Next stop...Indonesia

Our flights to Singapore and onto Jakarta all went well, although landing in Singapore where the airport was in full Christmas mode, with decorations and Christmas songs everywhere reminded us of what we were missing back home. To console ourselves we headed straight to Starbucks and indulged in a Christmas coffee! On arrival in Jakarta we boarded an air conditioned bus that left straight after we got on, with no-one shouting, no loud music blearing out and no random animals on the bus....we had well and truly left India! We stayed in the Six Degrees Hostel in Jakarta, by far the most commercial hostel we had stayed in yet, with a pool table, cinema screen, free tea and coffee, and dorm rooms with individual compartments to sleep in. Whilst here we managed to copy the remaining Sopranos Series' that we had left to watch since leaving England onto a memory card - we have been watching it on the tiny screen of our phone ever since. There wasn't a lot to do in Jakarta apart from Sophie appreciating that there only seemed to be cats around rather than dogs - apparently the Government has advised people not to own them in Java due to the risk of rabies that is pretty rife in other parts of Indonesia. Apart from this we were happy to appreciate the small things like proper supermarkets, road rules, a lack of cows and their faeces! We booked a train to Yogyakarta (the day before we wanted to leave - amazing!), Java's culture capital. The train arrived on time and we were even shown to our seats, which whilst pretty uncomfortable for the 9 hour journey, were complete luxury compared to the floors we had been used to in India. The views out of the window throughout the journey were interesting; lots of people working in the fields and rice paddies, all wearing the Vietnamese style cone-hats for protection from the sun.

On arrival in Yogyakarta we checked into the Dewi Guesthouse, nestled amongst quaint residential alleyways near Malioboro Road, a centre for food stalls, markets and modern malls. We headed straight for the Warungs (basic food stalls with some low tables and mats to sit on the floor outside) to see what food was on offer. After reading about how famous the chicken satay is in Indonesia, we bought a bundle from a little fat lady sitting on the street, fanning the satay with a bamboo leaf - the smell wafting towards us was irresistible! Very tasty and tender, we decided to explore further and after struggling to decipher most of the Indonesian menus decided to settle on another famous dish, this time for Yogyakarta; Gudeg, a jackfruit curry with egg, soy bean, tofu and rice - a little more questionable in taste than the satay! After a long sleep that night we decided to do some cultural sight-seeing the next day.

First stop the Kraton and Sultan Palace - boringggggg. So we decided to get a rickshaw to a market but instead got dropped at some guys' art shop! Not in the best of moods we decided to hunt down a cinema for the afternoon! After a lunch of 'gado-gado' (vegetables in peanut sauce), we caught a bus to the mall and headed straight to the cinema....only to find that it was closed for refurbishments! With our deflation increasing ever more, we bought a cake and walked another 2km to the next cinema down the road...bingo - we managed to watch the third Hunger Games film in a cinema that was far more modern and well equipped than any at home, at 2.50GBP a ticket, and with the best sweet popcorn! After the cinema we were quite a way out of the main town, which made the hour long walk back to the centre an interesting trip. All the paths are lined with various food stalls, all offering different specialties, from noodles, rice dishes, meatball soups, satay and pancake desserts. The culture of convenience food and grabbing a quick bite to eat is very popular in Indonesia, often with goups of friends hanging out and socialising at a warung, on long wooden tables that force different groups of people to interact - something not so common in England! Another highlight of the day included picking up our washing which smelt the best it has since leaving home…little things!

The next day we got a couple of buses to Borobudur, home to the largest Buddhist Temple in the world. Here we stayed in the nearby village of Candirejo at a homestay with a local family. We signed up to stay with the family for two nights and were given bikes to explore the village with. On arrival at the homestay we had a quick look around the house which we realised had none of the comforts we had experienced even in the most basic of hostels. There was no fan in our bedroom which proved to make for extremely hot and humid nights with very little sleeping! Additionally there was no shower in the bathroom; next to the Indonesian toilet of a hole in the ground, the washing facilities included a traditional 'mandi'; a form of bath consisting of a large water tank from which water is ladled over the body using a bucket, whilst standing on the floor of the bathroom outside the mandi...or so we realised after we left the homestay! Instead we had been standing in the bath and washing ourselves in what we later realised was supposed to be the water supply for the whole family that day...either way we didn't feel very clean for a few days! The yard of the house was home to free roaming chickens, a cat and her two kittens, ducklings and two guinea pigs. During our stay we were fed traditional Indonesian meals which consisted of rice three times a day, accompanied by various soups, noodle dishes, egg and some kind of strange meat or fish dish. We also consumed our fair share of black tea with palm sugar, and various cassava (tapioca) crisps that were one of the main products made in the village.

During our first day we rode to the local market to look for Christmas presents. After deciding it was all tat we nonetheless proceeded to buy it to send back home to our families...at least it made us feel a little more Christmassy! The next morning, after a few hours of sweaty sleep, we woke up at 3am ready to cycle 20 minutes away to the Borobudur temple for sunrise. Unfortunately it was chucking it down with rain in the pitch black...after much deliberation we decided to go anyway. We donned our waterproofs and head torches and cycled off in the dark, the echo of the call to prayer at the mosque eerily surrounding us. On arrival at the temple Trevor's flip-flop broke...again! Fortunately the hotel from which we were buying our sunrise tickets gave Trevor a piece of plastic cord to tie the flip flop onto his foot with...not a good look! Due to the rain the sunrise from the top of the temple wasn't very spectacular; rather the clouds gave the setting a more dramatic feel. The temple itself was covered with statues of Buddha sitting inside latticed stupas, and along the walls of the many levels of the temple was depicted the journey of Buddhism through intricately carved pictures. Likened to Angkor Wat in Cambodia for its sheer size and intricate detail it was an impressive sight to see and explore, back-dropped by a dark and looming volcano amongst the stormy clouds. As the temperature began to rise we made our way back to down to the hotel from which we had bought the entrance tickets to claim our free 'breakfast' - some strange banana fritter covered with grated cheese and a coconut cake. We also made use of the westernised toilets in the hotel to avoid using the Indonesian one back at the homestay as much as possible, and stole three toilet rolls!

On our cycle home we both purchased new pairs of flip-flops, much to Trevor's sadness that he was finally going to have to accept that his flip-flops were ready for the bin, and popped to a craft shop to buy a few more bits of Christmas tat. After a breakfast of more rice, and Sophie unable to move for an hour due to forcing one of the kittens to sleep in her arms, we were taken on a guided cycle tour of the local village by the next door neighbor (Dwi). During the tour we were shown where all the cassava chips are made for the village, taken to a local farm, and then to a café to try some traditional Indonesian desserts. These consisted of more banana fritters, a savoury cassava cookie, and a cake made from purple sweet potato encasing a liquid ball of palm sugar...a take on a carrot cake back home we guess. On our return to our Dwi's house, she invited us to have a go playing the Gamelan; a traditional Indonesian orchestra. We played on xylophone type instruments following numbered instructions on a blackboard, which while we certainly didn't excel at still managed to entertain both ourselves and Dwi! After saying goodbye to our homestay hosts Atic and Tatak, who although couldn't speak very good English always made a big effort to make us feel at home throughout our stay, and an even sadder goodbye to our flip-flops, we got a horse and cart ride back to Borobudur bus station (Sophie worrying about the horse the whole way), and were back on a bus back to Yogyakarta.