Kampung Batik

last tuesday was a holiday (hari libur) in indonesia. there are many, many more holidays in indonesia than there are in america. with the kids out of school, we decided to spend some time in the afternoon doing one of our favorite pastimes--looking for batik!

we started by going to a nearby place called semar batik. it's a pricier place than our usual haunts, but it also has some surprisingly good deals. this was b's first time going--so he took some pictures as we walked around.

 here's one of a giant-sized wood-carved wayang kulit. 

 s showing me some of her indonesian dance moves while b takes in the general semar ambiance.

after semar batik, we took a taksi over to kampung batik laweyan. a kampung not too far away from our own kampung. laweyan is famous for it's batik production and selling.

 a map of the kampung.

 we were very drawn to this batik tulis (hand waxed) map of indonesia. the place that had this had other maps similar to this, but none of them looked as old or just generally as cool as this one. this one was hanging on a cafe wall. we inquired about it, and b tried to bargain the price down, but they were stuck at about $85. the picture was big (bigger than it looks here), we didn't have a clear vision of where we would put it back home, and it was expensive enough that we opted not to get it. but we sure did admire it.

 walking through a batik production area. 

 a man using cap to put a wax pattern on a large piece of fabric. b and i have been interested in buying an old cap and using it as decoration back home, but they are pretty expensive. we may need to just stick with buying cap shirts and clothes!

 a batik tulis area. 

 a woman using a canting to apply wax to an already in-process piece of batik tulis fabric.

 we were surprised to see some batik tulis pieces that had harley davidson motor on them. 

 a picture hanging on the wall of a cafe that we liked. it has some of the old indonesian spelling (note the "d" at the start of "djoewal") and "matjem-matjem" would now be spelled "macam-macam."

 a cool mosiac tile entryway to a store. i like how they have a section that is very rectalinear with all 90 degree angles and then another part that's just a mish-mash of shapes and angles. 

 i really like these flowers here. a lot of people have them in front of their home. i especially liked these blossoms--the more vibrantly-colored ones right next to the more muted ones.

 a little covered stage type place in the kampung. we loved the elaborately painted dragons and batik patterns.

 a very large wooden bell. these types of bells (although not usually this large or human-like) are all over solo.

 an entrance to another batik factory.

 this was a huge production facility.

 some batik tulis in the making. the curvy lines are covered with wax.

 a woman making a wayang batik tulis.

 a cool batik cap pattern. 

 this man, and others like him in this part of the facility, could stamp the pattern onto the fabric very quickly. 

 a close-up of a cap.

 we toured the color dying part of the facility. you can see the color that has made its way to the floor.

 batiks that are drying. 

 a washing station. they cloth gets washed before it gets dyed. 

 as you can see better in this picture, the stuff in the foreground is water. i am walking around the cloudy liquid. 

 here, the batik fabrics getting dyed.

 this man is putting the dyed fabrics in hot water. this is how they get the wax off the fabric. the fabric only needs to be in the hot water for a few minutes before the wax separates from the fabric.

 we found a fun batik store named batik merak manis, which means sweet peacock batik. b and w found some shirts here.

 we looked inside another batik production place to see long rolls of fabric coming out of a machine. this machine was printing the batik pattern on to the fabric. 

there are three levels of batik. batik print being the cheapest and easiest to produce. we have plenty of this. the next step up is cap--where someone uses a cap stamp to put wax on the fabric. cap is more expensive than print. the final level of batik is batik tulis--in this everything is hand-done and very labor intensive. we have some batik tulis, but not a whole lot. after touring these facilities, we could see why it's so much more expensive.

 a kucing. 

 we found a neat cemetary. this was the first indonesian cemetary we've explored. both b and i enjoy looking at cemeteries--so for us, and even for w and s, it was interesting. every country/culture does cemeteries a little differently.

 someone born in 1907--the same year as my grandfather.

 indonesian, or at least javanese indonesian, cemeteries seem to have taller coverings for their burial spaces than we typically do in america.

 this cemetery had people hanging out in it, chickens running through, banana trees, etc. it seemed to be a space that people use. i like that idea. it seems neat to think of harvesting bananas from the cemetery. 

 a lot of the plots seem to be crumbling and falling apart.

 one of the chickens we saw.

 another example of how these are used by living people. someone had laid out drying rice. you see this, although not usually on a tomb, all over solo.

 we noticed that a couple of the tombs had a merah putih next to them (that's the name of the indonesian flag). the flag is very rusted now, but it signifies a plot for an indonesian veteran.

 this enclosure was interesting.

 we met a nice man hanging out in the cemetery.

 these have beautiful tiles.

 we aren't sure what the broom and mat signify. maybe someone was cleaning the leaves off? but the mat--what would that have been used for? mats are used a lot to sit on here, mostly while people eat. but this cemetery doesn't have a lot of flat space to put a mat down. 

 after leaving the cemetery, we walked around a bit in a new direction. we found a lot of kids out playing in the road. and we found some cactuses to enjoy.

 i like this shot with the woman pulling her hair back in the background.

 another neat bust. 

 i learned that nongko mean jackfruit. our neighborhood traditional market is called pasar nongko, but i hadn't known that nongko meant jackfruit. here i was learning a word that i already knew.

 the kids were fun and friendly.

 we discovered a little river. as you can see, or maybe you can't see it very clearly, there was a lot of trash in the river. there was a lot of trash 20 or so feet up in the trees too. sadly, this river must flood up to that level from time-to-time. it makes me wonder, too, if it floods up to the road level and what that must do to the cemetery right next to it. 

 when joko widodo was mayor of solo, he installed this plaque. 

 lots and lots of trash.

 a charming becak. 

 i like the shadow of the ladder. 

 a good reminder of how hot it is here.

 a friendly woman with a very cute little girl. 

 w holding our bag of batik wares.

 fun grape vines growing along an alleyway.

 they looked good.

 a group of friendly boys who were flying kites off of a roof.

 the biggest wooden bell we've seen yet. 

 w hitting the bell and providing some good size perspective.

 this place had lots of cool wooden things--mostly furniture. here i am sitting on a neat bench. 

 we always enjoy a fun harimau. 

 the man who showed us the place calling the owner about the price of the cobek. b is always interested in cobeks. (we didn't end up buying it though.)

 you can't tell, but this cat was very large. that was why it caught our eye.

 here, a man taking us over to another batik store.

 a meeting place in the kampung with a very long merah putih. i've learned from my indonesian tutor and friend, widap, that each kampung has its own leadership group. i imagine that's what this wall and tempat might represent.

 other street scenes as we were making out way out of the kampung.

 here's the store the man took us to. we stayed for a few minutes and then got a taksi to take us home.

 as the sign indicates, this store is for tourists. since we live in solo right now, we are not technically tourists and therefore don't need to shop there.