Today we started not too early but not as late as the day before. We had to check out from the hotel as well, then went to the Tugu Station as we had already bought the Prameks commuter line ticket. We did our research there, all for the movie stuff, then after we're done, we said goodbye to Dimas who had accompanied us for the past two days.
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| the legendary Warung Makan Purnama in Magelang |
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| inside the humble warung |
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| catfish and other menu |
We didn't really have any other task to do that day until our train schedule that night, so we decided to visit Magelang one more time. We went to Balkondes headquarter after having early lunch at Warung Makan Purnama. They serve a legendary catfish dish cooked with traditional method (I took a peek at their kitchen in the back and wished I had my camera to capture the originality it had).
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| the traditional kitchen |
We were welcomed by Mas Seno, while the other people we met the other day were busy with their own schedule that day. Mas Seno took us to several other villages maintained by the Balkondes, and it was all equally interesting to visit each one of them. First, we went to the second village nearest to Borobudur temple: Karanganyar. The Balkondes lobby looks so nice, and they sell pottery as their main crafts.
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| they have crops just being planted in front of the Balkondes |
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| the Balkondes of Karanganyar |
And this is the highlight of the day. As we visited the local's houses, I stumbled upon Bu Rupiah who was spinning the clay on her simple house terrace. She was making cobék, a clay bowl to contain Sundanese sambal especially. We talked for a bit and suddenly she offered me to try spinning. Well of course I accepted the challenge. It was definitely not as easy as it seemed, but I found myself enjoying the creating process. I'd like to do this more, maybe in the future when I don't have so many things to do, I'd like to be a potter, I guess. Or not. Let's see.
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| we parked across the street to Bu Rupiah's house -- that's how we encountered with her |
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| Bu Rupiah and her cobék |
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| and after 10 minutes of trial and error, ta-daa! |
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| look at my creation -- how fragile it is compared to the others, LOL |
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| the stove to burn the pottery |
We left my ashtray (it supposed to be a candle holder but I made mistake so it turned out to be an ashtray instead) there so Bu Rupiah could burn it to finish the process. We visited another pottery house, this one's a shop, but the owner wasn't there. We also visited the stove belongs to Bu Rupiah's family to burn the clay, covered with dust and ash, but we didn't stay long til the burning finished.
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| the finished products from other house |
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| the shop we visited but the owner wasn't there |
We carried on to the next village, it's called Tanjungsari, and the first place we visited was the tofu factory. They use the traditional method to make tofu, we call it tahu, and the place is way far from my expectation. It looks so filthy but I think that's the key of it. LOL. We could see the Borobudur Temple right from the back door of the factory. We moved on to the honey center but turned out nobody was there so we moved forward to the next village.
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| the tofu factory |
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| those white square thing is the raw tofu ready to be fried |
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| the raw tofu |
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| the fried tofu |
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| the honey center |
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| the bee houses (dunno why they painted it pink) |
Kembanglimus has one of the most unique Balkondes structure design. The bamboo rooms are also comfortable inside, and I think it's gonna be interesting to spend a night or two here. If only there were more entertainment they offer here. They do have some interesting stuff, like batik clothes for sale and pineapple garden, and the unique fried mie gedhek (aka mie rebung or noodle-like bamboo shots). But they'd need to explore more of what they can offer to people for one to want to stay the night here.
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| there are still rice fields with coconut trees bordering it everywhere here |
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| the bamboo structure of Balkondes Kembanglimus Inn |
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| one of the rooms they offer |
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| the view from the second floor balcony |
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| the view from one of the rooms |
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| a unique dish here: mie gedhek |
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| our driver Om Yayan, Mas Seno, Om Wowo, me, and the manager of Balkondes Kembanglimus |
Anyway it was getting late, and we still had a long way to go so we said goodbye, dropped Mas Seno back to his office, then drove all the way back to Yogyakarta, straight to Tugu Station. Our train was scheduled at 8 p.m. and arriving in Gambir, Jakarta, by 4 a.m. the next day. It was a such a tiring holiday with so many hours of road trip, but I had really fun. Thank you for the opportunity, Garin Nugroho and production house team!
