My First day in Yogyakarta

I arrived early in the town of Yogyakarta, pronounced “Jogjakarta,” by night train from Tasikmalya. Somewhere during the evening the train crossed the imaginary line from West Java into Central Java. While West Java is dominated by Islamic Sundanese, Central Java is primarily Islamic ethnic Javanese. The whole region is known as the cultural home of the island, with Yogya in particular as the “soul.” It is here that many travelers go to learn more about local traditions and customs, to take language courses, and to appreciate the arts of the island. It is also a place where locals have become very accustomed to seeing and interacting with both domestic and international tourists. Many visitors fly in, visit Yogya, maybe Mt. Bromo, and then whisk off to Bali.

Batik is everywhere in Yogya, and everyone seems to produce and sell it. For those of you who are curious, or not, to make Batik one applies wax to either cloth or silk and then dyes the areas around it. At some point or other most visitors end up giving in and visiting one of the many Batik stores. It’s very time consuming to make Batik, but much simpler to make fake prints on cloth and sell those as “real” to unsuspecting tourists. Another trick is telling people that the shop is part of a government owned school selling prints without commission, and that by buying these reasonably priced art products you are supporting the students. This is still part of the tourism industry in Yoyga, so I decided to check out one of these places. I chose one of the fake art school ones, and the curator there gave me a brief demonstration on how to make Batik and then let me look around at the beautiful examples in the store room. I really haven’t a clue if it is “authentic” or just printed, but many of the images on the cloth were still interesting to see. He then tried to tell me how it is usually only other shop owners or traders that visit the school (because of their great prices), not tourists – yet when I was leaving another foreigner was arriving, probably to hear the same pitch ;)

The city of Yogya is considered a special region and is still ruled by a Sultan. In the middle of the city is the walled Kraton, home of the sultan, and a major visitor attraction. Outside of the locked front gates is a man telling all visitors the Kraton is closed until noon and that he can direct you to a Batik store. If one side step him, it’s easy to find a real entrance with ticket booth to the right side. This is another scam. There is nothing except a big empty entrance hall with a couple of chickens in cages around the side. The REAL entrance is further away on the Northwest side, to find it requires some aimless wandering and having people giving you the wrong directions. When I finally did find the entrance at 1:45pm, they were closing (as the guidebook can actually backup the Kraton is only open from 8a to 2p). Sadly, this is the first time during the 12 days I’ve been in Indonesia where so many people have been dishonest about directions.

While the Kraton palace was closed, I was able to enter the greater Kraton compound, which still serves as home to more than 25,000 people, and includes mosques, shops, a bird market, and "the Water Castle". The water castle, constructed by a Portuguese architect in the mid 1700s was a palace where the Sultan could spend time bathing and getting to know the lovely girls of his harem. However, it was completely destroyed during an earthquake in the mid 1800s. In 1970s some basic restoration efforts began on 5 structures and the place began attracting tourists. In 2003, a serious restoration effort began with donations of the Portuguese government and the World Monument Fund, which had placed the water castle on its 100 most endangered architectural sites list. In 2005 re-construction was finished, but in 2006 it was again damaged by an earthquake, yet not so severely as to be unfixable. I ended up getting a guide to take me around, who did a fine tour, but then ended it at another Batik shop – oy.

In one sense it’s very easy to understand people of the community wanting to make a profit from visitors who make the city congested, and who have enough extra money to spend taking a holiday. This is a very fair point, but I guess one of the negative social aspects that I’ve been noticing in this tourist town is the tendency of some people to juggle the truth, in order to make their profit. While so many people are still friendly and display the typical Indonesian charm, tourism does seem to test the ethics of some. Even at the guest house where I’m staying, the owner’s son was advising not to go to my next destination, Solo, because of a current violent spell. I asked others about this and checked online – nonsense.

The essence of articles I’ve read for my tourism class have also discussed how it’s much easier to regulate tangible resources related to economics and the environment, but social effects … that’s a different matter. So yes, Yogya is economically benefiting from tourism, but what about the negative (and positive) social impacts that can’t fit so easily onto a balance sheet? How can they be measured, tracked, and improved upon? Anyway, just thinking out loud ...


On a lighter note, here are some unique things I’ve noticed so far during my trip in Indonesia:

• I expected people to call out to me, “madame, come this way,” like in India, but no I keep getting “Hey Mister, over here!”
  
