Back                                                            Yogyakarta by bicycle

I met Suwaki on my first day in Yogya. I had gotten up early, (I wanted to get a feel for the city and its people.) had breakfast and wondered out into the street, (More of an alley) in front of the Peti Mas Hotel. I had just about gotten my bearings and started to walk to the main street, when Suwaki calls from a group of people hanging out in a yard of a house across the alley from my hotel.

"You need guild?" He asked me as he pushed his becak over.

"Why not." I answered him and I had a new friend.

First you have to understand that there are many ways to travel around Jogya. There are the taxis, buses, horse drawn carriages. You can ride on the back of motorcycles or rent a car, cycle, or bike and you can walk, but you can also find a tricycle driver.

Suwaki was a tricycle driver. His bike cab (Becak.) was a tricycle with a large basket like cab in the front. I settled a price for the morning and got in the passenger basket and we took off. Suwaki peddled out of the alley and turned down Jl Malioboro toward the Sultan Palace.

"You from Amerika, No?" he asked me, weaving into the traffic. "How long you here?"

I answered him and asked him about his life in Yogya. He told me about his family, his religion (He was Muslim) and many other things about his life as we peddled through the crowded streets of Yogya.

We visited the Bird Market, the Sultan Palace, the Tugu Train Station, had lunch in a small Indonesian restaurant and he took me to his home to meet his family. Suwaki like all, or at least most of the Indonesians I met, was extremely outgoing and very friendly. He was also proud to have a new American friend and enjoyed showing me off to his friends and family.

We sat for awhile on his front porch and talked of all the things I could see and do while in the area. About his family and his friends and a little of the culture of Java. He was proud of his country and his way of life. He told me he had worked hard and saved his money to buy his becak because it made him his own boss.

His kids played in the yard and played to my video camera. his wife brought us hot tea and offered to get us some sticky rice but we had already eaten. They were pleasant people as were almost all of the Indonesians I met during all of my trips to the lovely islands.

I spent most of my ten days in Yogya riding in the front of his becak going to batik manufactures and artist's galleries. One day he I rented a car and he led me to a pottery factory a few miles out of town, where I spent a few hours getting to know the processes used to turn clay into beautiful works of art.

Yogyakarta is the art capitol of central Java and the home of the Indonesian Institute of the Arts and several other colleges, so art is everywhere.

Suwaki turned out to be a treasure of information, who made my stay on Java a very pleasant experience.

At the bird market I bought seven bamboo and reed bird cages to send home as samples. They sold fast upon my return and at a good profit margin. While there I also saw wild animals and reptiles for sale. (DON'T buy animals, birds or reptiles overseas, until you check with customs.) The price for parrots is about on twentieth of the cost stateside but by the time you have them held in quarantine for the minimum thirty day period and the other requirements you have to go through, it will cost you more then buying one here. Plus you have no way of knowing just how healthy an animal you have. I did see an Albino Burmese Python that would have made a great present for a coworker back home. He was 12 feet long and about one hundred and twenty pounds and I could have bought him for sixty dollars American. I have no idea what he would have been worth here. Alas, he still, as far as I know, lives on the island of Java.

The man who ran the bird market knew Suwaki and took me through a few alleys where I got to see my first Komodo Dragon. and some other fantastic animals that were on the protected list. You can purchase endangered spices in Indonesia but you would have to smuggle them out.

Go, enjoy the lovely island of Java but don't bring home any wildlife.

Suwaki gave me his address before I left. So if your ever in Yogya and need someone to take you around, look him up. You won't be disappointed.        Al

Suwaki:  Grogol II  R.T.T. RW. III  Bejiharjo,  Karang Mojo  Gunung Kidul. Yogyakarta, Indonesia