Ullen Sentalu

On our first day, the Indonesian students drove us up to the foot of the mountain. Our first trip in the programme is visiting the private museum depicting Javanese culture and art.

Here is something for first impression

There were some locals selling salak fruit by the roadside leading to the museum. It is one of my first looks into this scene, the scene of very common people trying to put rice on their table. and it is very respectable.

salak fruits
credit : Chris

We paid the fee to get in. a whopping 50 000 rupiahs, because we are not Indonesian (they have to pay a fraction of our price) and because it is not in our programme. I personally think it worth my money though (and you will find out why)

Entry is only with a guide. We got a female guide. She kept switching between English and Indonesian, even in a sentence that it drove me to the verge of having epilepsy. Still, I gather quite a lot from her. The two I remember most are the batik with parang/machete motif which is for the royal family (I couldn't even wear sarong properly, so what does that make me?that makes me unbefitting to be royals.) and there is this one beautiful princess from the kesultanan(the royal house) that reject Bung Karno proposal.

A large part of the museum tells about the royalties of Yogyakarta. There are a lot of potraits depicting royal ladies in the beautiful sarong batik and kebaya with their hair raised. There is this one room full of letters from families ~ most of them are poem and they are consoling the princess about ahem, love matters. There are the musical instruments, the batik with different motives which are totally different from what we have back home (theirs is much more intricate and beautiful), the portraits, the portraits and the portraits. Alas, camera is not allowed inside the exhibition (or was it flash is not allowed. I don't remember. I may be demented)

Behold the inside of the museum (well, part of it)

The thing about living in the tropics is that if you are passionate enough, u will have very beautiful gardens.
The visit was capped off with drinking jamu drink in a beautiful room with many wooden carvings. alas, I missed the jamu drinks hence the opportunity to stay younger because I was fasting. (Idk if you can take away the jamu. sorry I did not ask about it)