• People love discussing the US primary, and are usually filling me in on who is winning each state. There are also different views on who should win. As one man put it, “Obama – he’s a Jakarta boy” (since he went to school in Indonesia during his youth.) Another guy felt differently, “Hillary – I love the ladies.”
  
• Coming across an “Idol-esk” dance competition where pairs of youths dressed in funky outfits danced to rap songs, after which 3 serious looking judges in the front critiqued them.
  
• Watching foreign amateur photographers taking forever to shoot close up pictures of water lilies or trying to dramatically capture the image of a temple in a nearby puddle. Hehe, it’s quite silly to watch this.
  
• Listening to a minibus bus driver sing along with Nirvana on the stereo, much to the incomprehension of his traditionally dressed passengers
  
• Watching people, even Muslims, turn up the television volume when they hear the call to prayer.
  
• Oh, and coming across an English sign for a "Biker’s Brotherhood" in Bandung, Indonesia

Handicrafts in Tasikmalya

If there is something interesting to see, there is usually a hawker nearby trying to sell hats, bags, or key chains emblazoned with the place's name. I’ve noticed that the next vendor I see is usually selling even less practical merchandize, like paper fans or woven boxes. Like it or not, handicrafts and souvenirs have become an engrained component of most tourism destinations. Environmentally, it’s probably not the best idea just producing more junk people don’t need, but on the other hand it does make for an easy home indusrty for villagers to earn some extra income. Not to mention for middlemen who then sell these products at substantially jacked up rates. So, is this a responsible aspect of the tourism industry???

I decide to visit the town of Tasikmalya, an area known for producing cheap handicrafts, about 3 hours to the East of Bandug. It’s quite easy to find a bus (well, minibus) going to Tasik, as they leave almost every hour and the ride there is, like most rides in the interior of Java, quite scenic. Luckily, they had a metal handrail running along the interior of both sides of the minibus, since as I’m also noticing, most (read- all) of these rides are quite bumpy.

The region of Tasikmalya receives a large number of domestic and international traders who want to buy cheap handicrafts. While the town of Tasik has depleted most of the nearby raw materials, handicrafts are now being made in villages around the region. The Tasik area produces batik printed silk goods, paper umbrellas, and handbags, which are then sold in tourist destinations around Indonesia, and internationally.

I had heard about a group working in Tasikmalya called Handycrafts. Their goal is to help local people produce quality goods that can then be sold at fair-trade prices. Handycrafts is just one branch of a larger NGO that also has branches providing health assistance, micro-credit financing, agricultural technology development, and arts education. As I read from their website, they hope to create “holistic development” and have the NGO be self-sustaining through profit produced by Handycrafts and one of the other branches. The staff of SNT is supposed to consist of 40, with 14 of these being expats. I read all of this on their website that was last updated in 2004. I received no reply to my emails, and while I made a valiant effort to look for their headquarters in Tasik with the help of a worker from the hotel I stayed at, the best we could find out was that the Bule (foreigner) working there had moved away. Again, the complete story surrounding the fate of producing fair-trade crafts in Tasik remains a mystery due to lack of information, but er, it doesn’t look like they made it.

I spent the rest of my visit in Tasik visiting one of the villages that produce these tourist goods. Rajapolah is 12km to the North of Tasik and is known for making cheap rattan handicrafts. For the most part I just strolled down the main street of Rajapolah looking at shops as it kept raining off and on. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to have that many in depth conversations on the production of handicrafts since my Indonesian language skills are still rusty (read-nonexistent :P!). It did not take long to walk down the main street in town because this town, like so many others, follows the peculiar custom of having an all the shops carry the EXACT same products. I’d guess there are 20 or 30 shops in Rajapolah, all right next to each other, and all fully stocked with the same bags, boxes, wall hangings, and other similar wicker tourist trinkets.

Rajapolah and Tasikmalya made for a relaxing excursion, though I guess I didn’t really find out that much more about the tourist handicraft industry. My next stop is the popular tourist hub of Yogyakarta.

(Is this where cowboy hats come from??)

The Sundanese

This final day under the wing of Dr. Ko was spent learning more about traditional Sundanese culture.

