KL-Solo-Jogja Day 1 (Part 1)

Adisumarmo Airport, Solo

We reached LCCT at around 5:00am, again, like last year, my brother drove us to the airport and would be looking after our darling cats while we were gone. After checking in we had McDonald's for breakfast. The boarding time was 6:25am. At approximately 6:55am, we left Kuala Lumpur for Solo. The flight took 2 hours and 30 minutes. Magnificent views of Mount Merapi and paddy fields could be seen from the carrier – it was indeed an amazing experience with the morning sun rising right in front of our eyes.

Solobalapan Railway Station, Solo

We arrived at Solo Airport around 8:15am Indonesian time (9.15am in Malaysia). To our shock, expecting Solo Airport to be at least like Jogja Airport (as seen on TV) we noticed that it was very similar (or worse) than the Sungai Besi Airport. We couldn’t help but smirk to be told that there was heavy traffic at the Solo Airport, thus the delayed landing – there was not even another plane there, so what’s with the heavy traffic reasoning lah? It was a very simple airport without even a metal detector at the doors. Hehehehe…

Ibis Malioboro, Yogyakarta

We then took a cab to Solobalapan Railway Station to board a train to Jogja. Upon reaching the station (we can’t help commenting that it is indeed larger than the airport) we found out that the train to Jogja will only be arriving at 11:40am. That would be 2 hours of waiting. Since there was nothing much worth doing, we had a change of plan (there goes my train ride) and decided to take a cab to Jogja for Rp150,000.00. We both agreed that Solo was a little scary (to the little things we have seen so far) KN was shocked to see very young kids knocking on the car windscreen begging for money (Nothing new for me as I’ve experienced this before in Jakarta) They should be in school studying.

One of Malioboro Street's lane from Ibis

We reached IBIS Hotel in Malioboro Street Jogja at approximately 11:45am – a two hour trip from Solo (I've got to at least see the train on the way) IBIS is a four-star hotel with good amenities and very friendly staff. We took the room without breakfast so that we could try the local breakfast from the streets of Malioboro.

Malioboro Mall (Photo (c) Yogyakarta never Ending Asia

Our first destination that morning was to Malioboro Mall, a medium-sized shopping complex attached to the hotel. We did a quick check and some adjustments to our itinerary and decided to check out all the four malls in Jogja. Other malls include Saphir, Galeria and Ambarrukmo Plaza. Malioboro Street is just across the road from the hotel/Malioboro Mall but we plan to go there at night where it was more happening.