25th Stop: Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Temperature: 29 degrees C

Yogyakarta provided us with some steep learning curves. We had high hopes for this city, which is touted as the cultural heart of Java, with dancing, cooking and art all around. But what we found was just another high stress destination. When all the hostels, tour agents and taxi drivers work together to make sure tourists pay high prices for poor service, where do you turn?

On the plus side, we meet Severine, a lovely lady who is to accompany us for the rest of our Indonesian adventure.

A fairly typical street in Jogja

A not so typical street. This is a cross-roads within the Kraton, a walled neighbourhood surrounding the Sultan's Palace.

Still raining, every day. Unfortunately, this umbrella does not belong to us, and we neglected to pack wellington boots.

If you go to Jogja, go to this restaurant! It's called Milas, and it's set in a secret garden. The perfect place to hide from the rain (and the hawkers).

Borobodur! A 9th Century Buddhist monument just outside Jogja.

The details are beautiful, and well preserved.

But still, Borobodur is not interesting enough to command the attention of these school girls, who would rather take pictures of us. They asked permission, which was nice, but we got over it as they began to line up for individual shots.

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