I am here in Yogja!!!! Finally, I am here; solo again. Sitting in my hotel lobby lounge the "Gula Jawa" typing this post because ..... my room is not ready as I am like too early as the hotel was fully booked yesterday due to large numbers of Harley riders taking up residence! Sharks!
I arrive in Yogya airport this morning taking the 7am flight from LCCT. The flight is on time and at 8.33am local time or 9.33am KL time our plane touches down. I initially want to catch a "keretapi" from the airport to "Kota" at only RP 10,000 (1 US$ = RP 9000) but this taxi driver loitering around the train station manages to convince me to catch his cab and I pay his company a "tambang" of RP 60,000, for the sake of convenience as the train to Kota does not depart for another 20 minutes. I am thinking.... "ok, I will be catching the keretapi from Yogya to Solo on Tuesday morning anyway and so nothing's lost, experience-wise".
On the way Babak Eznanto is very chatty because he wants me to hire him for my sightseeing trips. I stay on the sidelines not wanting to commit to him because I know there are a lot of sharks around in this town. Ha ha ha ha.
As I said at Novotel when I arrived to check in I had no "kamar" yet. Unfazed, I unpack my laptop in Gula Jawa and do my planning for the day, also getting some tourist advice from the hotel guest relationship girl (sangat cantik; namanya DEVI) on the different packages she has available on Borobudur, Mt Merapi, and Prambanam (another HinduTemple). The barman ( his name is Wajip) sends me his welcome drink and I also order my coffee. So far so good.
Meanwhile SM and her entourage of 7 ladies and 1 man has also arrived Vientiane to start their tour of Laos. I am thankful that all is well so far and that she has texted me to let me know her progress .....
Lucky for me at 11.10am I got checked in and it is nice to have a hot shower to wake me up.
Novotel (situated on Jl. Jen. Sudirman) is a little outdated but clean and comfortable. I think it has been refurbished to help it keep up with the competition.
I engage a "becak" because it's more fun that way to travel in old Yogja. He takes me for for lunch nearby the hotel at Duta Minang on the way to a few other interesting places around the Kota. I miss my nasi padang. I used to have them so often when I visited Jakarta. I decide to have one piece of ayam goreng, one piece of daging sapi rendang and some vege, plus rice and a coke (tanpa es). It is delicious and I hope it is bersih enough for my palette. The vege turns out to be little green chilies and spicy. The lunch costs only US$3.
After lunch we continue our journey on becak towards Malioboro which is the happening place in Yogja, to get some money changed.
Passing by these old buildings left by the Orang Belanda.
Continue our journey towards the entrance to "Kraton" which is the Palace ground. The Yogja people are very proud of their Java heritage, their Sultan and their Kraton. Some of them tell me they are Javanese or they are Yogja people; and not Indonesian people. Argh!
A rich man's Javanese house of which the roof is lima segi or "lima-san".
My becak guy takes me to this batik retail store which is in this old
but very well kept property. If you think about the design of the house
just from the point of view of architecture it's so great. The roof
support structure, the columns supporting the roof.... just beautiful.
This cock is kept for fighting.
The masjid next door has similar roof and column designs.
We arrive at one of our sightseeing places - Taman Sari. Taman Sari was the playground of the Sultan of Yogja in the old days when he came here to meet his "gundik" (concubines) for relaxation and fun.
I engage this man Andreaas to be my guide.He tells me that the 1st Sultan built Taman Sari (within the Kraton) in 1758 some 254 years ago. There was an earthquake and Mt Merapi volcano eruption in 1812 which partly damaged the Taman and after that event Taman Sari was not used anymore. In 1857 the 3rd Sultan used the Taman to house the lower caste Yogja residents and to this day Andreaas is the 8th generation of the lower caste people who have been living around this Taman.
These residents in the Taman Sari area number around 2500 households and they do not pay rent but are obliged to work for the Sultan with no pay for 3 hours a day; generation after generation.
He tells me that the Taman Sari was built with a set of beliefs built into its design. The "Kalamakara" is a symbol of Hindu for the physical power of Siva God.
The Lotus is a symbol of Buddhism. And the direction of the rear entrance which was the entrance for the Sultan and his gundiks, faced West, the direction of Mecca.
This was the pool the gundiks (concubines) were to bathe in sarong and the Sultan would sit in his tower and observe them, eventually deciding which gundiks he would like to "relax" with for his trip up to Taman Sari. Only one male was allowed into the Taman. All others were females.
The tower the Sultan sat in to pick his concubines is behind me. Lucky him.... nice pool, nice property, plenty of "burung"!
Andreaas' house is just beyond the compound wall of Taman Sari. He tells me that 25 households directly surrounding Taman Sari would have to move permanently in 5 months' time to make way for a Unesco world heritage formation of the Taman Sari.
I find the history of Taman Sari amazing yet believable. Many Chinese emperors + conquerors had done similar things. What surprises me today is how passionate these Yogja people feel about their city of 5 million people and Java.
Food cart selling Bo so.
My becak guy for the day is Pak Tomo. He is one of 15,000 becak drivers in Yogja. He pays RP 2,000 per day for the becak hire but goes days without a fare. His family lives 90 km south in the desa. How lucky I am to be able to get to know a nice and genuine guy like Tomo.
Last pic I take of the Kraton/Taman Sari area - the entrance to the 10th Sultan's palace refer the tall building in the background.
Becak guy takes me back to Malioboro to visit the Pasar Beringharjo. This pretty girl is parking her sepeda motor (motor bike). Malioboro is one long street of old Belanda style buildings on both sides of the street full of vendors in carts selling all manner of things.
Typical food stores in the Pasar selling alien foods that I dare not try eating.
Typical stores selling clothing, mainly batik, in steamy, hot weather.
Really steamy!!!
I think I tried this "Salak Pondoh" in Thailand before. Think they are called snake skin fruit 蛇果 or something like that. This is a common fruit grown in Yogja alongside other seasonal fruits like dragon fruit, nangka, rambutan, durian etc.
