We left Cianjur at 5am to catch a bus to the train station. Yudi assured us at that time in the morning there would be no traffic so it would only take 2 hours. We left with 3 hours to get there just in case the bus decided to cram more people on than the last one. It did. At 7 we still hadn't got on the motorway and were starting to panic as our train was at 8. At 7.30, when we got stuck in a traffic jam, we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we had missed our train. It was frustrating as the tickets weren't cheap and the next train wasn't until 7pm. That's if there were even tickets left. We arrived at the bus station at 7.50 and decided we still should try to get to the train station in case it was delayed. We ran to the nearest taxi. Luckily Yudi had written out translations on a piece of paper stating where we wanted to go, how much it should cost and asking not to be overcharged. It worked and we didn't need to waste time haggling. We managed to get the slowest taxi driver in South East Asia and it the next few minutes were so tense, with me looking at my watch every 10 seconds. By some miracle we made it to the station at 7.58. I legged it to the office to pick up our tickets while Bryan paid up. We made it on the train by the skin of our teeth and the adrenaline was pumping. We needn't have rushed though because the train didn't move for another 20 minutes. Typical!

Eight and a half gruelling hours later and we turned up in the city of Yogyakarta. We then had the exciting task of looking for accommodation despite the fact that we were exhausted. After dismissing a few for being too expensive/filthy we managed to find a guesthouse that was half the price of the others but just as nice. After Bryan had opted to pay all 3 nights up front I then found out why it was so cheap. The bathroom chose that moment to start stinking like a sewer. It stayed like that the whole time we stayed there but Bryan said I was being too fussy and we couldn't ask to change rooms or get our money back. Apparently not wanting to heave every time you use the bathroom is being fussy!

Yogyakarta was a bit of a shock after peaceful Cianjur. It was busy and bustly and we were back in the land of hustles and hassles. It wasn't exactly how the Lonely Planet described it but we're used to Lonely Planet being wrong by now. Still there was enough for us to see and do to keep us busy. We went to the Sultan's Palace and had a look around what used to be the Sultan's swimming baths. We somehow got lumbered with a "free" tour guide who wouldn't leave us alone. This was fine except after he took as around the baths he kept taking us into various different shops who each gave us the hard sell and we had to keep making excuses to get out. One guy in particular was doing some very aggressive selling and knew all the excuses in the book - at one point it seemed like he wasn't going to let us leave until we bought something! I'd had enough by this point and my patience for politely declining was wearing thin. We said we had no money and he offered to walk us to an ATM. I told him we were unsure if we had enough money so would go away and have a look and come back. He said people always say that and never come back. It was getting a bit ridiculous so we managed to force our way out of the shop. We still had the "guide" to get rid of so I told him we were meeting friends now and had to leave.

We had been told that there was a nearby excursion to an old Buddhist temple called Borobudur which is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Turns out it isn't even in the top 20 wonders but Indonesians still like to claim it is in there. Despite this, Bryan still had his heart set on going (I think he maybe turning Bhuddist!). Unfortunately we couldn't afford to get there for sunrise which is meant to be the best time to see it, so we went just after sunset when it would be cooler and less busy. It was quite interesting. It's a huge temple that was built around 8 or 9 AD and we were able to climb the hundreds of stairs to walk around it and see the intricate stone carvings all around it. In the background is Mt Merrapi in the distance, the most active volcano in the world. After a couple of hours it started getting really busy with many groups of school children. They stopped us a couple of times to chat to us and practice their english. They were so happy to talk to us, a couple even said it was their dream to talk to a westerner. They were so inquisitive about our lives and the differences between our country and Indonesia.

Those were the last 3 days of our stay in Indonesia. I saw on a sticker in a minibus that Indonesia is "dangerously beautiful" which I think is a very appropriate way of summing up the country. A few days before flying to Indonesia I read about the constant threat from tsunamis, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, terrorist attacks, not to mention the diseases that are going around. It really worried me and to be honest if we hadn't already booked flights there I probably wouldn't have gone, especially after our brush with a tsunami in Thailand which originated from an earthquake in Indonesia's seas. However, with the few places we have visited, despite not being able to scratch the surface of Indonesia's many islands, I can see that what makes it dangerous also makes it beautiful. It's tropical location on the equator and in the ring of fire has created a country with beautiful beaches and tropical forests with gorgeous mountain ranges in the backdrop. The people live with the constant threat that today could be their last day but they carry on regardless. It's a shame it wasn't possible to go to some of the other islands to see the remote tribes or witness the unique Komodo dragon but there's always next time!