Jogja Trip - Ullen Sentalu

As an Indonesian, I'm very much aware that I can't expect to visit a very well-maintained, organized, informative, with attractively and correctly (as in historically, or by theme) displayed exhibitions kind of museum in Indonesia.

I've visited Fatahillah Museum (or Jakarta History Museum) in Jakarta few years back, and eventhough the museum itself boasts thousands of collection (which I found impressive at first), when I finally visited it, I was not impressed at all. Though I could totally see there were soooo many collections (that some of them were stacked together to save some space), it was messy, dusty, inorganized, lack of historical information - overall the only good thing about the museum is that it indeed houses too many collections (the ticket price was cheap too - I can't remember the exact price). And though I haven't visited many museums (government-funded ones) in Indonesia, often time I left disappointed.

So when I saw that Ullen Sentalu is a private museum, I was very much intrigued.

The location is pretty secluded, it takes around 30 mins from Jogjakarta, and since the signage was quite lacking there, we stopped at a restaurant to ask for a direction - no one knew about Ullen Sentalu, and then made another stop at a police station - this time we were lucky and given a clear direction where to go.

Ullen Sentalu is not located right by the main road of Kaliurang, we had to make another turn to a smaller road (luckily there was a sign at the main road), and then we finally found it!

the entrance - somewhat looks hidden

We paid 25k IDR each for the tickets (because we are Indonesian as opposed to 50k IDR for International tourists), and asked to wait for few minutes since the guide was not finished with the guests that came earlier. So it's a guided tour, interesting...

After few minutes, we were guided to a small pathway, passing a tropical garden and through an open door and down the stairs so that now we were directly below the garden. It was a little bit cold there - due to air-con and also the fact that it's sort-of underground.

Our guide was a bright and cheerful lady. She excitedly showed us the collections, which were owned by royal families of Jogjakarta Sultanate and Surakarta Sunanate.

The first building we were in was full of photos and paintings of royal families. She told us the history of both royal families in a way that it was like we were listening to a radio drama or a gossip show, as actually the lives of the royal family seems to be full of drama too.

Then we were guided to few other buildings full of collections after that; each building houses one theme of collection. There are 2 buildings that I particularly found interesting, they are the one where the letters for the broken-hearted princess written by her families/friends were displayed, the one with batik collection, and last one is the one dedicated for Princess Nurul, Princess Consort of Sri Mangkunegara VII (one of the board member - the owner of some of the collections).

After visiting all small buildings, we were guided to a souvenir shop - the price is definitely not cheap, but the quality seems good, and we finished our visit by having a late lunch at Beukeunhof, a European-style restaurant that is also inside the museum.

Beukeunhof - indoor seats

Beukeunhof - open-air seats

Seafood soup and grilled chicken - surprisingly pretty good

View from Beukeunhof

It's too bad that no photos allowed there as there are actually many collections worth photographed to share with my friends and family to show them that there IS actually a well-maintained, well-curated, well-displayed, and well-organized museum in Indonesia!

As precious stones are never easily found, Ullen Sentalu is indeed a hidden gem.

Od style gate near the exit gate

Monument commemorating sister province:
Jogjakarta, Indonesia - Kyoto, Japan

Pathway by the exit gate

Ullen Sentalu
Jl Boyong Kaliurang
Sleman - Yogyakarta
Phone: +62-274-895161

Opening Hours:
8.30 am – 04.00 pm.
Open Daily on Tuesday trough Sunday,
Closed on Monday
Last admission 30 minutes before close

Admission Fee:
International (adult & student) IDR. 50.000
International Child (5-15) IDR 25.000

Local visitor (subsidized) :
Child (5- 15) IDR. 15.000
Adult IDR 25.000
(Suggested to bring umbrella while visiting the museum)

Jogja Trip - The Phoenix Hotel

TripAdvisor has been the best advisor when it comes to travelling - at least for me.

I got to know the site when I was planning itinerary for my Seoul trip last year, and it has been my go-to website for any travel-related stuff, and I can't agree more that it is an AWESOME community site!

So, of course while I was looking for hotels in Jogja, I once again turned to TripAdvisor for some advice, and there were 3 hotels that piqued my interest.

