Day 4 - Travel to Magelang

After spending time with Miss Windy, Miss Dewi and Miss Maria from Olifant where they answered our many questions it was back onto the bus and off again to one of the wonderful restaurants that we have been having the most beautiful Indonesian lunches at.  This time it was 'Pecel Solo', a restaurant set in a traditional Indonesian pavilion style building.  The building itself was made in the traditional style and was actually transported onto it's current site. 

Lunch was a wonder buffet of traditional Indonesian dishes including tofu, a vegetable fritter dish, green vegetable and of course a spicy dish of some sort. We enjoyed our lunch a great deal, then it was back onto the bus and travel to Magelang, which is located close to the temple of Borobudur, which was our destination on Day 5.

 

 

After the beautiful lunch I think that some of our group may have spent some of the journey time to Magelang catching up on some sleep from the early airport departure the day before. 
 

We arrived at our next location, the Puri Asri hotel, which was a beautiful resort style hotel set amongst lush gardens, ponds and facilities.  The rooms were located in small clusters which were dotted across the property.  The staff used small golf buggy type vehicles to transport guests and their luggage around the property to their rooms.  Roaming around the promptly were also peacocks and turkeys. 
 

After a rest and a wander around the property or a swim in the huge swimming pool everyone gathered together for dinner, once again in an open pavilion style building.  The dinner was a buffet style meal which was beautiful.  During the course of the meal Deryn presented some of the awards that people had won during the trip so far, and then presented some other awards which came from things that people had done so far on the trip. 

 
 

Although it was a full day it had been a very rewarding day with a look at a very different school from the mainstream Indonesian schools.  An early night, because a 4:00am wake up to be on the bus at 4:15am faced us all in the morning!!!!!

Day 4 - Olifant Kindergarten and Elementary school

After breakfast at the very trendy All Seasons Hotel in Yogya we packed up our belongings and boarded the bus ready for our visit to Olifant Kindergarten and Elementary school. 

Although we knew that it was a fairly new school having only opened in 2007, I certainly wasn't ready for the beautiful and modern building that we discovered the school in.  Unfortunately right from the start we found out that Olifant has a very strict no photography within the school buildings policy - not even in areas in which there were no students - so there are no photos I'm afraid, however the website of the school is found here www.olifantschool.com/ and there is a gallery of photographs that you can access. 

 The early childhood part of the school caters for children from 1 year old to 5 years old through a range of different services; day care, play group and formal kindergarten.  The building was beautiful and well maintained.  The facilities were also spectacular with each early childhood room catering for a maximum of 20 students with 2 to 3 tutors - depending upon the age group.  Each room also had its own individual outdoor space with bi- fold doors that opened the room up to the outside space - a very clever design.  The early childhood area also included a play room with small climbing and play equipment.  We discovered that parents were encouraged to come into this too with their children for facilitated play time.  The lobby area also contained a waiting room for parents that had one way glass looking out over the main play area for the younger children.  Parents could sit and watch their child to make sure they settled before heading off.  Parents can also log in via the Internet to various parts of the school to see their child via CCTV.  Children at Olifant learn English from the time that they start and indeed we saw three year old children counting in English to 5 already. 

 We then visited the Elementary school which has children aged 6 to about 9 at the moment, with plans to continue to extend and grow as each year passes.  The building which houses Olifant was built for it to grow and there are classrooms empty waiting for the expansion.  As each year passes so they add a new year level.  Currently children up to year 2 attend, next year they will extend to year 3. 

 The elementary school has a core educational philosophy which is built on the notion of 'unity through diversity'.  There are three pillars on which the curriculum is built - exploration, enrichment and entrepreneurship.  The pedagogy at Olifant was researched and developed by Professor Irwanto PhD.

 We visited the wonderful facilities which were named after the major continents - Australia music and culture centre, African Arts centre and Chinese library just to name a few.  The school, unlike most Australian schools, was multi story, so some of the playground equipment was actually inside of the building.

 We visited some of the classrooms where we saw some singing, writing and an English lesson happening.  The classrooms in the Elementary school are also capped at 20 students and most often we discovered at least two adults in the classroom working with the students. 

