Yogyakarta – in double time

Day 69 – Yogyakarta, Indonesia

On my way to my first visit of the day, I finally received the answer I was waiting for: I’m going to spend 2 weeks in central Java with a family, exchanging English lessons against cultural lessons.

But since I’m expected there tomorrow, I accelerated my visit of the city.

I started at the Water Castle, which was a palace with water pools surrounded by a lake, built for the sultan and his family, so that they may cool themselves during the hot days. Nowadays only the pools and a few pavilions are left.

Water castle – Pool

I stopped by the huge place with the holy banyan trees for a break, and there was some sort of military parade, with a flag being hoisted down, and I didn’t know if that was usual or a dress rehearsal for the Independence Day celebrations (August 17th). It made something to watch.

Banyan trees

I went to the Kraton/Keraton Palace after that. It is the palace of the sultan who still govern the city and its surrounding administrative territory (it is a special territory with slightly more autonomy, in acknowledgement of the support of the sultanate during the declaration of independence). It is not very big, it is mainly a series of pavilions and a few museum-style rooms. There is one part dedicated to batik and its patterns, but as most of it is in Indonesian, well…

However, near the entrance, one pavilion offer art performance from 10 to 12 AM every day. Today was gamelan, and I caught the tail end of the concert.

Keraton Palace – Kiosk

After that, I headed to the Sonobudoyo Museum, which houses a bit of everything, furnitures, statues, weapons, but also a few puppets, batik and explanation of batik craft. They also offer shadow puppet shows every evening, and when I left the museum, someone was very eager to talk to me about puppets.

Sonobudoyo Museum – Red dragon

He took me to a workshop (still part of the museum) where a craftsman was making puppets. They showed me the buffalo hide, how they cut out the characters and then polished or smoothed the leather and then painted it. They add buffalo horn handles to move the final product.

Sonobudoyo Museum – Puppet maker

I may or may not have bought modern puppets at the same time I bought a ticket for the show.

I took a tricycle (well, a motorised thing with a large seat for tourists on the front, so almost a trishaw) back to the hostel, ate a weird instant lunch (instant mashed potatoes mixed with instant mushroom soup… smelled good!) at 3 in the afternoon, waited the right time and went back for my show.

My tricycle, this time, wasn’t motorized, but fully powered by my driver.

We met a few bling pedal cars going around, that was fun.

Bling pedal cars

The show was… a lot of things.

Seeing how it is done, the huge number of instruments, the art of the puppeteer, and so on, was impressive. But I finally noticed, by cross-checking with my neighbour, a lady that is in the same hostel than I, that my summary of the show wasn’t the right one. Because she hadn’t the right either, so we were trying to follow another story (each) altogether.

After that, it became difficult to stay focused, as most scenes consist of the characters being placed, then not moving much, while the puppeteer and the singers explain what’s happening. In Indonesian. With music that seem more and more jarring and louder and louder as the time passes, and other spectators leave the show. We started around 25-30, I think, and ended 5.

I’m happy that I stuck until the end, but that’s afterwards. During, it was a bit difficult, but it helped to have a companion with whom to commiserate.

For the last pictures, have a look at the gallery!