Lickable Wallpaper

So we are here a week today! Here being Hong Kong and Java, but it already feels like we left home ages ago – probably because we’ve travelled so much already. We’re already very grubby and although Eddie is a bit more used to it, I have never sweated quite so much! Its hot here, but not unbearable (until you’re walking around, a bit lost, with rucksacks on and there’s no shade). We were in Hong Kong for three days, which we loved, we’re definitely hoping to return sometime. Highlights were the Peak, the shops (even though I didn’t purchase much!), the escaltor up to Soho and the Man Mo temple, which was so peaceful we could have stayed for hours.

So we’re in Java now, which is the biggest island in Indonesia and well known for its coffee. We’ve spent a lot of time here travelling on trains and buses, so we are wrecked already! The first part of the journey was on one of the better trains from Jakarta (Argo Dwipangga, 180,000 each) to Jogyakarta so it was just like getting the train to Dublin ten years ago, only maybe better because the lights didn’t go out at all and we were served breakfast and free tea! We stayed in Yogyakarta for a day or two and spent a lovely few hours wandering around the Kraton, a large elegant palace where the Sultan of Yogyakarta has resided since the 18th century. Yogyakarta was the first place we really saw in Indonesia (we just spent a night in Jakarta and didn’t see much) and it was really cool to get out and explore its hot and busy streets. We took our first ride in a local taxi – a bicycle with a seat attached for two which faces out in the traffic, so once you get in you can’t see the driver (cycler!); you are just thrust out head first into the bustling traffic, at which point you sit back and hope for the best!

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