 The board of Advisors to the school was very impressive, with the very highly qualified people advising the school on it's program and curriculum.  There was some acknowledgement that what the school is doing is very different to the norm, which means that it can be hard to convince the community that what they are doing is the right thing to do.

 Overall Olifant was a very, very impressive place, with a philosophy to education which was evident from the age of 1 in a child's l I've through to the elementary classes - a well thought through and structured contemporary curriculum. 

 

 

Day 3 - The Water Castle (Tamansari) and the Batik Factory

After our visit to the Kraton we boarded the bus once again to head a short distance to the Water Castle.  A great website to visit to get more information about the Water Castle can be found at http://www.yogyes.com/en/yogyakarta-tourism-object/historic-and-heritage-sight/tamansari/

This building was built in 1757 on the former gardens of the Kraton.  It was a place of rest and meditation along with being a defence area and a hiding place.  It once consisted of four areas; a large man made lake in the west, a bathing complex and pools in the centre, pavilions and pools in the south and a smaller lake in the east.  Today the only part that still remains is the central bathing complex.  The rest has become kampung (village).

 

The Water Castle was built with a mixture of Javanese and also Portuguese architecture.  The central swimming complex which is the only remaining part of the Water Castle was specifically for the Sultan and his wives use.  There was a large pool which was for the Sultan's wives and their daughters, whilst the Sultan had his very own private pool.  There was also a tower in which the Sultan could sit and watch over his wives as they swam.  The Sultan also built a sauna into the suite of rooms which were his.  

 

Despite the age of the buildings they were in reasonable condition and there had been some restoration work done on certain parts of the Tanmansari.  The architecture was really interesting to look at in terms of the influences which could be identified. 

 

After walking around the Water Castle we then ventured out to the kampung alongside the castle and walked through the underground mosque which was located within the kampung. 

By this stage were all very aware of how long ago it was that we had breakfast, so when given the option to have lunch or go to the Batik factory, which was the next visit on our itinerary, we unanimously decided that it was time for lunch, so we headed to lunch at Janur Resto.  Here we were challenged by our Asia Education Foundation leader Deryn to order our lunch in Indonesian - of which most of us did a pretty good job - so the waitress told us - but then again I think that she may have just been feeling sorry for this group of Australians who were probably mangling her mother tongue!!!!

 

 

Our lunch was absolutely delicious and it was here that the group was introduced to the delights of the lemon (or lime or orange) squash.  A thirst quenching drink, which consisted of freshly squeezed juice, a sugar syrup, ice and soda water.  I think since then it has been the drink of choice for many.

Back onto the bus after a delicious lunch and then off to the Batik factory.  Batik is a traditional method of using wax and dye to decorate and pattern material which is then used to produce a range of different pieces of clothing and other items.  At the batik factory we were able to view the process from the very beginning, where the pattern is traced on to the material by hand.  The batik then receives it first application of wax, which is not clear and white like we would imagine the wax to be, but rather brown in colour.  The batik then also has wax added where white is included into the pattern.  The material is then dyed and wax added to keep the dye colur.  This continues until the design and it's colors are complete.  The wax is then melted from the fabric using hot water. 

 

 

The batik workers were extremely talented people.  One of the women that we talked to said that she had been in her job for twenty years.  Imagine how much batik wax she would have used??????

 

 

There was also a group of Indonesian students, who were all studying tourism,  at the Batik factory.  Learning about the Batik process was part of their course.  If they were to gain a job as a local guide, then they needed to know about the process.  They were very keen to practice their English skills with us.   More than one of them also reeled off a number of language that they were currently learning so that they could be more effective in their communication with their prospective future clients. 

 

Day 3 - Off to Yogyakarta

Wow - 3:45am is very early in the morning and thats when we had to head off to the airport on Wednesday morning to make sure that we didn't get caught up in the Jakarta traffic.  There weren't too many of us that we're looking their best at that time of the morning.  After packing up our rooms we jumped onto the bus and headed to the Soekarno Hatta airport.  Once here we checked in and then ate our breakfasts that the hotel had packed into a box for each of us to take away.  There was a slight panic when we got to the airport, as our bags seemed to have already grown so much in terms of weight!!!  But it was all ok in the end as we were traveling as a group.   Then we had a bit of time at the airport to look around and explore.  Miss Cooper found a shop and did a bit of exploring in the M&Ms isle!!!!!! A few packets later - for emergencies she told me and we were on our way to the boarding gate to wait for the plane.  At 7:30am we boarded our plane with Garuda Indonesia to Yogya!!!!! 

