Gabrielle abroad…

Enroute to Yogyakarta…..

Well once again I’ve had three consecutive days when I’ve woken up with every intention to move on, and someone or something changes my plans. I *think* today is the day, though, and I’m heading to Solo - just an hour by train.

Arrived in Yogyakarta on Monday after a very pleasant bus-ferry-bus trip (more about this later) and subscribed to a bit of culture shock! Surprisingly - particularly upon arrival in Yogya! - the farther east I’m traveling, the tourist infrastructure becomes more developed and mass produced. When I was in Jakarta, Bogor, Ciapanas, and mostly through Pangandaran, I had to battle my way through Indonesian to reserve a room, sometimes as the sole foreigner in the area (Ciapanas)….the challenge which I’ve loved. And especially at the beach, I spent the afternoons swimming and hiking mostly with the Javanese locals. The tourist subculture, however, is in FULL force here with its own independent subcommunity off of Sosro road of hostels, travel agencies, local tours, batik shops - it’s more than a little overwhelming. The main road in Yogya itself reminds me a bit of New York - shop after shop of batik stores, shoe places, fabric stores for traditional clothes, leather work, imitation North Face backpack stores, Muslim clothing stores for embroidered headscarves and dresses, silverwork, along with Circle Ks, KFC and McDonalds (the latter two which are rather fancy places to eat, a social statment of financial status!).

Besides being considered a full-on tourist, however, indeed the cultural mecca of Java, Yogyakarta seems to me quite a progressive, young and incredibly creative city on the southern coastal region in Western Java (And in desperate need of English teachers….hmmmmm…..). Surrounded by Pramandan and Borobudur, ancient Hindu and Buddhist temples constructed roughly around 800 AD, on the outskirts of the urban area and the rumbling Gunung (which means volcano) Merapi, its spirituality is tangible. The sunrise over Borobudur and sunset over Pramandan were awe-inspiring!

And despite being ‘urban’, knowledge and expertise of traditional performing arts are taught over and over many generations of Yogyakartans. Traditional performances of gamelan (Javanese musical instruments), Sundanese, Javanese and Balinese dance, leather and wooden puppet performances, batik work and silversmiths are intricately skillful and beautiful!….and the thought, strategy and devotion to the arts here is impressive! I spent one definitive and unforgettable evening watching the Yogyakarta ballet troupe (blending traditional and modern Javanese dance) performance of the Hindu Ramayana epic in an open air theater with Pramadan lit in the near background.

Off to Solo, Yogya’s sister city, for more culture, dance, and arts!

Have I mentioned how exquisitely beautiful Java is??…..

Tags: Java, Tag Index

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 21st, 2005 at 7:11 am and is filed under Java. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.