Batik Painting

Snooze was the first night I actually had a decent sleep so I think I'm finally over the jet lag. As the main 2 temples were closed today, I headed out to explore the Water Temple Museum in Sulatan's Palace before heading to my Batik painting workshop in the afternoon.

On my walk towards the Water Temple (in an illuminus green top with my GAA shorts) a guy on a bike stopped and we started getting to chat. He was explaining how some of the attractions are closed on a Monday but he knew good places that were open and that he was heading towards the Water Temple anyway to collect his son. After a few attempts to reject his offer for a lift I gave in and he dropped me to a 'shadow puppet workshop' where a tradesman started explaining all about Wayang Kulit (shadow puppets) and how they are made (leather) and what the different creations represent. The man was spouting out lots of information and I can't say I took too much of it in given my abduction but in the end it was an entertaining 10 minutes.

After a small donation to the workshop I headed out and the guy on the bike was waiting to bring me to my next destination; I should have guessed my attire was far too touristy! Next he brought me to a coffee shop which I wasn't overly annoyed about as I needed one anyway.

The coffee was 'Luwak' coffee which is coffee that is produced by feeding coffee beans to a civet (type of wild cat) that then digests the beans which ferment in its intestines. Afterwards, the bean is collected, washed and roasted. I vaguely had a recollection of the process from The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson. I have to say the coffee was actually nice and a novelty to try. While I was researching the actual process online I realised that the civits aren't treated the best and it's likely a lot of the coffee is not authentic given it is extremely rare for it to be produced by collecting actual wild civet digested beans. So afterwards I felt a little guilty but I needed the coffee and this shop was actually beside the Water Temple so it worked out in the end (and the bike guy must have went to collect his son cause he was no longer around).

The Water Temple was a little underwhelming as there wasn't much to see in it and it was small. It was still nice to stroll through and I started to then explore the little side alleys where there was some street art which Yogyakarta is famed for.

There were a few ominous claps of thunder and little drops of rain as I was walking towards the Batik workshop. It started to rain lightly then and I thought "this was fine, I don't need my coat" which I left at the hostel. But then after around five minutes of light rain here and there, the heavens opened and I had to take refuge in the nearest place I could, which happened to be a Muslim primary school. It was my first experience of a downpour on the trip and I assumed it would only last around 15 or 20 minutes (unfortunately this was wishful thinking). The rain was refreshing and the kids loved playing in it, one little chap placed himself under a drainpipe in his full uniform and splashed in the puddle which was growing into a mini river. He was hilarious.

The kids were great craic asking if I supported Messi or Ronaldo and giving me high fives. But another kid had a drawing of a Palestine flag and asked if I liked Israel so I was still cognisant that I was in a Muslim school and not the most appropriately dressed for one. In the end the rain wasn't giving up and I needed to get to my Batik workshop so I got a taxi and avoided the last of the downpour.

The Batik painting was super relaxing. Batik is a form painting onto a linen cloth with hot wax which is dyed or painted over. The wax is then boiled off to leave clear lines or dots, depending on your ornamentation of choice. They provided a stencil to follow and and one of the local painters then helped to add in more detail to the outline I started. Overall it was a great little break to hear the pitter patter of the rain while painting and to also soak in the professional pictures for sale while your own little square was drying.Read more