Jogja to Jakarta

Getting onboard what turned out to be a very comfortable train to Jakarta, we settled down to what was supposed to be an 8 hour journey. Ten hours later, when we were thoroughly bored, we eventually arrived. There had been no announcement of any delay and none of our fellow passengers seemed unduly surprised, so we can only assume it was meant to take that long. With a place to stay already in mind we set off around the national monument knowing it wasn’t far. Stopping to ask for directions from a policeman, we were told that it was further than we thought and we would be better off taking a taxi. Hailing a taxi and being assured he knew where he was going we set off. 9km later for a journey that we thought to be about 1km, it became apparent that he had no idea where he was going! With the meter still ticking away we directed the driver back to roughly the right direction, paid some of the fare and abandoned him. Back at square one, we started walking to the hotel, rather ironically what we had intended to do in the first place. After a long train journey and the stifling heat of the city, we were looking forward to getting to the hotel. When the hotel turned out to have closed down we were not amused and were left with little choice but to go on a hunt for another one. Eventually finding the backpacker area, we found a reasonable hotel, booked a taxi for the morning and collapsed into bed. The whole journey had taken over 13 hours, with hindsight flying looked like a much better option!

Next: Singapore