SHOP ‘TIL YOU DROP

The Jakarta Post   |  Fri, 03/28/2008 2:05 PM  |  City Snapshot

Jl. Malioboro has a big reputation as Yogyakarta’s boulevard of shopping dreams.
But Linda Hoffman finds all she needs elsewhere.

Don’t pay any attention to the tourist hype. With all due respect, Malioboro is a faded rose, a place for students to get rowdy during school holidays.

Savvy shoppers head straight for the villages where the handicrafts are made, mainly because prices are cheaper at the source. Think about it: why sit in stand-still, lung-choking traffic when you can be cruising through the clean, fresh air of the countryside?

But if you want to see the potters pot, the silversmiths smith and the woodcarvers carve, where to go and how to get there? Tourist information lumps all handicrafts together (i.e. for wooden handicrafts, head to Bobung, Patuk and Kerebet, Bantul) and these descriptions don’t help newcomers to the area figure out which direction to head. Or they’ll say the location is Bantul without bothering to mention that Bantul is a very large area when scouting every country lane for obscure villages.

So here it is: the first ever complete guide to shopping for handicrafts from Jl. Parangtritis.

The first step is to get a car with a driver who is keen on adventure and speaks English if you don’t speak at least some Indonesian. Cars and drivers can be hired through any local travel agency or your hotel can book one for you. Metered taxis work just as well. Some will negotiate a flat rate for the day (or half-day), others will keep the meter running while you shop.

Check several options for rates before deciding, but any one of these choices should end up costing about the same.

Also note that though Sunday is an excellent day for a jaunt through the countryside, you won’t see the craftsmen at work as that’s their day off.

For a full day’s adventure – longer if you’re a serious shopper – first on the itinerary is charming Kota Gede, renowned for its multitude of silver shops, some of which also create gold confections. The big shops on Jl. Mondorakan, where tour buses abound, offer guided tours of their workshops so you can see work in progress. For buying, locals prefer strolling through the smaller family owned establishments on both sides of the main street and offshoot alleyways.

In Kota Gede, you can grab lunch or a snack at Omah Duwur Restaurant on Jl. Mondorakan in the Dutch-Arab style former villa of a wealthy merchant, one of many who built mansions in the area a century ago. Another good choice is the lush garden setting of Dusun Jogja Village Inn at Jl. Menukan 5.

Then head south of Ring Road Selatan on Jl. Parangtritis toward the beach. At Km 8.2 (follow the signs on roadside shops for kilometer markings) is a traffic light and a road to the right, but keep going straight and take the first left turn to Tembi, where there are export-quality home accessories to be found.

About half a kilometer down the road on the left side is Out of Asia. If you’re not in a hurry, a little further down to the left is Tembi Rumah Budaya, a large, spacious museum housing a collection of masks, kris, leather puppets and – oddly – labels and modern art.
Turn right just opposite Out of Asia and when the road curves right, don’t follow it, but keep going straight on a dirt track. Voila! There is Sentono Handicraft, both showroom and workshop, set amid the trees.

At Jl. Parangtritis Km 9.5 is Pasar Seni Gahursan Bantul, a large, modern marketplace established to exhibit and sell the works of area craftsmen: pottery, batik, natural products such as handbags, placemats and baskets, stone carvings and home furnishings. Here’s where your English-speaking guide comes in handy.

Many of the craftsmen here are villagers who have gathered in one spot to save you the trouble of finding their workshops on unmarked roads in nearby hamlets. Don’t expect to find a lot of English speakers, but a bit of body language and a lot of enthusiasm will do the trick.

One particularly interesting booth is Turonggo Craft, which produces bamboo furniture and handicrafts of the highest standard while focusing on artistic vision. Painstaking attention to measuring, cutting, sanding, gluing, drying and finishing each piece is evident in owner Pak Puguh’s collection.

