Green Maps in Yogya

As a major tourist destination, Yogya receives a hefty amount of visitors both domestic and international each year. I decide to stop at the tourist information booth in the center of town, to see what type of information they offer to visitors. The lady behind the front counter gave me a large map of the area. On the backside over 30 different destinations in and around Yogya were highlighted, including some lesser known places like villages, a snake fruit agricultural tour, and an education forest. I also found a mini newspaper called the JogjaPages that include articles related to traveling, and more alternative opportunities for touring the surrounding areas like at a pottery village, a copper goods village, village home stay opportunities, and a bamboo handicrafts village. This type of tourism management seems positive as its trying to emphasize the local potential of other interesting, but less visited places.

That evening on a rather stormy night I met with members of the Yogya Green Map club at a little restaurant on the main street of town. I was greeted by Joyo, a young lanky guy in glasses, who is the coordinator of the Indonesian hub of Green Map. Also at the table were Thomas and Inu, other “green mappers.” I hadn’t heard of this group previously, but it is actually a worldwide organization started in New York in 1995, with the head of the Asian hub being in Taiwan. Using Google Earth communities are able to map interesting places in their area, and then make interactive and print maps for distribution. As Joyo explains, the Green Map club provides workshops to those interested in making maps and teaches the universal codes used by all green map members, but it is the community that creates and develops each map.

While Jakarta had the first green map club in Indonesia, the group in Yogya is now the most active. It’s primarily students that create these maps, as they are often very comfortable using computers and are usually more eager to help with volunteer projects. And as Joyo puts it, “the number of socially conscious university students around Yogya has really been a benefit to keeping our group active and focused.” Thomas, Inu, and Joyo told me they first discovered the club about 4 or 5 years ago when they were also university students.

As Joyo goes on to explain, one of the primary benefits of doing the mapping projects is that through the act of making the maps it gets others, especially young people, interested and aware of the assets of their community. By getting the community involved and educated about the interesting features of their area, the group hopes to encourage residents to be more apt to manage and preserve these unique features. “One of the most important steps of the map making” Joyo continued, “is the review process, which acts like a forum where participants can analyze the strengths and weaknesses of various points of interest.” They feel that by discussing weaknesses and strengths of different areas, this will encourage interest in more local community planning.

The next workshop the group is holding is taking place the following Sunday and the Green Map group will be helping to educate the community at Borobudur how to map their area. This will be a special “youth map” created by junior high students, with the purpose of encouraging visitors to extend their stay and visit other places in the local area surrounding the Borobudur World Heritage Site. Currently, most visitors are bused into the temple and then depart, without ever visiting the town or other interesting places and smaller temples around the area. However, as the group explains to me, there are hotels in the area, and inexpensive horse drawn carriages can be hired to visit the lesser known points of interest, thus providing an alternative experience to the routine mass tourism of the area.

In one sentence Joyo was able to sum up the goal of their group, “To empower local people to see their local resources honestly, and to encourage community involvement in planning and managing these assets.” I thanked the group for all the information, and as I left I couldn't help feeling very optimistic to see the passion they have for this work. Green maps really do seem like an innovative idea that can benefit local communities, as well as guests to their area.

Green Maps really is a global endeavor, so to find out more visit: http://www.greenmap.org/

Walking Around Temples

The Buddhist temple of Borobudur and the Hindu temples at Prambanan are both popular and easily reached tourist attractions, and World Heritage Sites, near Yogya. As I’d yet to go on a packaged day tour in Indonesia, I thought I’d give it a try and see what it’s like.

The minivan picked us up at 5am and our group included 11 very tired looking people. As we drove out of town I saw a striking sight, against the pink dawn sky the volcano Gunung Merapi was silhouetted in the distance. From its mouth a steady stream of smoke curled upwards. I wish I could have captured that very Indonesian moment in picture, but I don’t think I could have done it justice.

