YY IV: Two Castles and A Volcano
Breakfast at Duta Garden was nothing special. But still, we were the guests who spent the longest time there. Wakakaka. POD was happily shovelling their bakmi goreng while Nic LOVED their over-sized bananas. No surprises there. Our first stop was at the Kraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat-- the palace of the Jogjakarta royal family. Ten successive kings had lived there. The current ruler is Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwana X who ascended the throne in 1998. Coincidentally, he is also the Governor by default. Having arrived at the palace a bit too early, we were waylaid for a short time to a nearby batik factory. Seems hard to escape the sharks. The artist was a wild-eyed guy who did interesting batik paintings of dancing magic mushrooms and other weird themes. Beautiful stuff, but also very expensive. As usual, we were given the usual expalanations on the production process. Was surprised to hear that the beeswax they use is imported from the Netherlands. Another local craft relying on high quality imports. Heh.
The Kraton's quite a nice place. Too bad the beautiful grass in the palace grounds had been reduced to a muddy mess by the influx of visitors. Our guide was a woman who spoke English in a very controlled manner. It was as though her bun was too tight. She would not look directly at but at an angle. Totally weird. Anyway, the place was very beautiful with lotsa carvings, photos, paintings and antiques. Had a chance to look at the royal lineage and it seems that the they were blessed with lotsa wives and children. The family trees were really, really, really huge. Javanese culture takes center stage in the Kraton, but one can see the work of European and Hindu influences (one sees Kala everywhere). Even the old buildings were given offerings to appease the spirits. The whole palace is staffed by hundreds of people who still don the traditional attire and carry ceremonial keris. Missed the gamelan performance as we were rushing for time.
Next was Taman Sari, the Water Castle. Actually a recreation of the original castle where the Sultan used to frolick with his wives and concubines. A royal retreat of sorts. Unfortunately, Taman Sari was overrun with batik sharks. Try to enter through the main entrance and they would waylay you, following you around like a shadow. But the main purpose was to tell their sob stories and direct you to their batik workshops at the back. We quickly ditched the guy and made our exit. Really annoying. Left town before lunch to head towards Mount Merapi, an active volcano. Based on the past days experience, we were afraid that it might rain, but thank goodness it did not. Pak Gadot drove us higher and higher passing lots of small 'hotels' that KH thought was for tourists who wanted to hike the trail to Merapi. But according to our guide, it was mainly for high-altitude sexual trysts. We arrived at a place that they called Bebeng.
It was actually a giant lava drain of sorts. The volcano was still about 5km away as the crow flies. Back when it last erupted in 2006, the lava flowed down and baked a few of the villagers who had thought that it was safe to hide in the bunker. The air was cool and lava rocks were everywhere. Throwing caution to the wind, we mimicked the local kids and ventured down to lava channel to take a closer look. Quite breathtaking really. Having worked up an appetite on that short hike, we left for lunch nearby at Boyong Kalegan. The restaurants actually a web of wooden pavillions on top of a freshwater fish pond. So obviously it was fish for lunch. POD was smitten by their coconut water with palm sugar.
Back in town, Pak Gadot brought us to buy some of the local snacks. Apparently bakpiah's a famous delicacy in Jogja. Kinda like Penang's tau sah peah actually. But they have it in many more varieties like cheese, pineapple and chocolate. We also stopped at a roadside stall to buy salak pondoh. He pratically jumped out of the van and stopped traffic for us! Back at the hotel, the manager, Rudy welcomed us and chatted with us for quite some time. To relax a bit, we all went for a swim in their mini pool. At one end of the pool, was a slope, kinda like a water slide. It caught POD and me unaware and we both fell on our butts and slid down! *glug glug glug*. Did a few pathetic laps. When we got up, evening snacks were waiting for us at the pool side. Chocolate muffin and coffee after a swim... negated! Hahaha.
