Third stop Java - Part 1

Here we travelled across the island so stayed in different cities and towns. 

Surabaya
The first city in Java (pronounced like hafa) was Surabaya. We arrived by plane and took a taxi to the hotel. I love how us foreigners get attacked by the taxi drivers for us to pick them to take us. We sometimes have to speak in code or Spanish so they can't understand what we are saying.

We stayed in a pod hostel, in our wooden box for 3 nights...we got free breakfast and quickly learnt that they love chocolate, we had green goop with chocolate sprinkles on our toast.

The first day we went exploring and visited the Monument Kapal Selam, this is an old submarine you could walk through. It was very interesting to be inside a submarine. We had lunch with all the locals looking at us but we worked out that we are a head and more above everyone. 

Next we took a walk to Hi-Tech Mall...it was far from Hi-Tech! I am not sure a Westerner has ever set foot in here for the attention we got. Joaquín wanted to buy a shirt...the girls gathered around and stood there giggling, think they took a liking to him! We went into KFC (they have many here) to get a drink and while I was waiting, sitting at a table I get a lady sit next to me and ask for a photo. 

The next day was an adventure...we started off wanting to go up to the water front by bus but the hotel worker told us to get a taxi. As this was the bus:

So we got in a taxi. It dropped us off and we had a long walk in the heat to get to where we were going. We tried to get through to see a monument but it seems the Navy have all the area cut off so we scrapped our plans and wanted to head back into town. We couldn't find a taxi anywhere so it was more walking through local streets watching the locals going in their everyday business. 

We spotted and ice truck, a small truck with many blocks of ice on the back delivering them to stalls...with the ice melting away. We finally reached a mall and went inside for some lunch and a spot of shopping. Outside we found a taxi which took us back to the hotel. 

Yogyakarta
It was time to leave Surabaya and head on the train to Yogyakarta. We left in the morning and arrived after a 5 hour journey. Checked into the hotel and found some early dinner. We wanted to explore the area so went to the main street and walked through the streets full on people, stalls and performers.

It was off to visit Borobudur Temple. First we found a local bus to take us all the way to a bus terminal where we had to change onto another bus, this one was a very old bus. No AC but the doors are left wide open for natural breeze and the seats are not made for tall people. My knees didn't even fit in so Joaquín was even more squashed in! We also couldn't fit in the seat, I was half sitting on the seat and half in the aisle. Anyway we reached the Borobudur Temple which is the biggest Buddhist temple in the world, it had been lost in the jungle for a long time until it was discovered in 1814 when they started to clear and restore it. It was a tiring day with a lot of walking so we just chilled in the evening.

Today was time to go and visit another temple. First we found the code museum with some the facts we could read in English which was really intreresting. It was a museum full of coding machines and the history of code making. Next we were off on the bus to Prambanan Temple, this time we only had to take one bus. This temple is the largest Hindu temple in South East Asia. It was huge to walk around and on the same site there is another Buddhist temple. It was a beautiful place but some earthquakes had destroyed parts of the temples and they were trying to restore them.

We had lots of time that evening before we caught the night train so we spent some time wondering around the market, found some dinner and had some fun at Fun World. This was full of games, we had a go at Mario Kart, basket ball and karaoke...we selected the song Help by the Beatles in this little box we were sweating. In the end I was singing..."Help, I need somebody, help get me out of here." It was time to head to the train, we found our seats in first class and went to sleep.