Let me talk about some places we visited today.
Visited the Museum Kereta (Sultan’s Horse Wagon Museum) in the morning with great expectations hoping that this visit will redeem the dismal experience we had in the original Kraton, and we arrived at the place with high expectations because this museum was recommended by many locals.
A hearse-carriage
The entrance ticket is 3,000rp and all hopes fell when we stepped foot into the museum. The displays were just the carriages being stored there, no descriptions were available, and it looked just like a storage warehouse for all the carriages used by the Royal Family and not a “museum” per-say, well for 40 cents there wasn’t really much you could complain about.
The “tour-guide” admitted that some of the carriages are still being used and will be taken out of the “museum” during events and ceremonies. Okay, granted some of the carriages are rather unique and of imposing size, but that was only one out of the many on “display” there, and you can’t even go into the carriages because they are “specially protected” and maintenance is obviously slipshod, mothballs strewn all over the interior of the carriages with little regard for aesthetics. The place had about 20 or so carriages and “museum” can be strolled through in ten minutes, naturally we left in a little less than half an hour after taking some “necessary” photos.
All the “guide” did was just a little vocal “captioning” of each carriage we walked past. Like “this carriage is used for the entourage of the sultan, and the carriage is made in Holland.” What was a little peeving throughout our visit was our “guide” didn’t provide much details, but kept harping on and on that even though he works here for the Sultan, the Sultan doesn’t give a salary, only providing food and board, so “royal servants” like them can only depend on tips given by visitors as pocket money, and so throughout, he was hinting for tips, constantly doing the rather annoying rubbing of fingers and thumb action as a hint for tips. I was ready to walk out, as you might imagine I didn’t take many pictures.
Chanced upon a rare motorized bacak. Zheng-my-bacak!
Next, we visited the Museum Benteng Vredeburg, or Fort Vredeburg, another much-touted tourist attraction site in Yogyakarta.
Fort Vredeburg is a fortress built by the Dutch in 1765 in Yogyakarta during the colonial ages to protect the Dutch governor and Vredeburg which means “Fortress of Peace”. Today, the fortress has become a museum. There were many dioramas on display depicting important events in the history of struggle for national independence Indonesia. You can see inside the museum the miniature of Indonesian historical and important moments before and after the independence in 1945.
Although most of the designs are prints and not actual hand-made batiks, the prices are reasonable and if you can haggle well, you will find a lot of great deals, the market is rather extensive and a fire disaster just waiting to happen with the cramped spaces and tons of batik apparel and fabrics from floor to ceiling. Beringharjo is a nightmare for szhitzopreniacs and claustrophobiacs but if you are patient enough, there is a never ending range of designs, motifs and colours to choose from, hunt around a little and you’ll find something that you’ll like, more often than not you will be spoilt for choice.
The upper floors at the Pasar Beringharjo you will find a mixture of shoes and clothing, spices (rempah rempah) and local produce and cheap snack food at the back of the market.
It was a pity we didn’t have enough time to browse about because the market closes at 4pm sharp daily.
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