Travelling to Yogya by train is a good way to get an idea of how big Java is. The train ride from Jakarta to Yogya took 7 hours. It was comfortable and the tickets were conveniently bought at the supermarket.
Rice seems to be the only thing grown, we were practically travelling through rice fields for the whole journey.
This was our home for 8 days, Villa Sambal. Highly recommendable
(unless you are bothered by pretty loud praying songs coming out of the speakers next to the window at 3AM. You learn to sleep through it.)
Lovely cheerful colours are used on lots of buildings.
I don't know what this sign is saying but I like it.
Dog statue.
Chicken statue.
Wall made up of the Mercedes logo.
Houses depend on butane gas.
I was amazed at the nature in Indonesia, squeezing through every crack it could.
Indonesians love their plants. Most residential streets are packed with them.
Apparently this is good for firm and perky breasts.
Numbers very well integrated into their surroundings.
Bottles given a second life as plant pots. We saw this a lot.
If this is a swing, you need knee protection to use it.
Wiener dog with lots of tits.
That time of day when the mosquitos come out. Bats and birds love it.
I felt a bit queasy about the food the first few days. This was the first meal I really enjoyed; nasi gudeg: rice, young jackfruit, krecek and tempeh, areh, which is a stew made of cow's skin, coconut milk sauce, tofu. Delicious!
Somebody told us there would be an opening of a new art space and celebrations around it on this big square with two trees. We went to check it out. There were lots of people walking blindfolded. If they managed to walk between the trees while blindfolded, it meant they were going to have good luck.
They seemed to love this game. Or myth.
We went to the wonderful museum -house of the prolific Indonesian artist, Affandi. He designed the house himself. Highly, highly recommendable.
This was Affandi's empty swimming pool. Also one of his designs.
These mini bananas were great snacks all through the trip and oh so cute!
Sculpture of Affandi.
Gallery space designed by the artist. In the back is a custom made car he designed.
Self portrait of Affandi.
Me looking like the building behind me.
Hand shaped stairs at Affandi's museum house.
Palm tree in Affandi's garden.
Affandi liked cockfights so, even if now he is dead, they still breed them.
Affandi's bedroom. We read that he gathered here a lot with his family members.
Sato soup. One of many.
We took a tour to Nglanggeran volcano. This was a water reserve next to the volcano.
A stick in the water.
Johan, our driver, with a picture of his girlfriend on his T-shirt. He pointed out her bum so we could admire it.
Not sure what these fruits were, but they were everywhere.
We visited the village of Tlogo Mardidho, that could only be occupied by 7 families. If the number was more or less than 7, something bad could happen, in most cases death, most of them children. The cemetery had a disproportionate amount of babies' tombstones . If someone got married and had children, the new family should leave the village.
Nglanggeran volcano.
Phil at the top.
Shame about the fog.
Photogenic hiker.
A well deserved lunch.
This impressive cave was shown to us by this man who told me what photos I should take.
"Photo please miss"
The next stop was to Sri Gethuk waterfall. We walked past these beautiful rice fields.
We managed to get our guide Herry into the water. He didn't know how to swim and hadn't been in the water for 25 years. Phil and our tour companion Jens went in the water with him, which was a very moving scene. Herry couldn't believe he could float with this life vest and was excited, scared and happy when we managed to convince him he'd be ok. Here he is about to go in Oyo river.
And this is how happy he was when he managed to go in.
Teak plantation
For me this was the highlight of the tour. I have seen nothing like this kind of landscape. We were walking along very flat land of teak plantations when suddenly... boom!! A 100m deep cave in the ground. It was amazing and the camera couldn't really capture the incredible scale of it. It was that time of the day again where the sun was low and bugs and mosquitos come out, so there were loads of bats flying around. Normally there would be thousands of bats, but at that time of the year there are only hundreds. Jens saw a monkey in the bushes!
Here's a little video I took:
This man set up a net to catch bats. He squished their heads with his fingers to kill them.
This man kindly showed us around his neighborhood. Here he was telling Phil about the leather puppets. This is how he made the sign for leather.
The kind man in the previous photo led us to this business where a very special
kind of coffee was made thanks to this cute and confused looking animal.
The coffee is called kopi luwak and the coffee beans it's made with are pooped,
yes pooped, by this animal.
Here's some wiki info: Kopi luwak (Indonesian pronunciation: [ˈkopi ˈlu.aʔ]), or civet coffee, refers to the coffee that includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus).[1]
Producers of the coffee beans argue that the process may improve coffee through two mechanisms, selection and digestion. Selection occurs if the civets choose to eat cherries. Digestive mechanisms may improve the flavor profile of the coffee beans that have been eaten. The civet eats the cherries for the fleshy pulp, then in the digestive tract, fermentation occurs. The civet's Protease enzymes seep into the beans, making shorter peptides and more free amino acids.[2] Passing through a civet's intestines the cherries are then defecated with other fecal matter and collected.
I wasn't convinced by the poop coffee or by its price (€10.00 per coffee), so I didn't try it.
Phil in one of the many narrow streets we walked through to avoid traffic.
We visited Krack!, an art and printing space and were were very kindly shown around and shown lots of lovely prints.
Yogya is an inspiring and vibrant city full of creative people. It feels like everyone is eager to work on their own creations and very enthusiastic about collaboration and connecting with new people.
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