Finding chunks of quiet time to write this blog are far and few between, coupled with ad hoc wifi connection = I’m getting behind on my updates.
I was going to insert a link to my other half’s Jogjakarta blogs and be done with it, but in addition I’m going to keep it short and sweet and add a bit from a practical perspective.
Train travel in Indonesia is very easy, cheap and judging by what we’ve seen of the driving a lot safer too. You can travel in executive, business or economy class, but the cost difference to a Westerner is minimal. Executive class is ideal with a baby as the seats are larger, the carriages are air-conditioned and your drinks and food orders are taken and delivered to your seat. It’s also a lot cleaner than the business and economy classes so better if your baby is at the crawling stage.
Shadow puppets
The journey from Bandung to Jogjakarta is 8 hours, our longest consecutive stint of travel yet. The train winds its way through mountains, rice paddies and little villages where the children run out of their houses to wave. ‘The boy’ has plenty to look at and the journey is trouble free.
Jogjakarta (or Yogyakarta as it’s also known) is the most typically touristy place we’ve visited to date, with souvenir shops, hundreds of cycle rickshaws and horse and carts lining the main streets.
Accommodation varies, but tends to be on the cheaper side, as it’s a competitive market. We had an extra mattress put in our room for ‘the boy’, but to avoid having to pay an extra charge for it we negotiated the removal of the television!
There is plenty to do in and around Jogjakarta, the main attractions being the impressive temples, the beautiful palace and the famous shadow puppet shows.
'The boy' becomes a tourist attraction at Borobudur temple
Although taxis and chartered vehicles are plentiful, we always chose to use public transport. The buses are easy to use and are a tenth of the price of the tourist buses. We also found that with a baby we were given priority when boarding, and if full, seats were generously offered to us.
We did however tick cycle rickshaw, motorised rickshaw and horse and cart off our transport list (had to be done).
Top tip of the day:
We always dress our baby in brown or dark grey coloured shorts/trousers when travelling on trains, as even after a day crawling over the floor they don’t show the dirt.
