Have you ever wondered what it feels like to travel solo to somewhere where you’ve never been to and couldn’t speak their language? Intimidating? Maybe. But one thing for sure is that you’ll grow as a person and being put in a situation where you’re forced to adapt, you’ll become a more independent person. That said, I’ve never regretted travelling solo to Yogyakarta (also known as Jogja) and I can safely say that it has been one of my best trips that have made me less incline to travel with a partner in the future.

Located in the Yogyakarta Special Region in Java, Indonesia, Yogyakarta is a city rich in history and has attracted many tourists due to their distinct attractions such as Borobodur and Prambanan temples. Beyond the temples, there are other interesting attractions to go and not forgetting its relatively cheap food and accommodation! My solo trip took up 5D4N to which I stayed at the Student Park Hotel Yogyakarta that cost about $27 SGD/night through hotels.com (CHEAP A’INT IT?)

Day 1

Due to past experiences of Air Asia, I decided instead to fly to Yogyakarta through Garuda Airlines (The Indonesian national airlines) that had me transit at Jakarta. At Jakarta airport, I walked and walked and eventually ended up at the international flight section. Take note that in the airport there’s 2 kind of flight department, the international flight and domestic flight. Pretty bad start to my solo trip (dumb of me) nevertheless it was a good experience to learn from.

Touched down at the airport at around 3.30pm, I then flagged a cab to my hotel, which cost about 100,000 IDR ($10 SGD) that took about 30 minutes. Upon reaching my hotel, it was then that I realized HOTELS HERE ARE CHEAP AND AWESOME. Take a search at Google and you’ll realize that too. Because this was an impromptu trip, I didn’t had the luxury of choosing a hotel based in the center of the city but Student Park Hotel wasn’t bad as it was nearer to the airport.

After settling down at the hotel, I then flagged down an OJEK (Motorbike cab) and headed down to Jalan Malioboro, which is a major shopping district in Yogyakarta. Because it was pretty late, I did not stopped by Taman Sari (an attraction that was pretty near). IN MY HONEST OPINION, no offense but I felt that Malioboro was kind of unnecessary? OR maybe it’s just that I don’t see the point in shopping at other countries when you could do it at your home country. But if you must know, the shops at Malioboro are mainly selling Batik (a cloth made using technique of wax-resist dyeing method).

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Regardless, I had an awesome experience because for the first time in my life, I’ve experienced earthquake while dining at a local shopping mall. Yes you heard me, an EARTHQUAKE. When the tremor happened, I thought I was grooving to the music played by the dining place (retarded I know), little did I know everyone around me stopped eating and started looking at the shaky lights above us. Without hesitation I packed up and headed for the exit, which, many people at that time were doing the same as me. Thank god there wasn’t any stampede that occurred. For more information on what to do during an earthquake, please Google it.

After the terrifying experience, I decided to head back to my hotel. Partly also because I had an appointment with a motorbike dealer there who wanted to discuss the conditions of my bike rental request which I made prior before stopping at Malioboro Street. The shop that I approached was Sewa Mobil and it cost about 50,000 or 60,000 IDR a day to rent the bike. Apart from the price, you’ve to submit your passport (which I hesitated at the beginning) and during the course of rental, petrol is self-paid. So I took my sweet scooter to ride around the neighbourhood and HOLY GUACAMOLE the streets were so hard to navigate and dimly lighted up. My plan initially was to use the rented bike to travel to my different locations as planned but because safety first, safety always, I returned the bike the next day… WHICH ALSO MEANT THAT, I HAVE NO PLANS OR ARRANGEMENTS WHATSOEVER TO BRING ME TO MY DESTINATIONS. It was pretty late (11pm?) and I was panicking. I asked the hotel receptionist that took me so long to communicate because apparently English wasn’t much spoken and fortunately I managed to book a taxi driver that cost 600,000 IDR (500,000 IDR if booked independently) for 12 hours for my next day itinerary.