Every hour matters. Four hours of sleep on a comfy bed was already a blessing. At first, I was thinking that my travel buddy, Ate Macon and I should just sleep at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. But I guess, both of us were not yet prepared for that. Despite being sleepy, we have to force ourselves to get up and catch the Aerobus scheduled to depart KL Sentral at 5:00 am.
Staying at MyHotel Sentral was a good choice. As soon as we exit the mini-hotel, we were just a few steps away from the Aerobus and successfully boarded it. The fare is 1RM cheaper than AirAsia’s Skybus which I’ve tried during my arrival in KL. The fare of Aerobus is RM8 (Php 110.87) while a ticket of Skybus costs RM9.
It took us an hour to reach the Low Cost Carrier Terminal. It’s 6:00 am. Our flight is at 7:00 am. It was a wise decision to use AirAsia’s web check-in. But what I disliked about it was that I cannot choose my seat since the seating arrangement is assigned when you check-in online. I used to select a window seat but this time, I was assigned in between two seats. Great. (insert sarcasm here).
Good thing, the LCCT Terminal has a good number of food kiosks at the waiting area. So we filled our hungry stomachs before departing KL.
When our flight number was called for boarding, we lined up along with other passengers who were mostly Malaysians and Indonesians. I guess we’re the only Filipinos who were boarding that flight to Yogyakarta.
It was dark and drizzling outside. Guess what, we have to run in the rain. They didn’t have umbrellas to accompany the passengers. Oh well.
Here’s a map of the transit: Total Distance: 971 miles (KL-Jogja)
THE FLIGHT TO JOGJA
Hay, I didn’t get the window seat but at least I can sleep. Travel time between Kuala Lumpur and Yogyakarta was around 2 hours and 25 minutes. Yogyakarta, Indonesia is 1 hour behind Malaysia. Malaysia and the Philippines are in the same time zone.
I got to rest my eyes for an hour. My seatmate was so noisy. She was giggling with her other companions. It was really disappointing that I didn’t get the window seat. Silhouettes of volcanoes started to appear. Since my seatmate was also shooting, here’s the only shot that I got. I think it’s Mt. Merapi.
The plane landed at the Adisucipto International Airport at around 8:35 am. When I was about to get my bag, my other seatmate on my left helped me to get it from the overhead cabin. Yes, there were still good people.
After the long line out, Ate Macon and I alighted from the plane. We cheered like kids, “Yey!”
photo courtesy of macon
Finally, we’re on our second leg of the Southeast Asian Challenge: Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Yogyakarta is pronounced as [Jog-ja-karta]. From the airport, I’ve already noticed how they incorporated their art through the architecture of the airport. The rooves were made of terracotta tiles.
The arrival area was small making it crowded for the numerous passengers that have just arrived.
IMMIGRATION
Ate Macon easily passed the immigration because of her SG workpass. On the other hand, I was still asked some questions by the immigration. Only few Filipinos visit Yogyakarta. It’s not the usual destinations for Pinoys who are on a holiday. So what are the questions? Just the basics: What are you doing here? Are you alone? I said, “No.” I then pointed to my companion. The key here was to answer confidently. Don’t stutter. Don’t be afraid and everything will be alright.
MONEY CHANGER
Since I didn’t have any Indonesian Rupiahs (IDR) with me, I had to change a few bills at the Airport. The foreign exchange rate here was small so I only changed a few USD to IDR. Their rate: 1 USD is equal to 8,000 IDR. The going rate was 1 USD= 9,185 Rupiah. I changed 50 USD which gave me 400,000 IDR. In Pesos, my pocket money was Php 1,839.08.
In Indonesia, one can be a millionaire! 
After we left the money changer counter, I went on to find their Tourism desk to ask for maps. They gave out a card-like map with the size of a bond paper.
photo courtesy of macon
Hoards of taxi drivers and tour operators approached us and asked if we want to avail of their tours. I was determined that we do it the DIY way for Prambanan. I’ve researched well enough. PTB friends FlipNomad and FramelessWorld Bino Caina (Thanks Flip and Bino!) gave tips as well on how to commute from the airport to Prambanan, our next destination.
Ate Macon was hungry so she decided to eat first at KFC. I wanted to try local dishes so I did not eat. My mistake. I forgot that our itinerary was jampacked that day.
To be Continued….
*This is the first post of my Indonesia Series, part of the 57-hour Southeast Asian Challenge