Yes, Yogya again! Only for a few hours, still on the way to Malang (where we arrived yesterday). But we'll be back in just over a week, God willing.

It was a wonderful journey from Semarang with Day Trans. For some reason we took the back roads, via Grabag, and it was quintessential Java: rice-fields, volcanoes, villages, bird-cages... As Nigel said, it would have made a great Rufus ride.

Once we hit Yogya, we went into overdrive, ticking off all the following in a few short hours:

-- Getting our hair cut at our respective old places
-- Riding a becak down to Prawirotaman (non-motorized: there's a bit of a thing going on in Yogya at the moment over "betor", or motorized becaks, which threaten to push the old guys out of business)
-- Popping in at ViaVia for sandwiches and coffee, and being remembered
-- Getting our photos taken (more visa applications) and spotting the guy on the bicycle that we used to see on our morning walks
-- Sampling es gosrok (tape, coconut milk, coconut flesh, condensed milk, jackfruit, vanilla, and ice: popular in the 80s, apparently, and seemingly undergoing a tiny revival in Yogya)
-- Walking back via the two alun-aluns, spotting the things that have opened up or changed, and savouring Yogya's beautifully familiar streets at the close of this first fasting day
-- Feeling sad and happy, all at once...