Surabaya - Jogja Trip

May 13th – 15th, 2010

Our family first (long and far) trip is to Jogja. Why Jogja, my wife and me agreed that we miss Jogja’s atmosphere, where people are still practicing Javanese culture. We miss the attitude, honesty and humbleness.

This is the first trip that we have using our own car, not by plane or train. This is why also I called the trip my first long distance drive (700 km)

Day 1

• Leave home at 09 am
• Route has been planned using the map that we bought a week earlier
• Always a great feeling seeing city gates like Welcome to Nganjuk, You are Leaving Jombang – City of Adipura and many more
• At the afternoon, on around 2 pm we arrive at Magetan, and in a moment we realize that the roads are getting smaller and climbing. We’ve just found out that if we choose the shortest route, we will pass Lawu Mountain. The view was excellent, roads are covered with fog. We decided to stop by to have some lunch. The menu is rabbit satay with dark tea.

• After experiencing problems with finding a correct way in Solo and Sukoharjo, finally arrived at Jogja at 6 pm.
• At sometime around 7 or 8 pm we look for the hotel and decided to stay at Mitra Hotel. A simple hotel that cost us Rp 200.000/night or around US$ 20/night
• The hotel was nice, with that price, it’s equipped with air conditioning, hot water and TV (no cabel)
• Eating dinner at the closest ‘lesehan’ near the hotel, gosh,,,,having Gudeg for Rp.15.000 and Roasted duck for Rp. 20.000,,,this is expensive, but since we’re so tired, and no energy to do the bargain, we decided to accept it as the way it is.