Yo from Yogyakarta

I am relaxing in my air conditioned room in Yogya. I made it safely and found a place to stay, but there's more to the story than that.

Last night I slept poorly. At 4:30am I woke up and started getting anxious about Yogya since I didn't have a place to stay. I tried to fall back asleep but there was noise on the floor from people coming back at 5am to shower and then it started pouring rain around 6am so I basically laid there with my eyes closed trying to get back to sleep. At 7am I called it quits and got up to get ready, finish packing, email the guy that Patrick gave me the name of, skype with my mom and sister, eat breakfast and head to the airport. I don't want to admit it, but I had a bit of a breakdown on the phone with my mom because I was worried about what lay ahead. I've travelled a lot, and a lot on my own, but in all cases I've had a place to stay. Now I know that part of what I'm doing is to not plan everything, that way if I love a place or meet great people I can adapt my plan, but four days in I'm not quite in that mind set. I did believe it would work out, but I was worried.

Anyway, the rain was really coming down so I got in a taxi to the airport. Arrived with plenty of time, checked in, went to through security... nothing too exciting. Got online again and chatted with my dad. I also received an email from the American in Yogya (Mark) saying that he was sure everything would be fine and to contact him if I needed anything. That made me feel a bit better. When we were finally able to go to the gate, I started looking at the line of people hoping to find some obvious tourists... there were only a few. So I made sure to sit near a couple in the boarding area, and I asked them if it was their first time in Indonesia. Conversation started. Turns out they will be traveling around the country for four weeks and don't have any specific plans. They told me that this morning they had called to get a place to stay in Yogya, so I asked if I could join them to see if there was availability for me.

As we boarded the plane, I found out they were from Utrecht (Netherlands) and next thing I know, the guy behind us in line starts speaking Dutch. It was so random, he lived in Maastricht and Utrecht before moving to Singapore (he's originally from Mexico). He was on his way to Yogya to visit some friends because he lived here for 7 months. So the three of them were speaking some Dutch, and I told the couple I'd see them after the flight.

I fell asleep for the first part of the flight, but I was awake at the end and saw the volcanoes as we flew over Java. It was pretty amazing (picture above).

I waited the entire flight to talk to the young woman sitting next to me, but she's from Singapore and was going with her friend to Yogya for 4 days. They had basically everything planned out with a tour operator so she couldn't tell me where she was staying. Getting through immigration was fairly painless. I went to the window to purchase my Visa On Arrival for $25 and was third in line with the official. They take finger prints and photos, but he asked very few questions. I know some people said I might have problems with an Israel stamp, but he actually put the visa on the page opposite, so no issues there.

My Dutch friends were pretty far back, so I took the time to talk to the "information desk" (not sure I would call it that but it was a woman with a sign and some info) about rooms. One area of Yogya is totally booked and she suggested a place in the JL Prawirotaman area, which is where I was planning to go anyway. I decided to just go with the Dutch friends and see what happened. The Mexican guy (I'm referring to them this way because I didn't know their names yet) offered to share a taxi with the three of us since he needed to go to the same place and he negotiated the price.

The drive in took a bit longer than I expected and while I tried to look out the window, I was still thinking about the hotel situation. When we got to their hotel, I found out there was only one room for one night, no good. So I told them I'd meet them later (which I'm off to do in 30 minutes). Luckily, Miguel (got the name) waited for me and said he would help me find a place. Really came in handy to have someone who speaks Indonesian walking around with me. He was so nice to wait as I checked out a few places. As he said, he's been lost while traveling and people have helped him out so its the least he could do. I greatly appreciated it.

The options were ok, but not the best. I walked into a place that I'd read about in Lonely Planet assuming they were full, and they were, but their sister location wasn't. I'd heard about this (Duta Guest House) too, and they had space, so I said I'd check it out. Stopped into the hotel that the airport woman recommended. It wasn't too bad and was a pretty good price, but since I knew Duta I wanted to check it out. Of course it was the best. A bit more pricey (and by pricey I mean $36 a night, which is significant when you are traveling for 10 months but not bad in the grand scheme of things) but the I'm on the second level overlooking the pool and feeling pretty good. So I thanked Miguel for helping me out and said goodbye (picture above).

Soon I'll meet up with my Dutch friends to figure out if we're going to do something together tomorrow. The hotel gave me some options for tours and I'm pretty sure I'm going to do the Borobudur Sunrise (departing at 5am). So, as my parents and sister said, everything worked out. I'm here for three nights and looking at my options for the other three on Java since I'm flying to Malaysia on Wednesday. Think this will be good. More tonight (unless I'm waking up at 4:30).