Not knowing what to eat, we chose a random restaurant on Jalan Parangtritis. Kinda dark and manned by a gay waiter. While waiting for the food we took photos of the tea light like it was some kind of DNA model. Gay men are a rare sight in Jogjakarta. A quick rev of Grindr on Nic's iPhone showed that the nearest queer with was 300 miles away. Haha. The food was kinda nice, and our post-dinner activity was watching "Pterodactyl" on TV. A giant B-grade flop. Complete with jerky CGI that seemed to be missing a lot of animation frames and a big-chested blonde who decides to swim in a dinosaur-infested lake. Nice. Put us both to sleep at 10:00pm!
The Kraton's quite a nice place. Too bad the beautiful grass in the palace grounds had been reduced to a muddy mess by the influx of visitors. Our guide was a woman who spoke English in a very controlled manner. It was as though her bun was too tight. She would not look directly at but at an angle. Totally weird. Anyway, the place was very beautiful with lotsa carvings, photos, paintings and antiques. Had a chance to look at the royal lineage and it seems that the they were blessed with lotsa wives and children. The family trees were really, really, really huge. Javanese culture takes center stage in the Kraton, but one can see the work of European and Hindu influences (one sees Kala everywhere). Even the old buildings were given offerings to appease the spirits. The whole palace is staffed by hundreds of people who still don the traditional attire and carry ceremonial keris. Missed the gamelan performance as we were rushing for time.
Next was Taman Sari, the Water Castle. Actually a recreation of the original castle where the Sultan used to frolick with his wives and concubines. A royal retreat of sorts. Unfortunately, Taman Sari was overrun with batik sharks. Try to enter through the main entrance and they would waylay you, following you around like a shadow. But the main purpose was to tell their sob stories and direct you to their batik workshops at the back. We quickly ditched the guy and made our exit. Really annoying. Left town before lunch to head towards Mount Merapi, an active volcano. Based on the past days experience, we were afraid that it might rain, but thank goodness it did not. Pak Gadot drove us higher and higher passing lots of small 'hotels' that KH thought was for tourists who wanted to hike the trail to Merapi. But according to our guide, it was mainly for high-altitude sexual trysts. We arrived at a place that they called Bebeng.
It was actually a giant lava drain of sorts. The volcano was still about 5km away as the crow flies. Back when it last erupted in 2006, the lava flowed down and baked a few of the villagers who had thought that it was safe to hide in the bunker. The air was cool and lava rocks were everywhere. Throwing caution to the wind, we mimicked the local kids and ventured down to lava channel to take a closer look. Quite breathtaking really. Having worked up an appetite on that short hike, we left for lunch nearby at Boyong Kalegan. The restaurants actually a web of wooden pavillions on top of a freshwater fish pond. So obviously it was fish for lunch. POD was smitten by their coconut water with palm sugar.
Back in town, Pak Gadot brought us to buy some of the local snacks. Apparently bakpiah's a famous delicacy in Jogja. Kinda like Penang's tau sah peah actually. But they have it in many more varieties like cheese, pineapple and chocolate. We also stopped at a roadside stall to buy salak pondoh. He pratically jumped out of the van and stopped traffic for us! Back at the hotel, the manager, Rudy welcomed us and chatted with us for quite some time. To relax a bit, we all went for a swim in their mini pool. At one end of the pool, was a slope, kinda like a water slide. It caught POD and me unaware and we both fell on our butts and slid down! *glug glug glug*. Did a few pathetic laps. When we got up, evening snacks were waiting for us at the pool side. Chocolate muffin and coffee after a swim... negated! Hahaha.
Not knowing what to eat, we chose a random restaurant on Jalan Parangtritis. Kinda dark and manned by a gay waiter. While waiting for the food we took photos of the tea light like it was some kind of DNA model. Gay men are a rare sight in Jogjakarta. A quick rev of Grindr on Nic's iPhone showed that the nearest queer with was 300 miles away. Haha. The food was kinda nice, and our post-dinner activity was watching "Pterodactyl" on TV. A giant B-grade flop. Complete with jerky CGI that seemed to be missing a lot of animation frames and a big-chested blonde who decides to swim in a dinosaur-infested lake. Nice. Put us both to sleep at 10:00pm!
Comments
I think Mount Merapi exploded recently, kan? Hope you bought their lava rocks back to scrub your body.