Yogyakarta visa issues

My brief stop in Malaysia was over and after one last Indian meal, I headed for the airport to fly to Yogyakarta (also spelt Jogjakarta and pronounced with Js), a city on Java in Indonesia that's well known for its food. I landed, queued for immigration and as I was at the front of the queue I was told that I needed to get a visa first. A sign would have helped. Next I discover that the visa is $35! I was in Indonesia a few months ago and there was no visa fee. It turns out that Yogyakarta and Bali both charge for visas and most other airports don't. I always thought a visa was the same price for a country, no matter which airport you used.

To make things worse, it's probably the only airport in the world without an ATM and I didn't have that much cash on me. Three other travellers were in exactly the same position as me and they were talking over the situation with a man from Air Asia. I asked him if this happened every day (knowing full well it must) and he said yes. I then suggested that maybe they should solve the problem rather than screwing with tourists and he just laughed. Luckily they did have a solution: Air Asia paid for our visas, we went through immigration and then had to be escorted to another building about 10 minutes away to get cash out.

I'd already planned getting from the airport using the train to a station near lots of hotels and homestays. Due to the visa problem, I was an hour later than planned but it was still only about 6pm and the trains were still running. The ticket office, however, was closed so there was no way to get on the train. Can you imagine that happening with other international airports?

Johannes, a German guy who had been one of the other three travellers, was also trying to get the train. We both resorted to getting the bus and although we needed different buses, we exchanged details so we could meet up again.

Finally I arrived in the area I'd read was good for accommodation and headed to a guesthouse which had good reviews. I'd tried booking by email a few days before but after one reply they'd just stopped answering. They only had one room left but it was a bit grim so I walked around the streets looking for a good deal. I was exhausted so I settled for the first one who could offer me A/C for the right price. I showered and went straight out for dinner.

My first meal in Yogyakarta was 'gudeg', their most famous food. It's young jackfruit which has been boiled down until it's a brown sludge. It's served with various things including rice, fried chicken, tofu, boiled egg (which is brown from being cooked in the jackfruit water) and 'krecek' which is a spicy stew made from cow skin. The whole thing is far tastier than it sounds and looks.