Last days in Jogjakarta

It’s 10 June 2011 and we’ve been in Jogja now for almost exactly 4 weeks. So far things have been pretty relaxed and we’re not missing anything too much yet except maybe orderly queues. Tomorrow we leave this fascinating city for Jakarta to begin the next phase of our lives. This is our last post for Jogja and we thought we’d cover a few things that we’ve been up to since our first Jogja post.

Streaks of clouds emanate from Mount Merapi over paddy fields in suburban Jogja

Borobudur

After several weeks here we finally managed to visit the famed ancient Buddhist temple of Borobudur on a language school field trip. Built in the 9^th century, this relic was abandoned a couple of hundred years later and fell into ruin until it was discovered by Stamford Raffles in the early 1800s. Years of painful restoration have finally returned Borobudur to its former glory and it’s now probably the most famous attraction for visitors to Jogja.

Borobudur scenes

Given I (Nat) had been in dire need of a haircut for some time (which is of course entirely my own fault) I decided it would be for the better if I just bit the bullet and got a buzz cut. Besides, what did I have to lose? Nobody knows me here and it would help with the heat. I asked around for the most economic way to achieve this and here’s what we found: Transportation to place of haircut = free, cost of actual haircut = 50 cents, the experience of getting my head shaved by a random bloke with manual clippers under a big tree on the side of a busy highway while being curiously observed by gawking locals after watching the bloke use exactly the same instruments on a kid before me without cleaning them = priceless.

My 50 cent hair cut

Solo

We try and make every weekend count by seeing as much as we can outside of Jogja. Since the weekend before we had conquered a volcano, we decided to adopt a slightly more chilled approach this time and so last weekend we took the train to Solo, a nearby city. The trip was just over an hour and the train was absolutely packed. We felt it deserved a video.

Where Melbourne has Sydney, Manchester United has Liverpool, Aussie Rules has Rugby League and Alien has Predator, well I guess Jogja has Solo. The two cities share many similarities including their proximity to Merapi, the fact they both have Sultans and their love of batik. History tells us that they’ve had their share of squabbles including the split to the thrown a few centuries ago which resulted in two competing royal households. They both also lay claim to the fact they have the best batik in Indonesia. Jogja seems to have a slightly more relaxed air about it with a booming arts and music scene whereas Solo seems to be a tad more conservative. It was unfortunately also the site of some of the infamous race riots of 1998 during the fall of Suharto when ethnic Chinese were assaulted and murdered, their business and homes burned and their women raped. Apparently gangs of men were marching from Solo to Jogja to do the same but the Sultan of Jogja called on all the citizens to gather in the city and to protect it. Jogja escaped unscathed.

Just like Jogja, Solo (aka Surakarta) has both a sultan and (for want of a better word), a prince (or second in charge royally). The Sultan of Solo lives at the Kraton and the Prince of Solo lives at a separate palace called the Istana Mangkunegaran. It got a good rap in the Lonely Planet so we paid it a visit and were not disappointed. It’s in much better condition than the Kraton in Jogja and way less crowded.

Scenes from Solo

We also visited the markets and paid a visit to a privately owned batik museum called House of Danar Hadi. The collection is amazing and I (Nat) know more about batik and how it is made that I ever thought I would care to know after a tour of that museum. Some of the collection is over 200 years old and it includes extremely rare Dutch Batik which is apparently no longer produced. We weren’t allowed to take any photos but out the back were rows and rows of women waxing and dying the batik. It was a tad sweatshop-esque. Handmade batik is such a labour-intensive process that it would probably be too expensive to produce on a large scale in a Western country.

The hardworking batik makers

Life in Jogja

Indonesians love their karaoke and they have state-of-the-art facilities that cater for it. We’ve been out with language school buddies, teachers and other volunteers several times to exercise our vocal cords at Happy Puppy, an excellent family karaoke centre where you get a spacious private lounge you rent by the hour.

We’ve been enjoying our daily classes at Wisma Bahasa and it’s become somewhat of a routine to go to class in the morning, have lunch, do an activity of some sort and then spend the rest of the afternoon at the nearby swimming pool. We could get used to this! We ride our bikes everywhere and apart from a particularly annoying mechanical problem on a hot day in the middle of traffic, they’ve been awesome!

Above: Life is good in Jogja

Our homestay

The actual language classes at Wisma Bahasa have been great. They are one-on-one and we each have about 5 teaches that rotate throughout the week. Since we’re all at different levels, our courses are really tailored for us individually. I (Nat) generally spend 90% of each class just chatting with the teachers about life and about 10% of the time doing work. I’ve been mainly using the classes to refresh my language skills and identify core differences between Indonesian and Malay. Lately I’ve been looking at articles dealing with women’s rights in Indonesia and discussing other interesting issues with my teachers.

Us at Wisma Bahasa: Candice in class, Nat on bikkie break

Today was our last day of class. Candice and I visited Rifka Annisa, a local NGO that deals with female victims of domestic violence and other women’s advocacy issues. Given my assignment will be with Komnas Perempuan in Jakarta, it was a good introduction to my work in Indonesia. It was a bit sad farewelling our teachers but we’re sure this won’t be the last we see of Jogja!

Our fieldtrip to Rifka Annisa

Farewell to our teachers at Wisma Bahasa

With Pak Sunarto and Bu Ning on our last morning in Jogja