Almost 30km to the North of Bandung, the third biggest city in Java, stands Tangkuban Prahu, a still active volcanic crater and a part of local Sundanese lore. It’s a curious Oedipius style tale of a separated son coming home and falling in love with his mother, but in order to marry she gives an impossible task – build a gigantic boat in a single night. He nearly completes it, but the mother cheats and asks the gods to bring the sun up early. When he fails, he kicks the boat over in a violent rage, thus making the volcano.

On the drive to the volcano we pass some small villages, many which are selling cuddly looking rabbits in the shop windows and in nearby cages. I ask about this. “Satay,” was the reply. This area is well-known for bunny satay. Gulp.

It’s difficult to reach Tangkuban Prahu without a car, especially since there’s a steep and poorly paved 4.5km stretch from the entrance to the peak. When we finally reach the top after this jarring ride, I’m very impressed to see the bubbling crater. This is the first time I’ve even seen a live volcano, so I’m naturally quite excited. We join a throng of onlookers gathering around wooden railings of the “Queen Crater.” The weather is cool as this area is over 2000m above sea level, so many have already purchased hats and scarves from a nearby vender. Peddlers also move among the crowd selling a range of objects including jewelry, knick-knacks, sulfuric ash, and rabbit fur purses (lots of these rabbit purses in fact). Several ponies are also around providing purchasable rides to visitors. Nearby, leading to another viewing angle, a path is lined with stalls offering more shopping opportunities. As someone explained to me, domestic tourists love shopping, so this “leisure interest” is usually made available at most attractions.

The next place Dr. Ko, his family, Lulu, and I visit is Sindang Reret restaurant, a traditional Sundanese cultural restaurant. We are placed at a large wooden table and waiters, though not traditional dressed, bring out rice in woven baskets with wooden scoops. A fake waterfall is setup on one side of the restaurant. You can tell that the management here is trying to make the restaurant atmosphere feel as natural as possible, reflecting the closeness of Sundanese culture with the natural environment. We ate a large meal of vegetables, fish, a minced bean dish, a roasted chicken, and of course rice.

Our next destination is about 7km to the East of the city at the Saung Angklung Udju Sudanese Art and Bamboo Craft Center. This fascinating place is where the Angklung instrument is made and where the master craftsmen Mang Udjo established his workshop in 1967. The mission as stated by this center is “to preserve and develop West Java culture through Angklung music.” Most afternoons at 3:30 a performance is held. I’ve included some short video clips – it’s truly a site to see. What really makes this place unique is the involvement of the community, especially children. Around 100 Students from the surrounding areas train at the Angklung Performing Arts School, even kids as young as 4 start participating. Many of these pupils end up touring both domestically and internationally.

(A tall boy holding an Anglung Instrument)

The design of the workshop and concert area is traditional. Bamboo is one of the prime building materials. A huge room near the front of the building sells inexpensive bamboo instruments, puppets, and other crafts. Off the concert area is a large green space that includes workshops where you can see the instruments being made and bamboo huts where groups can play with instruments. This naturalistic setting helps give the center a unique sense of place and a reminder of a different way of life.

While authentic Wayang Golek performances, which date to before television, would take up an entire evening or even two, the show here lasts for a very memorable two hours and includes traditional puppetry, dance, and a full Angklung orchestra. One particular section depicts the tradition of putting on a party for a newly circumcised boy. The child sits in a special chair as his friends dance and play music to entertain him. Besides the cute children, another memorable aspect of the performance is the inter-activity. Each audience member is handed an Anglung instrument, one of eight possible tones. Then, an instructor at the front briefly teaches everyone how to rattle the base in order to play the instrument, and then a cue for coordinating the tones. In an odd sort of chorus the audience begins playing simple songs. The finale is bringing the viewers up to the stage to participate in traditional dance, and the kids run into the audience to choose a partner. It was surreally funny seeing a little four year old girl dancing with her white haired Dutch partner, and other mismatches.

