Ep24: A Slightly Complicated Journey Home

So Japan occasionally gives us something called Silver Week.

We have Golden Week in May, which usually gives us several public holidays close together.

And every now and then, September does something similar.

It doesn't happen every year, but in 2026, we had a five day weekend.

Apparently, the last time we had one that long was 11 years ago.

So naturally, I decided to leave the country.

I flew to Brunei first because I'd wanted to visit Brunei for a while.

I stayed there for one night and then flew to Jakarta the next morning.

Unfortunately, it absolutely poured with rain on my first evening in Brunei.

So I went straight to the hotel.

Not exactly the grand introduction I'd imagined.

But the next morning, I flew to Jakarta.

And that was really the beginning of the Indonesia part of the trip.

I stayed in Jakarta for two nights.

I ate quite a lot of local food, visited some of the touristy areas, including the part of the city with quite a lot of Dutch colonial influence, and generally wandered around.

Jakarta was pretty much what I expected.

Busy, chaotic, lively and very much a huge city.

Then on the fourth day of the trip, I took a train for about six hours to Jogjakarta in central Java.

And the atmosphere changed quite dramatically.

Jogjakarta felt much more relaxed.

It was more compact, easier to walk around, and generally felt very welcoming.

I walked around Malioboro, ate more local food, and as I usually do when I travel, went to a local supermarket.

I don't know why I enjoy supermarkets so much, but I do.

You can learn quite a lot about a place by looking at what people buy.

But the main reason I went to Yogyakarta was Borobudur.