Further south on Jl. Parangtritis, at Km 11, turn right at the traffic light to Manding, where practically an entire village is involved in leatherworks. Park the car and stroll up and down both sides of the main street for shops purveying purses, footwear, bags, belts and jackets. If you’re lucky, friendly Ibu Isnaini at a shop bearing her name will take you to her house to watch her family constructing items for export: leather jewelry and DVD boxes, magazine holders, carry-alls and the like.

These aren’t sold in her shop, but are available by special order. Thankfully, they don’t slaughter the cows and tan the hides there; they buy the leather from Madura, she says.
If you turn left at the Km 11 traffic light – instead of going right to Manding – the road leads Imogiri in about 5 kilometers or so, where leather puppets are hand crafted at Wukirsari village (Pucung Barat), ceremonial kris at Banyusumurup and batik at Giriloyo, with the wonderful Cipeowening Batik Museum as a bonus. But Imogiri is an expedition for another day.

Bidding a fond farewell to Ibu “Naini” in Manding, continue south on Jl. Parangtritis, surrounded by the vivid green of rice fields fringed with coconut palms towering over red-tiled roofs. On the left side, the hills in the background snuggle against the sky. At Km 15 is an intersection bearing a sign to Jetis, and it leads to potter heaven.

Here is another time your adventurous driver will come in handy. There is no easy way to get to Panjangrejo village in Pundong to see the potters, but getting there brings you up close and personal with real people leading real lives, and being there is a welcome relief from all the traffic in town.

The Pundong area has 222 home industries, most of which were severely damaged in the 2006 earthquake. But rebuild they did and now they are busier than ever. Like a rat sniffing cheese, you’ll turn left toward the hills off Jl. Parangtritis at Km 16, then turn right, then left again, but the details would be boring. It’s much more fun to stop from time to time and ask where the “keramik” shops are, just to have a chance to interact with the locals, who undoubtedly think that having tourists around is more entertaining than TV.

If you find your way through winding lanes to Lancar Jumangkah Terrakota, Watu, stay a while and chat with owner Syamsul Arifin, soak in the atmosphere of a real home industry at work and watch the young craftsmen pressing clay into molds, drying them in wood-fired kilns, unmolding and shaping, decorating and painting. Instead of fancy showrooms, here are simple metal racks laden with works in progress, stacks of molds and finished vases, urns, serving platters, flower pots and candle holders waiting to be packed for shipment or sale.

Back on Jl. Parangtritis, a short 7 kilometers south of Pundong is Parangtritis Beach, a good place to stretch your legs, think spiritual thoughts and thank the goddess of the South Sea for the wonderful day you’ve had before heading back to reality.

On another outing – enough is enough for one day! – head to Kasongan. It’s on the southern road to Samas Beach, which is an excellent outing for its crashing waves, river deltas and fresh water lakes. While there, congratulate the area folk for protecting the endangered sea turtles that come there every year to lay their eggs.

Although Kasongan is best known for its ceramics, practically every handicraft you can think of is here: natural crafts, furniture, lamps, leather and even the trinket souvenirs found on Jl. Malioboro.

Ceramics come in every size, shape and color: large urns, Buddha statues, flower pots, something for every taste. Interestingly, the earthquake struck only one side of the main road. Replacing motley old shops on the “damaged” side are modern-looking galleries, as if mimicking the much pricier establishments where Kasongan pottery (with the Kasongan name replaced by designer labels) is sold abroad. Directly opposite are the old stalls, still selling the old glitzy wares.

At Pucing, Kasongan district, is a whole village of wood carvers. And if you’re ready for more adventure (you rehired the spirited driver, right?) turn right after the Grand Mosque and find your way to Krebet, Pajangan, for more wood carvings and statues (you’ll recognize the ones you’ve spotted in airports and shops in Bali for much higher prices), as well as batik-on-wood masks, boxes and other ornaments.

If you still have energy, money in your pocketbook and a yen for more handicrafts, you could go north to Klaten (furniture and weaving) or to Boyolali (everything copper). But that’s another expedition for another day.

Fed up with rumors – without directions – that handicraft villages surround Yogyakarta, Linda Hoffman set out with her favorite driver to locate them. The results of her labors are found at www.jogjapages.com.

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