First Experience Travelling Indonesia ~ Part 2 Yogyakarta

After a long, hot and tiring bus journey from Borobudur we arrived in Yogyakarta, it was very different to Cirebon.We walked to our hotel, Duta Guest House, it was really lovely, with gorgeous waterfall overlook the swimming pool.The rooms were clean and comfy and just perfect for what we needed.We unpacked and Kate & I went swimming to cool off, it was so nice just to relax and enjoy the cool water.After we got ourselves ready and went to find somewhere for lunch, we went to the 'Coffee Republic' and had proper food and NO rice grain in site, it was so nice, but was so tired could feel myself dozing off in the warm room.We walked along the street that our hotel was on and did a little bit of shopping before returning to the hotel.We all decided that it would be nice to have a massage so we went on a hunt to see if we could find one, we eventually found a little place and all had neck, shoulder and back massages, I went first, it started off well and thought I was going to be ok, but it soon got harder and not as relaxing as a massage should be, after coming out I was in more pain than I had been in before I went in, I think I have decided that massages in Indonesia are not for me!!!

When we returned to the hotel I was so tired after not sleeping for over 48 hours I had to have a little nap, the girls went down to a bar, while I had 40 winks, otherwise I would not have lasted the whole evening if I hadn't had my nap (getting old now, hehe).After my nap I joined the girls and we ordered our food, it was amazing again, western style food, I had Bacon and Cheese Burger with chips, it tasted so good and I can't believe how much I had missed good food.I then had to have pudding, as they had pancakes on the menu and it just had to be done, they were amazing and so yummy.After a very long day we returned to the hotel for bed as we were all super tired and struggling to stay awake much longer.

The next morning it was time to experience breakfast Indonesian style and yes you have guessed it, it included rice, hehe.My breakfast consisted of fried rice, noodles, omelette and fruit, it was a very yummy breakfast, even though a little strange.After breakfast the girls said that we had to go to see the traditional dancing at the 'Kraton' (Royal Palace), we had to make sure that our shoulders were covered so I borrowed Kate's scarf for the time we were at the Kraton, we watched the dancing, it was so detailed and the girls looked so pretty in their traditional costumes.We walked around the grounds and then went to buy souvenirs, there was so much to choose from, I ended up getting a bag, sunglasses case, some traditional wooden masks and a carved doorstop.After the Kraton we made our way to the main street, Jl Molioboro, but as we arrived there was a parade/carnival about to start and it was so busy we could not get through the crowds and the buses had stopped because the road was closed, we were trying to make our way to the train station to book our tickets to come home later in the evening.We ended up getting a bacek round to the station and booking our train for 10:30pm, which still gave us loads of time to do what we wanted, after the station we stopped for food at a local food stall as we waited for the road to reopen and to catch the bus back to our hotel.When on the bus, it took ages for it to get through the slow traffic back to where we needed to get off.Finally back at the hotel, the girls decided they wanted another massage, so this time I opted for a pedicure instead, as my heels were very dry and hard after walking around in flipflops for so long.It was very disgusting as she used a 'cheese greater' style instrument to scrape off all of my hard skin, but they felt so smooth once she had finished.After we returned to the hotel and we got packed up and went for dinner, dinner was amazing again and the glass of wine really helped it go down, it's amazing what you miss when you can't get it.As we were eating we realised what the time was, it was 9.20pm already, we had to get the train at 10.30pm and we still hadn't finished food and got our stuff from the hotel, I went and paid the bill while the other two finished their dinners, then we rushed back to the hotel to grab our stuff, while Kate got us 2 bacek.By the time we left it was already 10.05pm, we were not sure whether we were going to make it, we were hoping in good Indonesian style the train would be late, the bacek slowly travelled up the hill as the time was ticking on.Finally we made it to the station and ran to the gates, as we got there we watched our train pull out of the station, we had missed it by just a few minutes, oops!! We made our way to information, where a very helpful guy got us on the next train at 11.50pm, we waited at the station and laughed about what had just happened, there was nothing we else we could do.The train pulled into the station and we boarded ready for our 5 hour train journey back to Cirebon, luckily we slept most of the way, until I got shaken by Kate, who said we were here, it was so lucky that she saw, because Chrissy and I were so out of it we would have probably slept through Cirebon and end up in Jakarta. We arrived in Cirebon at 4.45am and after a short bacek journey home we were arrived back at the house a 5am, ready for the alarm to go off to get ready for school at 5.30am.Not a good way to start the working week, but hey it was an amazing weekend away and an adventure I will never forget.

Hugs and Kisses

xxx