rantlust

Posted by papi on May 24th 2008 in Farmers Market, Travel
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On my first day in the Indonesian city of Jogjakarta, my friend, anthropologist and all round Matahari, Sheri, handed me a map of the city with illustrations showing the various points of interest. My eye was immediately drawn to a little picture of a birdcage in the bottom left corner, right next to the famous Kraton - the palace of the Javanese sultan. It said Pasar Burung which means ‘bird market’. “It’s a market”, Sheri deadpanned, “for birds.”

I’m a sucker for markets. Some of my best times have been spent in the teeming bowels of some native marketplace. Long ago, when I used to work in Delhi, I would scarcely glance at the ramparts of the Red Fort on my way to the old city bazaar, where I spent many a happy hour gorging on kebabs, lingering in motorcycle repair shops and browsing used bookstores. Bazaar over cathedral any day; twice on market day. More recently, a meal of roast pig and boiled corn from the marketplace at Otavalo will linger long in my memory. Small wonder then, that as soon as I’d dumped my bags at the Lilik, I hotfooted it across town to the Pasar Burung.
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