They are The Phoenix Hotel, Royal Ambarukmo Hotel, and Sheraton Mustika Resort and Spa; And this very post is dedicated for The Phoenix Hotel.

I've always been fond of 'old' and vintage stuff, whether it's a building, restaurant, cafe, furnitures, stationery, bags, etc - that's why I have a huge interest in history as well. So when I first saw the pictures posted in TripAdvisor or in the hotel's website, I immediately fell in love with this hotel...

The colonial-style building and the classic furnitures mixture of Dutch and traditional Javanese style... They were like calling and inviting me to come!

It was decided almost instantly that I had to stay in that hotel no matter what!

lounge next to the lobby - love the decor!

lounge next to the lobby - love the decor!

We were greeted by a very kind and polite receptionist, and when I asked to make sure that we got the Pool View room, he said that he would upgrade our deluxe room to a Junior Suite!

And my oh my, the room was very very nice! It's my first hotel room that I have ever stayed in that comes with a separate living room, 2 televisions (21" in the living room, and 32" in the bedroom), a bathroom with both bathtub and shower room, and a nice coffee machine.

living room - with 21" TV and coffee machine

2 wardrobes by the door - with a safety deposit box

bedroom

armchair, 32" TV, fridge (inside the cupboard)

bathroom - bathtub and vanity area

bathroom - shower room

view of the pool from our balcony

sunbed by the pool - towels provided on each of them

view of the pool at night

In the morning, we took a little walk to the pool before going to the restaurant for breakfast. There are few display cabinet with a classic collection of what I presumed from a private collection of the hotel's owner. The decor is classy, elegant, charming with a touch of Dutch-Javanese style which I can't seem to stop admiring.

pool terrace

outdoor seats in restaurant

The breakfast was pretty good too. There is a wide variety of breakfast meal available, from the traditional Javanese style, gudeg, jamu, green bean porridge, to Western-style pancake, waffle, toast, sausage, salad, etc. There's also gamelan playing nearby the fountain to entertain the guests. The restaurant employees were also friendly, polite and quick without making us feel rushed - I've met that kind of waiters and it irritated me to the point I wanted to tell him to back off and let us eat in peace.

After a hearty breakfast, we went back to our room to finish our packing and get ready to Ullen Sentalu. I've been interested to go there once I read the reviews in TripAdvisor - and because I am such a history-geek (the review of Ullen Sentalu will be up soon!).

Overall, I enjoyed our stay in The Phoenix Hotel, it's one of the best hotels I've ever stayed in, and mostly due to the different feeling - there's a feeling of "home" over there. There are a lot of open spaces that allow the air-flow to be fresher than the closed air-con room, it's not a high-rise building - it's a 3-storey building, and of course, because it's a colonial-style building, which I really really like! ^^

By the way, in early evening, there was a knock on our door, and since I didn't order any room service, I wasn't expecting any one at my door at all. It turned out it was a hotel employee checking if there was anything we need or if there was any problem with the room. I've stayed in few 4-5 star hotels before (during my trip to China, Middle-east and Hong Kong - never in Indonesia though), and this was the first time that a hotel takes a step further in making sure the guest enjoying the stay by actually knocking each room's door and checking if the guest is satisfied with their room. I am truly impressed!

Ah, The Phoenix Hotel, I think we will soon be meeting again...

The Phoenix Hotel

Jl Jenderal Sudirman 9
Yogyakarta 55233
Indonesia
Phone: (62)274-566617
Fax: (62)274-566856

Jogja Trip - Prambanan

I finally got to visit Prambanan Temple - also known as one of the most beautiful Hindu temples in the world (according to a website I've read before - couldn't remember the URL though)! 

And yes it is indeed beautiful... :)

Once I landed at Adi Sucipto International Airport in Yogyakarta and met my companion at the waiting area, we went straight away to Prambanan - it's only a 30-minute drive from the airport.

It was a pleasant day, a lot of cloud, so it was not as hot as it usual is in a tropic country.

The entrance fee is 30k IDR (~3.2 USD), there is also another type of fee which includes the temple at the back of the park (Candi Boko, etc) - I don't remember the exact price, but I think it's around 45k IDR (~4.8 USD).

