Jogya day 2 (Saturday 9 July)

I wake up feeling a bit fluey so ditch plans for visiting the palace and sleep in. Central Java is ruled by a Govenor who comes with the title King. Jogyakarta is the capital of central java. Apparently central government in Jakarta is trying to replace him with one of their own and the locals aren’t happy.

We spend the day eating, drinking and hitting the shops. The main shopping area of Jogyakarta on this Saturday night is teaming with people. It’s the last weekend of the school holidays here and the volume of people in the main strip is just mindboggling! It’s a struggle to get anywhere, having to literally push your way through the crowds. The shops stay open late, if they shut at all. The traffic is snail pace with every possible form of transport fighting for space including cars, scooters, pushbikes, pedicabs and horse-drawn carts. Entertainers perform on the edge of the street and crowds gather but even there the pedicabs, scooters and horse carts push there way through. And all this is done with the greatest of civility. There is no agro, people just make way.

Before we came into town we visited a travel agent mate of Agung and I signed up for a 3-day trip to some of east Java’s famous popular national parks, mount Bromo and Injen. It starts tomorrow.