Yogyakarta 25th-29th June 2010 -Part II

4 day : My friend and I skip the Sultan Royal Palace and Water Castle, we went to Dieng instead. Dieng is a highland of central Java, it take about 2 and a half hours from Borobudur. The winding road is filled with tea, coffee, vegetables and tobacco plantation view along the way.

Complex Candi Arjuna, Dieng

Dieng active volcano-Dieng plateau is really combination between heaven [because is located in highland] and hell [because found Sikidang crater].




sulphur craters

sulphurs

Telaga warna, bright green color and the coloration came from the sulphur cache underneath it.

Telaga warna

Yogyakarta 25th-29th June 2010 -Part I

With MAS airline promotion ticket to Jogjakarta round trip only cost RM 291 inclusive tax, I grab my ticket and here I am in Yogyakarta.

Nasi lemak

Adit is a friend that I gonna meet up in Jogja, I contact him through couchsurfing and he agreed to meet up omce I arrived after meeting up with pleasure he invited me and my friend to stay with him although he got another guest from the state too. Adit took us to have dinner and chiling outside the convenience store like a local.

Street arts all over Jogja is the first thing I notice.

Local prefer to buy drinks from convenient store and then just sit in front of the store and chills. We are one of them too

Street performance also very common here

2nd day: Adit and his gf- Maria took us to Museum seni and budaya Jawa located at kaliurang. It take about 30mins from the city center. Indeed it is a nice place to visit if you got extra time.
entrance fees (Foreigner :RP 50,000 Student: RP 25,000 Local: RP 25,000) . Bring your student card if you got one.

Mt.Merapi

Adit took us to MT. Merapi but the weather wasn't nice to us.
Gunung Merapi located in the southern area of central Java, overlooking the ancient royal city of Yogyakarta, is the most active volcano in Indonesia.

Houses was destroyed and people was killed by the eruption of Mt.Merapi

3rd day : Adit took us to the famous Prambanan. It was too crowded during our visit. tourist are everyone.
(foreigner :USD15, foreign studens USD7,local: Rp15000)

Prambanan Temple complex, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Borobudur
(foreigner :USD15, foreign studens USD8,local: Rp15,000)

Borobudur was too crowded, surrounded by locals and tourists thus I can't take much pictures.

Road trip

Tsubasa all the way from Japan to attend Wen's wedding after the wedding , we went for road trip.

From Melaka - KL - Perhentian - Penang -Ipoh

Here I am in Perhentian Island after getting my diving license and with time consume I am only able to go for only 1 dive

Relaxing & nice view

Eastwest highway signboard : Caution~ deer on the road ;)

Penang definitely a right place for foods hunt

Ipoh salted chicken~ delicious

PADI Open water course

Hooray~ I am a certified diver now :)

My instructor Joe and Me

my horrible tan line

The PADI Open Water Course is a beginner-level training that gets you certified to Scuba Dive up to depths of 18 meters/59ft and it is for whole life :) I took my course with Turtle bay divers in perhentian besar. The course price is about RM 900-950. My instructors are Tim and Joe.

To complete the course :-

1. Receive your PADI Open Water Diver manual.
2. Watch a video which explain the chapters in the manual.
3. Do a chapter-review with your Instructor.
4. Confined water
5. Take theory Exam.
6. Start 4 dives with your Instructor
7. PADI Certified diver :)
   

The course need to be done by at least 4 days but If you are unable to take leave you can split the course which done 2 days in city and 2 days at the island. Which mean you need to read your manual and watch the video, theory exam in city and do confined water sessions in a swimming pool with your Instructor then another weekend only dives with instructor at the Island.

Taiwan-kaohsiung高雄 & Lamay Island 小琉球

Here I am in Taiwan!

Youth Travel in Taiwan encourage youth from around the world to explore Taiwan, thus before your arrival you should check out their website and apply youth travel card and digital tour buddy phone which allowed you to borrow handphone from them and return before your departure.

We decided to travel south to kaohsiung and Lamay Island so we take a high speed train from taoyuan(Taipei) to Zuoying (kaohsiung). If you are not in rush you can take bus which might take about 4hours to arrived but with highspeed train it take only an hour and of because you need to pay more.

High speed train from Taipei - Zouying (kaohsiung) NT$ 1130

Citytravelinn in kaohsiung about 15-20mins walk to the nearest MRT station

Clean and comfortable

LiuHo Night Market 六合夜市


The next day, we wake up early to catch a cab to Tungkang (東港) then from Tungkang take a ferry to Lamay Island (小琉球)
台鐵(台北-高雄) → 客運(高雄-東港) → 船(東港-小琉球)

We still got few hours before depart to Lamay Island , we walk around and went to the fish market. Donggang is famous for its fresh and abundant seafoods include bluefin tuna (黑鮪魚) sashimi cuisine, desalinated mullet roe (烏魚子karasumi in Japan) and cherry shrimp (櫻花蝦, sakura ebi).

If you are looking for a relaxing and lay back island Lamay Island (小琉球)
is highly recommended

our guesthouse 月掬民宿

Riding around the whole Island is fun! it take approximately 4-5 hours .

crystal clear water

Vase Rock( 花瓶石) is Lamay Island landmark

Town area, and the local said Ah Dui Noodle shop (阿对面店） is famous unfortunately when I was there, the owner went travel.

at night time the guesthouse's owner take us to see nighttime eco

The owner's dog name Ocean (大海）

breakfast + picnic = awesome
After breakfast the owner take us to intertidal zone

Star fish

小琉球 habour

I Love Taiwan!