Would we ever reach Jogjakarta?

Jogja was the highlight of the entire Java trip both for my daughter and me, but getting there was a nightmare. It was the Christmas weekend—not a problem in Muslim Indonesia, I thought. Wrong! Every train and bus was booked with students returning home. The only possible route out of Bogor, was a taxi to Bandung where we waited until the following day to catch a jam-packed train to Jogjakarta. After this grueling nine-hour journey, my daughter started counting the days before we’d be back home. “Twenty-one days to go,” she moaned as we wearily dumped our packs in our room. At least I scored one point landing in a hotel with a swimming pool.