Operation “get my blog updated”: Stage 2.
Tuesday 30th August
Merry Fitters! (For last Tuesday and/or Wednesday, whichever day you want to celebrate it). This is the term we coined at 5.30am on Tuesday in order to shorten “Selamat hari raya Idul Fitri” (Happy Idul Fitri) in true Aussie fashion. Idul Fitri (I think maybe “Eid” in English) is the massive celebration at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan (Idul Fitri is also known as lebaran in Indonesia). The reason why it may be Tuesday or Wednesday is because there are two ways of determining Idul Fitri, I think a mathematical way and one way by looking at the moon. But both days are recognised as a holiday and you can celebrate on one (or both if you want to, I suppose).
So the reason we were up that early was to be picked up by Mita (from ACICIS) and her family to join them at the alun-alun kidul (town square just south of the kraton) to see the morning prayers. We stayed back with Mita for a bit as thousands of people poured into the area (they would have already washed and are not allowed to come into contact with members of the opposite gender, so if we bumped into anyone that would have been bad). After watching Indonesians walk further than they would dare to on any other day of the year, we walked into the square too and watched from the sidelines. Rows of men in their black kupluk (a type of hat/cap) and women in white rukuh (cloak type coverings which cover the woman from head to toe, minus the face) filled the alun-alun. It was an amazing site to see.
After seeing the prayers we went back to Mita’s house to share in some opor ayam (a type of chicken curry traditionally eaten on Idul Fitri) with her family. We also got to see the family asking for forgiveness from Mita’s grandmother and great-aunt. Then, in what felt like the afternoon, but which was really just 9.30am, we went home and back to bed to catch up on sleep. I was woken up around 11.30 by Eyang (Bu Agus’ mum) asking if I wanted to go to Mount Merapi, right then and there. I was so tired though, so I decided to pass up the offer in favour of more sleep, as there will be plenty of other opportunities to go another time. In the evening we had tea at Dunkin’ Donuts, as pretty much everything else was closed and that was close by.
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| Crowds of people walkng towards the alun-alun |
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| Men at the front with their black hats and women at the back in their white garments. |
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| Everyone praying. (Also, the two trees in the background are the ones I mention later in this post that we had to walk through) |
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| Happy Fitters! With (L-R) Paul, Jack, Joey, Me, Red, Mita's Grandma, Teal, James, Mita's Mum, Nick and Mita's Dad (and Mita taking the photo). |
Wednesday 31st August
On Wednesday morning a few of us gathered at Parsley (a bakery/cafe) for makan “sagi” (brunch) for Teal’s birthday. After yummy “pouch eggs” (not poached eggs) and “bake-ed beans” (not baked beans) we took Teal to Amplaz for her birthday surprise. We blindfolded Teal and led her through the busy shopping centre to a sports shop to buy some futsal shoes and ball. Some ping-pong, courtyard soccer and dinner later, and the day had flown by without even realising it. Also on Wednesday, Jack headed off to Jakarta for a holiday in the morning and Joey went to Karimunjawa (some little islands north of Java) in the night, leaving just Eyang, Nick, Andy (a Jakartan guy who had just moved into the kos) and I as the only people at the kos.
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| Breakfast at Parsley (clockwise from front left) Red, Teal, Vremita, Joet, Me, Nick, Paul. |
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| Teal with baby Mickey (a bday present) and Mario at the shopping centre. |
Thursday 1st September
Thursday was a pretty cheap day. Nick and I had breakfast from a warung, costing us a grand total of Rp.8000 (currently about 90c) for two meals of rice, beans, tempe, noodles and gorengan (pretty much just “fried stuff”) and two iced teas. Red and Paul came around and we all headed off to Gading Mas. I don’t think I have mentioned this place yet. It is kind of a supermarket (kind of like a mix between NQR and Big W) which always manages to have nothing you want and everything you don’t want. Regardless, it is an awesome place to shop. On Thursday I paid Rp.14.400 (about $1.60) for the snazziest pair of brightly-coloured, floral shorts you ever did see! I then parted ways with the others and headed off to Amplaz with Teal (we were going to buy real converse for about $20, but didn’t really like the colours there) and then to the pool at the Yogya Plaza Hotel to use up my free swim card I got from our welcome night from the hotel. On our way home, Teal and I spotted a sign, “Pancakes and Ice-cream” and we were there! I had such a yummy banana split for Rp.15.000. I don’t think you could even buy a banana for that price at the moment in Australia!
