Batik (?) Art Store

The next day, the small coffee shops near our accommodation were closed as it was the Hari Rya Idul Fitri public holiday; it marks the last day of month long Ramadan (Eid) and merges into Leberan, a holiday time where people return to visit family and stores/venues are closed. In retrospect we should not have been surprised that the the shut down would be as complete as we were in the process of finding out (90% of the population is Muslin). Our local coffee shops were closed, we headed down to the Malioboro Road and finally found a coffee shop and had a coffee and a packaged “roti” expiry date the end of April! Basically a white bun filled with a sweet paste. The Fort Vederberg Museum where we to meet our Withlocals.com guide was closed for renovation until May and he did not show up despite our pre payment and confirmation. So, we headed over the the Kraton and again, it was closed. We were referred to a batik art centre. We did buy a piece but subsequently whenever we met almost any friendly local who wanted to chat that conversation would begin with “where are you from” and end with directions to the batik centre! Doug doubts it is hand-made batik as it is hard to tell from modern ink jet prints. Christie's has been fooled by fake Rembrandts, so what chance do we have? Anyway, it is pretty and we supported the local economy a bit and as far as batik, "been there done that".Read more