Jogja - Weekend Gateway

Friday night (15 June 2007), after office hour I ran to the airport.. had a plane to catch at 19.40 to go to Jogja.. I’m meeting my hubby there, who has been in Jogja since last Wednesday for work. There will be a family gathering held by my hubby’s office on Sunday.

After succeeding passing through the traffic on Friday night (thank you Pak taxi driver..!!) I finally arrived at the airport. Go straight to the check in counter and almost fainted when the lady in counter said “Ibu, ini tiketnya untuk besok lho, bukan malam ini”. Gleg… it was scheduled for Saturday, though the same time as the flight I’m checking in at that time. Thank God there was a seat for me for the next flight that night.. pheww.. I called my hubby straight away and told him what just happened. His office’s travel agent is terrible…

Well, the flight was delayed for almost an hour. So I ordered KFC for dinner and enjoyed hot soup and tea at airport’s lounge.

Finally, arrived in Jogja at about 9.30 p.m. Mas Ip and his colleagues (Mbak Yeni, Mbak Yuni and Rita) picked me up at the airport. We went straight to GABAH RESTO.. a restaurant and lounge behind Novotel Hotel. A lovely resto.. * too bad I didn’t take any picture there.. still had a funny feeling in my stomach because of the flight.. * We met Mas Tanto and his girlfriend Wita there. One of Ipung’s friends also joined us later..

After we had drinks and snacks, we went to EMBASSY,, it’s a new bar and lounge located in Hotel Garuda at Malioboro. We were entertained by Mas Tanto and his partner, Mas Didi, who are the event organizer of SH. Many ABG of Jogja were there.. there’s also a night life for ABG in Jogja.. hehehe.. There were also live music, which I discover was quiet impressive.. I started a little dizzy after the 3rd or 4th glass of coke mixed with jack daniels.. so really had to stop. I’ve asked Ipung to go to the hotel.. I’m tired already, it was over midnight..

But the entertainer asked us to move to other place, so called STADIUM.. a place on the way to Adisucipto airport. Uuh,, tired… the place was more crowded there. It’s just like in Jakarta.. we stayed there until 3.00 a.m.

Finally arrived at the hotel.. I took a shower (can’t stand the smell of smoke from those places) and got some sleep..

Saturday

We woke up at 9.00 a.m. and got quick breakfast at the coffee shop. By the way, we stayed at Mercure hotel, a very lovely place, designed with Javanese-colonial style. It looks like Kembang Goela restaurant in Plasa Sentral, Sudirman.

We went ‘nyekar’ eyang Surowidjojo and went to Ipung’s house at Banyu Urip. It didn’t look as scary as I first went there 2 years ago.. hehe..
Then we joined Mbak Yeni and her family for lunch at BOYONG KALEGEN.. somewhere near Kaliurang. The restaurant was surrounded by fish pond. We had fresh fish there,,

In the afternoon, we took the trip to KETEP PASS.. a top of a hill where we can see GUNUNG MERAPI.. that volcano mountain was covered by clouds most of the time. Only for several times we had the chance to see the top of the Merapi.. until few moments before we decided to go, the sky was clear and we could see the full picture of the Gunung Merapi.. how beautiful..

At almost 6 p.m. we went down hill.. stopped at SOGAN VILLAGE, for dinner. A lovely place to eat. It was an old Javanese house,, very classic..!! the resto was also accompanied with a gallery.. also a very nice gallery. I bought a batik top there.

At 8.30 we went back to the city. My hubby and I took a city tour by becak for a while. The cold wind at night made us want to sleep in the Becak.. hehehe…

Sunday
The family gathering day.. it was the final round of the celebration of Sari Husada’s birthday. Located in housing and facilities district of the Indonesian air force in Jogya (kompleks AURI gituuh.. haha..).

There was a museum there.. I found Aki's name written twice in the museum as one of the first pilot graduates in 1945-1946. So proud of him..

The gathering was a crowd, full with people in their red and black t-shirt uniform and their families. We didn’t feel like we were part of them, since all the participants were from Jogja office.

So Mbak Yeni and her family asked us to go to lereng merapi, BANYU ADEM. We escaped from the gathering and went there. At Banyu Adem we could see the ruined village and bunker caused by the Merapi explosion last year.

After that, we had lunch at,, mm,, I forget the name. We had shrimp satay and fried fish. Mbak Yeni kids, Reihan and Naira (Rara) went swimming there. Mbak Yeni, Ipung and I went to Malioboro for about an hour, then Ipung and I went to the airport.
Again, I have different flight schedule from Ipung. His flight is an hour earlier than mine. What a travel agent!!
We tried to have the same schedule, but didn’t work. So I had to wait longer at the airport. My flight was the same as Mbak Yeni’s. So, finally arrived in Jakarta at about 7.30 p.m. Except for the flight schedules, it was a great weekend gateway…