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26th July - Tuesday - Alarm and up at 06:00 - blue sky and 70-ish - great sleep - and off to the buffet breakfast (fried rice, bread, fruits, vegetable dishes, juice, coffee etc..) then quick spruce up and check-out. We Walked the 300m to the station, bags dragged behind. Luckily we were directed to the station for tickets by helpful locals and queued at the correct booth - now 07:05 - train for Yogyakarta leaves 08:00 (ish). We already had a room booked and paid for the next 2 nights in Yogya. The train was split into Eksekutif and Bisnes classes, we had hoped to get two Exec class tickets. By 'Executive' - reclining seats/Ac - 'Business' - seats and fan....Business and Executive are perhaps stretching it a bit - they might best be compared to a 1960's eatern bloc train - in need of refurbishment and a good wash. Though at around £22 for 2 on an 8hr 300km train journey it isn't too bad.... Unfortunately there were only two seats left on the whole train, one in Exec, one in Business. We grabbed them as the alternative was to stay another night in Bandung. Paul's need for air con meant he got Exec, and I took Business class. Two plucky porters grabbed our bags and set off with them and we followed. Lucky they did as it wasn't at all clear where our train was. The porters led us across the train tracks of platforms 1, 2 and 3 and through a train at platform 4 - I think we ended up at platform 6. As the platforms are about six inches high there is a three foot drop from the train step down... or rather a three foot climb up to board our carriage. I was unceremoniously heaved up by the porter onto the carriage floor. Then the porters hit us with their price - stiffed us for 20k (£1.50) each! It might go some way towards the physio he might need after lifting me up ;-D We left 08:00 prompt and snaked slowly through the Bandung valley - at road junctions you could see 100s maybe 1000s of bikes/cars/pople waiting impatiently to move! We continued on through residential areas with row upon row of shanty housing, made from cardboard/plastic bags, anything they could find, then piles of discarded waste. A train cuts through the city unlike other transport showing the good, the bad, the unspeakable. As we moved toward the rural paddy fields full with rain water the mountains were visible - craggy and tree laden pale green against the clear blue skies. Onward to small stations and small villages - always motorbikes by the thousand - and behind us the price of progess in Asia - the pall of polluted air a grey/brown mist hangs above Bandung. The people, the garbage, the pollution, the fight for some space, some money, some life is incessant here in Indonesia...but enough about their woes...I was sat in bisnes class, comfy seats, no fans switched on but cool air from the open windows. I was determined not to use the toilet, every man that went in rolled up his trouser legs first. The 'Tidak Morokok - no smoking' sign was being ignored by the chain smokers squeezed into the gangway. The smoke was blowing back into the carriage and I slammed the carriage door several times to shut it out. A french guy sat behind me went for his cigarette break and giggled at me as he shut the carriage door behind him. I decided to chill out!! As it was, Paul hadn't sat in his eksek seat as he was snapping happily out of the train door. He invited me to swap seats, which I did gladly. He spent the rest of the journey procariously hanging out of the open train door. About an hour into the journey the train slowed to a halt, after a while it then reversed back to a prior station - it apparently needed a new engine. We waited about an hour and the new engine was attached and we were on our way.
The views were almost 'by design' stunning. Blue mountains acted as a backdrop to luscious green stepped paddy fields. It must have been a no-school day as children lined the route waving and laughing at Paul, playing with kites, throwing stones at the train and working in the fields. The whole route was dotted with kites, caught in trees, caught on electric wires and even one on the train roof. Paul kept popping back in for a drink of water - each time he looked more and more like a chimney sweep - black from the train smoke and soot. An arse-numbing 10 hours and 300km later we arrived at Yogyakarta. After 4 days in transit - as such - I am looking forward to our next adventure!
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