6D5N Yogyakarta Hiking Trip On A Budget – <SGD$1000 ALL-IN! (Part 2)

For all trip-related posts, navigate here:

Part 1: Arrival @ Yogyakarta, Dinner @ Superman Restaurant, 2D1N Hiking

Part 2: Goa Jomblang (Heaven’s light), Goa Pindul (Cave tubing)

Part 3: Borobodur Temple, Nglinggo Tea Plantation, House of Ramiten, Malioboro Street

---

In the previous post, I blogged about the first 3 days of our trip and how we managed to reach the summit of Mount Merbabu. We continue with more touristy (and relaxing) activities from Day 4 onwards.

Day 4

Despite being crazy shag after our hike to the summit of Mount Merbabu, we woke up early and set off at 7am to Semanu area to start our activities for the day. Our first stop was Goa Jomblang to see the infamous Heaven’s Light that is flooded in Instagram and Google images.

But before that, we had to go down by a pulley from 60 metres high to reach the cave at the bottom. Not for the faint hearted!

Yup, we’re survivors!

Black hole ahead!

Goa Jomblang Entrance

All the safety gears were provided, including the helmet and rubber boots. Initially, our driver told us to bring disposable shower caps for the helmets for hygiene purposes. In the end, some of my friends didn’t wear the shower caps as they didn’t turn out to be as dirty/smelly as our driver has described.

Although there was concrete steps until the end of the cave, it was very difficult to walk – particularly when you are climbing down big and slippery steps. The floor of the cave is extremely muddy, and sometimes you can step into mud that is not only very sticky but also knee-high deep. There were many times when I tried to move forward but my legs will get stuck in the mud, so be careful when you’re walking!

Unfortunately in our group, there were some people who fell into the mud. Not very sightly afterwards to have mud all over your body, but perhaps it is a story worth telling to your friends after the visit :p.

Towards the end of the walk, we could see a light at the end of the tunnel (literally). Look at the sun rays shining down!

Heaven’s light

Next stop: Goa Pindul! It’s cave tubing time! Basically super relaxing because you just sit on a float/tube, go through a cave and pass by a waterfall via a river.

I don’t have any pictures of my own, only videos on BF’s Gopro. We had to get wet so we did not bring our phones with us, but I shall post some pictures from Google images to show you how it looks like.

Credits: Yogya backpacker

Credits: Jelajah Jogja

In my honest opinion, Goa Pindul is a lot more worthy of visiting in terms of price and activities. If you have a tight itinerary and can only do one activity, I will suggest going to Goa Pindul instead of Goa Jomblang. Also, you can’t go cave tubing in the Singapore River. No, that’ll just make you uncool. Don’t do it.

Make sure to waterproof all your stuff too!

After our adventures in Semanu, we heading back to the city for some awesome dinner. We requested our driver for two main foods: Sate (otherwise known as satay in Singapore) and Terang Bulan (a.k.a Apam Balik).

Menu and Price

Working hard for Sate

Can you believe it? 10 sticks of chicken sate for Rp 13,000 (~S$1.30). The perfect meal steal for the budget traveler! We bought 60 sticks (for 6 people) right away.

Mutton Sate

Working hard for Sate

Menu and Price

The mutton sate was really delicious. There wasn’t any of that strong mutton smell and each piece of meat was chunky. It tasted more like steak instead. Nom nom nom.

Terang Bulan

The Terang Bulan here is twice the size of the Apam Balik or Min Jiang Kueh (面煎糕) sold in Singapore. The basic fillings are chocolate, condensed milk, cheese and raisins. You can make 16 different varieties of Terang Bulan upon request. They are also very generous with the fillings! I definitely recommend you to give it a try.

And that pretty much sums up everything we did for Day 4!

There will be a Part 3 because I don’t want this post to get too lengthy. I’ll be posting it before the end of next week with the full breakdown of my expenses. Until then!

Miss Niao xoxo