A 4.30am wake up call for a 5am pickup to Denpasar airport for a 7am flight. With very little traffic on the roads at this dark hour, I was at the airport by 5.20am for a total taxi fare of AUD5.60. With only my carry on baggage, I checked in for the 7am Garuda Indonesia flight to Yogyakarta and headed through security. I was early, not many shops were open, so after several laps of the departures lounge I waited until boarding began.

A quick walk down some stairs and I headed across the tarmac to my waiting Boeing 737-800.  As the sun was rising, several passengers were taking photos of themselves in front of the gleaming white aircraft. Up the forward stairs and onto the plane I was warmly greeted by a cabin crew member once onboard this relatively new aircraft.

Soft green seets and brown headrests were pleasant looking, as was the private tv screen (AVOD) in each seatback flashing between ‘Welcome Aboard’ and  ‘Enjoy Your Flight’ in both Bahasa Indonesian and English.

The flight departed over the southeastern corner of the island of Bali and over the populous and volcanic Indonesian island of Java.

Java has over 400 volcanoes of which 100 are still active, although no smoke or red hot lava spewing from the top of the ones we flew over, they were still quite a spectacular sight to see from the air.

A breakfast box was served along with a choice of juices, water, tea or coffee.

Inside the box was a bottle of water and a cheesey breakfast roll on a sweet bread. It was soft and savoury and quite delicious!

The captain provided us with a smooth landing sightly ahead of schedule  and as we taxied to the terminal there were several Lion Air aircraft waiting to depart.

We parked right next to a new Lion Air Boeing 737-900 and it was’nt long before the seat belt sign was switched off and we were allowed to disembark.

A dash across the tarmac (with camera in hand of course) and I was in the terminal ready to emabark on my tour of Borobudor.