Embung Tambakboyo - Condongcatur, Yogyakarta

I found this place accidentially, I'm looking for my friend home and suddenly found this place. About a week later, I visiting this place at afternoon, and suprisingly, there are a lot of visitors.

Embung means Dam in English language. This Embung name is Tambakboyo, located in Tambakboyo Street, Condongcatur, Sleman, Yogyakarta

There are so many visitor, and you only have to pay parking idr 2000, that so cheap compairing with the refreshing experience I get in this place

I saw people running, hang out with friend, walking their dogs, some people are fishing, and some people are bring their camera to practicing their photograph skills.

I saw few small counter selling snacks and drinks.

This is one of dog lover walking with his dog.

This place is so fresh, although there is no flower garden, but I can feel the fresh air.

There are lot of people fishing here...

I spend about 1,5 hour to walk around, sit, buying snacks and back to parking area, and I feel so relax. I really glad to find this place, because not many people know this place.

I hope someday you can visit this place to ^^ 

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Calzone Express ~ Review

For the fans of Italian Cuisine, you may be familiar with the Calzone. Calzone is a folded pizza, at first glance looks like a clam shell, but I think it is similar to pastel, I do not know whether there is a relationship between a Calzone and Pastel hahaha. But one of the free resources on the internet says that the origin of pastel is little confusing, i think, it could be inspired by Italian Calzone.

Calzone that will be reviewed today is Calzone Express, located at Jln Cendrawasih no.3, Demangan Baru, Yogyakarta.
This is the Calzone Express menu, pretty simple and not expensive :

Atmosphere in Calzone Express

The menu is also written on the board, recently cafes and dining venues decorate their place with chalkboard things.

This is what we get, calzone wrapped in paper.
Serving time is a bit long to wait, because we are there at the dinner hour and the atmosphere is very crowded.

I ordered a Beef Barbeque Baked Calzone, tastes good, like a pizza in general

My BF ordered Cheezy Cheese Baked Calzone, it feels delicious but monotone, because only the content of the Calzone is only cheese.

Things that makes me uncomfortable is because the place is small, and it's hard to park if you bring a car. Crowded atmosphere make serving time is long and the waitress a little less responsive.

The taste of the Calzone is delicious, although the portion is small, not big enough to fill a guy stomach.
Overall it's recomended a try, you may prefer to eat not at dinner time.

Restaurant Name : Calzone Express
Location : Jln Cendrawasih no.3, Demangan Baru, Yogyakarta.
Twitter : @calzonExpress
Facebook : calzonExpress
Contact : +62274 - 8538815
Rating : 7/10 
Recommended : Yes

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Pepper Lunch ~ Review

Warning : This Post Maybe Will Be Bandwidth Killer (15 pcs Image)

Yogyakarta was substantially changed since the first time I came in 2001 ago, now expensive culinary popping everywhere, for example : Pepper Lunch. Maybe for you who live in Jakarta, Pepper Lunch is not that expensive, but the standard of food prices in Jogja, with only IDR 5000 in your hand, you're able to eat, so the Pepper Lunch quite pricey.

Pepper Lunch is a DIY steakhouse franchise restaurant  from Japan, popular in the Tokyo area. There are over 200 restaurants branch in Asia.

Let's take a look at pepper lunch menu :

From the picture, its looks tempting and unique, and Pepper Lunch have a different way of eating. We will get raw meat in the food, and we have to be stirring so the meat is fully cooked and seasoning butter mix well with the rice.

Location Pepper Lunch at Ambarukmo Plaza third floor, there is neon box contains a picture of the menu.

TThere is 1:1 replica of some best-selling menu

This is the food that we ordered:

Curry Beef Pepper Rice With Cheese
I ordered this because i interested with the cheese,
Curry Beef Pepper Rice With Cheese is the rice that sprinkled with curry powder and mozzarela cheese , and given the raw beef around the rice. The meat will be cooked immediately because of the hot plate is very hot, while flipping through the meat fully cooked, the rice should also be stirred up so the flavors are well mixed.
 
I feel a little bit disappointed because portions of meat that we get not as much as in the picture, and the cheese only a little.

Beef Pepper Rice
This menu is almost the same as the Curry Beef Pepper Rice With Cheese, but didn't use curry powder seasoning and mozzarella cheese. I think more delicious Beef Pepper Rice.

When the food came, we had to be careful because the hot plate is very hot, we were given a protective paper around the hotplate.

Protective paper that have instructions on how to eat Pepper Rice

We also ordered Green Tea Ice Cream. it feels like Ice Cone Mc Donald with green tea powder. It feels delicious, it's just that we expect the green tea ice cream that we get, can be more special

Some Javanese decorative on the wall

Posters with Japanese kanji writing

Atmosphere in Pepper Lunch

although the price is quite expensive but it's quite crowded

This is me ^.^

Restaurant Name : Pepper Lunch
Location : Ambarukmo Plaza Yogyakarta, Third Floor
Website : http://www.pepper-fs.co.jp/main/business/overseas_dv/
Contact : +62-274-433-1111
Operation Hours : 10.00 - 22.000
Rating : 7/10 
Recommended : Yes

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Scary Shemale Street Singer

NOTE : I'm writing this post not because i hate street singers or shemale, 
not a  job that they do but their attitude is disturbing.

If you live in Indonesia, you might be familiar with shemale street singers. either wandering around on the street or quite successful in the entertainment world as an artist.

And for those who are still confused whether the shemale street singers, I describe a little about their figure : They are the mens who wandering on the streets, wearing sexy woman clothes to make it look flashy, bold make-up and look sooo messy, excessive flirtatious style, bring musical instruments or  carrying a tape recorder with the loud enough volume. They walk around the streets, singing, dancing and hope people give him money because their performance.

Actually i feel sorry for them, many of them are straight men who are forced to dressed as a woman for singing on the street because of money, their life on the streets is quite hard, a lot of people sneer and insult them. But that does not mean they can be rude to everyone. 

The image of shemale street singers is, if you're a street singers, money raised as a shemale street singers is more, why? because a lot of men who feel scared if shemale street singers approached. And I feel this is very wrong.

I would give money to street singers if i feel entertained with their performance, not because I felt intimidated. I write this because there are some uncomfortable experiences about the shemale street singers.

The first experience was when I had breakfast on sunday morning at UGM, there are a lot of shemale street singers, may be a 5 groups (well.. they used to walking around in a group of 2-3 peoples), and when I refused to give money, they saying a quite rude comments for me.

The second experience, this time I gave money to them, and what happens? They give my money back because it's too little, OMG can't you just be grateful to receive your fortune? Rather than being rude and arrogant?

I'm sure not all shemale street singers like that, there still a lot of good and polite shemale street singers, but for rude shemale street singers, I hope the city government can give more attentions so that their attitude is not disturbing the peoples anymore.

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Sambisari Temple (Candi Sambisari)

There are plenty of temples around jogja . Although I've lived in jogja 12 years, temples i've visited only the Borobudur Temple. I asked my BF to photos hunting in the temple site, and the temple we choose is   Sambisari Temple in Kalasan. Because the locations is not too far from my home.

Not so hard to come here, you can see the map here. The location is not so crowded because this temple is not so popular, I met some people who were learning photography too.
 

The admission price is not expensive, only IDR 2000 / person, we had a little talk with the security of the temple, he says visitors are advised not to undertake excessive activity.

We entered into a small office near the entrance, and we look at map of the temple around jogja (image size is large enough so the descriptions is readable )

There is history of Sambisari temple too

The Sambisari Temple was discovered under ground in 1966, took 21 years to reconstruct the temple, because the temple was found only the rubble stone. Due to the location of the temple there in a few meters below, we need to reach down using stairs.

