My good! My God! My Goodness!!! I can’t believe it’s holiday at last!
Well, actually, holiday’s over. I just hope that I can say that word one more time in this situation -______- Hahahaha.
Earlier this year, I begged to my dad about having a family vacation because the last big family vacation I ever had is when I was in 4th grade of primary school. We went to Singapore and Malaysia that time. Since then, we hadn’t had a grand family vacation. We usually spent our vacation dining in many kinds of restaurant, visiting malls, watching movies and else. And by I mean ‘grand’ is that we go on a vacation, with the whole member of my nuclear family to some place far away and stay for a quite a while. My father agreed. And I had one requirement. NO HIGHLAND. I am SICK of mountain view, forests, green scenery, tea leaves, cold and damp air. It gave me a nausea everytime I think about it. Eww. I missed BEACHES, seashore, the sound of the waves, making sandcastle, feel the sun on my face, getting blown by the sea wind. It is my kind of World’s Nirvana, hahaha. Maybe that’s because it’s in my blood. I was born as an archipelago kid, born in Batam, part of the Riau Archipelago. In my first month in this world, my mother had taken me to the beach. So I guess me and beaches are like calling each other to become reunited with a gazillions of joy in each heart.
So, my father decided that we can go to Parai Beach in Bangka Belitung. My father said that the beaches there were still virgin and isolated. So it is like we’re in our private beach. But I refused. Beside visiting beautiful beaches, I would like to do many activities as well. It will be extremely boring if you go to a beach and only sit back and relax and watch the beach as the time pass by.And looking at how my father described the beach, I concluded that the beach was very isolated that nothing fun and glamorous will be there. And I guess that you have already guessed which state in Indonesia that we visited? Yep! It’s BALI. The decision-making-process really took some time so that we were too late to book an airplane ticket. So we decided to go on a tour, explore Java Island by car to get to Bali. Then it’s settled.
(Okay, let me tell you before, that I am not going to write any date except the departure date and the arrival date. Now let’s begin)
It was 23 December 2009. I was waiting in my house for my father to come home from his office and then we’re ready to set off. Oh and yes, we took our driver with us, Mr. Didik so he can drive the car back home because we came home from Bali by airplane. Our first destination is to Majalengka, my mother’s hometown. It is in the route to our real destination, Jogjakarta. We spent a night there.
Day 2:
Early morning, we continued the journey using the Southern Route. We managed to arrive at Jogjakarta at 4 in the afternoon and checked in at Wisma MM UGM because we couldn’t book any big hotel due to the high season and that we only had decided our vacation two weeks before. My dad said that we’re lucky because we can get a place to stay. Almost every hotel in this city had been full booked for the holiday. After settling down, we went to Malioboro Street. I bought many souvenirs for my friends. And since I have two different categories of friends: 109 JHS and MHT, I had to buy many kind of souvenir. I also thought of buying a Batik dress for my vacation in Bali but I didn't find anything my size and my pocket. So I just let it passed. Beside Malioboro, I also visited the Gudeg centre, Dagadu and Bakpia 25. I bought Bakpia for my friends at dorm and also bought a Dagadu T-Shirt with funny writings on it. I rode on a tricycle around Djogja City together with my dad :)
Day 3:
Early in the morning, I woke up and continued the journey. But first, I stopped on Kotagede, the silversmith city. I bought a silver ring with three zircons tied in the ring. I t is very beautiful and luckily, there's a big sale so I can get it for only 80.000 rupiahs! Beside that ring, I also by a pair of earings for only 75.000 rupiahs :)) Our next destination was: Batu Malang. On our way there, we passed Prambanan Temple and couldn't help ourselves to not to dropped by. I bought a bamboo bracelet which I wear until today :)) We arrived at Batu Malang at 10 p.m after gone through the scariest lost ever! The road led us to an uncivilized forest with steep road and curvy turnings. Even scarier, there are no one but us and the fog were starting to come down! Fortunately, with the help of my dad's GPS (thank you technology :)) we can hit the main road and made our way to the hotel safely. This hotel is better than the one in Djogja. The one in Djogja is good, but this one is great. The structure of the hotel is like a cottage.
Day 4:
