abby in wonderland

That is, until we realised that the palace didn’t open until 10am.

It was 9:20 by the time we got there… and that included the reverse-park of the century. Pur’s son was guided into the parking spot about fifty times until we got it right.

Thus began my suspicions about his inability to drive… but more on that later.

We began walking towards the palace, passing by the beggars and street peddlers with polite nods of discouragement.

On our way, we came upon a friendly fellow who insisted on ‘helping’ us.

‘Visit palace? This way! This way!’

Somewhat bemused, all five of us followed him and found ourselves winding through alleyways.

Clothes-lines formed a ceiling for the pavement, young men with ukeles serenaded us as we walked, and younger women with babies on their knees eyed us balefully as we went by.

Yikes.

Perhaps the correct etiquette for such a situation would be to give them my change? I’m not entirely sure on what the correct protocol for this would be, as if I gave my money to everyone I passed I’d be bankrupt by my destination.

The destination, by the way, was not the one I expected.

We didn’t find ourselves at the palace.

Nor a museum.

Nor any other official place.

We were in the guys art gallery.

All of our meandering through the alleys was a long sales pitch in the hopes that we’d buy his art, as all good tourists should.

Needless to say, Dad was unimpressed. I followed suit – which wasn’t difficult as I was already cranky-pants from my lack of sleep.

We did a quick u-turn and high-tailed it out of there, eventually finding the correct route to a museum.

I can’t give you further details on the museum, unfortunately, as I was completely out of my mind with lethargy by this time. The museum held all of the old carriages the Sultan used to get out and about in the town – complete with giant fake horses standing next to them.

Of course, Dad insisted my picture be taken with the fake horses.

No make up. No sleep. No happiness. I was reluctant. As I’m sure you can tell with all the faux-smiles in the pictures, I was about ready to wrestle him for the camera and smash it to pieces on the tiled floor… but I was too tired.

Eventually – around the time that it opened, fortunately enough- we made it to the Kraton (palace).

The Kraton makes up a sort of city-within-city. It was built in the middle of the 18^th century, and the walled-in city serves as home to the Mataram kingdom Sultans. In it we saw ornate gazebos in the shady courtyard, adjacent to large reception/dining areas with vast marble floors and intricate ceilings and pillars. You can also walk through the rooms showcasing the favourite mementos of the Sultans, including a boy-scout uniform, old binoculars, old thrones, and each of the personalized batik designed used for the royal family. There’s also a gallery displaying the royal family tree, photographs and paintings of many in the royal family – personally, I was a fan of a large painting of the sultan, with his ears drawn to be overtly large and pointy, like an elf. Apparently, large pointy ears were a sign of wisdom.

This guy had to be pretty wise with giant ears like that.

Or the artist was particularly gracious. Whatever.

That’s pretty much the only tidbit I remember from what the tour guide told us… and she told us a lot of things.

Most of the time I was too busy reveling in the air conditioning to pay attention, or too busy hating the swarm of obnoxious school students that seemed to follow us everywhere…

Nevertheless, we had a peaceful walk around the grounds and through the different rooms in the palace.

It was nice.

We eventually settled in one of the reception halls, where they began a traditional shadow-puppet show, complete with Javanese music.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t eaten, drank water, or slept in an increasingly long time and I was about ready to faint.

I rested my head upon my knees, and Dad realised the situation.

Clinging to him to stop myself from fainting in public, he escorted me to the car.

And to a restaurant for some re-fuelling. Win.