 

 

 

It was a very smooth and easy ride to Yogya and we were out of the airport with our bags and onto the bus by 9:00am.  There we met our new guide Mr. Bin as we had left our Jakarta guide, Ari, behind in Jakarta.  Once we had left the airport we headed firstly to the Carriage museum of the Sultan.  Yes that's right the Sultan, because you see Yogyakarta is a  Sultanate. This province doesn't get to vote in a governor each four years like the rest of Indonesia, they have a Sultan who is like the king of the province.    So back to the carriage museum. 

 

 

 

 

The Sultan has a number of different horse drawn carriages which are in a museum called the Carriage  Museum.  We were given an escort around the museum who was able to tell us all about each of the carriages including where it was made, when, and who used it on a particularly special event.

 

 

 

 

 

Eric also enjoyed the carriage museum, although we are not too sure if he was really allowed to go exploring all of the carriages as he did.  The Sultan's largest and most decorative carriages was truly spectacular.  Eric certainly did not get to explore this one. 

There were many different carriages that are still used even today.  The Sultan's daughter, who had married in October 2011 used 5 of the horse carriages in the wedding parade. 

We left the Horse Carriage museum and then it was off to the Sultan's Palace.  The Sultan's Palace or the Kraton Yogyakarta was build in 1755 by Prince Mangkubumi not lon after the Giyanti Agreement was signed that created the sultanate.  The Kraton was built between the Code River and the Winongo River.  It was believed that being built between two rivers would bring good luck.

In the middle of the Kraton was a large open area, with an large roofed pavillion which was used for celebrations such as weddings or other large important celebrations.  Around this open area was a number of other buildings which in the past and still today played important parts in the running of Yogyakarta. 
On display throughout the Kraton were a number of displays about palace life and the history of the sultanate, including the family trees of each of the sultans with branches for each wife, a leaf for each daughter and fruit for each son. There was one sultan who had 28 wives - his family tree was very complex as you can imagine. 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished our tour of the Kraton back in the central courtyard of the palace where Eric meet a friendly dragon or two.

 

 

Day 2 - Visit to Batavia

Well after the excitement of our visit to the embassy, we headed back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes ( as we were dressed well for the embassy) before we headed out to the old part of Jakarta known as Batavia.  I wonder how many of you know that both the Portuguese and the Dutch had a significant impact on Indonesia in the 16^th century and that Jakarta (or Batavia as it was named by the Dutch) was one of the most important shipping ports in Asia.  From Batavia spices were shipped around the world along with other exotic items to be found in places like Indonesia that were new and different for people like the Dutch.  There was such a trade in Indonesia that the Dutch people who were living in Indonesia, being homesick for their country, built their buildings in the style of those found in their own country and created canals just like in Holland.   I have mentioned the traffic in Jakarta and getting to Batavia was no different.  In fact we got to an intersection and I just didn’t know how our bus driver was going to get into the traffic, but little by little he did – although I think I had my eyes closed as he did!!

 

 

 

The old port of Batavia is still in operation and there were many boats pulled up at the port loading up goods to be taken out to the many islands around Indonesia.   The boats were carrying everything from water tanks to petrol.  The port was a hive of activity and there were people everywhere, trucks, motorbikes and cranes.  We walked the length of the port looking at all of the boats and the people busy loading them as we went along. 

 

 

 

After our visit to the port we went off to have dinner at Café Batavia.  This café was beautiful, located in one of the old Dutch built buildings off of the old town square.  At night time the town square turns into a huge market with stalls selling everything.  We walked through the market to get to the restaurant.  Inside the restaurant was fantastic, with beautiful wood everywhere and pictures all over the place. 

 

 

 

Now Eric the Echidna has been with us all the way along, but there have been sometimes that he has not been allowed out of the bus (embassy, port visit etc) so Miss Cooper and I decided that he had better come to have some dinner with us so that he wasn’t sulking in the bus or thinking that we’d forgotten about him.  We were sure that he would be able to get out and about much more on day 3 when we went to Yogyakarta.  After dinner it was back to the hotel to get packed and ready for a very early morning wake up at 4:00am to get to the airport. 

