Solo: Palaces and Music
INDONESIA | Sunday, 7 May 2006 | Views [305] | Comments [1]
The Museum of the Kraton Surakarta has mainly large-ish displays and artifacts - carriages, bronzed reliefs, displays (ugly), statuettes, and weaponry. A small part of the Kraton Surakarta is accessable through the museum - a dirt-floored courtyard which is bounded by the kraton's meditation tower and an audience pavilion but unfortunately you can only traverse the courtyard. Because the palace interior is inaccessible, its valuable items cannot be seen. Hence, I found the smaller Kraton/Puro Mangkunegaren more impressive because you can actually walk through the palace buildings on the (very informative) guided tour, and the artifacts are more beautiful. There was an amazing set of nested ivory balls - originally a solid ball of ivory that's been carved so that it's now a shell around a shell around a shell around - and lots of other skillful and delicate carving and metalwork.
It's rained every evening, which has been refreshing as it's taken some of the heat away. Last night was torrential - the alley outside my homestay was flooded with about 5cm of water from the front doorstep as far as the street (Jalan Yos Sudarso), so I had a chance to test that my waterproof boots... were. They are.
A gamelan troupe rehearses at my homestay - the instruments are left set up permanently - and while they practice you can sit outside and listen. Late last night I heard some dangdut (Indonesian popular/underclass) music at Sriwedari Park - wailing chanteuse, guitars, a drum kit (mainly hi-hat) and a large wooden drum driving the rhythm, and wooden flute over the top. It had a catchy Caribbean feel and is well worth seeking out for a listen (assuming that all dangdut music is somewhat similar in style).
By the time I returned home, the block's gates had been locked leaving me to walk the long way through them. I was very glad that although the block might be a maze of alleys, it's a very well lit maze of alleys. It's probably much safer than outside since there's a guard and a boomgate on the remaining entrance.
Tags: General
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