The other day, Jasmine said to my husband, "Farid, tengok anak you ni!"
She's not even 4 yet!

Assalamualaikum,

I am currently reading the translation of the Quran, from page 1. And I am determined to read it cover to cover. To understand it.

One of the Surah that I feel amazed by is Surah Yusuf. The entire Surah is dedicated to Prophet Yusuf AS and his life story. This Surah was revealed during the Year of Sorrow when Prophet Muhammad SAW suffered difficulty by the loss of Khadijah & Abu Talib as well as the situation he faced in Taif.
It is meant to comfort Rasulullah and to strengthen him in times of trials and tribulations.

One of the lectures that I really really love about Surah Yusuf is this one by Mufti Menk. So insightful. May we benefit from this and may we be among the righteous. Amin.

Assalamualaikum.

DAY 5.

That day was supposed to end pretty early, our flight was at 1145 am.
However, in the morning, I got a message from Agus saying that flights are getting cancelled/delayed at the airport. Apparently, last night there was a Garuda airplane slipped on the runway due to the rain. And since the airport is quite small, it interrupts a lot of flights that day.

Immediately I checked my emails to see if there were any news. No news.
So, we decided to just go to the airport, to check what is happening.

But as per original plan, we didn't go to the airport straight away. We went to the local football club's PSS Sleman stadium, the Maguwoharjo stadion. As a lot of you know already, me & FF always try to go to the local football stadiums (if there's one) anywhere we go. It started because we're both fans of football and since we have a "football shrine" at home, we could add our visits to stadiums around the world in our collection. Follow #IFInvadingStadiums for the collection.

Assalamualaikum,

Continuation of DAY 4, after the Timang Adventure.

After Timang, I told our supir Agus that our next destination is Jogan Beach. He told us that he's never been there but it should not be that far away. So, we made our way and found the sign to Jogan and then asked around about the whereabouts. Some parts in this area doesn't have signal so we rely on the directions from the locals. But, not to worry because the road are not that confusing. Those who are used to this area should be able to navigate just fine.

When we arrived at Jogan, we didn't see it at first. But we could hear the sound of the ocean. Then, we saw a small bridge above a small river. This part of the river is actually called estuary (muara sungai). The river overflows into a waterfall that leads to the ocean. The imagery here is so beautiful. Subhanallah, so so beautiful!


Note: There is no entry for Jogan, but only pay the parking which is 5k rupiah.
For Indrayanti, Kukup, Baron, Krakal (the beaches downwards), it's 10k for entry and then 5k parking for each beaches.

Assalamualaikum.

DAY 4

We started at 830 AM and went straight for Timang Beach. The journey takes about 2 and half hours. On the way to Timang, other tourists usually stop at Goa Pindul for cave tubing and Goa Jomblang for caving acitivity and seeing "cahaya surga" (sunlight emitting into the cave from a hole above the cave). We opt out the trip because this type of activities can be found in Malaysia too. But if you have time and want to go, just inform your supir and he will advise you on the costs.

For Timang, the cars need to park at a specified parking as cars are not able to use the road to get to the port. You have to get an "ojek" (motorcycle) for 50k rupiah per person for a return journey. The journey using ojek is about 3-4km of extreme terrains. The ride was super bumpy and quite rough. When the journey was over, the moment you step down from the motorbike, you feel your legs shaking. But, the view once you get down the bike doesn't disappoint you.


This is only the beginning. You still need to walk over to the gondola area. Because the island is quite coarse and the terrain is rocky because of the corrosion made by the waves, so expect not to be able to walk smoothly. For girls especially, wear a comfortable footwear, preferably sneakers!

Assalamualaikum,

The continuation of Day 3.

After checking in to our hotel, we went to Tebing Breksi. We decided impromptu to go here since there was a lot of time left to explore places. Here, we paid 10k rupiah for parking. No entrance fee.
Tebing Breksi is just a viewing place, although the view is amazing but for me, it's not that interesting. We did enjoy our time there albeit just normal and enjoyed the catchphrases we found atop the rock.

One of the things we found amusing in Indonesia is, the people are so creative that they're able to come up with witty catchphrases. Like the viral Om Telolet Om.

Assalamualaikum,

DAY 3

This day, we had new supir which is the one I contacted when I was in Malaysia, Agus. Agus is quite popular supir in Yogyakarta especially among foreigners. At first I thought Agus is much older than I am, but surprisingly he is younger! But, he has a lot of experience with foreigners already.

I told Agus to pick us up early. Our first destination is the Prambanan Complex. It opens at 6AM too, just like Borobudur. We arrived at Prambanan before 630 AM if I'm not mistaken. Already outside the complex we could see school children wandering around, waiting to go inside Prambanan. We immediately went inside, presented our tickets (the combo ticket that we bought at Borobudur), and walked straight in. The complex is big, the walk is...lumayan lah! But Alhamdulillah, slow and steady. Our target is Prambanan temple and Sewu temple.

What's interesting is Prambanan is a Hindu temple and Sewu is a Buddhist temple. It's situated not far from each other and it is believed that during the 8th century, the Syailendra and Medang Mataram dynasty co-existed wih one another and had intermarriages between Buddhism and Hinduism. However, the history between the two kingdoms are quite complicated, thus it's best for you to research and read on your own. I've yet to understand the co-existence and the history of these two kingdoms.

There was once two neigbouring kingdoms, Pengging and Boko. Each ruled by giants; Pengging by Prabu Damar Moyo who had a son Bandung Bondowoso and Boko ruled by a man-eating giant Prabu Boko who had a beautiful daughter named Rara Jonggrang (sometimes Roro, Loro or Lara). 

During a battle of land dispute, Prabu Boko was killed by Bandung Bondowoso's powers thus broke princess Rara Jonggrang's heart. Bandung Bondowoso fell in love with the princess' beauty when he beseige the palace and proposed marriage to her. As she is too heartbroken, she refused but the prince persisted. She then agrees but with two conditions:
1. The prince must build a well named Jalatunda
2. He must build 1000 temples in one night, before the sun rise.  

The Jalatunda was made and resided in Ratu Boko's palace.
For the second condition, the prince conjured up his magic and started to construct the temples. When 999 temples have finished and the prince started to build the last one, the princess urged her maids to light a fire in the east and begin pounding rice, a dawn morning activity. This tricked the spirits who worked for the prince into thinking it was the sun rising and they left the temple unfinished. 

The prince, when learned of this deception became furious and cursed princess Rara Jonggrang into a stone, thus making her the 1000th temple, which is the Sewu temple. "Sewu" in Javanese means "seribu" (a thousand).