Our first class train journey to Yogyakarta could have done with more air con and fewer cockroaches but after 8 hours we finally arrived in one piece. We jumped on a rickshaw and headed to our home for the next few days, 'Edu Hostel'. We meet our fellow dorm mates, Marion, a 71 year old New Yorker now living in Panama, and Alex, a Canadian in her early 20's who teaches English in Korea. A quick shower and we headed to the backpacker area, Jalan Prawirotaman. We tucked into some local food (seafood curry) and a cold Bintang beer. Looking through the local second hand book shop we meet Mary, a young American traveller. She joined us at a local bar that showed signs of life and we all swapped stories of our travels over a few beers. Entertaining us was a street band singing the hits of UB40 & Bob Marley. The best was yet to come when an elderly gentlemen who looked like a skeleton with skin sat on the floor next to us and began singing the creepiest song ever. But he managed to get a tip from all of us. Back at our area we walked around the streets looking for a night food market that Alex ensured us existed. After a long walk in the dark and me almost breaking a rickshaw after I tried to get a cheeky photo in one, we retired to bed in the early hours desperately trying not to wake Marion. Damn you top bunk! Three hours sleep and the alarm goes off. Why oh why did we book a 5am tour at Borobudur temple? Travelling with a hangover is never fun and Rachel looked as if she was going to die as she sat in the minivan. Arriving at Borobudur we were given a sarong which everyone (including the men) had to wear. The morning mist was still in the air as the sunrise came up and it looked beautiful. A Chinese tourist asked me to take a photo of her. I didn't expect her to whip her leg out and straddle a dragon. Maybe she was looking for Hooters rather than a Buddhist temple. The temple is very impressive and is full of Buddha statues, more than I'd ever seen. A few local college kids stopped us for a quick conversation to help practice their English. Super cute and giggly. By the afternoon we were back in our bunk beds having a well- earned nap. In the evening we meet up with Mary and head to an Indonesian shadow puppet show. The craftsmanship is beautiful. The 2 hour show did become a little tedious purely because of the language barrier but still worth a look. Outside the venue was a massive funfair packed with locals. The rides looked like they'd come from the 1970's, the rust was painted over with enough fluorescent paint even the NASA space station would be able to see it. They'd even painted the shells of the live crabs at the stalls with fluorescent paint!! Craving some late night munchies we head to the food stalls along the main strip, Malioboro road (the one we had tried to find the night before). Plonking ourselves on the pavement I couldn't recognise anything on the menu so played it safe and ordered something with chicken, Ayum. What arrives is a deep fried chicken leg and what looks like a dog's dinner with rice but it tasted sweet! It turned out to be jack fruit curry and some tofu concoction. I do love street food. The next day Rachel and I hit the markets along Malioboro road. I was melting in the heat so we found refuge and air-con at the local shopping centre. Hallelujah for air-con! Inside the centre you can find top stores like Athletes foot. That's the place I want to buy my shoes at. We joined Marion for dinner and had a feast at the local Chinese-Indonesian restaurant. Yogyakarta isn't the student town it was promised to be but we meet some wonderful people and new friends there.