Before I left the small luggage hall I headed over to a taksi booth that was fronted by a couple of smart looking ladies and enquired as to how much it would be to get from the airport to my hotel which I estimated to be about 30 minutes away. The sum I was hit with was 100,000 IDR, which to me seemed a fair deal and worth almost that price alone to just avoid the transportation scrums which lay in wait just outside the next doors. With the figure agreed I was then led through crowds of travellers and hagglers for a couple of minutes to where a car soon arrived, my luggage chucked in the trunk before instruction was given to the driver and we headed headed off hassle free to find my hotel in Yogyakarta. A shortlisted contender for the best fiver I've ever spent.
After checking into the "Aloha" hotel and being given the friendliest, warmest welcome I have received to date, I went up to my room to shower and organise a few things to take to the laundry that happened to be located just around the corner. Before I had the chance to go though the rain started to fall and I opened the room door wide just so I could listen to the rain falling outside through the open roof of the hotel, running down the inward sloping roof and dropping into the open pond below, resplendently placed on the floor below complete with goldfish and plants including open water lilly's. As I sat there entranced by the audible patter being made by the giant droplets of water against anything they hit, the brightest flash of lightening whited out the sky, immediately followed by the loudest, longest clap of thunder I had ever heard in my life, that then rolled and echoed for a maybe fifteen seconds or more as it rumbled off away into the distance as I contiued to sit there in awe. I have never heard anything as loud or as menacing before, but the rain didn't seem to care. It just carried on regardless. The 30 minutes or so that I had become accustomed to rainfall lasting for during my travels came and went and the rain kept going, and going, and going, and going......and going.......aaaand going. Eventually, as I became more watchful of the time I concluded that I needed to just say "bugger it" and get my clothes to the Laundrette before they closed. Borrowing an umbrella from reception from downstairs and taking the little shelter it offered, I waded down what had become a small river outside, with the water at times lapping maybe 3 inches or more above my ankles. I could at least take a little bit of comfort knowing that at least half my face wold remain dry under the cover of the umbrella, aswell as the fact that I wasn't wearing socks, so one less thing to dry later.
When I got to the launderette I was informed that my Laundry would take 3 days due to the following day being a public holiday. 3 Days!! By now I was getting used to having everything cleaned by the next day at the latest, but I soon reasoned that this would be ok as it meant my clothes would be fresh and ready for collection on the day before I planned to leave and I probably needed to replace some of my more tired, well travelled clothes anyway. With the deal agreed and bag left behind I sloshed back to the hotel with umbrella in hand and waited out the rain for the next couple of hours, using google translate to try and learn a couple of basic Indonesian phrases, as well as watching the downpour fall through the the purpose let gap onto the landscaped garden nurtured in the midst of the hotel. When the rain finally subsided I was able to go and try and find something nearby to eat, politely declining the umbrella on offer this time but taking with me a dry pair of shoes and my first learned phrase.
Terima Kasih
Getting quite professional now. Very good.10/10
ReplyDelete