French Tour to Yogya

By Olga Cazes

We arrived in Yogyakarta on the morning of Monday, April 4 where our guide Daniel was waiting for us. We began our trip by visiting Taru Martani, a cigar factory with a faded charm, where time unwinds at a slower pace and productivity does not seem to be of the highest priority.

As it was raining, we continued with a quick visit to the Kraton, and then we headed to Taman Sari through the bird market. which was very quiet on that day. We visited the newly rebuilt underground mosque. After going through a maze of alleys and underground passageways, we found ourselves at the Water Castle where one could easily picture the Sultan and his wives frolicking gaily.

We had lunch in a charming restaurant in Kota Gede, where to our surprise the Sultan's wife and her friends. all dressed in gold and bright colors were also having lunch.

After lunch, in the adjoining store, we were told in melodious French how silver is transformed into various pieces of jewelry. We then went to an old Buddhist temple, now used as a mosque and where Senopati, the first Sultan of Yogyakarta, is buried. Two members of our tour agreed to undress and put on the ceremonial costume for the visit. The graves of the sultan and his family are in a house without walls, surrounded by the graves of close family members who are not of royal blood. We took a stroll in the Kasongan potters' village. close to the river with its tall bamboo trees, its cows. goats and screeching chicks. It was very touching watching people working the local clay at their own rhythm, turning it with their hands or feet in small houses. The day ended with a performance of the Rarnayana in rather ramshackled surroundings.

On Tuesday morning we left at 06:00 for the Dieng plateau, travelling on a long road lined with paddy fields, rivers, trees and greenery. We stopped and wandered in a local market where we created a sensation among the elderly merchants. The Dieng plateau is a magnificent place with terraced vegetable fields all around us in an incomparable palette of shades of green. In the background were some villages that looked as though they had been waiting there for a long time.

We visited the Pendawan complex of which four main temples remain standing in a caldera crater covered by water until recently. Then an astonishing sight, in a beautiful landscape calling to mind a Swiss valley, a barren stony place with water that in some places is just bubbling mud, with a strong smell of rotten eggs, characteristic of the sulfur which surrounds us. The main crater of Sikidang is impressive for it really seethes with huge boiling bubbles.

Daniel told us that the crater seems bigger each time he comes here. We walked around the not very colorful lake under a sky that is again overcast. We finished the afternoon at where the atmosphere is calm, the light soft and pleasant. Our local guide Nuridin, who speaks French with an infectious humor, explained to us the origin of the expression "faire la java" [have a good time/party, in the figurative but not literal sense].

On Wednesday we went to the Affandi museum. Affandi was a painter whose house is architecturally stunning, a mixture of modern and indigenous art. It has a swimming pool in the shape of a whale and some very bright paintings.

Later we visited a batik shop, owned by an artist named Kabul, who inherited it from a rich "street-art" lover, enabling him to open his own shop. Kabul chose to spread his work through batik, which for him represents the Javanese culture. We discovered another batik shop using natural dyes. The word "shop" is not really appropriate as we are in the backyard of a house transformed into a batik workshop. Outside the batiks are dyed and dried, and inside everybody works at applying wax by metal stamps or by hand.

We finished with a visit to a gamelan maker: the sound is limpid; the instruments sparkle in a thousand hues from bronze and alloys. The most beautiful gamelan was the one that the shop owner uses for his own group of musicians. After lunch we visited several temples.

First Sambisari: this underground temple is in a very well preserved state of repair and has in its center a lingga that we will not easily forget. Next we visited Candi Sari, not strictly a temple, but a place where pilgrims could sleep. Then we visited the absolutely magnificent Ratu Boko complex. On a green hill stand the foundations of a crematoriurn, a palace, different buildings and a swimming pool. The site which is still being excavated, conceals many more treasures. which we will not see until we make a return trip.

Finally we visited Prambanan, where we saw in sculpture the Ramayana story that we had seen on Monday night in dance. This helped our understanding of the story.

Following a short delay at he airport, we arrived home full of emotion and glad that we had shared these experiences. Until the next trip....

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