After a 90 minute drive we reached Borobudur. Both it and Prambanan’s temples were declared World Heritage Sites in 1991. This means Western admission fees, about $8-10 payable in US dollars or rupiah for foreign visitors, and 1/10th that for domestic. That being said, the places are well maintained. The temple at Borobudur was built between 750 and 850 AD. It’s thought to be made of more than 2,000 rocks, some decorated with very intricate bas-relief, and the entire structure is in the shape of a giant stupa. With the decline in Buddhism, this place was abandoned and fell into disrepair. The Dutch during their administration attempted repairs, but it finally took 10 years and a $25 million USD restoration project finishing in 1983 to do the job. In 1985 opponents of Soeharto planted bombs in the upper levels, causing damage and requiring more restoration work. Next the temple faced damage from the 2006 Yoyga earthquake. Repairs were again made, and the temple seems to be in good condition (now) for something over a thousand years old. I was also very impressed by how well taken care of the temple is - I witnessed security guards patrolling the area, and when another visitor attempted to climb on the rocks a voice came over a loud speaker telling them to stop. However, at the time of visiting I think there were only about 30 visitors, so it was much easier to keep careful watch compared to peak times.

As far as benefits go, certainly this type of preservation and conservation work can be supported through tourism. However, I’m curious if the community of Borobudur really gains anything other than traffic congestion from busses, or garbage left over from visiters. On our tour we did not stop at the town, and the only local people we saw were unsuccessfully trying to sell drinks and souvenirs.

(Borobudur)

I really didn’t get to know most of the people in the group, other than another single traveler Buganj from Kuching, Malaysia. He was very fascinating to talk to, after 50 years of travelling he has seen many places in Asia and the Middle East. The other 9 visitors on the trip were all Europeans, but didn’t seem very talkative and preferred to stick with the people they came with. Those in the tour seemed different than the more youthful groups made up of long term backpackers that you find doing the loop of Thailand-Laos-Vietnam-Cambodia in mainland SEA.

The brochure for Prambanan Archaeological Park, claims Prambanan Temple “is the most beautiful Hindu’s Temple in the world.” Maybe a slight over-exaggeration in marketing, but the architecture of the main complex is pretty nice. These temples were created about 50 years after Borobudur, but most are in worse condition. The three main temples are attractively restored, but most of the others in the complex lay in rubble. Visitors are prohibited from entering, or even getting to close to the three standing temples because of structural damage caused by the 2006 earthquake. Besides the temples, the park has an Archaeological museum and a movie about the complex, a play ground area, Ramayana open theater – where a twice monthly ballet performance takes place during the dry season, a camping area, and 92 souvenir shops and 33 food stalls – so says the information booklet I picked up.

As I was walking around these temples with Buganj he made a comment about the importance of preserving these types of places. Out of curiosity I asked him, “Do you think tourism is always beneficial for a place?” His answer was immediate, “of course, it brings money to a place.” I try again, “but do you ever think tourism might be hurting the environment or negatively affecting the people - like the trash caused by tourism?” Again Buganj responded, “no, people are civic minded. When I’m staying at a hotel I always pick up my trash and put it in the waste bin, not making the people cleanup after me.” I persist, “What about beaches, like in Thailand, like Ko-Phanagn that suffer from garbage after all night parties? That can't be positive tourism.” “Well then the government needs to manage it, have all the garbage put it one place,” he logically replied. I decide not to mention the harm of having all that garbage, even if it is in one place, and decide to instead smile back and change the subject.

I enjoyed spending the day with Buganj, but I think that will be my last tour for awhile. The tours are easy to arrange, but it feels like your missing out when just going around with other foreigners. In addition, the money (usually inflated) is all given to the one tour company and in my case one in Yogya, instead of going to local transport in the area of the attractions or guides who live in that area. In addition, by going on a tour that just visited the temples, I missed possible other areas of interest in the community and surrounding areas.

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??)