Friday 2nd September
On Friday Nick and I caught the biskot (bis kota = city bus) (a cheap and easy way to get around Yogya, just be super careful of pickpockets and don’t worry if the roof is rusty and the seats are broken) to Nick’s heaven, the pasar buku (book market). Admittedly it was quite awesome, with two stories of stalls of piles and piles of books. There were a lot of academic books actually, so we now know the place to go when we get our reading lists. After the book market we went to another market, called Pasar Beringharjo, which was a lot more traditional with spices and food on one floor and the largest amount of bags I have seen in one spot in my life on another floor. We stopped for lunch at a stall in the middle of one of the floors, so it was a bit dark and dingy, but still yum. The only menu item they had was sate kambing (goat skewers), so that’s what we ate. There was also salad, but I noticed the lady use the same raw-meat knife and chopping board for the salad, so I just ate my goat and rice. In the afternoon, Nick and I went motor bike helmet hunting , but the mission was not a success. We did however have a chat with the ticket man on the biskot, who demonstrated to Nick how pickpockets work (luckily he didn’t actually do anything).
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| The ground level of Pasar Beringharjo with lots of spices and things in bags. |
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| The 'rogue' chicken that decided to make Nick's bike it's home... until Nick had a run-in with it and "got bitten". |
In the evening Andy, Nick and I met Teal and Tim for tea at a warung that is usually quite happening during the day, with band and everything, but which we discovered is quite quiet at night. After our nasi pecel (rice with vegies and spicy peanut sauce) we went around to Tim’s kos because his kos family were keen for us to visit. The tiles in that house are neat as! It’s like someone decided to turn broccoli soup into tiles... I was pretty excited! Also, the tiles in the bathroom are pretty much the same as the tiles in my shower in my apartment. I don’t know if I have mentioned before or not, but I am a bit of a fan of tiles... but I digress. We chatted with Arum (the Ibu kos’s daughter) and her husband. Arum is a bit of a joker, just completely ripping into Tim about him being too skinny and a bit boring to talk to, but she was just jesting. So after some funny, and also some awkward, conversations, as well as yummy as snacks (my personal favourite being putih salju = snow white) that we were kind of force fed, we continued our night’s journey to a cafe called Cheers (the same place Teal and I went to the previous day for our ice-cream and pancakes). When our banana splits and real coffees were finished Tim suggested we keep going (it was about 10.30/11pm by this time). So we did. Good decision. (Andy went home though).
The alun-alun (where we went to see the morning prayers on Idul Fitri) is a buzzing hive of activity late at night. There are, by far, the coolest, brightly-lit, neon-covered, pedal-powered, open car type things I have ever seen! We hopped in one and drove around the alun-alun a couple of times, feeling a little like movie stars (or possible oddities) as everyone seemed to think it was ok to just wind down their car windows, or hang out of their own pedal powered vehicles to take photos of us. So we took photos of them back. We all had a turn of steering, and we all had a turn of nearly crashing into other vehicles. When we got off there was a family who were taking a picture of us, and then they actually asked if that was ok. Then the 9-yr-old daughter (who is apparently a sinetron (soapie) star) pulled a blackberry out of her bag and asked for a photo with us for her facebook! Line of the night, though, went to her older sister with “Dari mana, bule?” (“Where are you from, white people?”). (Don’t take this all the wrong way though; it was all light-hearted and good spirited.)
We then sat down for a bit of roti bakar (which is pretty much toasted cheese sandwiches, minus the cheese, plus chocolate and/or fruit) and ronde (Nick’s favourite, which I will explain later), while being busked to with our very own requests. After our fill of sweet treats it was time to tackle the trees. There are two massive, old trees, about 10-15m apart and if you can walk through them while blindfolded, you get a wish/good luck. You stand back, maybe about 50m, put on your blindfold and then go for it, with your friends tagging along, making sure you don’t run into other people, or the trees. A lot of people take this responsibility for granted though, and may let their friend continue on the complete wrong path for quite some time (*cough* Nick, Teal and Tim *cough*). But then the neatest thing happened. You know in movies, how sometimes there is an elderly, wise figure who gives advice to the young character, who is then able to succeed? We got our very own old, wise man! I didn’t catch everything, as he was speaking very fast, but the main advice he gave was to 1: Not focus on the trees, rather the destination, 2: pray, regardless of whether you are Muslim, Christian or otherwise and 3: go at your own pace, go slowly if you want, run if you want. So we took his advice and ran on through... each one of us!
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| Tim, Me, Nick and Teal on our pedal-powered, bright vehicle. |
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| "Guiding" Teal, to make sure she didn't run into anyone on her way through the trees. |
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| It's not as easy as it looks. The white fence is around a tree, but the other tree is far to the left of this picture. |
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| Guiding Tim, who was on the right track nearly to the end. |
It was now about 2.30am, so we decided maybe we should head home. But the loo was required first. Both the toilets at the alun-alun were closed and we were told there was another one down the street. This was true but it was also closed. Next door though was a mosque. We considered going in to use the loo, but thought it wasn’t the best idea. While weighing up this decision, the Imam rocked up on a motorbike and offered let us use the toilet. So I think that was our good luck that we gained from the trees.
I think Tuesday and Friday had the most exciting events. Since then I’ve tended to stay at home a bit and relax. So stay tuned for Operation “get my blog updated”: Stage 3 (which will hopefully be here soon).
Sampai jumpa,
Katrina
