Today is another exciting day because we are making our own Batik and do the amazing race. Batik is a technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to a cloth, it is made either by drawing or a stamp tool called canting. Although, other countries have the Batiks as part of their culture, the Indonesian Batik however is best known for its unique and traditional designs.
Going back, at 8:30, we were gathered at the hotel by group and were given instructions; each group will book a grab car going to the Batik Winotosastro. Our group was the last one to arrive though; other participants are already waiting inside. We had a short orientation on how to do Batik, we are fascinated by how meticulous and artistic the women there in making the batiks. Each of us were give a piece of cloth then we have to make one by ourselves, there are lots of canting to choose from and I literally had a hard time finding the design because there’s just too is many beautiful designs and the fact that I’m not that artistic, I can’t decide which one. It was really funny because I was looking at everyone’s work and I was like, it’s all beautiful. Thanks for Adit and Maulan and the people there for helping me out on the design. And so went to the area where they dye the batik, I choose dark blue for my batik and we waited for like 10-15 minutes I guess, and tadaah! I have my batik neatly packed and sealed. And of course before we leave for another activity, we had a group picture with the owner of the shop.
Next activity the amazing race, there were five of us (Ali, Igor, Kashimir, Ummi, and myself) and we went straight to the location of Jalan Abubakar Ali, which is the spot no. 2. Our group first had a short meeting to organize our plan before we get to the area, then we started recording videos, taking pictures of the area. Houses were built just beside the river, we saw some elderly sitting under the bridge relaxing and chatting, we ask if they can be interviewed and they were very accommodating enough, I can’t understand Bahasa, good thing my group mates are can speak Bahasa so they did all the talking and translating.
We stop in one of the stores there just to have some cold coffee and lemon tea, it was cool that the kids can already understand us as they listen to our conversation and one of them knows how to speak in English. It was fun but also tiring at some point because of the heat. We walked towards the road and interviewed two more persons.
The time we finished our task is almost 3 in the afternoon, so our group decided to have late lunch in some place called Legend, we walked for like five minutes from the bridge, but when we reached the area we decided to go to another place which Ali and Igor are very familiar with, we had a good lunch and conversation at the same time, we plan our assignments before we get back to the hotel to freshen up and get some rest.