Yogya Yogya Yogya

So there you have it an update.. at long long last... I have loads more photos for updates and loads more stories. to go but this is a start.. In the last few months I've been back home in the lovely Emerald isle with Ipung. I also had loads and loads and loads of fun in Disneyworld, Florida with all my family... And.. and... and.. now I'm back in Indonesia for more fun and games...

These kids are from a school in Bantul. There school was completely flattened in the May'06 earthquake. It's currently getting rebuilt.

Farmers on their bikes.

This is an Indonesian polica man happily enjoying his tasty banana

Me!

Little shop Ipung's niece Pingkan
Colourful chicks.. these poor little mites get sprayed with all the colours of the rainbow so people will buy them for their kids. Once they turn into adults and grow out of their colours they have no specific owner or home so hens just run around everywhere here. Watch out bird flu!!! And jesus the amount of cocks that crow is unreal.. I always thought that cocks were supposed to crow in the morning at dawn but the cocks here will crow any time they feel the need to be heard! Outside my house a cock has recently taking a liking to my neighbourhood and he crows all the time- the problem is though this cock can't sing or crow he just makes this weird screeching noise. Problems with his voice box apparently. At least it's not some weird scary animal making noises outside my window like I orginally thought!

Yogyakarta

This is Prambanan Temple here in Yogya. It's a massive Hindu temple. It has a lot of damage from the earthquake last May so it's under restoration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan

Love the wig! This is Gamelan - Javanese music percussion instrument.
This is Wayang - Indonesian puppetry

This is a kraton guard - as in he is a guard for the Sultan of Yogyakarta

Orang Indonesia

These little girl is the daughter of a batik painter who lives on the side of a mountainside here in Yogya. We went to visit her Dad for a batik lesson.. but I spent more time taking pictures of his kids!
Isn't she lovely! The ceramic pots are to keep their water in, ceramic pots take away all the impurities from the water and leave it perfect to drink.


A local farmer striking a pose for me!

Merapi Destruction

So as predictions go.. this June Merapi is supposed to blow Pompeii style.. fingers crossed it won't. The prediction goes so far to include that a tsunami will come with the result of the blow.. and all this will blast the island of Java in two! June is just a few days away.. goodie

Mount Merapi

Mount Merapi looming over the countryside

What its eruption did to trees and green fields

So Mount Merapi is the most active volcano in Indonesia and it's a mere 20km from my house.. most of the time it's covered in cloud so you don't know it's there.... Othertimes yoiu can see it clearly with a little stream of smoke coming from its chimney... I went up there a while back and took so picturtes of that the lava flow did to the mountain last year... here you go

Batik

So as most of you know I've been studying batik textiles for the past few months. Here's a few pictures to let you know a little bit more about it. This is my second every piece of batik - it's a big scarf... this is only a little section of it
This is at a small batik industry... lovely batik drying
A wonderful pro at work in her little office.. the professionals are soo good... never burn themselves with wax.. never drip all over there work... so perfect.. years of practice

Stem Batik.. so much fun.. not by hand but by a nice copper stamp
This is in a small little industry here in Yogya that i went to learn about natural dyes- checkout the disapporving professional's face!!!
This is oine of my finished pieces - the colours aren't exactly as i wanted up that happens with batiuk.. everything was sdone by hand in a very long preocess- took me about 3 weeks
This is a mask that I did batik on. Batiking on wood is so much easier that on fabric.. but it is dyed the same way and boiled after to remove the wax