We have a great sleep and wake up about an hour before the alarms sounds. That’s good because we aren’t in a rush to get ready. I was woken up in the early morning by the “Call to Prayer” from the local mosque but managed to ignore it (saved by ear plugs) and fall back asleep. By 7:30 we’re downstairs checking out the breakfast included in our hotel stay. It’s in the open air restaurant and there are several stations set up with chefs that will prepare anything from fried noodles to my personal favourite, a vegetarian omelette. We order coffee, then head to forage for breakfast items to bring back to the table.
The open air restaurant.
I order my omelette directly from the omelette chef. One of the wait staff offers to bring my my omelette to the table when it’s ready and I pick out some other buffet items to add: ersatz bacon and grilled tomatoes. Tomorrow I’ll try the sausage instead of the bacon because it wasn’t great. I went straight to the fresh fruit table and picked out a mix of fruit including lychees. Although I think they were from a can, they were still good. There was another fruit that I later learn is Salak, a fruit from the palm tree. It grows in clusters at the base of the tree. It’s also known as Snake fruit due to its reddish brown scaly outer shell. The outer skin reminds me of lychee except much thinner, crisper and drier. Once the skin is peeled off, the fruit pod has about three seeds all surrounded by a crunchy white coloured sweet pulp. It tastes just OK. I’m ranking it near the bottom of my all time favourite fruit list.
There was a station providing different types of herbal drinks which were made from ingredients such as ginger and turmeric. There were other herbs I didn’t recognize or remember. I picked out a concoction that was supposed to be good for my circulation. It was sweetened to make it taste good. Maybe I’ll ask her tomorrow whether there is a concoction to be a better musician. There were also some food items at this station. I saw a bowl of pale pink tapioca pearls and asked for a taste. She scooped some pearls into a bowl, added some thick coconut milk a liquid sweetener made from what I think is boiled cane sugar. Not sure if it was supposed to have any medicinal qualities, but I would give it a thumbs up as a dessert!
Our coffees were made to order and tasted great. It was espresso-like with a thick crema but I didn’t get the coffee buzz I usually get with espresso. In fact we both ended up ordering two. With breakfast finished we returned to our room and got ready for the day.
Justine, our guide, was in the lobby when we arrived. As we came through the main outside doors (which are always opened for you by the attentive staff) our driver and vehicle rolls up and we step inside. Our first stop is at the Palace of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, known as Keraton Yogyakarta. The Monarchy is now in its 10th generation headed by Hamengkubuwona X. When Indonesian independence was proclaimed, the reigning Monarch (the father of the current Sultan) was astute enough at the time to agree to become part of the new republic, with the Sultan reporting directly to the President of Indonesia as a regional Governor. Unlike other regional Governor positions he does not need to be elected or appointed, but still has all the same powers.
The Palace entry is surprisingly modest. In fact the whole complex is plain compared to all the other palaces I’ve ever seen. The actual residence for the Sultan is tucked away in an area that’s off limits to the public. The front of the residence is visible but that’s as close as you get. Our guide describes the special mystical qualities of the palace grounds including it’s placement in line with the sea, a local mountain and a historical monument signifying creation of man to adulthood to the end of human life. The palace grounds are covered with sand from both the sea and the mountains signifying unification of something (Sultan and people or was it people and Creator?). All this mysticism is unfortunately lost on me. The symbolism and metaphors of the Javanese as it applied to the palace didn’t make any sense to me.
Some of the open air structures.
So instead I just concentrated on the history and architecture. Several of the buildings contained artifacts and pictures, all of which were unfortunately poorly presented and described. I hope these weren’t the originals because some of the items such as photos and clothing were showing signs of deterioration. Batik clothing was highlighted. There are batik designs which can only be worn by royalty. Other designs signal pregnancy, marriage, adulthood, etc.
Most of the structures on site were open air buildings used for ceremonial purposes. In one of these buildings, we stayed a bit to watch some traditional music being sung with instrument accompaniment. It was interested but pretty foreign to my western music trained ears.
A few of the musicians accompanying the singers. They’re rocking’ it.
