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Because of the way flights work we could either come right before language lessons started or come on Friday and have a spare weekend (or come on Saturday as planned and have a 10-hour, multi-stop flight). We opted for Friday and stayed for the weekend in the Phoenix, an historical hotel (built in 1918 and used by President Sukarno as an official government building). It was nice because it gave us some time to walk/becak around the city and get a better feel for Yogykarta before our lessons start. The hotel was super-nice with an amazing collection of artwork throughout the building. At the end we took a hotel-led tour of the original building (there was a big-add on from 1988-1993 that essentially tripled the size of the building. The hotel is really central, only a few hundred meters from the Tugu which was built by Sultan Hamengkubuwono I in 1755 as a statement against colonialism and a really big attraction for Indonesian tourists to the area. On Saturday we got a "becak" (used to be bike-carriage, now often motorcycle carriage) to and from Kote Gede. I am pretty sure that Kote Gede was a stand alone village when I lived here in '82, but it is not part of Yogya proper. It is famous for it's silversmiths. Tim and I did not remember to bring our wedding rings with us, so we bought two new rings (style determined by what we could fnd that was matching and had a ring big enough for Tim's finger). Probably glass, but the guy described the stone as being Siam-something (padak?). Doesn't look like a wedding band, but we now have matching left hands again.
2 Comments
Melanie Wilson
2/28/2023 06:00:50
What a nice start to your adventure! I like your red rings.
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Mela
2/28/2023 14:40:59
The rings are really pretty. But it turns out it was so hot walking around Kota Gede that our fingers were swollen and now the rings that fit perfectly in the shop have to be worn on thumbs and bigger fingers :-)
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AuthorPamela Scheffler is in Bali, Indonesia from January-September 2023 as a Fulbright Scholar working with Universitas Udayana Archives
September 2023
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