 

Day 2 - Visit to the Australian Embassy

Day 2 - Embassy Visit

Hi everyone,

Sorry about not getting to tell you all about our day yesterday, but the early morning get up on Wednesday morning really threw everything out.

So now back to Tuesday.  After a nice breakfast and a bit of down time we had our group meeting at 9:30am.  We have been getting together for these meetings regularly - not only just to do all of the arranging for the day, but also to think about and talk about all the things that we have seen and done. At 10:30 we headed off on our bus to the Australian embassy - with our passports, which we needed to get into the embassy.   When we arrived we were greeted with very heavy security which included a security force of about 10 - 15 security people who checked our passports, tested us for contact with bomb making materials and also scanned our belongings as well as going through a metal detector ourselves.  No bags were allowed into the embassy and unfortunately no Echidnas - so Eric had to wait on the bus for us!!!!!  Very high security, but given what has happened at this embassy in the past (bombing in ?????) you can very easily understand this level of security.  We felt very safe in the embassy, which is a very impressive place to be.  The traffic on the road was in our favour, so we were a little early.  We had to surrender our passport to be signed into the embassy - and received a visitor pass which we could trade back in for our passport at the end of our visit. 

We were escorted to a room for coffee and tea and then we were greeted by Marie Grealy  who works at the embassy.  She spoke to us a little about the embassy but was also very interested in where we came from and about our schools.  Marie told us that the Australian embassy is the largest mission abroad with about 500 staff, which includes A-based (Australian based) staff and local staff.  The ambassador is known as the HOM ( Head of Mission) and is Mr Greg Moriarty.  He spent about 40 minutes with us talking about the extremely complex work that all of the departments undertake in Indonesia.  It was really fascinating and the ambassador was extremely generous with his time and very complementary toward our trip and it's purpose.  We then had briefings from Public Relations, Cultural, Aus Aid  and Business representatives who spoke about their roles and the work that they do in Indonesia.  It became very apparent that one of the main roles of the embassy and Australia's role in Indonesia is about building capacity and ensuring that Indonesia continues to grow and to prosper.  As a close neighbour it is in our best interests for Indonesia to remain a peaceful, democratic nation.

After lunch Marie spoke to us about her role in relation to Education and it's role in Indonesia.  Another embassy staff member Donny spoke about his role with the Bridge schools, which is a program which runs matching Indonesian and Australian schools.  While we were there we were told about the announcement that was going to be made later in the afternoon about the new Australian embassy which will replace the current one.  The embassy staff were excited about this.

At the end of our visit we collected our passports and were escorted out of  the embassy.

What an absolutely amazing experience the embassy visit was and I know that we all felt very privileged to have visited the embassy and to have spent time with the HOM. 

 

Sorry that there are no pictures with this entry, but cameras (and Echidnas) were definitely not allowed into the embassy!!!!!! 

Day 1 - Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

Hi Everyone,

Well we are now in Yogyakarta and once again back in internet connection. So I am going to go back to the second half of day 1 first.

On Monday after our school visit we visited a park in Jakarta called Taman Mini Indonesia Indah or the "Beautiful Indonesia Miniature Park".  It is a culture based park which is located right in Jakarta and is about 1 square kilometre.  It was set up in 1975 to reflect the Indonesian lifestyle and to capture the individuality of each of the provinces of Indonesia, particularly their homes (architecture), clothing, dancing and traditions. 

One of the traditional houses

Each of the 23 provinces that existed in 1975 is represented in the displays, and new provinces that have been created in Indonesia since 1975 are now also adding their own cultural displays of houses, costumes and traditions. 

Taman Mini also has a cable car, museums, Imax cinema, and a large lake in which the islands of Indonesia are represented.

After walking around Taman Mini and looking at many of the different exhibitions we packed up and headed back in the bus to the hotel.  We had arranged to have some dinner at a local restaurant, where we had some very delicious traditional Indonesian food.  It was delicious!!!

