After catching a connecting flight through Kuala Lumpur, one of our favorite cities from this trip, we landed on the island of Java, Indonesia. With a population roughly equal to that of Russia since 2014, the island of Java is the worlds most populous island and one of the most densely populated places in the world. It is home to 57% of the Indonesian population, and is majority Muslim. This is also the island that hosts the chaotic capital, Jakarta, which we skipped, heading straight to the small city of Yogyakarta instead, located in central Java.

We stayed in one of the nicest guesthouses of this trip, Alamanda Bed and Breakfast. Owned by a very friendly Dutch man named Frans, we were staying in a beautiful bungalow amidst the rice fields surrounding the city center. In the day time, it was not rare to see some larger snakes including “harmless” cobras (or so we were told) slithering through the rice paddies searching for lunch. At nighttime the sound of crickets, grasshoppers, frogs, and other creatures filled the silence, together with the daily religious chants coming from several nearby mosques, starting at about 4 am. Despite the early wake-up music being a bit painful at times, it was also quite a unique experience.

Our first evening at Alamanda we met a friendly Spanish couple, Jaime and Laura, with whom we ended up spending almost all of our time in Yogyakarta. They are now both living in Toulouse, France, however originally are from Santander and Valencia. We shared many laughs together 😉 and had a great time touring around seeing nearby temples and moving around the city center.

The Borobudur temple was the first stop in our agenda. This is the largest Buddhist temple in the world, built in the 9th century, and property of UNESCO world heritage. While visiting the temple, we were almost overwhelmed by the local children on their school holiday who were eager to take pictures with us. By far this was the biggest picture-taking session we’ve ever had, at times we couldn’t walk more than 1 meter without being asked, and often they would stand on line for their turn. We even started only looking straight and not turning around to save each other from being grabbed just to have a breather! In any case, the temple was beautiful and quite unique compared to the other architecture we had seen so far.

The following day, after a relaxing prolonged breakfast, we headed into the city center to discover Yogyakarta. The Sultan’s Palace was an interesting stop, where we also learned about the great love Yogyakartan’s have for their Sultan. In Indonesia, many regions have their own Sultan, some more powerful than others, and this one in particular is very influential. Another curious fact had to do with the many mistresses that previous Sultan’s had, and this not counting the number of wives. Apparently the current Sultan only has 1 wife and no mistress, but his father and all previous ones had quite a few of both!

After the royal tour, we moved onto the local market. You may be asking yourself, how many markets can you possibly see? Yes, it does seem as if we are quite often visiting markets! However we find they give us a very nice view of the local culture. Here we were especially impressed by the thousands of spices on sale used to cook the flavorful Indonesian dishes. We must admit that we hadn’t seen several of them before.

After being surrounded by food for a good hour while winding our way through the market, we got a bit hungry and decided to try the local specialty – chicken with cooked jackfruit. And boy was this a specialty! Martina was the only one who did not order the dish with chicken, and for the first time, all the others were jealous. Their chicken was complete, and by complete, we mean including feet with sharp nails and not forgetting the lovely accompanying hair…. What a laugh we had! Aside this unappetizing part, the dish was quite tasty.

Our day ended trying the famous local coffee at a small, hidden “coffee shop”. We put the words coffee shop in parenthesis, because this shop actually had much more than just coffee, beginning with the owner, who was such a character. Upon entering the shop he asked, “Where are you from”? We answered, “Spain.” And he replied, “Ohh, you speak French?” …… silence! “Umm, yes we do…” And it all started there. He did not speak English but did speak French, that’s why the strange question!

First he showed us all about the famous Luak coffee, made from coffee beans that are pooped out by the wild Luak. This small animal, that looks like a mix between a raccoon and a fox, nourishes itself also by eating coffee beans however without chewing the bean itself, thus preserving it to be later pooped out. Their excrement is then collected, and the beans are then processed as is normal coffee. However, due to this extensive and timely process, and the apparent special digestion of the Luak, it is much more expensive than normal coffee. In fact, this coffee is sold internationally, and not at an indifferent price. It was in any case very tasty coffee, rich in flavor.

While we enjoyed our cup of coffee, the owner showed us many other things he was selling: paintings of all kinds, snake and alligator skins, designer handbags, hunting knives and daggers, gourmet cigars and of course, the Luak coffee beans. What a funny afternoon filled with many laughs, especially when taking pictures, as the owner would smile and laugh with a huge grin, and say, “la vache que rit!” Why? Who knows, but it was hilarious.

Our days in Yogyakarta came to an end, and we said our goodbyes to Jaime and Laura (who we hope to see again someday!), packed our bags, and got ready to take two shorter flights towards the eastern-most point of Java for our next adventure: The Ijen Crater.