Java - Yogyakarta

And so after another brief stop in Kuta (Bali), we arrived in the charming town of Yogyakarta. Perhaps for the first time on the trip I was struck by the poverty around us and there were some very under-employed and struggling people everywhere you look.However it's also apparently the cultural capital of this very crowded and over-whelmingly Islamic island and we had a great time - we were also struck by the very friendly locals.Almost straight away we met this lovely Bajak rider/driver who took us to the Sultans Palace. The driver Guillormo is 62 and is still pedaling around this very,very hot city all day looking for work-it was heart breaking to discover we were his first fare for 4 days.His bike was poignantly labeled with "The Struggle of my Life" on the front and he was very proud to tell us its seat was slightly wider than most and that he was never grumpy with his clients.He was fluent in French and English whilst clearly having learnt these on the job with no formal schooling.When we later couldn't find him and took another Bejak I wanted to try driving and was surprised to find they don't have a free wheel - so in an already tough job,there is no prospect of free wheeling and relaxing when going down hill !





After one 4.30 am start to fly here,we repeated this crazy feat of getting up too early and thus caught the 6am opening of Borobador.This is a UNESCO world heritage site Buddhist Monument was very impressive and our wonderful guide really brought it to life.