Trip to Solo-Yogya

DAY 1

-29 Apr 2007-

From left to right, starting from the top:

1) Looking at the sun rising in the midst of KL clouds

2) Arrived at Solo airport at 9.20am (Indonesia time)

3) The street outside the airport

4) The street outside the Solo Balapan train station

5) One of the many monuments/statues along the road. Most serve as a roundabout, I think.

6) Pasar Gede (side view). By the time we reached there, it was already closing. Besides the one mistake we made; spending too much time choosing for a hotel room, alot of tourist attractions are closed by 2pm!!! So, we just walked around the city that day.


This is how the journey began...


On the 29th of April 2007, I left my house at about 3 something in the morning, took a bus from KL sentral, arrived at LCCT, ate McD breakfast set and then flew in the airbus to Solo at about 7 am. These whole morning travels were just plain COLD and sleepy..*yawn* and *shiver*. Well, at least I get to see the sunrise on a plane(,which got me amazed for a few minutes because after snapping a picture or two, I shut the window and cuddled to sleep.) I was really really really sleepy..coz I did not sleep at all the night before. I packed my luggage last minute and I packed until the very last minute before leaving my house. But thank God, I managed to catch about an hour plus of sleep before arriving at about 9.20 am in Solo, Indonesia.


It was a small airport. The arrival hall has only 2 lanes!!!; one for international passport holders and the other one is for local.

Taxis are readily available outside the airport. They all offer the same minimal price of 50,000 Rp to drive you down to the town. We took none of the taxis there as they were reluctant to reduce their fares. From our survey after asking a few locals in the aiport, we knew we could get to the town with a cheaper price. So, we walked out to search for other taxis. The search was pretty brief and we got Mr.Daniel to drive us down town at a fair price of 35,000 Rp.

Left to right, from the top:

1) One of the house with a gabenor like statue.

2) Solo city map at display in Adem Ayem Restaurant, where we had our lunch. [Rate: 1.5 stars; I ordered a bowl of Soto there. Although there were considerable amount of people queued up for take-aways, the food there is not really as nice as I expected.]

3) Slamet Riyadi Street; the busiest street in Solo ( if I'm not mistaken)

4) Our dinner at Malioboro Restaurant. We had:

• fried chicken (ayam goreng)- crispily delicious.. one of Solo's nice food ;)
• roasted chicken (ayam panggang) - finger lickin' good
• sweet and sour vege (which they recommended) - horribly sweet

with rice. Overall, it was a satisfying meal. [Rate: 4 stars]

5) Petrol stalls.

6) Atria Cafe. It was indeed rather surprising to find this decent and quite well decorated cafe here. Nice and quiet ambience, perfect for a cup of tea after walking around whole day. [Rate: 4 stars]

7) The 'hotel' we stayed for that night. They said the room come with fan but to our surprise, it is only an exhaust fan!? %#$@!! The budget hotels near the railway station is generally in poor condition. However, we chosed to stay there because it is within our budget and the station is just a stone's throw away. [Rate: 1.5 stars]

Our next destination: Yogjakarta (by train).