Post #152 22 October 2017

Gentlefolk,

This post describes our visit to Jepara, 21 - 22 August 2017.

Jepara is a town about 100 km north-east of Semarang, famous as a wood-carving and furniture centre.

We hired a car & driver for the trip from Semarang to Jepara, and spent two nights at the D'Season Hotel on a beach about 7 kilometers north of Jepara.

Jepara is a town about 100 km north-east of Semarang.  It is famous in Indonesia as a centre of wood products, particularly teak.  There is a daily ferry from Jepara to the Karimunjava Islands, which are becoming a popular tourist destination.

We hired a car & driver; it took about 3 hours to get to Jepara from Semarang.  As everywhere in Java, there was a lot of traffic.  Our driver was very good, slow & steady, lots of near misses, but that's how they drive here. I used to drive during our postings in Jakarta, but can't imagine driving here again, too stressful.  Remarkably, we only saw one accident during our 6 weeks in Indonesia - a girl riding a motor bike fell down when another bike hit her.  The traffic seems crazy to a visitor, but there seem to be relatively few accidents.

The road to Jepara goes through Demak, so we stopped to look at Mesjid Agung, believed to be the first Mosque in Indonesia (1466).

One of the huge drums in the mosque at Demak.

The front entrance of the Hotel D'Season where we stayed in Jepara; on the coast about 7 km from the town.

View from our room: of the swimming pool and across the beach to the ocean.  Actually, the beach wasn't much and people swam in the pool rather than the sea. 

Boats for hire to take tourists to small islands not far off the coast, particularly Palau Panjang which is said to have nice beaches.

Pantai Bandengan, a better beach about a kilometer from our hotel.  Gentle sloping beach, small waves, safe.  Busy on weekends, but quiet during the week.

Mr (Pak) Catur and his family.  He studied agriculture at University, but then got into furniture making (it's in the DNA of Jepara people!).  He has three workshops - see photos below - and a large staff.  Catur has been supplying mainly to Japan which is a good sign as the Japanese are picky.  Seemed like a real nice guy, lovely wife and two delightful daughters.

Outside their home.

Pak Catur has built this little annex behind his house

Pak Catur showing me around one of his workshops.

Pak Catur has three workshops - this one is the largest.  Driving around Jepara one sees many, many small furniture showrooms. Presumably the workshops are out back.  Most of the furniture on display is Javanese style, made for the local market, but there is also a long tradition of making Western-style furniture for export.

The workshops are "grass-roots" and look random but the workers are craftsmen, each piece is made individually, and Catur insists on top quality products.

The metal fabricating workshop. 

Jepara was the hometown of Kartini (1879 - 1903), a writer, feminist and progressive thinker.  We visited the Museum which celebrates her short life.  Kartini was the daughter of the Regent (Bupati) of Jepara and excelled at school. She campaigned for women's rights and against colonialism, and became an Indonesian icon. She died giving birth at the age of 24. April 21 is Kartini Day and a national holiday.

A large statue of Kartini is at the center of this round-about.

We were passing the local stadium and stopped to watch the soccer team training.  Jepara plays in Indonesia's the Second Division.  We were told that the team has a large following - apparently the stadium is often full for home games (seating capacity about 30,000). The team has a young Brazilian captain/coach (dressed in green, above) and we had a chat with him in Portuguese.  Before coming to Jepara he played for a First Division team in the Indonesian League, and has married an Indonesian girl.

The 'Pink Mosque' in Jepara - unusually ornate.  Some of the local architecture was interesting.

An over-loaded truck - a familiar sight in Indonesia.

Beautiful flowering bush at the Yam Yam Restaurant near the Ocean View Hotel in Jepara.  We had lunch there and got talking to another couple, Francoise and his Indonesian wife Sasa. They recommended the fish-on-a-skewer, which was delicious. Francoise, 71, has lived in Jepara for over 20 years (apparently there are quite a few foreigners here, all related to wood products).  They have a factory which makes furniture for the French and Belgian markets (we happened to drive past their factory later, and it looked substantial).  They have a 10 year old daughter who attends the International School in Semarang.

An aquarium (disappointing) is housed inside a huge turtle, at Kartini Beach.

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From Jepara we drove back to Semarang and the next day took a train to Jakarta, The Big Durian.  That is the subject of my next post.

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The last Holden car rolled off the production line on Friday - the end of car manufacturing in Australia and the end of an era.

The Wallabies 23 finally beat the All Blacks 18 (3 tries to 2) last night at Lang Park in Brisbane. Our first win in more than two years - a long time between drinks - the All Blacks are fantastic and dominate international rugby.  Jen & Tom took the boys along; a crowd of 45,000 watched the game, in intermittent rain.


Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Sunday, 22 October 2017