I’m in Yogyakarata (or as the locals prefer, Jogja) and it’s been a nice start to my visit so far. I checked in for my 2-hour flight on Garuda and at the boarding gate, I was pleasantly told that I was bumped up to Executive Class (ie. Equivalent to Business/First Class) for the flight! This is the 2nd time I have had such a privilege, the first was almost 8yrs ago when I won a Business class ticket to Bangkok.
Executive Class is certainly a nice luxury. You get nice big seats and you get everything served to you in glassware. No plastic cups! Service on Garuda Airlines is nothing to shout about but it was decent. Since I was given a window seat, I took the chance to try taking cloud pics with my Canon DSLR. Here are two pics which I thought were the nicer ones. Don’t ask me what that mountain is. I have no idea. Any Indonesians know which mountain it is?
Jogja airport is a typical simple airport. Nothing flashy. You walk off the plane towards the immigration and then just a few steps after immigration, you get your bags off the ONLY luggage conveyor belt and less then 10 steps away is the customs/exit.
My first impressions: It’s already dark so I couldn’t see much. Jogja reminds me pretty much of countries like Bangkok and Vietnam. However, one difference is that there weren’t any jams even though it’s a Saturday night and the roads were quite packed. I can’t see much so I would probably be able to say more tomorrow when I go for the city tour. One interesting trivia I found out was that Jogja has about 600,000 people, of which 400,000 are students who come here to study! So the entire Jogja is pretty much like a small university town. Most of the businesses here cater to students (like bookshops/sports shops/mobile phone shops, etc).
I’m staying at the 5-star Hyatt Regency Hotel. The hotel is laid out like a resort and the pool is pretty awesome . Will try to post some pics once I get some daylight shots. Here's a pic of a cultural show which was going on in the hotel.
Tomorrow is a relatively early start. Gotta wake up at 6am so that we can reach Borobudur by 9am. I’m looking forward to the visit.
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