Right after the entrance gate, there's a simple map showing the few temples in the huge archaeological park.

Prambanan is the one in the center
There are 3 smaller temple complex at the rear part of the park

As you can see, there are 6 temples in the main (Prambanan) complex, the entrance is right in front of 3 smaller temples, and behind each smaller temple, they are (from the left) Brahma, Siwa, and Vishnu temples - the names of 3 main Hindu Gods.

We went straight away to the main complex, and boy, I am hugely impressed seeing how beautiful these temples are. They really live up to the expectation as one of the most beautiful temple!

One thing to note, better be careful when climbing the steps to enter each temple (except Siva - visitors are not allowed to enter), they are quite steep and a step can be like twice of normal stair step.

View from the complex entrance

Right: Siwa Temple (the main temple - the biggest one)
Center: Brahma Temple (there's a statue of the God Brahma in it)

3 smaller temples (the one in the center is much smaller)

the exit gate (at the side near the Vishnu temple)

view of all the temples in Prambanan

view of Ramayana Ballet stage from Brahma temple

The path actually splits up to the children playground and to the back complex of the park - which will lead to the other temples, as we only bought the ticket to Prambanan, we took the path to the children playground, where there was a local band playing old songs in one of the gazebo.

local band playing old songs

We kept walking pass the playground and went into the museum (entrance is free).

The museum itself is not as special as I expected it would be. It houses a lot of statues, stone jars found in the complex, but it really lacks in terms of presentation. There are possibly hundreds of statues displayed in the yard, but it seems that they are just put there without any historical presentation value as I would expect from a museum. 

Same thing for the displays inside the two air-con buildings, they are considerably lack of historical information. Some of the photos come with one or two sentences along with them,and I learned that Siva temple was found in a very poor and destroyed condition and also that it took decades to rebuild the whole complex, but overall, I still feel that I didn't get to learn much from them.

a gazebo housing a set of gamelan right after the museum entrance

the yard is full of statues

gamelan

Brahma statue at the back of museum

Inside the first building in the museum.
Center: the photo of Siva temple when it was first found - it's remarkable that they managed to rebuild it to what it is now

Inside the second building.
Center: Miniature of Borobudur temple made of wood.

Right before the museum exit, there's a small building where we can watch a 20-minute movie about Prambanan (paid additional 5k IDR per person), and since we were already there, we might as well just watch the movie.

The quality of the movie sucks very much so. But luckily the content is quite interesting. It explains quite detail what Prambanan temple means to the Hindus at the time it was built, what the main Gods are, and how the relief at the side of the temples depicts the story of Ramayana, etc. But it did cross my mind that it would be better if the video was shown BEFORE the visitors entered Prambanan complex. Sigh...

After leaving museum, we followed the path to the complex exit, and passed by a small field where they keep a herd of deers. They also sell deer's food for visitors to feed them.

deers!!

a stretch of small food stalls

The exit forces us to pass by food stalls, and a market selling all kinds of souvenirs, ranging from small key chain, shirts, handbags, accessories, wooden statues, etc, and of course, batik!

We didn't by any souvenir though, but I think tourists might be tempted to buy some as they are quite cheap - by western standard.

That concludes my first visit to Prambanan - I'm not sure there will be a second visit, but if there is, I will visit the whole complex (not just Prambanan), and I will surely pay more attention to the relief of the story of Ramayana. :)

the relief in one of the temple - it's very beautiful and detailed considering they carved them using minimum tools (compared to tools available now).

Shinhwa The Grand Tour in Singapore 2012 "The Return"

Yes! Yes! Yes!

I went to Shinhwa's concert last Saturday! Woo-hoo~~!!

It took me a long time to decide if I wanted to go to their concert or not.

Cons:
- the crowd (I don't like too much crowd)
- the screaming (ya know, those girls screaming at every little things their oppas do on stage...sigh...)
- the price (the tickets were not cheap!)

Pros:
- it's SHINHWA!!!- it's SHINHWA!!!
- it's SHINHWA!!!

So that's it... the cons were defeated easily by the fact that they are SHINHWA!!!

