Surf, sun, beaches, shopping, food, and culture, or, as Elizabeth Gilbert wrote in Eat, Pray, Love, a place of healing. Yet even if you add it all up together, they will still fall short of capturing the essence of Bali and the reason it has become Indonesia’s most popular destination. There is something about this island that must be seen with one’s own eyes, felt through the senses, and stored in the vaults of memory.

Arriving from Bandung, I headed straight to Wonderloft Hostel, where I had reserved a bunk bed for one night before flying back home to Manila. I originally planned on catching up on sleep, but when I learned from the receptionist that the hostel was just a few steps away from the historic Kota Tua Jakarta, I ditched rest in favor of the chance to explore more.

“I come with the rain,” I muttered to myself while I watched the last sheen of daylight give way to dark clouds, casting over the countryside and heading to Bandung. I spent the three-hour train ride from Jakarta uneventfully fighting off sleep as I opted to stare at the passing lush scenery as much as I could.

If gazes could talk, one would instantly have heard the surrounding eyes mouthing off intentions of mayhem—a bedlam not equating to violence, but rather expressed through the mischievous actions of more than 700 long-tailed macaques who called that place home. A primate habitat known as the Mandala Wisata Wanara Wana, or otherwise referred to as the Ubud Monkey Forest, was another popular tourist destination in Bali. Home to more than 700 long-tailed macaques, it was tucked deep in a forest covering approximately ten hectares with a labyrinth composed of zigzagging water streams, hilly slopes, sheltering towering trees of around 115 different species, and three sacred Hindu temples.

After my temple run concluded in Yogyakarta, I went back to Jakarta for a couple of days before my Cebu Pacific flight back to Manila. At the hostel, I met two other Filipinas who became my accidental tourist buddies. Since we were all going home the same night, we decided to spend our last day just roaming the city aboard a tuk-tuk, stopping for some sights and shopping along the way. After walking out of the National Monument park (Merdeka Square), we were approached by a thin, middle-aged man wearing blue slacks and a tucked-in polo, introducing himself as an employee of the local tourism office.

Remember the two ladies who made a cameo in my flight-to-Jakarta narrative? Well, they stayed in the capital of Indonesia while I took a train to Yogyakarta. I thought the story ended there, but to my wonderful surprise, I bumped into them again a few days later. After spending four days in Yogyakarta, I went back to Jakarta for the tail-end of my trip and ended up staying at the same hostel as those two lovelies. They answered to the names Tania Gonzales and Carmel So. I was downstairs at the hostel lounge working on my laptop when I saw them come down; I almost fell out of my seat and just froze. I heard them talking about eating in a Korean restaurant before they walked out the door.

Anytime you found your way to the largest Buddhist temple in the world, you felt like toasting your kismet for bringing you there. Just the mere fact of stepping foot on a structure built with stunning craftsmanship and creativity dating back to the ninth century was already a significant moment for myself. Borobudur was the primary reason why I journeyed to the city of Yogyakarta—which at the time was my longest train ride from Jakarta. It was one of those places forever etched in my mind as something I must see.

Tucked underground at the Taman Sari Water Castle was a mosque accessible only in the past by a maze of underwater passageways. I first heard of its existence from my friend Gaye Emami a few days before I left Manila for Jakarta. The moment she described it, I was instantly fascinated. I told myself I must never leave Yogyakarta without seeing that mosque. The place was not easy to find as there were no signs saying "Underground Mosque this way". Following a hunch, I followed a group of young Indonesian students who seemed to be on a field trip as they trudged through the back alleyways of Taman Sari. I saw them debating which direction to take, so I reckoned they were also trying to find the mosque. I tried asking a local, but unfortunately, she could not understand English, so I chased the group of students as they entered a small arched hallway. Inside, we had to duck our heads so as not to hit the ceiling, and after a short length of striding and bending forward, we met a dead-end wall.

After achieving a zen state of mind at the ninth-century Buddhist temple complex of Borobudur, we proceeded to another throwback landmark from that century—that time, the Hindu temple called Candi Prambanan. My interest level in seeing more temples that day fluctuated below the 0.50 mark since I had already had my house-of-worship fix. However, upon stepping out of our van, the sight of the sharp tips of Prambanan's stupas ushered in a new wave of curiosity as to what fascinating discoveries awaited me inside.

When in doubt, ask around—and inquire I did, not just to anybody but to travel experts in that cool travel community I was a part of. Paul and Joshua, two fellow travel bloggers who had recently spent a week in Yogyakarta, were quick to recommend that hostel when I made an inquiry about a place to stay while in Yogyakarta on our Facebook group. It was the community I was talking about, composed of travel addicts who capered rehab by constantly wandering on the road. Edu Hostel was the top choice, and after making a quick study of a handful of other options, I booked that hotel online a week prior to my departure for Jakarta.

As early as six o'clock in the morning, I was already at the Gambir train station, excited for my first 'long train ride'. Even though I was a train veteran with thousands of railway miles under my butt courtesy of our own LRT and MRT lines, the trip to Yogyakarta from Jakarta would be my first time trainspotting for more than seven hours. I had already pre-booked a ticket for myself via Tiket.com for 300,000 IDR one-way (1,500 PHP) a few weeks before I departed for Jakarta. So when the ticket counters opened a quarter after six, I hurriedly entered the station and found a seat where I just sat and waited for the 8:10 AM train to Yogyakarta.

I could not wait to start writing about my trip to Yogyakarta, but a lack of time and too much procrastination in between disallowed me from diving straight in. However, I was able to put together, in a hurried state, a music video of the random footage I had taken while walking around that interesting city and visiting the temple complexes of both Borobudur and Prambanan. As a preview of my future blog posts about that journey of mine, here it was with The Byrds' "Turn! Turn! Turn!" serving as the soundtrack.

I had always worried about passing immigration since an experience in Hong Kong a couple of years prior, making it my biggest concern for my trip to Indonesia. Since I had been working as a freelancer for a few months at that point, I no longer had a company ID to present. As I arrived at NAIA Terminal Three, it was all I could think about. While lining up to pay the expensive travel tax, I was distracted by a Spanish-looking mestiza girl in front of me. I quickly assumed she was heading to either Bali or Phuket. That was why I felt a bit surprised when I spotted her again with her friend lining up at the check-in counter for Jakarta.