A Short Retreat to Jogjakarta

A friend of pakdokter finally completed his 'villa' which he had been working on for the past 2 or 3 years on the slopes of Mt Kidul in Jogjakarta. This project was designed by a team of a Malaysian and an Indonesian architect and the folks of the nearby village gained because as many as 170 of them were given employment during the construction of the project. Currently a team of 8 staff - all folks from the village - are employed and given living quarters at the resort.

The resort is not run as a hotel - it is a private holiday home - its owner spends half his time in Malaysia and the other half in this lovely retreat. Pakdokter was fortunate to have been invited to spend a few days at this 'villa' and to be able to explore areas in Jogja which pakdokter had not discovered in the past. We were taken to a beautiful 'glass factory' where beautiful glass crafts were made and exported to Italy. We also discovered a beautiful batik workshop not normally taken in the regular tourist itinerary.

The villa is made up of a main living quarters with a dining hall and a reading/TV room at one end of the central swimming pool and two seperate guest villas on two other sides of the pool. Another building housed the open kitchen and dining area. The picture above is taken from the open kitchen/dining area with a guest villa across the pool.

the cabana at one end of the pool was built according to Lombok design

the second guest villa a the far end behind te cabana..

view from the master villa with the open kitchen @ the far right

one of the many water features decorating the garden

these tiles on the floor of the Joglo were retrieved from the Keraton

after a part of the Keraton was damaged in a fire.

the "Joglo" is the arrival hall ( Balai Menunggu) where guests wait and are received

as in the 'tradition' of the Jogja Kraton ( Royal Palace)

the staff living quarters seen from the Joglo

as one drives into the porch of the sprawling villa grounds,

one is received at the 'Joglo'....