Calypso's Journal: Sultans, Puppets & Batik

In addition to the temples, our tour took us to a few other places of interest in the city of Yogyakarta.

The area is well known for Mount Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia which last erupted in late 2010. There was also the Sultan's palace, hand made puppets and batik work to be visited.

We were taken up to the volcano but it was so heavily covered in clouds that there was no hope of seeing anything so we then left to visit the Sultan's palace. The current Sultanate of Yogyakarta has five very attractive daughters, the youngest of which was getting married the following week. However, we didn't see much evidence of a major clean up or loads of much needed fresh paint being applied despite the expectation of many hundreds of guests.

Past Sultans had multiple wives and, hence, many many children. They could legally have four wives but could have as many concubines as they wished. Fortunately, times have changed and the current Sultan discontinued the polygamist tradition and has only the one wife. This visit was a bit underwhelming in my view but it was nice to see how modern the family was i.e. no hijab (headscarves) which are worn by the more strict Muslims and the girls were sent to Australia for their education and able to have husbands of their own choice . Thank goodness for small mercies and modern thinkers.

Next we were taken to a small puppet manufacturer. Indonesian puppets have a style of their own and one type are used for shadow shows. These puppets are made out of a bleached hide and hand cut into intricate designs. The others are a more traditional style but with a distinct Indonesian flare. We were given an impromptu show to appreciate the effects of those used in the shadow puppet shows.

Batik work was next on the list as we visited a factory designing and making batik fabric and clothing either totally hand made or a combination of using hand and stencil work, all of which is incredibly labour intensive and can involve many layers of wax and dying before achieving the final effects. We watched the procedure from the drawing stage right through to the final dye – not a quick and easy process by any stretch of the imagination.

Our entire Borobudur/Prambanan trip took place over three days and two nights. The two nights were spent in two different hotels, the first being right in the Borobudur complex which allowed us to take a short stroll to the temple. The second was in Yogyakarta and was a brand new hotel which had just opened that day. Both were fabulously luxurious and, anywhere else, would have cost far more for one night than the entire tour cost which, in itself, was the bargain of the century. Special thanks must go to Kerstin who spent hours on internet getting us such a great deal. As I mentioned previously, Paul didn't join me which, in hindsight, was a mistake. It worked out so incredibly inexpensive that we could have just gone ahead and booked for both of us.

The bus trip there and back proved to be a bit long (seven hours one way) but it was definitely worth it all. It was a small bus, comfortable and air-conditioned so the long journey wasn't too arduous. Another highly recommended trip.

PHOTO GALLERY:

The Sultan's Palace: