on saturday, our goal was to find a gong. b and i had been wanting to get one, and we finally got serious about it. since it was our last weekend before r and c (b's parents) arrive, it seems like we got serious just in time.
we heard about a gong village just outside of solo (called wirun village, among many other similar names). we got a taksi and went out there saturday morning. the taksi didn't know how to get there but with some help, we arrived in what the roadside sign said was the gong village.
the driver took us to a place (home with extra buildings) where gongs were made and sold. we went into the back to see part of the gong-making process. as you'll see, it was very dark inside the production area. it felt a bit like being in a cave.
the dark area in the middle of the floor was a big fire with very hot coals.
here you can see up-close a welding-like part of the process.
an interesting wooden garuda with vishnu on its back statue inside the "sales floor" part of the place.
there were lots of gamelan instruments there.
we played some of them. this gamelan sounded really nice.
lots of gongs for sale too. the main problem with this place was that they didn't sell the wooden structure to hold the gong.
after looking around the inside, we went back out to the production area.
the wild fire and manual process made me think of hephaestus.
look at that fire. you may not be able to see it, but everyone was bare foot too.
they would put the gong in the large fire and flip it over in the embers with some tongs. after a minute or two of that, they'd use the tongs and get it out of the fire. carrying it 10 feet away, they'd place it down on the ground for one man to hold in place with some tongs (he'd move it gradually around in circles). while he was moving the gong in circles, 3 to 4 men would use large hammer-like devices and strike the inside of the gong. they had it down to an art with each man hitting the inside of the gong just seconds after the previous man. the sound was loud but beautiful. the gong could already make a gorgeous sound.
it was mesmerizing watching this process.
while we were there, i didn't realize how much ash was in the air. these pictures captures perfectly just how much there was.
it looks like snow.
some gongs in the foreground. i'm not sure where these are at in the process.
s and i watching entranced.
ultimately, we decided that this first gong place didn't have what we were after. a nice man who worked there offered to take us on his motorcycle over to another gong production place. so b and s went on the first 5-minute ride over. then w and i joined them. (riding motorcycles always makes me nervous, but we made all made it safely.)
here are some pictures of the gong-making process b took at the second place.
look at that fire. it's just amazing.
this place had several pet birds. this one was our favorite. it's a little blurry, but you can see how striking it is. i think this is the most beautiful pet bird i've seen here.
we decided to buy a gong here (even though they didn't see gong holders either). the nice man who runs the place offered to shine it for us. we didn't even realize it was in need of a shining until he started shining it.
you can see the shine starting to appear.
after buffing it shiny, he put some chalk powder on it, and then rubbed it off.
the man we bought the gong from was only 24, and he already was running his 3-generation family gong business. his name was ferry, and he was friendly. as part of the deal for buying the gong, he drove us home.
later in the afternoon, we ran into our friend, ibu dewi, and she invited us inside her new hotel she's building across the street from her home. this was our first time inside it (although we've watched it being build the whole time we've been here). it's getting close to completion.
there's a nice view of solo from the top.
the inside feels massive. it's at least four stories, and the central part is completely open from the ground floor to the ceiling. it's so airy inside (and like a lot of indonesian homes, the ceiling is not sealed off from the outside). the inside was really cool.
after touring ibu dewi's hotel, we headed over to pasar triwindu (the antique market) to find a tempat gong (a gong stand). honestly, we're not the biggest fans of pasar triwindu (since sellers don't bargain very much at all), but we found a really nice dark wooden stand. we were very happy about that. we also found some eggplant-shaped and colored wooden bells and a neat dragon mask-type thing. so, all-in-all, it was our best pasar triwindu visit.
later that night, we went back out and walked around solo some. we saw lots of serabi sellers.
here, one man is making serabi. i'll miss serabi.
but it doesn't look really difficult. we'll have to try making this at home.
after a comfort dinner (mc d's), we took a taksi back home and set up the gong stand. look at it! it's gorgeous.
the kids were very happy to pose with the gong.
what a day! it was full of adventure and, thankfully, good fortune. we also found out on saturday evening that we have a boat reserved to go on a three-day snorkeling/adventure tour around komodo island. i had been stressed about getting that reservation, but we're good to go now!
there's a new place in our neighborhood where the neighborhood association can post information. the ground was freshly cemented and this covering was added. we, unsurprisingly, greatly admire the new bell that's hanging there.
we were happily surprised to find that we had a ngamen at our door. ngamen are singer musicians who go around with guitars singing for people to get money. we had heard about ngamen (and had even seen a few as we've driven around town), but we had never had one at our house.
we listened as he sang/played a couple songs, and then w paid him some money. we also gave him a little bag of kue. w thought he was very talented--he kept raving about that after he left.
we had nasi goreng and sate ayam for dinner--our last time to have at least chicken sate here. we love sate, but it often doesn't sit really well with b, and (crazy as it seems), we had gotten too used to eating it. so it had lost a lot of its specialness. given all of that, we haven't had it for probably two months. 
but it was such a great experience eating this sate. it tasted so good!
i wonder if we will ever get tired of sate again in our lives.
b and w went out with pak sukeng to take care of some business. while they were out, w got a chance to sit on pak sukeng's becak. w loved this (if you can't tell from his face).
during a walk through another kampung, we came across a group of little kids, many of them dressed in muslim attire. they were very cute as you can see. i love this picture.
and this picture.
some little bits of food spread out. perhaps as an offering?
as our walk was nearing an end, we came across a couple men who i said hello to. i told the man in the black shirt that i liked his guitar. he could see s's interest in it, so he offered to let her play it. s was very excited about that.
