Borobudur and Prambanan, Indonesia

JAVA TO BALI
My last update took us through to Yogyakarta. We booked ourselves on the sunrise bus to Borobudur and even though we had to get up at 4am it was well worth the effort. In fact it was probably the scenic highlight of the trip so far, partly due to the brilliant sunrise and the awesome landscape around the temple. It’s the largest Buddhist temple on Java and we spent the best part of two hours just sitting there admiring it with large smiles on our faces.

Images from Borobudur

Next, we went to Prambanan – the largest Hindu temple on Java. Prambanan is much larger than Borobudur but there is still much restoration work to be done. It’s still a remarkable sight but it has the potential to be far more remarkable.

Images from Prambanan

We had really enjoyed Yogyakarta despite some early apprehensions. It was well set up for backpackers with plenty of cheap places to stay and eat. On our way out of the city we were serenaded by the guitar playing buskers at the traffic lights as we headed east towards Bali. We were joined in our minivan by three stereotypically blonde Norwegian girls, two German sisters and an Italian Swiss guy from Lugano. We spent much of that day in the van except for a brief lunch break and a 90 minute pit stop to repair a leaky radiator. At 10pm that evening we arrived at Mt Bromo and went straight to sleep because at 3.30am we were up again to see the sunrise for the second time in three days, this time over the glorious Mt Bromo.

Mt Bromo at sunrise

After breakfast we hit the road again, this time to Bali. Another long travel day saw us reach Bali late in the evening, where we headed straight to Kuta Beach for one night before bringing a close to Asian leg of our trip.

Yogyakarta, Indonesia

NO STOPPING IN BATAVIA
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!