Day 3 at the language school and head is about to explode. Think have not had to remember so many new things since uni! I am making progress however can still see the look of despair on my teachers when they have to repeat every sentence word by word for me to make sense of it. It will be some time before i can have a conversation! The school is in the north of Yogya, which is really the modern side of town, slightly on the outskirts so not much to do around. Ac...

Friday: Took the 8am train from Gambir. They told me to get there an hour before, but I am not sure why as the train only turned up 10 mins before and it's reservations only. Trains are great, air con, loads of leg room and seat back better than on planes. They have TV on which shows movies or music videos. And the journey is lovely, going through villages, rice fields and by mountains. I wasn't quite sure how to order food so survived on a bag of crisps. Took ...

Landed in Jakarta this morning. Quite a long taxi ride to Jalan Jaksa area which is backpack country though I am staying in a hotel, Fave hotel. Jakarta is hot, noisy, brash as one expects. I thought it would be dirtier but there are many sweepers and people looking for recycling materials to live on. It reminds me of Hong Kong in some places, with luxury malls next to not so nice buildings. To ease the transition I have found a Starbucks where I am typing this. ...