After a long bus ride we arrived at the train station only to find that all the trains to Yogy were booked for the foreseeable future. Tired, feeling slightly defeated we headed to get a bite in the train station that had wifi and regroup. From here we found a decently priced modern hotel (all I remember is that it was hot pink) that seemed to be in a good location. We booked some rooms, grabbed a taxi and made our way there. After unpacking we met in the lobby, and decided to test our stomachs with a little street food. Leaving the hotel we rolled the dice and turned left away from the busier streets and started walking. Much to our surprise there was an entire road of vendors right around the corner. We picked a stand and started chowing down.
A few minutes into our meal an Indonesian looking man approached us, asking us where we were from and if we minded if he sat and chatted with us. Typically this kind of interaction automatically raises the red-flag thinking that there are some sort of strings attached; whether it means we need are going to be pressured to buy something from the person/go to his or his friend's shop/or give him money. Contrary to previous interactions traveling, this guy was totally legit. He helped us order various things from the vendors, explained to us what we were about to eat, bought us a beer and even gave us the name of a driver to use once we got to Yogy. The whole experience could not have gone better and it was really a delight talking to the gentleman and getting a rundown on the country and culture.
Early the next morning, I booked us tickets through a travel agent on a flight to Yogy and one of the boys went and picked them up. We slept it off a little more and then headed out on the town. Wondering around, we ended up at a mall. A normally Americanized shopping mall and not really someplace I would normally choose to go. Oh man, how much I would have missed had we not go to this mall. We spent most of the day in the arcade (it was Christmas Eve if I recall correctly) playing pop-shot basketball, singing in the tiny karaoke stalls and playing whatever other games we could find. For lunch we took a short break from the arcade and hit up the food court, which consisted of 20+ vendors with everything from sushi to Thai to Chinese to Indonesian to Indian and everything in between. Each of us went out, got a couple dishes, brought it back to the table and we gorged ourselves family style before waddling back to the arcade. After a little more time at the arcade we found ourselves a restaurant with a big windows, beer towers and my all-time favorite (not really available in Cairo) food: buffalo wings. It was awesome. From there we headed back to the hotel, showered, changed, I think we grabbed some dinner and headed to a pool bar across the street. The bar was full of scantily-clad women in red dresses who were employed to bring drinks and play pool with the patrons. At midnight, the bartenders bought the three of us a shot in celebration of Christmas. It was a pretty cool evening, and the next morning we flew to Yogy.
In Yogy we saw the water palace, the old palace with a collection of the king's coaches, Prambanan and Borobudur (major Hindu and Buddhist temples/UNESCO world heritage sites) Mt. Merapi (one of the most active volcanoes in the world), went river tubing, bought tons of souvenirs and saw tons of sites. Yogy was amazing and our hotel (Duta Garden?) was beautiful with a waterfall and pool right outside our room. Plus the garden bathroom was great.
After Yogy we headed to Sumatra for some surfing. We were picked up by this nutty dude named Zane and drove across the island to the west coast to stay a night in his surf camp. We stopped a few times while Zane the American convert to Islam prayed and grabbed a bite at the best chicken restaurant I have ever been to. At some point in the night (6hr drive...) our transmission went out on top of one of the mountains and we actually coasted into 'town'. Pulling over at a house that doubled as a mechanic's shop, we waited about an hour or two for it to be fixed. After this we drove on to our camp and unloaded. We were right next to the water an with the super-tide could see water splashing up over the retaining wall/fence.
The next morning I got up early and had my first surf in months. It was not too bad, but I was extremely rusty and on a new board so I only had a few small waves. Was definitely too afraid to go backside at the new break. From Zane's place we headed up the beautiful coastline to the Jenny's Right break and stayed at the bare-bones guest house run by Cepcep. Despite the lack of amenities, we all really enjoyed it. We were pretty much the only foreigners for hours and had the whole break to ourselves. Mark and Brad bodyboarded a little bit and I surfed 2-3 times a day, wearing my back and arms out quickly. Cepcep took really good care of us, the 3 meals a day were great, and he always had cold beer waiting for us despite only having a cooler. The bathrooms were bucket-flush toilets and were in the same small room as the shower, which was actually the same bucket and a trough of extremely cold mountain water. While in Sumatra we got to go to a coffee plantation and purchased some fresh-roasted beans from a guy in town. I hear it was some pretty amazing coffee. (I don't drink coffee)
After 5 days or so in Sumatra we headed back to Zane's and then on to the airport with an extremely fast driver with a CD that played the same 4 songs on repeat. All-in-all it was a great trip and I definitely hope to get back to Indo some day.