Indonesia: Jogjakarta

The time has come: We fly to Indonesia. The flight to Jogjakarta was horrible. We had quite some turbulences and the plane even went through an air hole. Both of us were pretty relieved when we finally landed. We went easily through customs and whom did we see at the arrival picking us up? Ellen! What a nice surprise ...and a relief for me cause I did not have to worry anymore how to get a taxi (told you I was nervous to be really in Indonesia).

We just chilled the first day enjoying our first Indonesian food (food costs between 0,30€ and 1,5€) and some Bintangs with Ellen, Bart and Petter (surprise visit for Bart).

We took almost the whole next day cruising on our scooters through Jogjakarta (renting a scooter: 4 €/day). What a difference to what we are used to! So many scooters, so many cars, the air is full with all kind of smells, breathing is heavy due to the heat, 5 times a day you hear the moschees and now and then you are surprised by heavy rain. Even though it is very crowded and so different you feel very safe and everyone is very friendly and helpful :)

As a treat Bart took us to the Hyatt to have some chilling time at the hotel's pool.

Every night we try a new restaurant exploring the Indonesian kitchen. As the wine is awful I heard, we stick to beer (which is still quite expensive even for us "Bulees" - white people).

On wednesday Rick and me took the scooter for our first ride through Jogja on our own. We went shopping on the famour Jalan Marlborio. Against our expectations we were not surrounded by sales men trying to get us into their stores.

I had my first massage! "That will take longer than one hour miss" ... I still need to find a way to relax better as my muscles (especially my neck) are still stiff.

Thursday morning we all got up at 3;45 (after an unplanned night out so almost no sleep for no-one) to see the sunrise at the Borobudur temple. We took the scooter and drove for 90 min through the night of Yogyakarta. This was our most expensive entry so far in Indonesia: 450.000 Rupia which allowed us the entry, we got a torch (which was a little weird as the sun began to rise already so it was not dark anymore) and free kopi (coffee).

The sunrise and the temple were just amazing and very magical.

On our way back to get some kopi we had to pose taking selfies with some pupils (this felt very weird). Petter could have bought a little buddha for 20.000 Rupia .. LOL the sales man started with 250.000 Rupia and went down to 20.000 without Petter even trying to get the price down.

We decided to take a tiki tour back through the rice fields and stopped for a Lotek breakfast at a local "restaurant" next to the road. The locals never had tourists there before so we were kind of an attraction.

It is Williams birthday on the 30th so "van harte gefeliciteerd kleine man"

As the weather turned a little bit on friday Rick and me decided to do some cultural activities so we went to visit the "Fort Vredeburg" where we were guided by a student through the fort full of history. We learned a lot about the history of Jogjakarta from the colonial times, the Japanese invasion, the second world war and their fight to become independent. Very impressive. After what happened people are still so friendly and even in the museum there was no judgement what so ever. We were very glad that we did that tour. Due to loads (loaaaaaaads and heavy) rain we had to spend more time there than we expected but what the hack? We are not in a rush.

On 1st april we started one of our most interesting day tours so far. Going camping on a local beach 70 km away from Jogjakarta. We started a little late so we needed to hurry to get their before the sun sets. It took as a while to get our scooters loaded with beer (to remind you: Yogja is very Islamic you cannot really buy alcohol outside the tourist area and certainly not at a local beach) and to rent a 5 person tent. The shop owner did not trust us as he had never rent out a tent to bulees before.

After two hours driving through the jungle and the mountains we arrived at the beach (with a sore bum haha). Unfortunately we could only see a glimpse of the sunset. We found a good spot at the beach and the men set up the tent. A very small tent. We would never fit in there with the 5 of us...well ok, we decided just to sleep outside on the sand. The guys collected some food for the fire and we had dinner at the restaurant there (let's just call it a restaurant...). After we lighted the fire it began to rain ... so no sleeping on the beach. The friendly restaurant owner offered us a carpet to sleep on but luckily it stopped raining.

We all had a very interesting and short night. There were tents everywhere with young people camping, others were sleeping on benches, the toilets were...well,.. we just forget about them ... and what we expected, we did not fit in the tent ...(4 of us kind of did, Petter slept in the entry of the tent).

The next morning we went back and after another 3 hours on the scooter (our bums felt like wood) we arrived back in the hostels and took a long shower and met in the evening for some dinner and football (Ajax - Feyenoord).

This will probably be our last day in Jogjakarta. We are planning to take the train to Probolinggo tomorrow to visit the Bromo Mountain on the 5th. After that we might drive down to the south coast before heading towards Bali...but before that we want to try to extend our visa to 60 days so maybe we need to stay another 2 days .. let's see what happens.

Ps... things to remember (wrong spelling but I do know better than this):

Tidak - no

Terima Kashi - thank you

jalan jalan - walking

Puti - white

mera - red

Sama sama - your welcome

Kula -sugar

bulee - white person

lima - 5

pajar - pay

meme pajar - I want to pay

Pps... Rick stills ows Petter 1000 Rupias ;)