Jogja 06 Car hit by train

From the silver craft we headed for check-into Hotel Saphir.

Along the way we had to cross a railway crossing.


Our coach had to stop one car away from the barrier, as the train is already coming its way.


But, we saw on the other side of the road, a car was trapped in between the railway line and the barrier.


"O MY GOD.....!!!!", I exclaimed in my heart.


KA...BOOM...!!!! here comes the train.

Our Jogja guide turned around and said that, it is a common sight in Indonesia. Somehow, in most cases the driver got enough time to manouver the vehicle sideway so that it is not hit by the train.

After the railway crossing my eyes were wildly looking at the local scene, such as sign boards and advertisement panels. This one here was in English and apparently sponsored by the "Stop Smoking"government orgainisation.

It has a big footnote message in Bahasa Indonesia, which means,

"Smoking can caused cancer, Heart Attack, Impotency and bad effects on pregnancy and foetus."


One turn before we arrived at Hotel Saphir, we passed by another university but I only managed to catch the glimpse of its admin building.

It was quite a journey to the hotel, which is located along a busy street.

It was an elegant 4-star hotel. A shopping complex is annexed to it, and has the same name "Saphir Shopping Mall", as the owner is the same.

After a refreshing bath my wife & I pop into the Shopping Mall to look for three-pin adapter to charge my Rikoh camera battery.

Adapter is one of the necessities if we travel with electronic gadgets that need charging, e.g. handphones and laptops.

In this trip i had forgotten to think about that, and so now urgently looking for one, but couldn't find it. I asked around and was told that it is available in the supermarket at Basement 1, but, we were already late for pick up to dinner.

We rushed back to the hotel lobby where almost everyone was already assembled.

As usual there were still someone not ready yet.

Anyway, that delayed gave more time for our Qodariyah Travel owner to chit chat more things with the owner of the hotel, who had took his time to meet us. Possibly, I think his family stayed in this hotel too.

I have forgotten which restaurant we had the dinner and I had also missed out to take photo of the restaurant, but not the food.

After dinner we went to the Karita. Along the way I saw this Kopi sign board. It made me remembered my Noitre Expresso Swiss coffee that I left behind in my office.

Karita is a building housing clothings for Muslim ladies and men.

Of course ladies garments overpowered the men clothings, because ladies are more fashionable than men, even though at 50s & 60s.

Here in this picture you can see that they have almost everything a person need.

But don't ask me more because I don't know what is Mahar Parsel.

Here is Fitriah my travel friend browsing the Quran.

After spending half of our pocket, we went back toHotel Saphir and called it a day.

Jogja 05 Silver

From the batik industry we proceeded to the silver industry.

We visited the one called HS Silver
It was a low single-storey building.
It was hot & sunny because the sky was blue.
If the sky is white, then it will be cooler, as it means the sky is covered with clouds.
But bright hot sunny weather is good for photography.

HS is hort for Harto Suhardjo.

Ok here you see another Dutch spelling.

In Dutch "DJO" is pronounced as "J" in English.Hence, in pronunciation of this shop is

"Harto Suharjo".

That is why, I was saying in Jogja 01 that, it is not that easy for any Singaporean Malay tounderstand Indonesian Malay. We have not considered the colloquail slangs yet.

The resident guide of HS started with an introduction of the raw material used in their industry.

I got the chance to see raw pure silver, brass and many other items used in silverware processing.

I also got to see this pure boraks.

No...no...no....this is not "borak" which in English means "a lie", but it is a kind of powder used for polishing silverware.

They had for display some traditional accessories,which were better known as costume jewelleries.

In those days these jewelleries were worn outside their clothings. Even in the old photographs of our ancestors of the Singaporean Nonya and Peranakan families, we observed that they wore their accessories over their dress. So men had no chance to see parts of the women body.

But nows-a-days, as many womens exposed their body, the accessories are worn over the raw flesh and can be seen by the naughty eyes of men.

I also caught the close up of the traditional silverware used in ancient Indonesian life.

I must say they are marvellous and majestic.

The Holy Quran mentions repeatedly that the dwellers of Paradise, will get to drink numerous kind of drinks serve in silver cups.

