After arriving at our lovely colonial style Phoenix Hotel in Jogja yesterday afternoon and finding that we didn't have time for a swim after dinner before the industrial style chlorination of the pool happened (and it was raining), the idea of an early swim this morning, but ..... not to be; as the pool doesn't open until 7am and we had an early start to our day. Oh well.
Must admit that the 1 hour time difference caused great confusion; woke up and looked at the phone for the time, and was fooled by the home and roaming times being the same (at least for Perth people) until now. Therefore, the 6.30am was actually 5.30am. I didn't realise until Kim responded to my 'view-from-the-balcony' comment that there was no-one in the pool, was that it was 5.30am - whoops.
Breakfast at the Phoenix needs at least 2 hours and that is just to survey the extensive buffet. The soups were a great favourite and the sugar boxes on the tables were wonderful - a range of sugars and cinnamon - a bit different to the Australian sugar bowl with white sugar.
Atik, our local guide, and Melinda had us on the mini bus (to allow for easier access through the narrow streets) and we left the hotel shortly after 8am heading for the local market. Atik was great at the market, describing the local vegetables and finding local women stallholders to interview for us. These women often don't know their age or birth-date, just that they have been working at the markets for many decades. Most of them live in villages a good distance from the market and travel for up to 2 hours by motor cycle or public transport to reach the market by 4am and were there until it closed at 4pm. There are women porters (no men do this job) engaged (at very low rates) to carry extremely large and heavy baskets (similar to the tea picking baskets with head bands) for the vendors or purchasers. Stall holders included the very elderly bamboo shoot seller who spends her days carving off slivers from the large bamboo shoots. Our business acumen came into play -we could not work out how she could be making any profit with having to purchase the bamboo shoots, pay for the stall and for her public transport rides.
We wound our way through the market under Atik's direction and 'admired' the numerous wedding stalls - everything for the bride and groom and more. We finished with a 15 minute shopping spree where we showed our usual skill at good quick shopping - spices, batik, Leo's shirt and snacks.
There were some truly amazing multicoloured wedding dresses available in the market to buy or hire!
Back on the mini bus and off to Kauman village - a good example of the compound nature of such places. Atik described some of the history with the Sultans and Muslim religion and education - it was at this point that a hotel key card was lost and not to be recovered - Kim's story! We looked at the mosque and learned the difference in style of mosque buildings, then walked down the narrow streets.
We came across a 'pop-up' market with a woman who had brought her produce on her bicycle with outrider baskets and was selling fresh and cooked products to the village women who did not have time to go to the bigger market or to cook themselves. The narrow streets were lined with narrow gardens that included upright planter tubes - great idea. Our destination was the home of one of the village leaders where we were treated to morning tea and details of village life with Atik again proving very skilled at drawing out people's stories and translating our questions.
The bus then took us to the Sultan's Palace where Atik handed us over to one of the Palace volunteer guides. We toured the various buildings and pavilions, listened to Gamalan orchestras, heard about the lazy Palace guards and looked at numerous museum pieces and portraits of the Sultans. Interesting and a good taste of the history and need to read more on the area.
We lunched at the restaurant next to the Sultan's palace - another 3 course meal with a welcome drink and the local dishes (although Atik told us later that the soup was a Sumatran recipe rather than local).
From there, we travelled by Becak (rickshaw) to the Taman Sari Water Palace that was /is actually part of the Sultan's Palace. Atik had great delight telling us about the 3 pools and the purpose of each. One pool was for the sultan's children, another for the wives and concubines. The latter was overlooked by the Sultan's pool chambers from where he could look out and use jasmine to choose his 'lady of the day'. The Sultan's pool was a separate one on the other side of his building. The consensus was that all the wives would avoid catching the jasmine ..... but perhaps that is just us!
The bus then took us to an NGO, Rifka Annisa, a women's crisis centre. It was here that Kim and Jenny met up with Emma, a friend from Melbourne who is doing a university placement in Jogja; a great surprise as they weren't expecting to see Emma at that point. We were met with refreshments and while the water was sell accepted, the box of food was really not needed as we had lunched only a short time earlier. The presentation by the centre leaders was excellent and we learned of the similarities and had a chance to ask about the differences between here and Australia. The centre was opened in 1992 and offers psychological counselling and legal consultations for women and their partners. They work in the community and with the police to raise awareness of domestic violence. We were particularly interested to know what linkages there are with similar organisations in Australia and ability to share resources.
It was a very tired group who were delivered back to the hotel where a swim in the pool revived many of us in time to change for dinner at the hotel. Emma joined us for dinner and after great debate about wine (the choice was interesting to say the least) and our soup course, the main course was served by a team of suitably costumed wait-staff to the beat of a drum - they lined up and then circled the table, each serving one item to each person at the table, before lining up again and wishing us 'bon appetit'. Very theatrical. It was an early night for us all - rather a long day and a lot of different experiences.
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