour to walk there from the train station. So there we were, walking through the famous Malioboro Street to go to Prawirotaman. However, it was so hot and my stuff was so heavy that we didn’t last long. It was I who gave up and when we approached a bus stop in Malioboro, we changed our minds. We bought two bus tickets for 25 cents each and waited for about 15 minutes for the TransJogja 2A that would take us to Kolonel Sugiyono Street where we would get off. The traffic was really nice and the bus trip only lasted 15 minutes. After getting off the bus, we still had to walk for about 15 minutes to Jalan Raya Parangtritis, the street where Prawirotaman is located. Not far from our destination, we stopped to get some snacks from a food stall on the side of the street. The boy who sold the snacks was very friendly, if not talkative, and he didn’t stop talking while cooking our order. He was also really funny. This was a pretty rare occasion for us since people in Bandung are not as friendly, especially towards domestic tourists. From then on, we became friends. We would walk past his stall every time we went out and he would greet us and say hi whenever he saw us.
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Metro Guest House
Prawirotaman II Street No. 7 |
After paying about 40 cents for our snacks, we continued walking to find a hotel. We actually already knew where we wanted to stay. When I went with my husband five years ago, we stayed at Metro Guest House. I was amazed with the whole concept and the ambience of this place. It is not a starred hotel but it is mostly focused on making its guests feel at home. Inside, there is also a garden which is surrounded by medium-sized hotel rooms. I really liked this hotel, so my sister promised to check it out, and I was really glad when she was okay with it and agreed to stay there. We paid around US$15 for a night and for us, that was a good price—within our budget.
It was already 4:45 pm when we entered the hotel room and as soon as we put down our bags, we started making plans. Initially, we wanted to go to Monjali Park, also known as Rainbow Park. However, to get to this place is time consuming since it is pretty far from the hotel and the TransJogja only operates until 9 pm. We didn’t want to get there too late but only stayed for a short time, so we changed the plan. We decided to just stick around the hotel and go back to Malioboro, not for shopping but for enjoying the nightlife there. I had also been in contact with one of my friends who lived in Jogja, so we agreed to meet up that night. He said he would take us to a cafe which offered live music. It also happened to be the night when one of his friends was celebrating his birthday. The party didn’t start until 9 pm but my friend came early—at 6:30 pm—and because we were already hungry, we went out to find angkringan (nasi kucing), a special traditional dish from Jogja that we had craved for a long time.
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The Metro Guest House Dining Room |