Sept 6 – 10.38 pm Hotel Artotel Suites, Yogyakarta
Our Air Asia flight from KL to Yogyakarta was delayed by an hour. Left KL only at 10.35 am. Krishnan and I slept really well on this leg of the journey as we were truly exhausted. Reached YIA by 12.05 pm. Interestingly Yogyakarta is 1.5 hours ahead of India, not 2.5 hours as its more famous cousin Bali is.
The new airport at Yogyakarta is beautiful. Since we had got the visa earlier we whizzed through immigration. The All Indonesia entry card had also been filled in India so we just showed the QR code and went past the customs gate.
A photo tour of the new Yogyakarta airport –
Iqbal, our guide was waiting at the gate. It took us another 1.5 hours to reach the hotel. Great check-in process and we were in the room by 2 pm.
Yogyakarta is not a huge city. The roads were great, all the way from the airport. No speed breakers !! It’s also green with fields on both sides of the road besides being very clean. No garbage piles, no plastic bags floating around and we didnt see a single cow or dog or cat on the road. A few pics from the 1.5 hour drive to the hotel.
Had lunch – a vegetable sandwich and a salad mixed with our own Top Tip Bhel. A huge shout out to this brand, Tamhankar’s Top Tip. We discovered it during our first Nagpur stop way back in 2015. A convenience store owner at a petrol pump introduced us to the brand. We have bought packets of it ever since. During our Feb trip earlier this year, I got in touch with their office directly and they deliver to whichever Airbnb we are staying at.
Slept again till 8 pm. Walked across to the supermarket that’s exactly opposite the hotel. Great store with everything that one may need. We got our favorite fruit, Pineapple that had been cleaned and peeled. Picked up some bread, cheese, and milk.
Sadly everything has egg or some non-veg element. Took us a while to figure out which bread to pick up. We also got a 5 lit water can as we have been advised against drinking the regular water.
Slept by 11 pm. Have a really early start on 7th at 4 am.
Do read an earlier post regarding Top Tip Bhelpuri – Customer Service – Indian Style.