Blog 53

We arrived in Yogy at 10pm and walking the streets to find accommodation didn't prove too easy. Every hotel, hostel and guest house had a full sign hanging on the door. And all because the Chinese have to be different and celebrate a different new year and that means holidays for the Indonesians. We finally found somewhere after a good hour and a half looking. A small pokey single room where only one person could stand up at a time and the toilet was so squashy that you couldn't shut it behind you. All fun and games but we had a pretty good sleep all this considered. Bryn nipped out in the morning and found us a nice place for pretty much the same price.

Indonesian food up until now hadn't wowed us like other Asian countries until we arrived here. The nasi goreng had been a bit bland and the chicken had come in gristly lumps. But Jogjakarta proved that Indonesia actually did an awesome nasi goreng and some belting chicken satay from the little old ladies with a barbeque on every street corner. A few good recipes for the travel cook book. Ooo our treat food here was MMcDonalds Mcflurrys for pudding each evening!

Borobudur and Prambanan were the highlights of the local area. Both incredible UNESCO world heritage temples. Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist temple built in the 9th century, and Prambanan is a complex of Hindu temples built in the same era. We found a new breed of Indonesia's at Borobudur. The types that smile with immense delight when they see white people and bring all their friends over for a photo with you. Not the most relaxing thing but entertaining for them and us. Prambanan was beautiful until the heavens opened and when waterproofs didn't stop you getting wet. Luckily we had waterproof skin and shorts and flip flops on! Guiltily, we jumped onto a rickshaw and were taken back to the bus stop by a very wet looking Indonesian fella.

Jogy also held the reunion of us with Rob and Naomi for the 5th time! I think we may cross paths once more at least. It is the end of my month of sobriety so it made for a cheap night on the Bintangs before I'd had enough!

The kraton which was where the sultan lives, was an entertaining morning which made us realise that the sultan is a huge 'Trekkie' and likes to display his old plastic kitchen utensils in the museum! If we hadn't gone though we'd never have been guided to the cafe which made the 'sultans tea'. Which after 1 sip went into the recipe book too. We also bought a bag to make on the trangia while we're out here.

All in all we loved Yogykarta!

Love Jo x x x