Due to unfortunate ignorance on my part, we were almost late for our flight. I had believed that Airasia flew out of the budget terminal (if you've flown airasia, you'd understand why I thought so) and we had to haulass from the budget terminal to T1 and then spend another hour in the queue to check-in (note to any amazing race contestants. NEVER queue behind a man with 4 wives and countless children. Of course at that time, we didn't know it was ONE man and his 4 wives and countless children. There was only ONE man at the check-in counter, and after a while we realised that he was constantly calling people to come over so that the counter could verify the identity behind the passports. What an incredible waste of time). Obviously we were late to the gate (though not as late as the bohol connection flight... which will go down in history) and to compound the bad start, there was a jackass in the aisle seat who refused to move to let us in. (Better half said 'excuse me'. I said 'excuse me', stewardess said 'excuse me sir' and the obvious deaf jackass didn't respond. Finally, he looked up, and said 'why didn't you say you wanted to go in'. I swear I could've popped him right there and then.
Yogyakarta international airport. Considering that Yogya and Borobudur are such tourist attractions, I'm surprised the airport is in such poor condition. (Siam Reap 1: Yogya 0). At least the customs officer didn't ask me for a bribe (Siam Reap 1: Yogya 1)
The street our hotel was located. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it, I can’t. All I know is Rickey recommended the place, which was pre-approved by Miss Ting. Under any other circumstances, I would accept Rickey’s recommendations easily. We’ve travelled together enough that he knows my minimum standards. However, this time, I had to get Miss Ting’s seal of approval as I was travelling with the better half. That said, the Ministry of Coffee was a lovely place. Quiet location in a relatively nice part of town, surrounded by other mid-range bed&breakfast hotels with enough tourists that there are plenty of eateries nearby, but not cheap enough area to be seedy. The hotel itself was quite lovely. Clean, good service (great food – see day 3) and extremely comfortable.
This is the ‘lobby’ of the hotel, which doubles as the dining area (they have an in-house bakery, so cakes/breads are baked fresh. There’s even a library upstairs. Not the typical, take-a-book-leave-a-book bookshelves you’d typically find in many budget lodgings, but a real library with proper reference books. The upstairs seating area was also a nice place to sit at night as it was quite breezy and cool.
Pretty decorations on the reception counter.
The fountain outside our room. There are only 8 rooms in MOC. 2 deluxe rooms (we took one) and 6 ‘normal’ rooms. One caveat, the fountain is loud and it only stops at 11pm. So if you’re early to bed, you will hear it very distinctly.
The rooms were decent considering the cost. My one complaint…ESPN wasn’t working (it was supposed to, but I suspect they had changed the cable provider, so all we got was a blue screen) and the playoffs were on. So I didn’t get to catch the Yankee/Twins games. The lavatory was a little old though, and no soap/shampoo was provided. We even had our own little balcony space with a pond.
FOOD! Our first priority. Our flight landed at 12, which is actually 1pm Sin time, and by the time we checked it, it was almost 2+ (sin time). We were starving. I had originally planned to walk down the street and look for Ayam Goreng (fried chicken), but the Civet Coffee sign was just too attractive. I had to try some Kopi Luwak. What’s Kopi Luwak? Google is your friend, but read-on before you search. The food was quite good. We both had their Mie Goreng (fried Noodles), which tasted wonderfully home-cooked. +1
Maybe about $3-4000USD worth of coffee beans right there.
The various stages of Kopi Luwak. From freshly harvested, to cleaned and dried to roasted.
If you’re thinking to yourself…’those look like pieces of turd’, well, you’re right. Kopi Luwak or Civet Coffee is the coffee made from the beans harvested from the shit of civet cats. The theory is, the Civet Cat would choose the ripest, sweetest berries of the coffee plant to eat. They do not actually digest these beans, so they are passed out of their system (with some addition enzymes from the Civet Cat). Harvesters scour the plantation looking for these droppings, clean, dry and roast them to make Kopi Luwak. The difficulty in harvesting the bean and the rarity makes this the most expensive coffee by weight in the world. (btw, the one cup I had cost me about $12USD. They sold 100gram bags for $35USD)
No fancy espresso machine for this brew. Simple French press, with a teaspoon of sugar.
That’s a $12USD cup of coffee right there. Starbucks eat your heart out. So how did it taste? One word… Nutty… Best coffee I ever had? No. Best coffee I ever had was in a quaint little diner in Hanoi serving Weasel Coffee (the Vietnamese version, except the bean was processed artificially with enzymes instead of through the animal’s digestive tract). Possibly the Vietnamese version tasted better because it lacked the impurities of the Civet Cat version. Impurities is an excellent word. Was I grossed out to drink something an animal passed out of its arsehole? Heh. Not really.
The streets of Yogya are decorated with graffiti. Some look officially sanctioned, most looked like vandalism. Teenage angst and rebellion aside, most of the graffiti were very good. I reckon these same teenagers descended from a long line of cultural artists who made the beautiful, ageless batiks. You can tell the talent and artistry involved (even if it were only tagged on by miscreants)
Kentuky Ayam Goreng. Ordinarily I would jump at the chance to eat street food, but as appealing as fried chicken on the street sounds, I had to resist. The chicken looked a little old and not freshly fried (and a little soggy). My line for streetfood (which I rarely cross)… If it’s cooked in front of me, I’ll eat it. If it’s been sitting for a while (in the heat), I won’t. If the guy tending the stall had taken the chicken out of the oil at the very moment I was there, I would’ve been first in line to grab a piece. Pity.
There are 4 kinds of public transport in Yogya. Taxis, Becaks(trishaws), Horse drawn carriages and Buses. We usually walked or took the bus. The Trans Yogya bus service is surprisingly efficient and cheap (3000rupiah(about US0.20Cents) for a single trip, regardless of distance. You could even take the bus around the different terminals, and explore the city… on just 3000rupiah. Even if you get off the bus, as long as you don’t remove yourself from the busstop, you don’t have to buy another fare. The one time we wanted to take a Becak, we were totally given the the shaft. Original becak driver says “2000rupiah”, we say ‘ok’, then another idiot becak driver comes by and says (in Indonesian) ‘these are tourists, charge them more, 20,000rupiah’. What an asshole.
This is the Monument 11 Maret (eleventh of March). Refers to a battle during the Indonesian revolution.
Malioboro street at night. This street is the main shopping area. Practically all the shophouses are batik shops, and in front of them, illegal batik vendors. The sheer density of batik vendors will blow your mind (the difference in prices too). Definitely the place to go to when visiting Yogya. Lots to see and do, and eat within a small area. More picts at Day 3
No comments:
Post a Comment