Going Solo

lady trying to sell Niall Macho Man Pills outside mosque

View more photos 

After the long road trip from Bromo to Surabaya we were in no form to get on a bus to Solo but decided to soldier on as we would only have to face it in the morning if not. The bus was a local one, with 2 seats on one side and 3 on the other. Being a lot bigger than the locals we decided to buy tickets for all 3 seats on one side (it hardly broke the bank) but once the bus starting filling up we started feeling bad when locals were standing up (Niall more so than me) so we told a lady she could sit down beside us. Was entertaining actually as she took an ear of my iPod and was singing along to U2 & Whitney Heuston!

All during the bus journey people were getting on and off selling everything from coloring books to vests to fruit to pens to calculators to dictionary's - it was hilarious! It was possibly one of the most head wrecked bus journeys I have ever been on so I was more than happy to pull up in Solo and get to a nice guest house.

Hanging with local vendors

View more photos 

As we were spending 2 nights in Solo we took it relatively easy and used the stop as a chance to recharge the batteries after all the going we had done in recent days. We did pay a visit to the Kraton which proved hugely entertaining as along the walk there and inside in the grounds we were accosted by little school girls all the time who wanted to interview us for school projects. They were really sweet and all had similar questions to ask us. They took tonnes of pictures of us with their mobile phones and would giggle like crazy if we put our arms around them.

At one stall outside the Kraton this cute old lady came up to Niall and unbeknown to me she was trying to sell him Macho Man Pills - of course he told me and she was trying to hide them! Was hilarious! The lady looked so holy & innocent and there she was outside the mosque selling her Macho Man Pills! We met loads of other locals along our walk that day - they were just so friendly and clearly loved seeing tourists around.

Some of the school girls that interviewed me!

View more photos 

After our few hours walking around in the scorching heat we went back to the guest house to wait on our taxi driver whom we had booked earlier that day to drive us to Yogjakarta which was only an hour away. A few beers and a few games of shithead later there was no sign of our driver so we made inquiries about a train and had to make a mad dash for the local train. Once on board we resumed our games of shithead which I regret now as I was well ahead before we left the guest house!