Persons is in the photo below is a tourist from Japan

This is the main temple. This temple was once a place of worship the god Siwa, compared to Borobudur temple, the temple was small

Small temple in front of the main temple seems failed reconstructed

We taking a few pictures hahaha

The Sambisari Temple was small, but quite fun too, not so crowded atmosphere suitable for learning photography

Venue Name : Sambisari Temple
Location : Kalasan, Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia View Map Here
GPS Coordinate : S7°45'44.9" E110°26'48.7
Operation Hours : Monday - Sunday at 6.00 am - 5.30 pm.
Adminision : IDR 2000/person

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Tamansari : The Beautifull Water Castle

Warning :  This Post Maybe Will Be Bandwidth Killer ( 17 pcs Image)

Taman Sari is one of the popular cultural tourism in Jogja. Indonesian people call it Taman Sari, but foreign tourists get to know as "The Water Castle".

This is the description from wikipedia:

Taman Sari also known as Taman Sari Water Castle is a site of a former royal garden of the Sultanate of Yogyakarta. It is located about 2 km south within the grounds of the Kraton, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Built in mid 18th century, the Taman Sari had multiple functions, such as a resting area, a workshop, a meditation area, a defense area, and a hiding place.

Taman Sari consisted of four distinct areas: a large artificial lake with islands and pavilions located in the west, a bathing complex in the centre, a complex of pavilions and pools in the south, and a smaller lake in the east. Today only the central bathing complex is well preserved, while the other areas have been largely occupied by the Kampung Taman settlement.

Since 1995 the Yogyakarta Palace Complex including Taman Sari is listed as a tentative World Heritage Site.

This is me, photographed this near the Taman Sari entrance, as you can see, my hair black, I went to Tamansari at the Eid holiday 2012. Today I think to review it..

Taman Sari location is near Kraton, to get there for tourists outside jogja may be a bit confusing, but there are a lot of tour guides who helped deliver there. entrance fee to Tamansari is not expensive, I do not remember exactly, maybe about IDR 5.000.

Taman Sari consists of several buildings. The protruding part are two pool which the water looks clear, this pool is said to be used for the king's wife bathing, and the kings watched from a higher building.
 

About the history of Tamansari, usually the tour guide will explain it, when I get there, I didn't use the services of a tour guide, i only heard a little from a tour guide who was explaining to the tourists. Usually the tour guide was "the royal servants" who live around Tamansari.

We went to Taman Sari at the Eid holiday, where there was quite crowded by local and foreign tourists.

I enjoyed the atmosphere near the pool which the water looks very clear ^^

The weather was bright and sunlight blinding my eyes >.<

Unfortunately Tamansari a bit unmanaged because there are sections where people can scribble on the wall, seriously .. I want to beat in the head who've doodled walls of this precious tourism.
The management should make prohibition to not damage anything at the Tamansari, and gave penalties for those who violate.

This is the final gate of Tamansari, or perhaps the gateway? because Tamansari can be accessed from 2 way 

Helloooo.. it's me again hahahahaha

We headed to the second part of Taman Sari, an underground passageway. To reach there we have to walk through the village, it is not so difficult because there are directions and you could ask the villagers.

You are definitely familiar with this picture below, there are so many people who use this underground passageway to prewedding photos.

To get this photo I had to queued up, because there are so many tourists who want to take photos here too

And then we walk along the this passage, the conditions a little dark, feels a little bit scary >.<

fortunately not all part is dark, we toured down the hallway like this,

and like this,

And then we headed the third part of Tamansari, in the outside there are musicians who are singing, we could give a little donation to them.

I do not know what is the building actually used it, unfortunately not much left of this the building, but the atmosphere is quite nice for portraits photography or prewedding photography, unfortunately i'm didn't have Taman Sari photos in this section.

Venue Name : Taman Sari (The Water Castle)
Address : Jl. Taman, Kraton, Yogyakarta 55133, Indonesia
GPS Coordinate : S7 48 36.4 E110 21 34.2
Operation Hours : Monday - Sunday, 09.00 - 15.30

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