Ok. The Mosque, the race, and the wedding have nothing to do with another other than the coincidence of all occurring within twenty-four hours, each event lead us somehow to the next.
The Baiturahman Mosque is a frequent stop in Banyuwangi. Not by tourists, which I must point out - there are none - the mosque is visited daily by the people of the City. The more devote people begin their prayers at 4am. You'd know that if you spent the night here in Banyuwangi; the mosques blair the unmistakable Traditional chant right on time. And I do mean blair. The laud speakers are positioned to be heard indiscriminately in every direction.
Remember that movie, Inception? When a song was played to warn the cast that they were about to be "kicked" out of one dream? Its the same thing. This beautiful, unmistakeable, clear cut foreign hymn can not be avoided. Its a nice way to start the day if the volume wasn't turned up to 11.
The park in front of the mosque where all the children play is a great park. The serene pause from the hustle of the streets was a very well welcomed time- out. But only for a long enough moment to catch your breath. Suddenly the streets came alive again. The sound of accelerators and throttle levers, sawed off mufflers, and police whistles quickly overtook the laughter of children as the motorcycle race zoomed across the long stretch of city block, banking on the corner that we stood by.
The race, we later discovered, is all day. apparently they do things the very long way on Java.
The wedding was actually planned into our day, Steve had been tipped off about the ceremony and so we told him we'd meet him there. and wouldn't you know it, the motorcycle race lead the way up to the festivities. When we didn't find our friend at the wedding, we crashed it. Naturally.
Not that wedding crashing is all that hard to do in Java, it's not. Knowing only a handful of phrases and a couple smiles somehow got Chris and I to the head guest table. The pictures here, except for two, explain themselves.
The percussionists in green shirts posses amazing talent; pictures can not capture their fast paced, practiced, Indonesian hard core drum banging beats.
The second caveat goes to the pictures of the married couple. Don't they look happy? No, they don't. They look dodgy, exhausted, and mildly irritated. It's not because they've just been married, it's because the ceremony has been going on for three long days. Non stop. Like I said, they do things the long way on Java. And even after three days of partying hard with the person you'll be spending the rest if your life with, you kinda want to kill the music, turn off the lights, and take a nap. Which is exactly what I am going to do. Enjoy.
-A
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great day of culture and food! Colorful outfits, too. You crack me up getting to the head table at the wedding.
ReplyDelete