My friend, Akram, who was a surveyor, in the Changi Airport MRT Line, and switched professionas a promoter of AP300 US health products, once explained to me that, silver can help to prevent us from many disease.

He showed me a couple of products that had silver contents. I asked him shockingly,

"Akram...you mean we can consume silver...!!!???

"Yeah...but with prescription. Don't go and swallow your silver jewelleries or siver plate. That can be fatal...!!!" he said and continued explaining that...it was exactly the reason why our ancestors had silverware as their household utensils.

Their cups and saucers, pots and woks, basins and jugs were all made of silver.

I gathered later that it was precisely the reason why the Holy Quran mentions silver in its verses which were the revelation from The GOD Al-Mighty.

GOD is encouraging us to take benefit from silver,thru HIS hints in the revelations.

It is for us to manupulate raw silver and convert it as utensils or for consumption.

One of the benefit of silver is a cure for gastric.So guys drop at the nearest Pharmacy and ask the pharmacists if they have such a prescription for gastric..

Do you guys know that silver in Chemistry is given its chemical code as "Ag", the way oxygen was given it's code as "O2" and Calcium as "Ca". I learnt them in school in 1969.

O how wonderful were those secondary schooldays.

By the way, I was from Naval Base Secondary School.

Wat.......!!!! you never heard of such school????


Guys....it was at Chong Pang Road just outside
the gate of The British Naval Base barracks
along Canberra Road.

Now it is in Yishun Housing Estate.

Coincidentally, we from the Class of 1969,
will get together this coming 31 July 2009 at
Swiss'otel Stamford to reminische the past.

Back to Jogja.

While we were browsing, my wife & I bumped
into our relatives. She came with her family,
but joined a different travel agent. Her
group of about 10 person, just arrived from
a 16-hour trip by coach from Jakarta.

After parting with them I had the urge to
visit the loo.

After parting with them I had the urge to
visit the loo.

I confessed that they had clean and fresh
fragrant toilets.

From the loo I walked out to the nearby road.

There was a madrasah just across the road.

Madrasah is an Islamic school. This one was
managed by the non-government organisation
called Muhammadiyah and it offer an upper
secondary level of education.

Long before the coming of the colonials,
Indonesia had many such schools. It showed that
Indonesians and all the Malays within
its Archipelago called Nusantara, were educated
people and were never illiterate as fausely
recorded by the colonials in their history books.

Of course, they followed the Arabic and Islamic
curriculum, which were the source of the
western education. This subject is too long
to continue it here.

So back to Jogja. Yes I saw that many madrasahs and
universities in Jogja are managed by Muhammadiyah.

There are many other secular government universities
in Jogja, as it is well-knowned for its progressive
education programs designed by the Sultan of Jogja.

Mr Sidek Sanif, our ex-Senior Minister used to study
in University Gajah Mada in Jogja in the early 60s.
I saw it when we were going for lunch.

Jogja 04 Batik

Jogja 04 Batik

After lunch visited the Plentong batik home industry at Jalan Tirtoopuran.

It was really close to traditional printing technology, as most of the work process was manual.
The worker were also very relaxed, not like me in my office.

Although I am not doing a production engineering kind of work, yet I was always put to do things in a rush.

Perhaps everyone in my office wantsto be seen as efficient worker and they do thing in fast forward mode.

As a result, so many people give me so many things to do at the same time.

But here, in Jogja, the people are more relaxed and peaceful.
The way they talk are also full of pause and musical chords.

I dun mean they sing when they talk, but, they do not talk so fast like us.

The batik designers, sat in a group of 2.

There was a a wok of liquid candle and a wok of liquid colouring agent.
It was only a mini wok.

They dip thei batik pen in the candle and draw free hand on the cloth.

Then they dip another pen into the colouring agent and spread the colouron the cloth.

I saw 2 plastic packet of items thatlooked to me like some snacks.
I asked the lady,

"Are these 2 items also used for designing batik?"

She laughed and replied in E minor,

"No...no...these 2 items are for meto eat when I am tired."

I was actually teasing them.


At another corner i saw a very familiar print of batik. Its the icon for "Wayang Kulit".
Wayang Kulit is a kind of puppet show in traditional Javanese life.

