I had a flight to Singapore from Helsinki via Frankfurt, Germany. In Frankfurt I had 6 hours to spend so I visited in city centre. There was Christmas Market going on so I of course had some pretzels and Glühwein. I had been in Frankfurt before so there was no nothing new to me. The flight to Singapore went easily, I was sleeping most of it. Lufthansa's Airbus A380 is very good plane, very good entertainment selection.
I arrived to Singapore in the evening. I found my hostel, went to eat to nearby shopping mall and then I went to sleep.
Day 1
I woke up early in the morning and checked my departure time to Yogyakarta, Indonesia many times. But still I arrived to airport too late. I blame jet lag of my stupidness in that morning. AirAsia is the only airline which has straight flights to Yogyakarta from Singapore and only once per day. So I had too options: fly next day or fly today to somewhere else. And I decided to fly to Jakarta and take a train from there to Yogyakarta.Couple hours later I was in the plane going to Jakarta. I had no clue what I was doing because my careful plans were now gone. There was woman and her daughter sitting next to me and they wished me good luck in Jakarta because it is very dangerous city in their opinion. This just made me more excited! In Jakarta I first bought visa on arrival before passport check. After customs was time to find a reliable taxi to the train station. I ignored all the taxi drivers shouting offers at me and I tried to find a taxi stall. I found one and they had metered taxi which took me to the Gambir train station. I was enjoying every moment of the drive to the station. Singapore wasn't that much different from Europe (except the weather) but Indonesia was already showing its different face. At the station I bought a ticket to a night train to Yogyakarta.
Day 2
In the train I tried to sleep but it was quite hard because the train was noisy, other passengers were noisy and at every station there was coffee sellers shouting "Kopi! Kopi! Kopiiiiii!" And I saw some huge lizards climbing on train stations' walls and trying to catch some huge moths.
I arrived to Yogyakarta around 4am and then I tried to find a hostel or hotel. I walked to one hotel which was recommended in my guide book. The receptionist was sleeping when I came in. I asked if they had rooms available and he said no. Then I asked if I could spend the rest of the night at the couch in the reception and he said it was ok. But I really couldn't get any rest because of the noises from the street and soon the sun come up and the city woke up so I gave up with resting. I started to wait call from my couchsurfing host Andry. He was supposed to come to the city in the morning from Jakarta. While waiting his call I walked around the neighbourhood which is called Sosrowijayan. It has narrow streets with many backpacker hostels and colourful houses, very lovely neighbourhood in the day time, not so much at 4am. I also bought my street food in Indonesia: delicious chicken soup and fresh mango juice. And I learned probably the most useful words of my whole trip: ayam means chicken and goreng means fried. These 2 words helped me a lot next days. Finally Andry contacted me but he had bad news: his boss asked him to visit in other city before his return to Yogyakarta so he couldn't host me yet. So I took a room from the hotel where I spent my morning. And I went straight to sleep as I was really, really tired. I woke up when it was already dark outside and I went to find something to eat. I ate at a restaurant which was full of other tourists and then had some snacks and drinks from supermarket. Before I went to sleep I was watching how gekko was walking on my ceiling.
Day 3
Andry sent a message that he was going to meet me afternoon so I had time to go explore Yogyakarta. I first walked to Kraton, the sultan's palace. On the way I met my first group of school kids, they were almost scared to death when they saw me. During the next days I would see this happening many times again. I also liked the small amusement park next to the Kraton. It looked like it was abandoned because it was in very bad shape. I entered to Kraton from it's northern entrance, I was surprised how the entrance fee was cheaper than what it was mentioned in guide book. Soon I realised why: I was only allowed to walk in a small part of the Kraton. Days later I heard from other tourist that you should use southern entrance which allows you to explore bigger and more interesting part of the Kraton. But there was some guides hanging around near the entrance of the Kraton. I asked them if this was really all I could see. They told me the rest of the Kraton was closed on that day. So I don't know who I should trust and believe. But at least I got the see small part of the Kraton.
After my question to guides one of them wanted to show me a batik workshop. I tried to refuse this offer as friendly as I could but soon I was walking with him to that batik workshop. Of course at the workshop they tried to sell me everything they had but I got away from there quite easily. Guide still gave me advice which way I should go if I want to visit in Taman Sari, the Water Palace. I was really surprised that he didn't ask me any money. But I started to walk towards Taman Sari. On the way I passed pet market which had very interesting selection of all kinds of crawling things. But the place made me feel very sad too so I continued my trip quickly.
Near Taman Sari I got one guide following me. I tried to ignore him first but then I started to follow him because he wanted to show me the way to Taman Sari. At one point he stopped and wanted me to come with him to batik shop. I said that I'm not interested and continued walking because I saw some other tourists in front of me so I started to follow them. Guide didn't try to follow me anymore. I walked through a tunnel and then I stopped to have a rest at a small kiosk with lovely terrace. After rest I went to visit in Taman Sari. Guide was included in the price but I didn't understand most of his stories because he was speaking so fast, quietly and with heavy accent. And of course he took me to a batik shop. I bought some postcards, got haggled down the price little bit too. He also showed me shadow puppet shop but prices there were definitely not for my budget. I gave a small tip to the guide after tour (small for me, big for him judging from his face).
After Taman Sari I walked through some ruins next to it. I decided to sit down and have a rest on top of them. From the top was great views over Yogyakarta. The city seems to lack high buildings but because of big earthquake risk I think it's understandable. I could also view first time Mount Merapi, the active and dangerous volcano. Well, the top of it was behind clouds but I could see some of it. I sat there for an hour watching how locals or local tourists were either scared or interested of me or both. Then I walked back to my hotel where I then met with Andry. He was with his scooter but I had so big luggage so it was better for me to take a bus. Andry gave me instructions and then we met again at a bus stop near his place. Then I hopped on his scooter and we drove short way to his place. It was my first time on a scooter so I was little nervous of the ride first but soon I realised there was nothing to be scary of. I had to give copy of my passport to gate guards of Andry's apartment complex so that they knew I was there. Andry offered me lunch and dinner and we stayed at his place rest of the day talking about all kinds of things. But we both were happy to go sleep early as we were quite tired both and next day I had new adventure ahead of me.
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