Vast Interior - Furniture & Homewares

Searching Jogja, Central Java

Following a lead in Jogja, Central Java, we headed off in search of some funky new homewares suppliers. The level of detail we had about this place was not a lot, and the address consisted of the company name, village name, suburb and town (which, funnily enough, is a relatively common level of address detail here!). The driver started heading out of town - he knew it would be about 35 or 40 kms away.  Through some very picturesque countryside, lined with green swaying rice paddies we went.  Up a winding hillside road which got progressively skinnier and skinnier until it really was only a one car street (hopefully no trucks would come careering down the hillside the other way!).  Nearing the top of the hill, we stopped so the driver could ask directions from a local on a bike… 'oh just keep going up this road, about 15 km' was his answer, in Bahasa.  Gingerly, our driver (despite having lived in Jogja his whole life) admitted he'd never been to this area before! 15kms up the road we stopped to ask some locals at the bus stop (ye gads! A BUS comes up here?!)… again 'yes, keep going up this road, turn right, then it's about 5kms more' in Bahasa Indonesian. Up the road the driver asked a mother taking her kids to school: 'about 5kms more up that way'. 10 minutes later, a bloke on a motorbike: "5kms more". Starting to get slightly concerned…. we stopped outside at a tiny craft workshop where the driver announced 'this is it'. It really was nothing more than a couple of men turning wooden candle sticks and making decorative photo frames - not quite the operation we were after. You win some and you lose some though. Always searching for that something exciting, and having an adventure doing it.

Shannon - Vast Wellington

     

Posted in: Searching