Train is the easiest way to travel in Java as there is a railway going from one end to the other. We headed by train to Bandung- first class! Reclining seats, Air con, leg room, and no hawkers. It was definitely worth the extra few quid to have a relaxing 3 hours watching the very nice scenery (padi fields and mountains) go by. Bandung was what I would expect of an Indonesian city- busy, dirty, and it generally didn't have anything to it. We stayed one night and headed off early the next day towards Yogyakarta.
Mt Merapi is currently erupting so we didn't know what would be open and how bad it would be around in the city which is only 27km away from the volcano (the exclusion zone is 20km!). Yogyakarta is a really nice city to hang out in. People are friendly and there are some great places to eat. I should imagine that it is usually bustling with tourists but we saw very few, all choosing to change their plans.
The main reason I wanted to come to Yogy was the buddist temple complex Borobudur which was unfortunately closed due to it being covered in ash. We still stopped here for 3 nights. One of the in town attractions is the Sultan's complex (Kraton). Much smaller than expected we had a guided tour around (it was literally a pavilion and the current Sultan's house that we couldn't see because it was behind a wall) and learnt a little about life as a Sultan. Batik art work and clothes are very popular here so we headed on horse and cart from Kraton to a back street gallery where we saw Batik being made and made a few purchases.
It was Lesley's 50th birthday so it was only fit that we went on a bike ride. With the Prambanan temples 17km away as our destination we headed out. On the map it was a straight down the main road but we had a lot of stop start and getting lost as we navigated our way out of the busy city which is full of one way streets! The cycle wasn't quite the relaxed countryside cycle I expected as the traffic on the main road didn't let up and we headed along with all the cars and motor bikes. People were shocked to see us cycling. One man even pulled over in his car to take a video!
We made it in one piece to the temple which was very quiet with only one small tour group walking around. The hindu temples were constructed in the 9th century. They rival Borobudur, when the city was split into buddist south and hindu north. The main temples are surrounded by 250 smaller temples (now in ruins), split into 4 rows. The main temples, the largest 47m tall were very well preserved and restored after a number of earthquakes. Quick and easy to look around and set in gardens pretty similar to a British stately home it was a nice to walk around for an hour before we headed back into the city before night fall.
Yogyakarta has been a great city to spend time in and if Mt Merapi wasn't erupting there would be enough here to fill a week.
Moving on from Yogyakarta we are next headed just 65km down the road to Solo by train which led to much confusion as no one would sell us a train ticket. It turns out that you can get to train to Solo for free which I think may be something to do with evacuation of the area, but the train wasn't particularly busy though. Solo hasn't got much to it but a night here has allowed us to book onward transport on an overnight bus to Denpasar, Bali.
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