Day 115 - Yogyakarta, Java.

It's hard to believe that we've been in Indonesia for a week already. Following Kuta and Ubud in Bali, we're now in Yogyakarta on Java and before you ask, yes, I've had some Java coffee...

We hadn't booked the flight as advice from previous travellers suggested it was best just to turn up and book a flight at the airport so as to avoid the commission of the travel agencies in the towns. This advice proved disastrous because we ended up paying through the nose for our flights here as Garuda were the only airline travelling on Sunday and their flights were full. We had to wait in the airport for over 9 hours for the next available seats. Hhhmmmph!

We got here last night, in the dark, with no accommodation booked and no rooms at the first two hotels we tried. After wandering the streets for a short while and dodging the rats down the alley ways (I swear one was the size of a cat!), we finally checked into Peti Mas; a small hotel in the heart of the city. It sounded so cosmopolitan and with dogged determination we negotiated 20% off the room price fairly easily. In fact rather too easily. We were then lead past the lovely looking outside breakfast area, alongside the invitingly fresh swimming pool, up the stairs to the first floor balconies with pool view and eventually to our room. The promise of a warm shower and an air-conditioned rest seemed so inviting.

Rich went off to check out some day trip options while I layed on my bed trying to cool down emotionally and bodily. It was then I heard it. I thought I was imagining things at first but it got louder and louder. There were rats in the ceiling! I'm guessing they were Dutch rats given the fact that they were obviously wearing heavy-duty clogs. I sat up with a start and followed the sound of the footsteps with my eyes out on stalks as it moved from one side of the room to the other and down the wall. Then it stopped. I sat down again wondering whether the whole city was infested after seeing that huge one in the alley earlier then switched on the telly to drown out any more noises. I started getting engrossed in 101 Dalmatians when Rich returned. I
explained the noise to him and suggested that we ask for a ground floor room instead at which point the shuffling fired up again. His expression was "Bloody hell!" at which point we hot-footed it to reception. The woman behind the counter didn't seem the least bit surprised when we asked for a quieter room without en-suite vermin and she took us round the back via the Japanese style garden to a very tranquil and rodent-free room.

Much better...

Or so we thought until 4am the next morning when two joyful Muslims started their prayers seemingly in the rooms either side of us. I rolled my eyeballs in the resigned style of Ena Sharples and stuck my head under the pillow to try and drown out the noise. No sooner had I done that than I was woken again by a cacophony of tropical birds 'treating' me to a dawn chorus. It turns out that the pretty Japanese garden outside the room is also home to a collection of large caged feathered friends that like nothing better than to announce their awakening to the whole of Yogyakarta! I've given up on the idea of having a peaceful night's sleep for the next few nights until we get to Pangandaran. Apparently, nobody goes there anymore since the last tsunami and the bombings of 2006 scared off the punters. It should be blissfully quiet.

We'll see.

Before I forget, and for the benefit of my mate Jack, I'm going to include the average price of beer that we've been paying in the local dives. The price is per litre and gives a good indication of the general cost of living. Well, for some it does! (Just halve it to get the approximate pint equivalent OK Jack?)

I shall call this the beer index...

Yogyakarta: £1.80 per Litre (Avg.)