The Jungle Book: Yogyakarta, August 26

Yogyakarta

The bus ride from Pandangaran to Yogyakarta was a long one, almost 8 hours over pot-hole filled roads and winding roads. Once I finally made it to Yogyakarta, I instantly fell in love with the place. Yogya is a cultural and political hotspot full of young artists. Within 20 minutes of putting my stuff down the owner of the hostel told me about this batik art show that was going on at the Batik Art Group shop which had work from artists all over Indonesia and levels varying from student to master. I instantly made my way over there and spent the next two hours looking at their collection of over 800 pieces. Batik literally means to write, dot or point and is traditional to Java, especially Yogyakarta. It's an arduous process, and difficult to explain through words, so click here for an explanation of Batik. Their were a couple pieces that I really liked but I decided to hold off on buying them since this was the first hour I was in Yogyakarta.

From here I walked towards the Sono-Budoyo Museum to try and catch the gamelan performance. It was difficult to find the place so I asked a guy on the street (his name is Danny). Turns out he works at the museum as a Wayang (shadow) puppet artist and would show me the way. He also informed me that because of Ramadan, none of the performances were taking place but he would show me his work. I wound up hanging out there for over an hour, with him showing me the amazing detail of how the puppets are made out of water buffalo leather, then intricately hand carved using over 20 chizel type tools and finally painted. It was amazing to see these puppets up close and he also explained the story behind each one. While we were sitting around, one of his friends came and joined us. As if this couldn't get any better, his friend (Bowo) is the disaster management coordinator for Friends of the Earth - Indonesia while simultaneously an environmental film director. He's directed three movies that have been shown to the National Government and film festivals in Indonesia in an attempt to raise environmental awareness. We talked a lot about water and other environmental issues here and although he doesn't have a job for me it was fascinating talking to him. He also offered to take me around Yogyakarta the next day, which I took him up on.

The next morning I got up to meet Bowo at 10:00 and we were off to first check out the Sono-Budoyo Museum, with an assortment of Hindu statues, Balinese carvings, wayang puppets as well as batink. From there we headed to the Kraton (Indonesian for Palace) which is the current Sultan's home. The palace grounds were pretty amazing and included a golden pavillion (the official reception hall of the sultans) as well as a textile room and small museum. Part of the grounds included the Taman Sari or Water Castle the site of a former royal garden of the Sultan of Yogyakarta. It's a complex of canals, pools and palaces built between 1758 and 1765 by a Portuguese architect. Except for the Taman Sari, it is mostly ruins because of the 2006 earthquake. We also stopped at an underground Mosque built in 1635.

Before heading to Bowo's house we stopped for lunch for some Nasi Brongkos, a traditional Yogyakarta specialty, of dark bean and tofu stew served with meat and rice. It was really really good. From here we went to Bowo's house so I could watch his environmental movies and meet his 1.5 year old son. After hanging out at his house, he took me to a village about 10km outside of Yogya to see Batik being made. It was an amazing scene to see and really made me appreciate the work that goes into making them; as some pieces can take up to 3.5 months to make. After being in the spirit of Batik, I told Bowo how I really liked some of the pieces I saw the other day at the Batik Art Group and he said he'd take me there to buy one of the pieces. He also mentioned that his Dad is friends with Slamet Riyanto (one of the artists whose work I really liked and is the "hot" artist here) and he could take me to his studio to meet him! So we make our way to the Batik Art group shop where I purchase one of the Batik paintings and then to Slamet's studio. It was pretty amazing talking to Slamet and hearing about his artistic influences of natural forces such as moving waves, flowing water, and erupting volcanoes. After a cup of tea with him I make my purchase and exchange email addresses and I was on my way.

Bowo then dropped me off at my hostel for a relaxing night after a long and really hot day. Tomorrow should be exciting too, as Danny plans to take me to his village as he's hoasting a cock fight!!