In one of the more brilliant moves of our trip, we landed and smartly left Jakarta (Ah, but it will always be Batavia to me) within two hours. We are now firmly entrenched in Central Java and despite any preconceptions about the safety here or the attitude towards tourists we have been warmly welcomed by the locals who seem to be well impressed with my brand of humour. On the bus from the airport to the train station I was the last passenger to board the bus and was confined to sitting in the aisle with the luggage. Soon into the trip the driver pulled over to collect the fare from each passenger and had a bugger of a time clambering over the various backpacks and suitcases. I offered to collect the money on his behalf, and take a cut for myself, but when he refused I offered to catch him as he jumped the obstacles in his way. It was very lighthearted and helped us to both overcome any anxiety we might of had. Our catch phrase for this leg of the trip is that we must be "cautious but not paranoid" but this is an attitude that we have employed ever since day one. We are now on day 100+.
YIKES, ANOTHER OVERNIGHT TRAIN RIDE
The train ride was pleasant although I managed to disturb many of those sitting around me courtesy of the bean burrito I had for lunch earlier that day. Not even the aromatherapy spays throughout the carriage could mask the smell and I was worried that our friendly welcoming was about to turn sour. Thankfully the odour seemed to lull the passengers into a coma-like sleep and it wasn't until 4am when we were woken with breakfast that it became obvious that I was the culprit. Once off the train I was quick to merge into the crowd. This was the first overnight train that was not a sleeper but the seats were big enough and reclined just far enough to create the illusion of a place where satisfying sleep was possible.
I usually ignore the touts at train and bus stations at first as a method of slowly trying to gain some familiarity of my surroundings. At 4.30am and still somewhat drugged by my own natural aroma we had a couple of very confusing conversations between ourselves before deciding to engage the only tout in the train station in some form of meaningful banter. He proved to be extremely helpful but far too talkative for the state of mind we were both in. We happily followed him as he took us to a couple of guesthouses - where we accepted the cheapest one and fell straight to sleep without having to perform the regular hostel orthodoxy of checking in first. A big thanks to Air France for not only successfully delivering both pieces of our checked on luggage but also for supplying earplugs and sleeping masks which we made use of straight away.
Inside the Kraton (Royal Palace) in Yogyakarta
Not sure what these guys were playing but looked like fun
BIG DAY TOMORROW
Tomorrow we are scheduled to see the second of the big three temples in SE Asia - Borobudur (the other two are Angkor in Cambodia and Bagan in Myanmar). We have to be up at 4.30am in time to see the sunrise so we are both hoping that unlike Angkor we actually get to see the 'sun' this time. On Tuesday we make our way further towards Bali to spend the night at the base of Mt Bromo, ready for another early morning assault in search of seeing lava flows at dawn. It is all going by so fast.
Special shout out to Johnny D'Arcy in Kathmandu - keep the updates coming. There's your mention!
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