Jogja: NZ Warms up

To be parted with someone that had been bounded together for seems like a lifetime might cause unease and probably tears. But why should make it so when one could celebrate it gladly knowing that the parting itself was impermanent.

This trip as what we agreed arranged as a farewell trip from one of the member from my closest-slash-dearest circle. In a few days, she would be embarking on an adventurous journey of education far away in Melbourne. Though we would be going to visit her anyway, probably in a few months from now, having the chance to talk, to meet, to laugh and to connect had never been wrong.

Jogja might seemed a little bit too typical of place for having some short getaway. It was then in dire need for tuning with not-your-usual-type of experience. Our choices fell upon this uber adorable camper van in Waduk Sermo. We booked the trip via Instagram from this great provider Nuvantara. They got this cool tagline of License to Chill (a pun to the famous James Bond’s License to Kill).

What might look as an enormous effort to drive a camper van which in the form of VW Kombi on the road of Jogjakarta, turned out to be a four-star trip. The one-day-one-night package that we booked included a driver, a guide tour and complete pack of a huge tent with its snacks and foods. We drove for one hour to our night camp on Waduk Sermo (or Sermo Reservoir).

The place had a breathtaking view of faux lake with all the small hills, breezy air and calm water. You could easily spot packs of ducks there, and Thank God there was no any alligators. Soon after our arrival, other people were coming to set their tents too. It turned out to be a quite famous place for camping.

As night fell, more people were coming and easily we were not the only one there, which frankly I had thought flashing in my head from those scary horror scenes if indeed we were the sole group in the vast land of reservoir there. Well yeah, should anything bad happened. How movies could affect one’s state of mind.

As night fell, rain was pouring extremely hard.

Bad time.

Those high hopes of staring at the starry night sky and doing a sing-along with ukelele were vanished. February was indeed not the best time of doing any outdoor activities as the weather would be a total bummer. Luckily, the tent that Nuvantara provided was a good one as first there was no leaks whatsoever and second there was a living room on the tent! How cool. Thus, the very least that we could do was stay inside the tent and yet doing nothing but to sleep. Electricity was limited as well and surely given how much waters was pouring and we were basically on outdoor then switching on the terminal cable wasn’t the wisest decision.

Albeit the unlucky situation of the night, when we woke up the next day the morning air was nothing to beat. It was clear blue sky, and the air wasn’t something that you could find everyday in Jakarta. As part of the package, we had breakfast from the local resident. The rest of morning, we enjoyed ourselves with cup of hot tea, home made fried rice and wonderful view of the lake.

Above all that, we recommend this camper van trip to anyone who wish certain unique trip when coming to Jogja. Should we not factor the rain, we strongly felt that it would be the one experience that we’d talked the most.

At last it always felt like home whenever I met and venture together with these dearest friends, be it soaking wet under the rain inside a tent or pampering ourselves on fancy Airbnb or whatever that experience would be. For that I am eternally grateful.

-R