This one looks familiar because this icon is used by M Nasir, a Malaysian song composer,as his logo for his production company,Luncai Emas Sdn Bhd.

I strolled around and saw this batik mould, which looks so attractive.

The guide said that, different batik printsare used for different traditional occasion.And different print are used by different people.

There are batik for wedding ceremonies.The bride used a slightly different prints from the groom.

Of course there are batik designs for royal occasion, and, there are batik designs for royal family only, and a diffrent design for palace officials and designs for common folks too.

Phew....so hard to digest such complexities.

Back at the end were the bath for washing the printed batik.

And then, wa.lla....as we were strolling out,I met my bride....hmm

No no no not a lady...but blue batik,my favorite color.

A georaphical map was hung on the wall. It showed that Jogja or the official name, Jogjakarta, is at the southern most part of Jawa Tengah (Central Java).

The city centre of Jogja is in the middle of the Jogjakarta Province.

What did you say,

"I spelled Jogjakarta wongly...?"

No guys, I did not spelled it wongly, but,it's because Indonesia was once under theDutch.

The Dutch colonial government translated the old Bahasa Indonesia, which were written in Arabic character into Dutch Romanised alphabets.

In Dutch alphabet, "J" is pronounced as "Y"

Therefore, in short, Jogjakarta should be pronounced as "Yogyakarta".

But, the younger generation after their Independence,learnt that "J" should be pronounced as English pronounced it in the word "jungle'.

Hence, the splelling stays as Jogjakarta,but the pronunciation changed from Dutch toEnglish.

Jogja 03 Lunch at Pesta Perak

When all the travelers are ready we boarded the air-con tour bus.
The tour guide from Borobodur Discovery Tour,
introduced himself as Pak Tri.

Of course that is his simple name. His avtual name was much longer.
I remembered something like Trisno Buwono.

Pak Tri is a cheerful young man of about 35 of age.
It was a Saturday and he said it is normal to have quite a jam
in the Jogja town centre on that day.
It was also a begining of their school holidays.

After quite a lengthy historical background of Jogja
he finally said that we were heading for lunch.

Wow !!! how the enzyme in my stomach suddenly pop out
from the it's dry wall.

Why not...I had no meal in the plane,
and in the morning at Terminal One Staff canteen,
I had not the apetite for heavy breakfast.

Our lunch was at this prestigoius Pesta Perak Restaurant.
Translated into English it's means Silver Jubilee Restaurant.
No wonder Pak Tri said that this restaurant is normally
patronize for couples who had been married for 25 years.

Of course it was not restricted for such couples only.
I would believe that the prestigious name reflect the kind of service
and the ambience it offer to the diners.

Indeed, it was prestigious and the food they served were elegant and delicious.
Among the speciality popular local dish is the young jackfruit
cooked in sweet soya sauce.

Of course an adventurous traveler like me will try it out,
and I would say that not quite to my taste as it was a little too sweet
to pair up wih rice. Anyway there sambal belachan to
compliment it.

Another diner pointed to me the bull skin curry.
I tried that too and couldn't admire it as I felt
like eating a sponge.

Of course there were many other specialities
which will take too much time to describe.

The ambience was very soothing although the weather outside
was very hot. Perfect for loving couples.

Traditional items like wayang kulit and musical instruments
bring the bamboo wall to life.

Just opposite of the restaurant was a church.
I had forgotten to identify what church it was.
Anyway Pak Tri said that the majority of the population
in Jogja are Muslims.

After lunch we headed for the next destination.
Along the way I saw the magnificent sign boards
showing road and town names and directions.


There were many grafities on building walls.
Ironically they all look very nicely done,
as though they were purposely allowed to be
grafitied by the authority.


Standing proud at the entrance of their towns and villages,
are kind of arches, which are very common also in Malaysia.

Perhaps they are remnants of the historical cultures
of the Malay Archipelago which is strongly adhered to
by the Malays in South-East Asia as "Nusantara".


Nusantara is a kind of the Malay Brotherhood.
Such that all the Malays in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore
and as far as Philipines and Thailand will also adopt
ourselves as brothers.

