11th January 2024 - Ciater to Jembarati

 The local Imam seemed to keep himself busy.  Most of the night we could hear what sounded like prayers.  When the dawn prayer (Fajr) time came, several loud speakers blasted out the call to prayer so there was no chance of us overlaying.  There was also, and unlinked, a strong smell of eggs in the garden beneath our window.

We were too early for breakfast am so had to eat between us some bread and jam bought several days before.

Misnu WhatsApped us to say he was running late.  It was now daylight so we could see the scenery we missed on the way up.  The route was lined with identical drinks outlets with sectioned of areas, carpeted and with a low table.   There are so may shops and outlets selling the same things in very close proximity to each other.  One wonders how they scrape a living.

Misnu asked us questions about the English weather and what we thought about Rishi Sunak.  We asked about the impact of Covid and Misnu seemed to say that there wasn't the same government support that we received during lockdown which meant many people lost their homes and cars.  He also said that infection levels were now low but that children were being affected by a respiratory disease.

On the way he also stooped at a roadside stall and shared with us a bag of fried tempeh.

He dropped us off at a different entrance to Bandung Station which was clearly the one we should have used to get a taxi.

The rain was already on the platform and again it was light and airy.  Again we travelled at a slow pace past volcanoes and along flat plains covered by rice fields.  Joan managed to sleep most of the way and Kevin rested too!

Yet again, we were struck by the houses that are built onto the railway lines, and people wandering down the track.

Finally we reached Yogyakarta or Yogya. The WiFi was a bit weak but we finally managed to order a Grab cab and even better, locate it in the station chaos.

The streets of Yogya were nowhere near as crazy as Jakarta and Bandung and we soon reached our accommodation about 10 km out of town.  It was a traditional farmhouse, with a single, airy room.  The shower and toilet we half outside at the back.  There was a verandah with the obligatory cats and ponds and paddy fields all round.  We communicated with our female host via Google translate and she offered us Pecel rice and vegetables for breakfast.  The weather was cloudy and the local volcano, Merapi, was nowhere to be seen.

The beautiful house was some way out of town but we had realised that getting a cab was cheap. We had downloaded Grab and a cab was there in minutes. We'd identified a vegan restaurant called Loving Cup which seemed to be open according to its Facebook page. The streets were busy and crowded and the driver dropped us off outside the restaurant. To our horror, it was closed. It was in a busy street with all sorts of vendors but we weren't too sure of our bearings. Neither of our phones were working without WiFi and we couldn't use Google Maps. We wandered about for a bit, and saw a kiosk that sold Sim cards. We asked the guy to sort us out with one. but for whatever reason, he could not. There were a few restaurants in the area and we spotted one that di Italian called Nanamia. It had a shop next door selling Italian foods. It also had WiFi. We had some nice anti-pasti and a few wines before managing to all a cab and take us home. Back at the bamboo house, we sat on the verandah and listened to the noise of the night.