Jakarta hotel blasts: at least four dead

Police say at least four foreigners have been killed in explosions at two hotels in the Indonesian capital Jakarta this morning.

Bombs exploded at the Ritz-Carlton and Marriott hotels, ripping the facade off the Ritz, police said.

A witness reported seeing bodies inside the Marriot.

Debris and shattered glass littered the street outside the neighbouring hotels in an upscale Jakarta neighborhood and ambulances raced to the scene.

A man jogging by the hotels said he first heard a loud explosion at the Marriott. Five minutes later, a bomb followed at the Ritz.

Alex Asmasubrata said he saw four bodies inside the Marriott. An Associated Press reporter saw three injured taken away from the Ritz.

Police, however, would only confirm four people were injured.

The blast comes after a warning from security experts earlier this week that Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiah, which has been dormant following a krackdown resulting in the arrest and execution of some members, could be set to strike again.

Terrorists could use the anniversary of the execution of three Bali bombing perpetrators on November 9 as a "sacred date'' to attract new support and fresh recruits, a study by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute said.The Marriott hotel was attacked in 2003, when 12 died. Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah was blamed in that blast.

An Associated Press reporter saw three injured taken away from the Ritz-Carlton.

A caller to Radio 3AW, Jim, said his son had been injured in the blast at the Marriott.

He said his son was on his way to hospital and had phoned him from an ambulance.

"He was in the building and all of a sudden there was an enormous explosion,'' the caller said.

"He was bleeding from the left leg though from what I can gather the injury's not serious and (he) lost his hearing in one ear but he thinks he will recover from that.''

Jim said his son was unaware of how many people had been injured in the explosion.

Reporter Justin Hale said local media in Indonesia was reporting a large explosion inside the Ritz-Carlton hotel.

He said it was not yet clear if the reported bombings were a terrorist attack.

"If we're hearing a report of an explosion at the Ritz-Carlton and if we've now got a report of an explosion at the Marriott Hotel it's sounding more and more like an Al-Qaeda-style bombing, which we've had before,'' he said.

"That's their calling card is those synchronised attacks, simultaneous explosions.''

An Australian man was reported injured in the leg and a New Zealander and the chairman of Holcim has also been reported injured in the blasts.

source:theage.com.au

Ngasem: The Infamous Bird Market of Yogyakarta

Ngasem located only 400 meters west of the Sultan Palace. In Yogyakarta, birds are on the third position in social status measurement, right after horses (as means of transportation) and keris as a weapon. Ngasem has various kinds of birds for you to see or buy.

Ngasem market's main commodity is birds, and it's proved photographically it has been operating since 1809. Its location that is not far from the Kingdom was meant for the noblemen to access it easily. In around 1960s, this market was increasingly identical to birds when birds sellers from Beringharjo were moved to this place. Birds sellers occupy one third of the market width, so it's no wonder that many tourists call this market a bird market.

The area for birds trading is on the left side of the entrance. One of the main commodities here is the turtledove, since many noblemen in the past often keep it as a pet. Other best sellers are bulbuls, orioles, starlings and minas, parakeet and small local birds such as emprit and prenjak. An interesting bird that people rarely buy is owl of which child is sold at 35,000 IDR. One of the bird shops had even recently sold an eagle at 350,000 IDR. The shops also provide care equipments such as cage and feeds.

Ngasem market is arguably has different kind of atmosphere than other regular markets. Here, visitors do not only enjoy the beautiness of birds but also animal show performed by birds lovers, for example demonstration of doves that return to its cage from distant flight and birds chirp contest. Sometimes, the visitors decided to spend some amount of money to buy birds by listening to the chirp in the contest first. The sellers use the event to train the birds to chirp or just to discuss about the technique of taking care of birds.

What's even funnier is that you can also find people selling snakes there. Yes. The snakes range from water snake to cobra and python. If you really need to have a good look at those snakes, you can just ask the shop vendor to let the snake out of the cage. It's okay, but still you need to be careful. In addition to snakes, they also sells various reptiles such as iguana and turtle.

Are reptiles and birds enough for you? If not, you can walk westwards of the market, and you will see many kiosks selling ornamental fish. Small fish that live in a colony like neon fish is sold 1,000 each. Other ornamental fish are arwana, lou han, sold at hundreds thousand. There are also the infamous betta fishes. If you want to know more about betta fish you can look for betta fish info here. The kiosks also sell equipments for taking care of fish such as aquarium of various shapes, coral reefs, ornamental plants to be put in the aquarium and fish feeds. Some kiosks provide services for setting up sea fish cultivation.

