Travelling nightmare to Yogyakarta

We hope you all had a nice Christmas! Ours was spent in a small mountainside village called Tretes which is about 50 km or so northwest of Malang. A very nice place that is a popular weekend get-a-way spot for the locals. We were quite proud of ourselves in getting there because we were finally able to negotiate the public transport system almost as seemlessly as the locals and for the same price they pay. It only took us 4 weeks, but we finally did it. I wish I would have taken a picture of Keith sitting in this bemo (minivan - aka public bus) - he was sitting next to this cute, very small lady, and she just made him look like a giant, with his head nearly touching the ceiling. Then there's our enormous backpacks spread across our laps...no we don't stick out at all.

Arriving in Tretes, we were fortunate to meet a friendly ex-pat who steered us in the direction of a great hotel. Very reasonably priced, and views from the common dining areas that were amazing - overlooking steep mountain valleys, distant mosques, and a big ol mountain. There are hikes in this area that take you to the top of some mountains, but we opted not to do it as the rainy season could make the walk treacherous and unpleasant. Yes, we are still getting the daily 2:00 downpours.

We had a nice stay in Tretes. Although we were literally the only tourists there, so we became a bigger attraction for the locals than any of the scenery and mountains that they originally came to see. We took some short walks to some waterfalls, the more popular of the two was packed with local tourists (this was the Saturday of Christmas, so there were lots of locals up for the weekend), and student groups. The kids in particular got a kick out of us, and I now have a small indication for what it might be like to be famous. "Excuse me missus...may I photo?" Giggle, giggle, giggle, photo taken, shrieks of delight. It was pretty cute, but it did get old after a while. So many eyes on us the whole weekend. We were weary by the end. We went into the local pool hall to play, and I am already a pretty bad pool player, but when I have 30 pairs of Indonesian eyes relentlessly staring at me, I get even worse.

We spent Christmas night having dinner with two ex-patriots (one from Australia, one from Britain) who were clearly starved for some Western conversation because they both talked at the same time throughout the entire dinner. It was interesting (and a little frustrating) to hear their perspective. They are clearly jaded by many aspects of Indonesia, so we wonder why they are hear at all, but the answer comes the more they talk - they like to not have to work much and live inexpensively, and they love the women - both have married much younger local women. Interesting evening.

So what of this travel nightmare I mentioned? Well, it's a bit of a long story but to summarize, we essentially learned two lessons:

1) Never pre-book your transportati0n.
2) If you violate #1, forgo the money you spent on that prebooked transportation and carry on. It is not worth saving a few bucks for the inconvenience of trying to make good on your earlier purchase.

So way back in Probolingo, we foolishly got talked into through tickets from Bromo to Yogyakarta (jo-ja karta), as that was our next destination planned. As we were hanging out in Bromo, and hanging out with Steve and BB, we found some other places we wanted to go in between (Malang, Tretes). No problem, our booking "agent" says, just call me from where you want to be picked up on the day you want to be picked up (along the main route to Yogya), and we'll come get you. So the day we left Tretes, we arranged for the night bus to come get us at the spot of our choice. We headed down the mountain, didn't find the first town to our liking, so went a bit further to another town where there was a decent train station that made a good waiting place. Called the guy. No problem, be there about 8:00. It was about 3:30 when we got there - we deliberately went early to avoid missing him. Long wait at the train station, playing cards, getting stared at. As we get closer to the time, we move out on the street. Wait, get stared at, eat a little from a vendor, get stared at. It's now 9:00, no sign of this guy. Keith calls, and finds out his bus broke down! About 3 hours ago! He wasn't going to try to come find us or let us know somehow! Keith let him know how frustrated we were, and within two minutes we jumped onto a public bus headed for Surabaya. Upon getting off the bus in Surabaya, we were completely swarmed by taxi drivers. It was like pushing our way through an angry mob. We were so irritated at that point, that out of spite we went walked over to the bemos to take public transport to our hotel. So we got on a bemo, asked the guy if it took us to city center, of which he assured us it did. 5 minutes into the ride, the guy who handles the money took my money, then asked where we were going (we had already told him 3 times). Communication was already difficult, but adding insult to injury, the radio was blasting awful music right into our ears, so not only could we not understand him, but we couldn't hear him. Plus, in trying to communicate where we were trying to go, he and everyone on the bus would periodically laugh like crazy at us. We were already on such a thin thread, this was the breaking point, and we eventually got the message that we were on the wrong bemo. So he dropped us off at a bus stop of which we had no idea where it was (Surabaya is a city of 2 million), and where now we were being ignored by all the transport people. Finally after taking out our frustrations on each other, we recoverd, found a taxi and after much discussion with all the taxi drivers in the area, they figured out where and how to get to our hotel, and after we had to tell him to turn his meter on, we were off. We arrived at our hotel at about 11:00 and crashed.

We caught the early AM train to Yogyakarta (which is what we could have done all along if we could have just let the $30 go). So next day we board an executive class train (don't get too excited....in means air conditioning, reclining seats (of which one of ours was broken) and a snack). Nice enough way to go though and by 2:00 we were in the town of Yogyakarta - a city similar to Ubud as it is known for its culture and art.

We found a great place to stay with the most creative murals painted on the walls of our rooms. We'll get a picture of it. Nice city, with plenty to do. We spent today walking around. Tons of shopping here, but neither of us were in the mood to tackle the bargaining today, so we just wandered around (jalan jalan), trying our best to learn to ignore the constant offers for transport. "Yes, excuse me mister. Transport? Bromo? Borobudur? Yes please?" I think we dream those words now.

We'll get some pictures up over the next few days. We'll hang around here for a few days, then spend New Years in a mountain town, back here for one day, then fly to Singapore on the 3rd.