Day 2 - Embassy Visit

Hi Everyone,
Wow what a fantastic day it was yesterday - our visit to the Australian Embassy was absolutely incredible, followed by a visit to Batavia, the old dutch part of Jakarta. But you are all going to have to wait - got back at around 9:00pm last night and up at 3:45am this morning to catch the bus out to the airport at 4:30am.  So I will fill you in on the details at our next stop, which is Yogyakarta.

Day 1 - Our visit to Madrasah Tsanawiyah Negeri 3 school.

After a really good sleep on Sunday night we woke up early ready for our first full day in Indonesia.  Miss Cooper was woken up at 4:30am by the call to morning prayer.  She said that her father would be very impressed that anything had woken her that early in the morning.  Breakfast and then out onto the bus ready for our first school visit. 

The hotel in which we are staying is right in the centre of Jakarta, which is broken up into north, south, east, west and central Jakarta.  One of the problems that Jakarta has is it's traffic.  There are so many cars, taksi (taxis) and motorbikes or scooters and they drive everywhere.  Our bus had the driver and his co-pilot and I was able to watch the two of them when we were driving.  The bus driver really did need his co-pilot - his job was to stick his arm out the window and let the other drivers know that we were changing lanes or moving across the road.  It was amazing to watch.  The drive, although only about 20 kilometre took over an hour in traffic. 

When we arrived we were about 15 minutes late and I immediately felt sorry for the children.  In Indonesia the children start school at 6:30am every day and on Monday mornings they have their flag raising ceremony, but Negeri 3 school were going to have their flag raising ceremony for us.  By the time we arrived it was probably about 25 degrees and the children were standing in the sun and had been for 15 minutes already.

The students all had their Monday full school uniforms on.  They have 5 different uniforms - one for each day of the week.  Negeri 3 is a muslim high school.  We arrived to the students all standing in lines, boys one end and girls the other

Everyone was very excited to have us visit their school and they were very proud to show us their school and their flag raising ceremony.  Apart from the children lined up there was a choir standing to one side and the flag raising children who were all dressed in bright red and yellow uniforms.  The children ran the ceremony, which was very impressive and although spoken in Indonesian they also translated most into English for us. 
 

 

The Principal was then introduced and the children paid their respects to her by saluting her.  The flag raising children then marched out with the flag folded up on a tray to the flag pole, where they raised the Indonesian flag.  As they did this the choir sang both the Indonesian National Anthem and the Australian National Anthem (both verses!!!).

 

 

 

 

 

 

The children then all recited the Pancasila or their beliefs, the student committment and the opening of the Indonesian Constitution was read.  The Principal then spoke about our visit and a little bit about Australia.  By this stage it was very warm and the children in their uniforms were very hot.  When the ceremony finished with the choir singing another two songs for us.  They were an outstanding choir. 

 

Eric the Echidna was there all the way through the flag raising ceremony and indeed as we were making our way into the hall there were many curious Indonesian children who wanted to say hello to him

 

 

 

We then went back inside to the hall where we were meeting.  There were many teachers, parents and also people from the local education authority who were also there. 

 

 

When we were settled we then had another performance from so students who performed about four dances for us.  They were absolutely amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 We then went and visited some classrooms to talk with the children.  The classes that we visited all learn english.  They attend school from 6:30am to 5:00pm in the afternoon.  We all agreed that was a long day for them.  From 3:00pm onwards in the afternoon they have all sorts of different things, however before that it's biology, maths and all the other things that they study.  The children spoke very good english and wanted to ask us many questions like what we thought of Indonesian and their school, about learning in Australia, homework and food in Australia

 

 

 

 

 

We were served a wonderful Indonesian lunch of rice, satays, rice wrapped in banana leaf and Indonesian sweets; custards, sweet potatoe dumplings and tropical fruits.  The food was beautiful and we all felt very full after lunch. 

 

Eric the Echidna enjoyed our lunch too and was a bit of a hit with the teachers and also the Principal who wanted to know all about Echidnas.  They were surprised to hear that we actually had had an Echidna at our school and wanted to know if they were vicious.

 

 

After we had eaten and the Indonesian teachers and parents had had time to talk with us and ask us questions it was time to leave and head off to our next visit, but not before there was a gift presentation and a photograph.  Each school was presented with a beautiful plaque from the school to take back to our school to display. There was then a whole group photo and it was onto the bus and off to Taman Mini Indonesia Indah.