Getting to Know Indonesia through Yogyakarta
I was in Yogyakarta for a few days for work and here are some behind the scenes.
WELCOME TO YOGYAKARTA. On our way to the hotel, we passed by this area where the walls are painted with artworks, although I wasn't able to take a video/photo of the first part. The parts captured on the video above have graffiti-like paints on them, unlike the earlier parts.
MALIOBORO. Our neighborhood for 4 days. The road in Malioboro was undergoing renovation, so it kind of makes the view and also traveling by car unpretty. Malioboro is the center of commerce in Yogyakarta so it is filled with local and foreign tourists, as well as souvenir shops.
NIGHTLIFE IN YOGYAKARTA. We were walking back to the hotel after dining at a nearby restaurant and dropping by a batik store when we noticed a lot of people flocked in a corner. The unique music worked like a magnet and sucked me in to check out what was in there. When I got close, I saw people dancing to the music played by the band using musical instruments mostly made of bamboo. We watched it for several minutes. I thought we're lucky to be able to see such a performance. People from the audience dancing soulfully to traditional music.
At night, bands consisting of young locals set-up their musical instruments on the sidewalk and play traditional music with a slight mix of modern music 🎶 while some of the members dance 💃to it. Everyone is free to join the dancing! The bands accept donations, but in every sense of the word, it's free nightly cultural entertainment for hours! There are several bands regularly playing in the entire stretch of Malioboro.
And just outside the hotel where we stayed, a man plays exquisite music from sundown till the evening using a traditional musical instrument.
YOGYAKARTA IN PATTERNS AND COLORS. Indonesia is known for the art and craft of batik, a technique of designing/decorating cloth through the process of waxing and dyeing. The process is done by covering a part of a cloth with a coat of wax and then dyeing the cloth. The waxed areas retain their original color so when the wax is removed, the contrast between the dyed and undyed areas forms the pattern. This process is repeated for several times depending on the intricacy of the design.
BATIK. The traditional way of doing "batik" (cloth dyeing) is still practiced in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Although the use of machines is now widespread to keep up with commercial demands. During our trip to Sleman for a learning visit with organic farmers in the community, we also dropped by this small shop selling handmade batik. Handmade batiks are more expensive than the machine-made ones because they take a longer time to finish–a cloth measuring four yards may take three weeks up to several months to be completed.
DON'T PANIC IT'S ORGANIC! We visited an organic farm in Sleman, where we were shown how to make organic fertilizer. These giant eggplant and lettuce are just two of the vegetables they grow in their farms.
There are actually fishes in there! (catfish most probably) Cultivating edible fish right beside your house is possible!
FOOD, FOOD, FOOD! The most exciting part of everything!
We snacked on boiled peanuts, snakefruit (which tastes like a mixture of langka and durian), sweets, and something similar to empanada, but served with raw chili. One of the Filipino delegates told me to eat it with the chili, but I refused, stating my strong refusal with my face, making a Thai delegate laugh. In Asia, Filipinos are probably the weakest when it comes to tolerance of spicy food because in many countries in the continent, they put chili and lots of spices in most of their food.
Our hosts served a sumptuous lunch of traditional Indonesian cuisine including tumpeng, a cone-shaped rice dish with side dishes of vegetables and meat. Tumpeng is a Javanese cuisine usually prepared for special occasions. The cone shape represents mountains and volcanoes–the geographical features of Indonesia. The cone-shaped rice mimics the holy mountain which is revered as the abode of the gods.
The rice is served in the shape of a triangle to represent a mountains, it means to get close to god.
This was the first breakfast I had in Yogyakarta. (The first meal I had was in a Japanese fastfood.) For several weeks, I haven't been eating rice meal for breakfast, but I am in a foreign country, and I'll only get to eat such food while I am here. Of course, nasi goreng and spicy viands for me this early. I also had just gotten back with coffee as I am now working and I need to power up.
I found myself the second person at the buffet area when I went down for breakfast. I'd realize a couple of hours later that the time on my phone did not adjust automatically, which means it is advance by an hour. I was there, a little panicky because our event should've begun already, but my colleagues are yet to have their breakfast. Apparently, I am an hour early.
On our last night, we went to a coffee roastery which works with our our partner farmer organizations in Indonesia.
The Black Java Coffee Roastery is a small roastery, and is more like a community of students, coffee farmers, and coffee enthusiasts and experts. Its main purpose is for social benefit, to spread knowledge about coffee, as well as to promote a different level of coffee drinking experience through their beans and brews. Their coffee beans are supplied by small scale Indonesian coffee farmers. Because their operation is non-profit driven, they do not sell large amounts of roasted beans. Purchasing beans from them is only through referrals. With such initiatives, the future of Indonesian coffee industry looks bright! Click here for more photos
There are other interesting places to explore in Yogyakarta, however, I was there only for work so I didn't have the luxury of time.
And if there's one other significant thing I got from this trip aside from experience, my affair with coffee has just been reignited by this SG $1.50 coffee in Changi.