After the performance, I was lucky enough to meet Hikmat Udjo, the grandson of the founder. As I start talking with him, he recalls how at one time he was once the little circumcised boy in the performance. While the workshop and arts center has played a significant role in his life, he also tells how it touches the lives of others and re-sparks an interest in the culture. It’s really the community, he says, that has allowed the center to endure. If it wasn’t for all these kids wanting to participate, if it wasn’t for all the visitors wishing to see the performance, if it wasn’t for those who purchase the instruments, CD recordings, and puppets, the workshop would have long ago ceased to exist. While today the workshop is a main tourism magnet of the area, the center has also seen some lean years. Sixty percent domestic and 40 percent international is the usual ratio of visitors, but after the Bali bombing they received ZERO international visitors. Relying on volunteers from local schools, and then through government support, the center has been able to continue its work to develop and preserve the music legacy of the Sudanese culture. The Saung Anglung Udju Sundanese Art and Bamboo Craft Center seems to demonstrate many of the tenets of “responsible tourism,” and is a truly worthwhile attraction to visit.

To find out more you can visit their website at http://www.angklung-udjo.co.id/

Words of Wisdom from Udjo Ngalagena:

“What You Are
What Job You Have Chosen
Do It Well
Do it With Love
Without Love
You Are Dead Before You Die”

A Homestay at Gunung Mas Tea Plantation

Originating from the era of the Dutch, vast tea plantations sprawl throughout the low hills of Java. Row after row of well-kept tea bushes are part of the scenic landscape of the highlands in Bandung and the Puncak Pass region of West Java, particularly ideal areas for cultivating tea. However, in recent years the tea industry in Indonesia has faced decline as global competition becomes fiercer, and the costs associated with production increase. Many tea plantations are turning towards tourism to help generate some additional revenue to continue operations.

Gunung Mas tea plantation can be found along the Puncak Pass on the road from Bogor to Bandung. The agricultural landscape of this estate has many roles other than the straightforward business of growing and selling tea. Like rice farming, tea harvesting has become part of the local Sudanese culture and folk history. In addition, the labor intensity of the work provides employment for many workers, some who are 2^nd and 3^rd generation employees who have grown up in the residence village inside the tea plantation. Another role is environmental. Because of the removal of many natural forests around Jakarta, the tea plants now must take up the important function of preventing soil erosion and recharging the ground water supply to the nearby North flowing river leading to the city. While the green shrubbery of tea plants has an aesthetic value too, land is valuable and many tea estates are being sold to developers. However, these agricultural areas are worth preserving.

(workers at Gunung Mas)

The tourism at Gunung Mas is still at a small scale compared to other plantations that have become tourism magnets in nearby countries, like the Cameron Highlands estates in Malaysia. But a visit to Gunung Mas can still provide an enjoyable diversion on the way too Bandung. At Gunung Mas one can take a tour of the factory, walk through the tea fields, ride ponies, and have a picnic from food provided by venders. A unique and newly developed tourism feature is a home stay with one of the families that live on the tea plantation. Through the help of the Buena Vista Education Center, I arranged a one night stay at the tea estate.

I met Acih at the entrance of house 54, the left side of a small brown one story duplex, one of many housing tea workers and their families. She is a thin Sundanes woman that dresses in long skirts and a Muslim head covering. I spent a day and night with her family, a husband, two daughters and their husbands, a son, and a cute, but energetic, 3 year old named Alya. Acih’s sister, Yanah, escorted me on a 5 minute public van ride from the BV education center to Gunung Mas, and then both she and her sister showed me around the area.

It was an interesting peek into this family’s life, though language was severely limiting. At first I was kicking myself for not knowing more Bahasa Indonesian than “Thank you,” only to realize they don’t speak Indonesian but a completely different dialect called Sunda. The father of the house, who wore a traditional skirt and black cap, knew a few words of English, but it was limited to “Please,” and “I’m sorry, don’t speak English.” Strangely, the little 3 year old also knew the word “sexy,” which she loved to exclaim before posing for a picture. I enjoyed a traditional meal with this family, dried fish, green legumes from the area, and rice, eaten with hands while sitting around the floor watching tv … Chronicles of Riddik was playing. Before I had been told many people learn about American culture through movies, but I’m realizing many people learn about American culture through ACTION movies. No wonder they think the US is so violent and the women all dress promiscuously. Most of the evening was spent in this newly traditional pastime, watching television.

The next morning the family began the day with a plate of Nasi goring, fried rice. Those who were going off to work that day left, the rest did chores around the house such as wade into the chilly river and wash clothes in the stream. I ended up playing around with the little 3yr old, who was able to turn everything around her into a toy. I’d definitely recommend a visit to the agro-tourism facilities at Gunung Mas, it’s a great way to experience the tea plantation and to see the lives of the people who live there.

"Sexy!"