They also sell cats, dogs, and hamsters, and other common pets, though it's not their main commodity.

Now if you feel tired or hungry, Ngasem also provides you with traditional snacks (just like other traditional markets do). I suggest you try Jenang Gempol (made from rice flour with rich flavor combined with coconut milk sauce and sweet palm sugar syrup, round in shape) that is usually sold in front of the market. Other traditional snacks are Getuk, Lupis, Thiwul, and Gatot that all of which are made of cassava. Yes, you will have a lot of fun here and satisfy your explorer soul.

Kraton Yogyakarta, The Center of The Universe

Yogyakarta Sultan Palace is an old building that was once damaged and restored. In general, it looks like other Kingdom buildings. When we understand the philosophy of them deeper, however, we will understand the symbolical meaning of life philosophy, human nature, how the nature works and human beings live their lives and various symbols of life existence in them.

Kraton (or Keraton, or Karaton) Yogyakarta lies between Tugu as the north border and Panggung Krapyak as the south border, between Code River in the east and Winongo River in the west; between the Merapi Mountain and the South Sea. In the mind of the Javanese community, kraton is defined as center of the world that is described as center of the universe.

Karaton, Keraton or Kraton, derived from the word ke-ratu-an, meaning the place where the queen resides. It also has a broader meaning that says that all structures and buildings in the Kraton area have significant meaning related to essential Javanese philosophy of life, Sangkan Paraning Dumadi, that means the origin and the destination of human being.

After the Giyanti Agreeement, Yogyakarta territory was given to Pangeran Mangkubumi. He then built a palace in 1755 in Hutan Beringan area, in order to run his government. The place was flanked by two rivers that protect it from being flooded. The first king of Yogyakarta Palace was Pangeran Mangkubumi with the title Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono I (HB I).

In general, the Kraton area stretches 5 kilometers southwards to Krapyak village and 2 kilometers northwards until the Tugu monument. Just like Plato's philosophy, there is a reversed dualism linear line that tells symbolical philosophy: the direction from south to north symbolizes the birth of human being from the high place to the perishable world, and the opposite direction symbolizes the return of human being to the Dumadi (God in Javanese philosophy). Kraton is physical symbol and the King is the symbol of the real soul that presents into the physical body.

Tugu monument and Manguntur Tangkil hall or Bangsal Kencana (where the king is seated), are straight in a line. This means that while sitting on his throne and looking toward the Tugu monument, he will always remember his people.

The direction from the Palace to the Tugu monument represents the road of life that is full of temptations. Beringharjo market symbolizes women temptation and temptation of power is symbolized by Kepatihan building. The straight street connecting the Palace to Tugu monument symbolizes close relationship between human being and the Creator (Sangkan Paraning Dumadi).

In short, Tugu monument is a symbol of male sex organ (called lingga) and Krapyak symbolizes female sex organ (called yoni) and kraton is physical blend of the two.

Hit by the earthquake in 1867, the Sultan Palace was severely damaged. During the reign of HB VII in 1889, the building was renovated. The lay out being retained, the shape of the building was changed to the current look.

In general, the space arrangement of the current Sultan Palace is similar to the one of Mataram Dynasty. The center of the Palace is the so called Bangsal Kencana that is adjacent to Bangsal Prabayeksa as the place to keep sacred weapons (in this room, there is an oil lamp called Kyai Wiji that is kept lit by the Palace servants). This hall is surrounded by Kedhaton yard so that people must go through layers of the yard that seem like waves in order to reach the center.

This special arrangement of the Palace looks similar to constellation of mountain and Jambu Dwipa land that is considered to be central archipelago of the universe.

From north part to west part of the Palace area, there are North Square, North Siti Hinggil, North Kemandhungan, Srimanganti, Kedhaton, Kemagangan, South Kemandungan, South Siti Hinggil and South Square (the yard that is protected by high walls).

In order to reach all of the places, there are nine gates (called regol) that must be passed through, namely: gerbang, pangurukan, tarub agung, brajanala, srimanganti, kamagangan, gadhung mlati, kemandhungan and gading.

Brongtodiningrat sees the significance of this number, as the highest number to describe excellence. This is related to nine holes in human beings, commonly called babahan hawa sanga.

The sacredness of each Palace building is indicated by the frequency and intensity of Sultan activities in the location.

Sultan only visits the Square, Pagelaran, and Siti Hinggil three times a year, namely during the events of Pisowan Ageng Grebeg Maulud, Sawal and Besar and other very special, incidental events such as coronation of the Sultan and the crown prince or Pangeran Adipati Anom.