When we meet in the street, we will easily smile
and greet each other.

Once, during my tour of duty, I greeted a Malay man,
we shooked hands, and then we parted.

My Singaporean Chinese lady working colleague asked me,

"Was that man your friend or relative?"

"No.." I answered.

Then she asked,

"How come you all shook hands like friends?"

I had to brief her a little bit of our religious culture
that encourages us to greet each other and shake
hands whenever we meet.


Folks we stopped here for a while
and continue again in Jogja 04
with the help of God Al-Mighty.

Jogja 02 - Very Warm Welcome

As soon as we were cleared from the Immigration & Custom, the travel agent from Jogja welcome us with this specially made banner. they are from The Borobodur Discovery Tour Co.
Then I saw the public area of the Jogja airport.

When I turned around to look for the other co-travelers, I saw another friendly welcoming poster. O how they were very friendly. Much friendlier than us.

While waiting for the others to be cleared, i went to look for toilets....the loo to release my bladder.

I almost couldn't find it as it was written in a polite bahasa Indonesia as "Kamar Kecil" which means in English "Small Room". It means toilet.

In the man toilet, I had saw this label on its door "Closet Jongkok". I would say that it's more Javanese language than Bahasa Indonesia.

Anyway, it means the squatting toilet and not the sitting pan. I wonder what sitting pan would be in Javanese.

When i came out from the toilet, i saw another friendly welcome. this time from the famous Indonesian Pop Band "Ungu".


Enough for now guys.

++++Look out for Jogja 03 Insya ALLAH++++

Jogja 01 - Welcome to Jogja

Hi
Here we are again. You guys must be familiar with this scenery. It is one of the unique scenery of Singapore Changi International Airport. Unique, because there are shops even near the boarding gates at the aero bridge. That means you can shop until you drop and finish off all your Singapore Dollars before you leave the island.

We were gathered here at 9:15 am for a departure flight at 11:10am.

My wife and I left our Toyota Altis at home and took the Singapore Bus Service No 858, from Woodlands Regional Centre to Changi Airport via Yishun Housing Estate. It was a smooth ride.

We were on a 5-day Majestic Jogjakarta + Solo Tour
Prescribed by Qodariyah Travel & Tours Pte Ltd, 5A Jalan Pinang, Singapore.
Tel : +65-62941562
Email : qodariyahtravel@yahoo.com

Another familiar unique scene is the aero bridge which is clearly visible from the pier of the Changi Airport boarding gates.

Our flight was Air Asia QZ 7139. There were long queue at the check-in counter. Perhaps because it was school holiday season. Also there were 3 destination on that morning. One to Jogja, another to Kuala Lumpur and I have forgotten the third one.

In the plane you would have a little cultural shock, because, The Malay Language that we have learnt so far is now tested. It is now in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian Language) and not Malay Language. Any Singaporean or Malaysian malay may find some difficulties to understand Bahasa Indonesia.

As we were reaching Jogja, we could see the mountains and the rivers from the air. I think this one must have been the volcanic Mount Merapi which exploded in 2006, and next to it must have been Solo River, very famous for its floods in the 1950s, so much so that there was a very famous Indonesian song written about this river. The song is entitled "Bengawan Solo".

Everyone knows how to sing it in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. There is even a huge chain of bakery & confectionery outlets here in Singapore shopping sentres by the name of "Bengawan Solo".

As we were landing I managed to capture this pictures of Jogja main road, but, I was shocked even further when we landed on the airport, because the name of the airport is a;lmost similar to mine. It is called Adisutjipto Airport. Isn't it almost the same as adiekosongtiga...??? Perhaps it is the name of my undiscovered twin...???

I was told that this airport was only recently open for international flight. Hence, there is no aerobridge yet.

I like this kind of airport, because, there is a lot of things to see, while there is nothing to see via the aero bridge. Nows a days, you hardly have the chance to walk on the airport ground. You would propbably go from one aero bridge to another, and then direct to the hotels.

Therefore, this airport looks very friendly especially with this huge sign board to welcome you.

Guys......look out for Jogja 02....in the next posting.....soon....Insya ALLAH.