The Ticket

By the time I became a fan of Shinhwa, it was around 2 weeks before their concert. All the good seats (category 1) were sold out, except for the seats on far left/right blocks. So I opted to look for outside seller. I browsed eBay, gumtree, and any local forums to look for anyone selling concert tickets. And luckily I managed to find one ticket, second block from the center, 7th rows, sold for 275 dollars (4 dollars more expensive than the original price - good enough for me).

The Venue

The concert was held in Compass Ballrom, Resort World Sentosa.
I reached there at around 430 PM and there wasn't much people there yet, except a queue for mosh pits.

central entrance

mosh pit queue

a huge Shinhwa poster - a lot of girls had their picture taken in front of this

The official merchandise of this concert included light sticks (sold out), t-shirts, earphone jack cap, boutonniere, clear file set, and posters set. By the time I check the booth, all navy t-shirts were sold out and only left with the white ones (I bought one after a very quick thinking, luckily I didn't take a long time to think and just bought it when I got there, because when I went back from dinner at around 615 PM, all t-shirts were sold out!).

The entrance was opened at around 630 - I got in right away.

the view from my seat - the stage is so close!

cat 1 seats and cat 2 seats at the back

cat 1 seats and cat 3 seats at the left side

The Concert

It started at a few minutes after 7 PM - quite on time.
Phone cameras are allowed in the ballroom, however since there were too many movements from Shinhwa members, it was difficult to get a clear and nice shot.. boo hoo... :-(
Oh well, I just wait for the fan cam pictures.

This is one of the clearest pictures I got from the encore:

The Highlight

- Before the guys went to the stage, a video was played in the big screen, and then the names of the members were shown in huge and fancy fonts in the order from the oldest to the youngest member.  And for each name shown, a deafening scream filled up the ballroom. I was like, "what the...?!?". There wasn't even a picture of them, it was only a NAME written on the screen and every body went crazy! It got me wondering that if I was in my late teenage year, or even early 20s, would I scream along with them too? -_-'

- For the first song, the guys showed up from behind the huge screen on the stage wearing a white suit, and my first impression was, wow... this is real! I am watching Shinhwa's concert! That's them in person! Eric is so tall! Min-woo is indeed much shorter than Eric!

- When they went to the part of the stage that was right in front of my seat block, a whole bunch of thoughts came to my mind: Damn! Eric looked so fine! Hye-Sung is very pretty! Jun Jin and Min-Woo are fairer than in TV shows! Their faces are so smooth! Eric is very very tall! They are much more handsome in reality than in pictures or tv shows!

- I actually expected to hear Hye-Sung, Andy and Eric speaking in English as I understand that they spent their teenage years in US, however among all of them, only Eric greeted the audience in English and his English is quite good, almost no accent. The only English from Hye-Sung was "What's going on?", and from Andy was "Say XXX!" (XXX is the name of Shinhwa's member). And unexpectedly, Min-Woo spoke more English words than those two, and his pronunciation was pretty good considering he has no English upbringing - maybe Eric helps with that too.

- Eric was being Eric I suppose. He didn't talk as much as Min-Woo, but he circled around the stage quite frequently, waved a lot, and he even wore a bunny-ear hairband during encore - after Min-Woo started it.

- Min-Woo was very friendly and chatty. He tried to engage the audience as much as he could, he seemed so cheerful and happy.

- Dong-Wan was not feeling well. He seemed distant and didn't talk nor smile much. His face was pale too. Poor Dong-Wan. He even said sorry for not being in his best condition for the concert.

- Hye-Sung was very very pretty! - I can't seem to get enough of saying that. Most of the time he just stood there, sang his whole heart out, and being pretty. 

- Jun Jin was not as chatty as Min-Woo, but he seemed enjoying the concert as well.

- Andy, there was one moment in the concert when everyone was walking around the stage, and Andy sat at the edge of the stage and made the girl-fans go crazy!

- I will surely attend their concert again if ever they are coming to Singapore again!

Shinhwa - The Longest Running Idol Group

I've heard about Shinhwa few years ago when I started going into kpop in 2008... Actually when I first got to know about this group, I was kinda cynical about it. I mean, a boyband with 3 singers and 3 rappers must not be that good after all, right? Having designated rappers would mean that each of their song will feature rapping part - an idea that I found ridiculous since not all kinds of songs would require rap in it. So then, mercilessly, I overlooked them and joined DBSK's shippers.

Not until last year I heard about the long-awaited end of Eric's, Shinhwa's, leader military duty some time around the end of 2010, and his drama comeback, Myung-wol the Spy, which was a total mess, by the way. But since my curiosity won over my dysfunctional and yet better judgment (as usual), I watched the drama anyway.

The drama, as I've mentioned earlier, sucked. It started off quite well actually, until the writer somehow got the logic side of her/his brain impaired and the plot went downhill from fun and interesting to just simply silly and not making any sense at all. The height of the stupidity reached its peak when the lead actor slapped the lead actress and never in one scene, he said sorry or expressed his remorse for what he has done.

Anyway, one good thing from that drama is that I got to know Eric, the leader of Shinhwa, and I have to admit, he is one darn handsome guy - I always have a thing for tanned Korean actors.

From Eric, I then know Shin Hye-sung, one hell of a good ballad singer, check out his song featuring Eric and Nam Gyu-Ri:
note: it's awesome!

At this point, Hye-sung has had himself a new fan (me!).
I know about the rest of Shinhwa's member: Lee Min-Woo, Kim Dong-Wan, Jun Jin, and Andy - but none of them impressed me (yet).

Until recently, I started watching Shinhwa's Broadcast (신화 방송), thanks to a generous and dedicated subber I found in youtube, Jeannious1128, I am able to watch subbed episodes of 신화 방송 weekly (I do hope she will keep subbing the show).

This show made me a new fan of Shinhwa. I know that even variety shows in Korea are all scripted or half-scripted, however nevertheless, in the shooting process, the casts are subjected to show few sides of their personality, and so far, I'm very much amused by their quirk and "craziness".

Eric, the leader, the main rapper, a guy who tries to keep his cool on camera almost all the time, but in recent episodes has seemed to be more comfortable and displays some of his quirks. He is known to be the one with 4D personality.

Lee Min-Woo, the second oldest member of the group, a good dancer and singer, seemed earnest and sincere in what he does, a good speaker (he talks way more often than Eric, the leader - usually leader is the chatty one), often complains about his height and how Eric, despite having height of more than 180 cm, is still wearing height insoles.

Kim Dong-Wan, the witty guy, often says things without really thinking it through, and always followed by "I'm sorry" at the end. But it's clear he's a hard-worker and a good singer, I think he's a strong singer than Min-Woo as I find that Min-Woo's voice is more on the popular side, not strong, but easy to the ear, while Dong-Wan's is more on a stronger side, more powerful, and maybe better in singing ballad.

Shin Hye-Sung, the little prince, the pretty boy of the group, though he's reached his 30s, his face is yet still on the 20s side, famously for being vain, great and strong voice - same both in recording and live most of the time, known as worse dancer in Shinhwa, seemed perfectionist as well.

Jun Jin, the comic guy, started of as a rapper, but now he's one of the singers in Shinhwa. Not quite as strong as Dong-Wan nor Hye-Sung, but he's quite good too. Known to make up lies in TV shows to make things interesting, and other members often call him out of it. He's the one who seems to be very much comfortable in variety shows.

Andy, the rapper, the youngest (or maknae), seems a reserved kind of guy but he has quite good business instinct apparently, as his company manages TEEN TOP and it's pretty successful so far.

And together six of them, are SHINHWA!!

Having been around since 1998, they seem to be still going strong. Their bond is strong, and that also thanks to the leader, Eric, who sticked with them even though he was offered a high pay contract by their first management company and together they left the company.

Their latest album, The Return, was released on 24 March 2012. It consists of 11 tracks with their title track, Venus:

My fave tracks are "On The Road", "Hurts", "Be My Love", and "Welcome".

And regardless that they are still a boyband after all, I'm actually more comfortable calling them a MANband. Because what I see is not 6 boys anymore, they are 6 grown-up men who knows what they want and work hard to reach the place where they are right now, and they are still working hard... ;)