Yogyakarta

A nice early wake up this morning as our bus picked us up at 7am. If we'd been clever we'd have told the hostel that we wanted an early breakfast but we were foolish and so sat on the bus feeling rather hungry for a few hours. Luckily, as it was so early, I slept all morning. We stopped off at just before 12 so we sat and enjoyed a nice plate of food. It actually wasn't the best but I was really hungry so my mind played tricks on me. I had some okay chicken thighs with rice and a strange pastry thing that looked good but had a strange taste and was very dry inside. I didn't manage to finish it. 

The bus was cheaper than the train and dropped us off right at our hostel so I think it was a better deal. We didn't get to our hostel until around 4 though so it was a long journey. We had a quick chat to some fellow travellers and got some tips on where to go in Yogyakarta. As we had a few hours left of the day we set out to explore some things we'd been told about. Unfortunately, the sultan palace was closed when we passed it (although we'd been told it wasn't much to look at) so we decided to just keep walking and see what we could find. We came across some coffee place after around half an hour and were invited in to try some coffees and teas. We sat outside and peered at the little creature they kept which worked like the weasels in Vietnam (it also looked slightly like a weasel); these creatures (I don't know what they were called) eat the coffee beans and then their poo is used to make the coffee that people drink. This process makes the coffee a lot more expensive. We tried both the Balinese and Java coffees as well as some tea and a spiced coffee that tasted like Christmas. It was all very interesting and tasty; even Matt liked the coffee which was rather strong! 

After the coffee shop we walked further, deciding to ignore the offers for bicycles to the night market and choosing to find it on our own. At one point we were consulting our map when a lovely man came over to us and showed us an art exhibition. He worked at the post office and was just on his way home but he thought we'd enjoy it. Some people are very kind. The art exhibition was interesting; we were shown how the batiks are made using both silk and cotton and were able to look at all of the pieces for free. Some of the art work was amazing and if I had the money or the bag space I would take it home with me. 

It was dark after we'd seen the art and so we headed straight to the night market which we weren't far from. As far as markets go, it wasn't the best. The street was huge; on one side were some food places and on the other were batik clothes stalls with badly made clothes. The food wasn't much to chat about. We sat down on the floor at one of the little tables and ordered nasi goreng (rice), some veg and bebek which turned out to be duck. However, there wasn't much meat on the duck and it didn't taste that good. It was all rather pricey for what it was and where it was so we left disappointed. After a stroll down the street, stopping to listen to some fantastic musicians playing amazing instruments, we found some cool pancake stall and decided to finish off our meal with something nice. Matt actually chose a savoury pancake with egg and veg and a delicious flavour which was finished off with some black pepper. The pancake enveloped the other ingredients and was fried until crispy on the outside. Delicious. 

Further down the street we passed some street acts that were dressed in stupid outfits or were holding beautiful owls or fat snakes. It was very strange but amused us for a while. By this point it was pretty late and we knew it would take over an hour to walk back so I haggled for a bicycle tuk tuk. It was quite nice rolling along through the city. Yogyakarta is a very strange place but so far has been rather interesting.