From the palace we took becaks (a bicycle rickshaw) to the Tamansari Water Palace. The becaks wound their way through the village of Kauman, an Islamic community set up by one of the long ago Sultans. The streets are very narrow, originally designed to ensure that noise was kept to a minimum, so that the Islamic students could study without being disturbed. By ensuring that people could only pass by foot through these streets resulted in every man being made equal. It was a bit of a wild ride with motorcycles and cars traversing the narrow street. Although the becaks are slow, I never felt that they weren’t safe, even though I know better. Judith wanted to try driving one, and she discovered that she shouldn’t try to make a living this way.
Here she is taking the owner for a ride. She doesn’t go far. Her legs are too long and she has problems getting her knees to clear the back of the carriage. And it’s also hard work...
We disembarked the becak at the Tamansari Water Palace. The driver tilted the rickshaw forward, lifting up the rear wheel to make it easier for me to get out of the chair. The water palace was built over 200 year ago by the first Sultan as a royal bathing place and retreat. The outside walls are very thick as it was fortified against attacks. There were 2 separate pools, a large one for the harem to use and a private smaller pool for his own personal use or parties...
When we were there, a couple was having their wedding photos taken. They offered to have a picture taken with them, but I thought that was kind of a weird offer and we declined.
Next up was lunch. We were provided a choice of either western or Indonesian cuisine; we chose Indonesian because I think it’s crazy coming to a foreign country and not experience the food. The guide takes us to Sekar Kedhalon, a restaurant located in a heritage building. I order chicken satay. Judith orders shrimp fried in salted duck egg yolks, apparently a trending flavour for foodies. I can’t resist a drink on the menu that has Grass Jelly. My mother and grandmother used to make this when I was a young girl. The plant leaves were boiled for several hours and the liquid was strained off and cooled where it would form into a dark coloured jelly substance. All my siblings and I hated the pungent smell of the cooking leaves. We weren’t that fond of the bitter taste either. I think I was the lone child that would eat it but only because it was served with a sweet syrup. I was told it was good for you as it kept you cool on hot days.
When I tell this grass jelly story to Judith, she’s intrigued and decides to try some too. We split a glass of this grass jelly drink and order lemon teas as a chaser. The drink has a sweet milk and looks like this.
The grass jelly doesn’t have the bitter taste I remember. It’s pretty tasteless and we both drink ours down. The dinners arrive and both are very good. We’re well into our meals before I take these pictures.
After lunch we head over to a batik factory. It’s a batik workshop and we both get to make a batik square. They have a pile of fabric squares with the design pencilled in. Judith chooses a flower pattern and I ask for a traditional batik pattern to work on. They don’t have such a thing (which is a surprise or me) so they take out a a master pattern from rolls of paper designs and copy part of the template onto my square. It’s a guarda, a mythological creature that’s important in Indonesian stories.
Batik is a technique of putting patterns on a cloth by applying wax onto a cloth and when the cloth is dyed, the wax resists the dye. The process was invented in Indonesia. The wax is applied with a canting tool that has a small tube spout so that you can apply the wax to make lines or dots. There is a small reservoir that holds melted wax that flows into the spout. We’re shown how to dip the canting tool into the bowl of melted wax kept warm by a small kerosene flame under the bowl. We’re then shown how to trace the pattern by drawing the tool smoothly across the lines of the pattern. It’s much harder than it looks to draw a smooth line, leaving just the right amount of wax to go through the cloth and not blotch it.
We finish the wax part of our squares with lots of help from out guides. The batik is then wetted and placed into a yellow coloured solution before it is placed in the dye. Judith selects red; I pick blue. The squares are then rinsed off in water. The dyeing process is repeated again and then placed in boiling water to remove the wax. It’s dried via an iron and then fold up and placed in a small bag for us to take home. Our results as they were being dried are below:
Judith’s masterpiece. We asked them to trace our names in Indonesian on our respective squares and we incorporate this into our batik. Judith also asked her batik instructor to add her name.
My guarda. It’s upside down in the picture.
It’s been a full day as we get back to the hotel around 6. When we get up to our room we end up power napping long enough to skip dinner.
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