Sunday 8 January 2012

Generousity in Jogjakarta, A New Year's Note

Beautiful artworks. Awesome things to see. Those were my expectation before wandering around Jogjakarta last New Year trip. Yet shoe-stringing allowed me to find something I didn't expect before: people generousity; which amazed me more than artworks and tourist attractions.

KALIURANG GODDESS
In the first two days in Kaliurang, northern Jogjakarta, my friend Margareth and I absolutely acted like a tourist. We visited a museum of Javanese art and culture Ullen Sentalu, which I believe the best repository I've ever visited in Indonesia. It is well-designed, well-organised, and most importantly well-maintained. I was happy spending IDR 25 thousand for a museum tour and a special royal drink they served. 
One of Well-designed Spot the Museum Has
Meanwhile in the second day, we went trekking the volcano which just erupted last year, end of 2010. It was indeed a though journey, not only because of the challenging trek, but also seeing the ruins it caused. My mind went to hundreds lives taken by it.

We love Kaliurang and we love the hotel Vogels. Cool weather and warm host, yet transportation access to get back there at night is quite difficult. With taxi it may cost IDR 100 thousand, too luxurious for backpackers. So we decided to go downtown by a public bus the next day, then tried to find a hostel there. As we were waiting for the transport to come on the road, the son of the host texted me. His big family who was staying there for a vacation wanted to go downtown too, and we could go with them. Offer was accepted.
At Vogels, left to right: Mr. Christian Awuy, me, the friendly ibu who works there,
Margareth, and Aldrin Mr.Awuy's son
I thought they would drop us somewhere close to the city central area Malioboro Street, but they took us to the beach. It is supposed to be their family holiday, I thought, yet they allowed us two strangers to join. Moreover, we had have not talked more than five lines to the auntie before she invited us. Aunt Yoshiko, yes her father is Japanese, treated us like family. Okay not only her, everyone in that big warm family.

"Come on Florence, Margareth, let's play on the beach," she asked. Then another auntie said, "just order the grilled corn if you like some" as some members of the family were enjoying the common Indonesian street food.

It was lunch time, then again we were invited. We told them about our plan down town. Well not exactly a plan as we hadn't known yet where to sleep that night. An uncle came to me and handed me his name card. On the back of his name card was written an address of Museum Batik Hotel. He said, "if you can't find anywhere to sleep tonight, please come here." I knew later that the hotel belongs to a relative too. Free ride, free lunch, and now free hotel? No no... the ride and the lunch are more than enough. Of course we did not want to bother more.
Mrs.Yoshiko in the black and white stripes shirt and her family and the two strangers
during lunch in Depok Beach

CITY KINDNESS (and not so kind too)
We arrived downtown in the evening, 30th December 2011. As everyone has predicted, most inns would no longer able to accommodate guests. We walked with hope despite we were quite exhausted. We checked a few hostels which seemingly doubled their price, yet could not give double advancement on their facilities, so we kept saying no. Most importantly, their price did not match our budget. 

Finally we found this place, a house of Mr.Inul, located in Sosrowijayan area too. He doesn't advertise like other hostels, not even a signboard was placed, but he did rent rooms. He has three guests rooms and we were lucky we could rent one at least for a night, as it had been booked for the following night.
It is located in a Sosrowijayan's gate
Trying to get a place to sleep the next day, we went to our French friend Phil's place. We talked to the owner of Anda Losmen, where he stayed, but he kept rejecting our advance booking. The next morning Phil saw someone checking out, then he wanted to book for us. 

Then again he said no for an absurd reason: foreign clients only! I was not happy at all with it. If only I had not spoken to him in Indonesian the night before, I might get a room. According to my previous travel experiences before, I didn't look Indonesian to some people. In Bali they kept asking me whether I was Japanese, Korean, Thai, even unusual ones like Dutch or Swedish (haha...). Anyway, I could not believe he was quite discriminative to his potential guests.

Margareth and I thought: Okay it's New Year anyway, let's go through the night without sleep as we would have an afternoon shuttle bus back to Jakarta. So, we decided to put our backpack to Phil's room as we would travel back to Jakarta together. 

Phil and we went to the Sultan Palace that morning, then we met Phil's friend Susan a Singaporean and Ivy a local. Then we went to Taman Sari and met Laura a solo traveler from New Zealand and Theresa a Jakartan. We had dinner at the sultan's brother house, which made a very beautiful Gadri Restaurant. He still uses the place as his home, so I still am wondering now how his family can handle with such little privacy with customers keep coming in and out. 
Gadri Restaurant
Gadri's Blewong Rice and Javanese Beer
Before midnight, Margareth and I went to Mr.Inul's house to get our bags. We had a conversation with him. He knew that we could not find a place to sleep that New Year's eve, so he insisted us to use his living-room freely. Not even a penny we had to pay as he said he could not give us a proper room to sleep. What a very nice man! He believes "pay it forward" concept. He helps people now, and maybe someday his son needs help like we did, other people may pay his generousity back to his son. However, according to our plan, we would get our bags and put it at Phil's. So, we thanked him for his goodwill, but no thank as we did not want to bother him more. 

Other friends had been waiting at Anda. As Phil had just entered the main door with our bags, the owner showered him with rejection. He said that it was Phil's room and no one (or no bags) deserve the room but Phil himself. All of us, we went: WTF???!!! Even my bag, a dead thing which actually is foreign produced, he could not receive. So, we went back to Mr.Inul's house to put our luggage there. Two locals which live only steps away, yet they have a very different attitude. Wow! 

Forgot the rejections. It was New Year; maybe he will be given a new heart in 2012 (LOL). So there were seven of us during the countdown. Happy New Year! Beer toast in front of Sosrowijayan's Circle K, fireworks rocketed and one failed to fly (Thank God no one was injured), then we ended up in a small cafe nearby. The only cafe which still had seats available.
NY Fellas. First row left to right: Margareth, Ivy, and Susan. Back row: Laura, Phil, There, and Me
There were two foreigners with giant backpack came, looked tired and hopeless. Laura and I had a conversation with them then we found out that they are British, they had just climbed Bromo Mountain, they had just arrived in Jogjakarta at 11 by bus, and they could not find a place to rest. They could not even think anymore due to the great tiresome. So, I took them to Mr.Inul's place, hoping that he would also accept these two travellers. Just as I thought, Mr.Inul rocks! He let them stayed in his old couch, even offered them coffee and tea to relax.

No matter how beautiful the city of Jogjakarta is, it was the beautiful heart of the people awestruck me. The warm big family of Mrs.Yoshiko and lovely small family of Mr.Inul gave me more than just a fine experience in Jogjakarta. I will always remember the New Year's Eve 2011-2012 as the time of people generousity, which I'll try to pay to others along the way in 2012.

Some other random pictures I took:
another hilite: Kopi Joss, cafe with charcoal

street art
another street art, it is said: Jogjakarta still is special
found this signboard in Sosrowijayan. I guess not so international then?
Jogjakarta's Seven Eleven, they literally open from seven to eleven

Jogjakarta, the home of leather puppet's makers